What To Watch While Waiting For Ponies. Part 1 - OVER THE GARDEN WALL

Continuing my last post, me and my team put together this list of hand-picked series that are fun to watch and can fill the void left in your heart without ponies. Let me tell you how we chose these series- when I first watched My Little Pony, I got this great, pure feeling of wonder and awe that I still remember until today. Since then, I've always looked for series which had a similar vibe, and most of the series here are like that, though  some of them are just light-hearted easy-going ones!
Note: these are my personal picks, so feel free to add or remove stuff to the list! Oh, and I decided to dedicate a post per series, because some of them deserve a lot of thought!
Lets dive into dem series!

 Over the Garden Wall (Tome of the Unknown) 

A mini series created by Patrick McHale in 2013. It focuses on two brothers - Greg (Collin Dean) and Wirt (Elijah Woods) who happen to be lost in the woods called The Unknown. With the help of Beatrice the Bluebird and other characters, the boys try to get home and escape the mysterious Beast. Over the Garden Wall is an amazing clash of fantasy and reality, fear and peace, it sets a tone of urgency and serenity at the same time without sticking to any specific time period.
 It sounds a bit "meh" but trust me, these were the best 10 episodes of my life! Over the Garden Wall is an amazing complication of simple but mind-blowing animation, emotional and deep storyline and fascinating soundtrack that you will absolutely fall in love! That's why Over the Garden Wall is at the top of my list. It's the perfect blend of the innocent, child-like world which throws us back into childhood and scary reality, anxiety and fears we all get sometimes. The same thing can be said about My Little Pony- it seems to be an innocent cartoon about ponies running errands and facing little equine problems, but if you look deeper you see that those innocent problems actually have deeper meaning and the questions and morals this cartoon raises are anything but childish. All in all, check out Over the Garden Wall because you won't regret it!

How to Survive During THE WAIT

Well, this is long overdue. 
But waiting is hardest when it's almost done right? So in some way this might be helpful!
Now, we all know how horrible it is to wake up every Saturday without an episode and starting every week without no pony to look forward too... waiting for a new season is frustrating, painful melancholic, so that's why I (with the help of my MEGA EQUINE CREW) came up with a list of things to do/watch/read while waiting for a dose of our beloved miniature horses. LET'S ROLL!

A Bronies Survival Guide While Waiting For a New Season

1. Rewatch all the episodes. 
Best done right after the end of a season or during a pre-season marathon! Don't forget your popcorn!

2. Contribute to the fandom. 
Doesn't matter if you're an active pony artist/musician/author or a shy, shellfish fan like me, there's always fanart to draw, AMVs to create, plushies to sew, songs to make and fiction to write! GO MAKE YOUR DEBUT IN THE BIG BRONY WORLD!

3. Visit conventions.
 Not all of us are lucky enough to visit BronyCon, Buck or Grand Brony Gala (like me, here in Ukraine the best you can find is a small get together in the park). So even if you can't go to the big cons, follow this link to Equestria Daily and find yourself a meetup group! Who knows, maybe you will find new friends!

4. Try cosplaying. 
heh, well this isn't for everyone! I don't have the guts to wear pony gear to my imaginary conventions, but I'd live to try it sometime! Start small - sew yourself a pair of pony ears and go to that meetup we talked about in the previous one!

5. Bronify your friends. 
This is a hard one. In fact, don't try it unless you're sure your friends are awesome. Here's my story- a good friend of mine didn't really like MLP, but one day I begged her to give it a chance. She watched a few episodes and was instantly hooked! The next day I gave her the full brony welcome, plus I drew her a few helpful charts and tables, introducing to the most popular songs, fanfictions and pony personas.

6. Make up some pony foreshadowing/conspiracy theories. 
and don't forget to share them with the community!

7. Read the official MLP comic! 
Do it if you still haven't! It's published by IDW and is amazing (some story arcs made me cry rivers...)

8. Watch some other series. Yep, when you've done everything I  did and didn't mention you have one solid choice - get your mind of the terrible wait by watching other stuff. As a matter of fact, I will make an entire list dedicated to the stuff you can watch in my next post, so keep your eyes peeled...

Rainbow Rocks Non-Spoiler Review!

Hey guys! This is the NON-SPOILER review. Here I'll spoil it as little as possible, but still tell you the good, the bad and naturally, my personal opinion! Let's jam! 

First of all, let's start with the storyline- Canterlot Highschool is in danger when 3 mysterious girls challenge everyone to a battle of the bands. This is the best I can do, so go google it if my synopsis isn't very informative, but I'm sure by now all of us know what's the deal with Rainbow Rocks. Anyway, when at first I thought this was a very weak idea, but it turned out better then I expected. I really liked that it was really smooth but the "in the face" end was horrible! It was so bad that I can't concentrate on the good stuff! Something else I also hated was the how poorly they explained everything, for example, WHY DID THE GIRLS SPONTANEOUSLY GROW EARS AND TAILS WHENEVER THEY PLAY MUSIC? That was quite explained, just like that wonderful ending...

Now let's take a look at the characters. 

We have our bad guys- The Dazzlings- Adiago Dazzle, Aris Blaze and Sonata Dusk.  human mane 6, who you all know and love, and Sunset Shimmer! 

Yes, Sunset's there. I honestly think that she's the only good character in this movie - she's got depth! In Rainbow Rocks everyone's hatin on her because of her past, ahem boo boos... (wink wink), even her new friends can't really get over it. This leads to some awkward moments which shows Sunset Shimmer's strength. I really loved that throughout the movie everybody looked up to Twilight as their own personal savio and left Sunset out, but in the end, she's the one who gets things done. With the MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP of course...

Speaking of Twilight. I'd like to give her some credit too. Like the mane 6, we expect her to be the one with the answers, but here she pretty much, hate to say it, useless. Yes, she has little purpose (though she was given the task to defeat the villans...) but I loved seeing her feeling the pressure of being the problem-solver. Quite the mix- Twlight, the majestic princess, being kinda useless and the ex-villain Sunset the one to save everyone. 

The human girls are are shallow as usually, so I won't waste your time on them. 

We did get a scene back in Ponyville with our favorite equines which included that crystal "FRIENDSHIP" tree-castle... I can assure you, it wasn't a lot. Trust me. 

Now that we covered the characters (I think), let's move to the technical stuff. 

I'm useless at animating, so anything that's draw and moving is pure magic any mystery to me. So even if the animation is somehow full of flaws, I think it's nice, not much of a critic there...

But the music I understand. I'll say my usual line - TO MUCH BACKGROUND MUSIC! TOO MUCH! SERIOUSLY, THIS IS RAINBOW ROCKS, NOT INSPECTOR GADGET THE MOVIE PEOPLE!! 

But we also have have the songs. The songs I can't spoil, because, come on, the soundtrack was out for ages now. Go listen to it! 

The songs are what I liked. The voices were amazing, the lyrics were wonderful the melodies were catchy! I mean, have you heard Trixies song, Tricks up my sleeve?! It's great! (Trixie was great (badumtssssssss) in this movie, but I'll save that for the other review). 

Yes, this movie has it's flaws, but it's for kids, I never expected much. But even for a kids movie about singing horse-girls, this did well! If you're still thinking if you should watch it or not, I telling you- watch it, it's not that bad, nothing close to the original series, but not bad! 

Oh and there will be a third movie according to the post-credits scene...

All in all, I think this movie sucks. Yes, like a said, it had good characters and music, but that's it! It takes more than that to make a good movie, even for kids! 

BUT. I always keep in mind that the target audience were kids, so I can't really take it seriously. Though that fact doesnt stop Rainbow Rocks from being a fine kid's flick. I'm giving this movie a 5 out of 10 and a dying hope that the next movie will be better...

Well, thanks for bearing with me on this non-spoiler journey! Have jolly good day, my friend, have a jolly good day! 

Coming back.

Dear people, I must tell you about the creature that awoke me from my slumber! This thing, this... monster... is called RAINBOW ROCKS. 

Yes, you heard me, RAINBOW ROCKS. I was blissful sleeping without any purpose or care, now that season 4 ended, when BAZAM! this appeared. 

If you don't know what Rainbow Rocks is, it's an Equestria Girls sequel, or just go google it or something. 

Now to the juicy part. It's true that there are cam versions of Rainbow Rocks, but most of them are deleted cause of our dear Hasbro. You got 2 choices- 

1. Wait until the official version will be out. (Mid-October I think) 

2. Search good enough and be come a pirate. 

Now, since I'm such a great reviewer and person in general (and modest too), I'll do a spoiler-free review first, for all the people who didn't watch it! 

Until then my darlings, until then! 

Twilight's Kingdom Review

Well, this is it, the last episode... I'm proud to review this epic masterpiece and now I present you the TWILIGHT'S KINGDOM REVIEW.
Now, I'm pretty sure you all watched the finale, so I won't through all that "SPOILER" stuff and if you want a link, it's in the previous post.

-Summary- 

Basically, Twi is struggling with her princessness cause she doesn't she the role she's supposed to play when Tirek, a goat-dude who escaped Tartarus to take over the world, appears. 

To make matters worse Celestia sends Discord to track the guy down, not Twi. Feeling useless, Twi decides to go and inspect that chest they forgot about with the gang, as pointed out by Discord. After reading their diary she understands everything that has been going on for an entire season and what we understood a looooong time ago. Twi sees that she's the only pony without that special item, which, apparently turns into a radical key when thrown onto the chest and that makes her even more useless.
Meanwhile, dear old Dissie finds Tirek, who  invites him to the dark side which doesn't have cookies, but has unlimited power and fun. Dissie help him suck in LOADS of power not only from unicorns, but pegasi too.
By now Twi is feeling as useless as a white crayon, but, just in time, Celestia calls her to Canterlot. 
The princesses understand that Tirek is coming for them and they decide to give all their power to poor old Twi.

 Sadly, with their power, they lost their minds and forgot about that HUGE, IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO NOTICE, STAINED GLASS WITH TWILIGHT ON IT. 

 Well at least they tried...
Tirek takes the gangs power, as well as Dissie's. And after a badass laser battle he negotiates their release.

 Twi gives up her power and returns her friends. 
To prove his "friendship" Tirek gives Dissie an amulet, which he then gives to Twi, cause Tirek was such a goat to him... and that amulet turns out to be the last key! 

After a pretty magical sequence they get rainbowfied! 

Then that magical chest slides on a rainbow to the ruins of the library to make a pretty new crystal castle while the girls return Equestria it's power.

Celestia gives a cheesy speech about Twi being the princess of friendship and stuff. 
The End!

-Music-

We heard two songs, both of them being awesome! I loved the princess trio with Twi chirping in from time to time, while the last song was good but pretty basic. 

Oh well, any song is better than no song!
-Personal Opinion-
Remember me rambling about Tirek being a shrimp monkey-goat? Well, I take my words back...

I absolutely adore the way they changed him! In the past, as far as I know, he was that crazy Minotaur who wanted to ride a chariot while setting a rainbow free...
Now, he's this guy who sucks in power and grows stronger with every time and makes fiery orb with his horn thingies...   
The other matter I'd like to address is about the fandom. 
No matter what goes down, crystallization, rainbowfication, aliconification, humanization or anything, the fandom hates it! I, for one, liked the rainbow power and I'm glad that it had a one-time use or something like that. Come on guys! Would you rather see ponies stay the same all the time or see them become something special, superior, once in a while, something that makes the bigger than they were before, more than just ponies! And it's not like they will stay like that for ever, the went back to normal right away! Chilax please!

-Overview-

This was the most epic episode yet, and I think that this deserves the special grade- 12 out of 10!
Well, now that the season is over and there won't be no ponies until 2015 (just Rainbow Rocks), what will you do? Will you lay low like a cat during winter or will you start making art, music and other stuff? I will re-watch the season, because I can't remember a thing honestly! 

Link Time!

Well butter me head and call me a sandwich, that went better than expected! The review is coming tomorrow, so here is a link for you to gaze upon:

-----> DA EPIC FINALE HERE <-----

Rambling about a spoilery clip!

Ok, this is the post I promised!
But beware, SPOILERS!!!! I'll talk about the here.
Now, among these spoiler-y clips I like the one with Tirek. Here it is, if you want to watch it...

Anyway, this is the spoiler zone... so yea

Now, lemme chew on this small clip.

First of all- fairy lights.

Why not all move to equestria where they have pwetty fairy lights in every dark street, but they can't protect you from magic-sucking goats. 

awwww so peaceful.....

And yes, I know that Tirek is a demon-Minotaur, but he seriously looks like a funky goat. 

Secondly, Tirek. 

Back in the time he was a buff evil guy and he was legitimately huge, twice the pony size! 

But now, man, he looks like a shrimp goat. Or a hipster goat. I bet he bought that snazzy cloak of his in a thrift shop. Or his BFF Trixie lent it to him for that FABULOUS  ENTRANCE into the villainous world...

And did you see how he consumes power?! Seriously? Sucking magic? :/

the resemblance is mind-blowing

Thirdly, what's up with that first victim, the ponydude with a minecraft cutie-mark? Let's think it through:

*Le you walking down a dark by fairy-light-illuminated alley*

*mysterious cloaked figure appears*
Instead of running away, this guy says something just, just... UGH!

"SORRY, YOU APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE" 

Seriously?! 

woah, watch out guys, we got Captain Obvious on our hooves! 

I mean, who says that? Any sane pony or human or and life form would just walk away or just pretend that you forgot something and turn around a go back to that place where you bought dem oranges! And I know that it's hard to escape an evil, magic-sucking, hipster goat, but at least you wouldn't leave a mark in pony history as "the guy who says obvious and stoopid things".

Lastly, watch out Zecora, Tirek is your nemesis! How fun it is to have such an unusual villain! Let me again show you the awesomeness of lord Tirek IN A LIST!  (you didn't expect that, did you?):

-Goat/Minotaur 

-hipster, or at least has some fashion sense 

-magic-sucking 

-poet 

- talks as if no one is listening 

-loves dramatic moments 

-British-y accent 

-is BFFs with the A-list ponies 

-lived in Tartarus (probably) 

-appears out of nowhere

-introduces himself before turning you into a useless pony-blob

-polite 

- can read minds

-loves oranges

Yep, I'm pretty sure he loves em'. Why else would he attack that dude? He wanted dem juicy, sweet, tasty oranges...mmmmmmm

Regarding all this I can say that the premier will be incredibly stupendous and epic. I can't wait to see my fave new goat! 

What are YOU doing? I know I'll be having a badass party with popcorn cookies and stuff... alone.... :,(

Well, guess it'll be a party of one then! Better grab me some boulders and turnips and flour sacks to fell less alone...

You know what's the saddest part? I have a party hat for myself! I can see it now- me eating popcorn in a pink party hat with rainbows watching talking ponies defeat all-consuming goats. 

That's a way to spend a Saturday night!