Late Night Obscure Cartoon Review Theater
Jun. 23rd, 2004 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingandyA few days ago I spotted a "Rainbow Brite" DVD and thought, what the hell, why not. Rainbow Brite is a show I've never seen (being not so well marketed in the UK), but my sister had a big-ass crazy story book ("treasury"), a really massive hardback thing. It transcribed the first five episodes or so in big print - the five on the DVD, as it happens - and had a lot of stills from the show. I was always kind of impressed with the story art; it was a few years before I realised it was an actual TV show, which explained the difference between those stills and the stilted, airbrushed production art that decorated the obligatory puzzle pages and such. So when I spotted the DVD on sale (seriously cheap, at £2.99) I decided to indulge.
I got through 2.5 episodes before I had to break for Invader Zim, and I'm pleasantly surprised so far. Being a Hallmark production, from the period in the eighties when low-cost merchandise tie-ins were all the rage, I wasn't actually expecting much. In terms of animation, however, it's quite pleasing on the eye - it's good Eastern stuff, similar to the best Inspector Gadget or Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. The frame rate isn't great, but it's hard to fault the individual cels - all the frames are consistent with proportions and character design, including the horse, which are hard enough to draw once, let alone animated galloping across a ravine or being washed away by a strong current. There's only a few examples of colour-spotting mistakes, usually with the title character's multi-coloured armbands.
I'm probably not the best person to judge the storyline, since I already know it so well. Rainbow Brite is unusual amongst 80's marketing cartoons in that it had an origin episode, which is the first two-parter on the DVD. I should probably be embarassed, but I've read that damn book so many times that I remembered what was going to happen at each step of the way (I couldn't have told you all of it in advance, but as things happened I recalled how the story unfolded - and I knew most of the key plot points right from the beginning). It's also kind of unusual amongst origin episodes in that it's not the origin of the characters per se, but rather the origin of the status quo. Over the course of the episode the "Color Kids" are rescued from their various prisons, where they must have been kept for thousands of years since the stories of the "Color Belt" have been passed down in legend. They may look like kids, but they'm ain't. Even the eponymous Ms Brite, who appears at the start of the episode as a pale and washed-out girl named Wisp, gets no back story as to where she's from or why she's there, other than she wants to help the land be colourful again.
Which brings me on to characters. The Color Kids themselves are kind of sketchy, since there's so damn many of them, but most of the central characters seem to be defined by their flaws. Which is no bad thing. Twink is overly cautious, to the point of cowardice (and I seem to recall later on that he gets very self-important due to being Brite's favourite sidekick, and starts to order people around - he's brave as long as he has other people to back him up, or he thinks he has a position of authority). Wisp (Brite) is insanely naive and eager to help, which usually gets her into trouble, though obviously she's never daunted by it. It's not that she's brave as much as her brain just doesn't recognise danger. Starlite - Brite's talking horse - is arrogant and narcissistic; in fact the show is somewhat saved from being a disgusting rainbow-coloured girl-powered best-of-all-the-animals horse-lovefest by having the rainbow-coloured talking horse constantly proclaim that it's "The finest horse IN THE UNIVERSE I am so wonderful!" at the top of its high-pitched homosexual voice. It pushes itself into self-parody, and is comedy genius. Though this may or may not have been intentional.
I mentioned Starlite's horse voice there, and it's worth mentioning the voice acting in general. Half the cast have voices that only register to dogs and the mentally disadvantaged. OMG so squeaky. This is apparently because the show was voiced by children - according to a web chat I skimmed on that RB site I googled for at the top of the post, Ms Brite herself (the youngest cast member) was only 6 at the time. I can certainly forgive them squeakiness, since I had no idea they were kids; the acting was not exactly oscar-level, but it was at least on a par with modern adult jobbing voice-actors. The rest of the soundtrack is not so hot - the reliance on stock cartoon sound-effects becomes a little painful, and the ever-present 80's synth music grates a little. It is after all a product of its times.
It's not a "must-see" show by any means, but the animation is entertaining enough and it still has a nostalgic appeal for me, at least - and it scores serious points for that first two-parter, being an epic tale of taking arms against a sea of troubles. If nothing else, I'm sure it would go down a treat in any given gay bar, what with all the rainbows. IT'S BEAUTIFUL MAN.
I got through 2.5 episodes before I had to break for Invader Zim, and I'm pleasantly surprised so far. Being a Hallmark production, from the period in the eighties when low-cost merchandise tie-ins were all the rage, I wasn't actually expecting much. In terms of animation, however, it's quite pleasing on the eye - it's good Eastern stuff, similar to the best Inspector Gadget or Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. The frame rate isn't great, but it's hard to fault the individual cels - all the frames are consistent with proportions and character design, including the horse, which are hard enough to draw once, let alone animated galloping across a ravine or being washed away by a strong current. There's only a few examples of colour-spotting mistakes, usually with the title character's multi-coloured armbands.
I'm probably not the best person to judge the storyline, since I already know it so well. Rainbow Brite is unusual amongst 80's marketing cartoons in that it had an origin episode, which is the first two-parter on the DVD. I should probably be embarassed, but I've read that damn book so many times that I remembered what was going to happen at each step of the way (I couldn't have told you all of it in advance, but as things happened I recalled how the story unfolded - and I knew most of the key plot points right from the beginning). It's also kind of unusual amongst origin episodes in that it's not the origin of the characters per se, but rather the origin of the status quo. Over the course of the episode the "Color Kids" are rescued from their various prisons, where they must have been kept for thousands of years since the stories of the "Color Belt" have been passed down in legend. They may look like kids, but they'm ain't. Even the eponymous Ms Brite, who appears at the start of the episode as a pale and washed-out girl named Wisp, gets no back story as to where she's from or why she's there, other than she wants to help the land be colourful again.
Which brings me on to characters. The Color Kids themselves are kind of sketchy, since there's so damn many of them, but most of the central characters seem to be defined by their flaws. Which is no bad thing. Twink is overly cautious, to the point of cowardice (and I seem to recall later on that he gets very self-important due to being Brite's favourite sidekick, and starts to order people around - he's brave as long as he has other people to back him up, or he thinks he has a position of authority). Wisp (Brite) is insanely naive and eager to help, which usually gets her into trouble, though obviously she's never daunted by it. It's not that she's brave as much as her brain just doesn't recognise danger. Starlite - Brite's talking horse - is arrogant and narcissistic; in fact the show is somewhat saved from being a disgusting rainbow-coloured girl-powered best-of-all-the-animals horse-lovefest by having the rainbow-coloured talking horse constantly proclaim that it's "The finest horse IN THE UNIVERSE I am so wonderful!" at the top of its high-pitched homosexual voice. It pushes itself into self-parody, and is comedy genius. Though this may or may not have been intentional.
I mentioned Starlite's horse voice there, and it's worth mentioning the voice acting in general. Half the cast have voices that only register to dogs and the mentally disadvantaged. OMG so squeaky. This is apparently because the show was voiced by children - according to a web chat I skimmed on that RB site I googled for at the top of the post, Ms Brite herself (the youngest cast member) was only 6 at the time. I can certainly forgive them squeakiness, since I had no idea they were kids; the acting was not exactly oscar-level, but it was at least on a par with modern adult jobbing voice-actors. The rest of the soundtrack is not so hot - the reliance on stock cartoon sound-effects becomes a little painful, and the ever-present 80's synth music grates a little. It is after all a product of its times.
It's not a "must-see" show by any means, but the animation is entertaining enough and it still has a nostalgic appeal for me, at least - and it scores serious points for that first two-parter, being an epic tale of taking arms against a sea of troubles. If nothing else, I'm sure it would go down a treat in any given gay bar, what with all the rainbows. IT'S BEAUTIFUL MAN.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-23 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-23 03:32 pm (UTC)The latter DVDs are £2.99 or 2 for £5 (I bought Rainbow Brite and Inspector Gadget), if you're interested I could probably grab a few and post them (postage to the states would probably be more than the cost of the DVDs!). They're Region 2, of course.
I remember Rainbow Brite
Date: 2004-06-24 02:00 am (UTC)Re: I remember Rainbow Brite
Date: 2004-06-29 02:08 am (UTC)Re: I remember Rainbow Brite
Date: 2004-06-29 02:10 am (UTC)ps I AM PLEASED YOU ARE NOT DEAD!