| Rainbow Dash Presents: Captain Hook the Biker Gorilla | |
|---|---|
| Creator(s) | FiMFlamFilosopher, Petirep |
| Date added | February 4, 2012 |
| Duration | 26:23 |
| Part of | Rainbow Dash Presents |
| Based on | Rainbow Factory |
| ⇐ RDP: Spiderses |
⇒ RDP: Haunting Nightmare |
Rainbow Dash Presents: Captain Hook the Biker Gorilla is the fifth episode of the Rainbow Dash Presents series and an adaptation of Rainbow Factory.
Presentation
As usual, FimFlamFilosopher (credited as "Greg" for the first time) handles most of the voices, including Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. All the female characters are voiced by men, all the male ones by a woman.
At over 1,200, the video contains almost four times as many illustrations as the previous episode.[1][2] The YouTube description says it's the "first Rainbow Dash Presents to feature animation", though previous episodes already included visual effects that can technically be called animation.
The video itself as well as its YouTube description advertise a new website built by the RDP team. It is intended to showcase both their pony-related videos as well as other projects, such as a webcomic by Petirep and Greg about dwarves. The phrase "It's always morning somewhere" on the site's logo at the end of the video is misspelled "somewere". This is not the case on the website itself.
Title and intro
FimFlamFilosopher had expressed dissatisfaction that the release of Rainbow Dash Presents: Spiderses was only featured in the "Other news" daily column of the popular news blog Equestria Daily instead of receiving a blog entry of its own like installments of some other, similar projects, and like the first two RBP videos. He also relayed a back-and-forth with an Equestria Daily editor which suggested the site would refuse to post the Rainbow Factory adaptation.[3]
This episode addresses that in its opening sequence, which shows Rainbow Dash sitting in front of a computer. She complains to Twilight that her readings go underappreciated on the "Trixie Variety Show" website and that they have been called "boring, played-out stories that nobody wants to hear again". Twilight is unsympathetic, but eventually suggests that Rainbow change the title of her video so it won't be recognized as the reading of an existing and unwelcome story. So Rainbow does, though she helpfully reminds the viewers that "Rainbow Dash Presents: Captain Hook the Biker Gorilla" is actually secretly "Rainbow Dash Presents: Rainbow Factory".
Equestria Daily's founder, Sethisto, replied in the YouTube comment section the day the video was published, promised "No roundups ever again for you"[4], and did indeed give the episode its own blog post.
Summary
The episode plays out roughly the same way as Rainbow Factory, opening with Scootaloo about to take an important pegasi physical examination in Cloudsdale alongside Orion "Comet" ("OC") and Aurora. Accompanying Scootaloo for moral support are the other Cutie Mark Crusaders, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle (Thrackerzod), who are tied to balloons throughout the episode to prevent them from falling through Cloudsdale. All three candidates fail spectacularly: Aurora breaks both her wings and chips four teeth during freefall; Orion fails straight away for passing a "Do you like me?" note to Scootaloo; and Scootaloo exploits an examination loophole by pulling her fellow non-pegasi CMCs along for help, only to learn they encumber her throughout the test course.
All five foals are ordered to go to the Gates of Shame, where a beaten-up flying panel van pulled by a creepy stallion named Dazzler is waiting to transport them to an unspecified location; accompanying Dazzler is a cat that "pays the bills" and is inexplicably a doctor. On the way, Dazzler stops at the bank and a fast food drive-in (McSoy's), and drops the foals at a hardware store while he momentarily goes off for an unmentioned deed. In addition, the foals are ordered to fill up a series of waivers and medical paperwork throughout the first half of the episode, foreshadowing their intended fate.
The foals are eventually taken to the weather factory, which is revealed to be staffed by pegasi in workout clothes and luchador masks, and a factory engineer in the form of Surprise (an early pegasi iteration of G4's Pinkie Pie). The foals are led to room at the Rainbow Facility that contains numerous pegasi foals, factory workers, and a massive machine; supervising the Rainbow Facility's operations is none other than Rainbow Dash. Unlike the Rainbow Dash in the original fic, she is far less competent, having only been on the job for 3 days and is still very uncomfortable with her responsibilities. Her lack of discretion also leads her to divulge how the foals will be grounded into rainbows for a secret conspiracy.
The CMCs assemble the Silver Monkey in an attempt to escape the Rainbow Facility.
After Rainbow Dash and Surprise attempt to reassure the foals by breaking into song to explain the origins and justifications of their operations, Surprise instructs Rainbow Dash to feed Orion into the machine. In order to enhance the quality of the rainbows, Orion is given a puppy, a picture of his family, and a box of crayons before he is thrown into the machine. The sight of Orion's near demise compels a still sympathetic Rainbow Dash to stall the operation, while the CMCs and Aurora hatch a plan to escape. After triggering the other foals in the room to panic, the CMCs manage to leave the room (Aurora volunteers to stay behind to ward off any pursuers), but are required to navigate through a Legends of the Hidden Temple-like obstacle course in order to escape. Applebloom's incompetence leads the entire group to be captured by a Temple Guard and taken back to the rainbow-making room.
Unable to get Rainbow Dash to restart rainbow production, Surprise convinces Rainbow Dash to conduct a practice run by feeding only the family picture and crayons into the machine. To their shock, rainbows are produced through these raw materials alone, and Surprise is upset that she and Dash will be "going to 'pony hell'" for needlessly killing countless foals. The foals are free to return to their families, supplying the Rainbow Facility with family pictures instead.
'Enunciation Emergency'
On April 7, 2 months after posting 'RDP: Captain Hook the Biker Gorilla', FiMFlamFilosophy uploaded a short music video staring the character of Aurora (once again voiced by Demarckus) who attempts to sing a song about her daily life and political issues. The lyrics are intentionally unintelligible as Aurora slurs and messes up all the words.
Greg explained in the video's description that the song portion of Biker Gorilla 'Rainbow Fun Factory' was originally going to be much longer, with singing portions for each of the characters including Aurora, but was cut down to just Rainbow Dash and Surprise for time. He jokingly described Aurora's singing be cut as a "grevous wring" which this video was setting right. This video is not however a daleted scene from Biker Gorilla, it is an entirely original and separate song.
Greg did not include the lyrics in the video description, but Petirep, who once again provided art for the video posted them on his DA account. They are as follows:
| Lyrics |
|---|
|
All the batmen All the batmen All the batmen Well get a job! My god! Every day the newsman say And it's up to me to vote for hope Well let me lay it down this way How come everybody got a problem What's is up with that? See thing is I have a cat And now I'm supposed to worry What's is up with that? It's like they act the answers all simple They tell me that oil is bad What's is up with that? I'm not very good at math. I could always vote on hair What's is up with that? |
The video on YouTube |
Trivia
- The voice actors behind Friendship is Witchcraft were originally going to provide the voices of extras and the character of Aurora, as well assist in the music portion, but stopped the collaboration in response to a comment made by Greg directed towards fellow FimFlamFilosophy team member SpottableBus. Greg and SpottableBus responded to the incident in a tumblr post , and the accusations from FiW of "chauvinist" are adressed in the end credits of the episode. A later tumblr post tells the Friendship is Witchcraft side of the story.
- The OC of Glaze (WoodenToaster) can be seen working with Derpy at the pegasus exam.
- The character of Dazzler and his cat are a reference to Wizard People, Dear Reader - an authorized retelling of Harry Potter in which the character of Mr. Filtch is refured to as Dazzler and is controlled by his cat.
- The cat is riding a hoverboard from Back to the Future Part II in order to stay afloat.
- The Drive-Thru whale at McSoy's is a reference to popular website homestarrunner.com . A pony with the mask of homestarrunner.com character Strong Bad can also be seen working in the factory.