Rainbow Brite's gonna take you away...
''Into a world filled with darkness, Came a little girl with a mission.
After proving herself to be worthy and brave, she became known as:
Rainbow Brite!
Now along with her magnificent horse: Starlight, and her loyal and true friend Twink,
and The Color Kids, she lives far away in Rainbowland, a wonderful place full of color and happiness!
Using the power of the rainbow, her magical color belt, and the star sprinkles, Rainbow Brite and her friends protect Rainbowland! Fighting off the forces of darkness and gloom and the devious plots of Murky and Lurky so that they can bring color and happiness to the people everywhere!
After proving herself to be worthy and brave, she became known as:
Rainbow Brite!
Now along with her magnificent horse: Starlight, and her loyal and true friend Twink,
and The Color Kids, she lives far away in Rainbowland, a wonderful place full of color and happiness!
Using the power of the rainbow, her magical color belt, and the star sprinkles, Rainbow Brite and her friends protect Rainbowland! Fighting off the forces of darkness and gloom and the devious plots of Murky and Lurky so that they can bring color and happiness to the people everywhere!
— The Opening Narration
Rainbow Brite started life as a greeting card character and was soon licensed by DiC Entertainment for a series of animated adventures. Rainbow Brite, whose real name is Wisp, is a young girl who helps to bring color to the world, accompanied by the seven Color Kids, Twink the Sprite, and her horse Starlite.
Rainbow Brite and her allies frequently have to deal with the schemes of Murky Dismal, a short, mustachioed villain who, along with his oafish henchman Lurky, tries to make all of Rainbowland as dark and gloomy as his lair in The Pits. Other villains include the Dark Princess, the main antagonist of the movie and the final TV episode, and the King of Shadows, who ruled Rainbowland before Wisp arrived.
The franchise was initially adapted as a series of 5 TV specials that aired during a syndication week, originally airing in 1984. This was followed a year later by a feature-length film, Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer, which in turn was followed by a 13-episode TV series in 1986.note
Reboots of the franchise were attempted in 1996, 2005, and 2009 but never caught on. A reboot miniseries was released in November 2014, consisting of three episodes. Afterwards, the original 1983 series was continued with all-new picture books and merchandise from Hallmark, which as of 2019 is still being produced. A comic book series by Dynamite Entertainment premiered in October 2018, based upon the 80s series. It ran for 5 issues.
In October of 2024, an all-new series was announced as a collaboration between Crayola Studios and Cake Studios. A theatrical movie from Original Film was also announced.
Rainbow Brite contains examples of:
open/close all folders
The 1980s Series
- All Your Colors Combined: Rainbow's power is control of the rainbow, making her much more powerful than The Color Kids.
- Alternate Rainbow: Beyond the seven colors, Rainbow Brite encompasses the tertiary colors, as shown once the color pink shows up.
- Amplifier Artifact: In the movie, The Dark Princess has a crystal that's the source of her powers. When Rainbow Brite and Krys destroy it, she's left without magic. The last episode of the show had her traveling to Rainbowland to find a new power source.
- And I Must Scream: The Dark Princess threatens Rainbow with this in the last episode of the show.I'm going to turn you into a diamond and wear you around my neck!
- Animesque: For a 1984 definition of the word. It wasn't intentional but the character designs, combined with it being animated by a Japanese studio caused the show to look very Japanese.
- Anti-Magic: The Pits (where Murky and Lurky dwell) are so dark and evil that they cancel out Rainbow's powers.
- Anti-Villain: Sorrel the Sorcerer from "Murky's Comet" casts a spell for Murky that summons an evil rainbow that brings a comet to destroy Rainbowland but only because Murky wanted it in exchange for parts to repair Sorrel's spaceship.
- Audience Surrogate: Brian is a normal human who gets pulled into the strange world of Rainbowland.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: The Dark Princess acts like this. When she's told that stealing Spectra will destroy the universe, she throws a tantrum and orders the elderly Sprite Orin taken away.I don't wanna talk to you anymore!
- Catchphrase: "We have to try!", "Oh no!", and "Rainbow! Help!" show up a lot.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: In "The Beginning of Rainbow Land" Wisp tells Twink "You can make it if you believe you can. Believe, Twink! Try and believe!"
- Coloring in the World: The titular protagonist and her Color Kid band all have to work together to keep and retain the colors of the world, while Murky Dismal attempts to take all the color away. The pilot combines this trope with the exact opposite of a Sugar Apocalypse, where Rainbow Land is transformed from a gloomy hellscape to a colorful and vibrant paradise.
- Companion Cube: The Dark Princess has a lifeless pet gemstone that she leads around on a leash and talks to as if it's alive. She's protective of it throughout the movie until she needs fuel for her spaceship and tosses it in without a second thought.
- Cool Horse:
- Cosmic Keystone:
- The Sphere of Light Wisp is seeking in the pilot empowers her Color Belt and is most likely Rainbowland's sun itself.
- Spectra, the diamond planet in the movie, since all light that comes to Earth must pass through it.
- Crapsack World: Rainbow Land was a dark, polluted place before Wisp arrived.
- Darker and Edgier:
- After the cold opening, The Movie starts with a nice and cheerful song about spring and waking up and being energetic and the first 15 minutes or so go on just like any other Rainbow Brite episode... and then On-X the robot horse arrives and the cheerfulness goes right out the window, not to be seen until the very end.
- There's also "The Beginning of Rainbowland Part 1 and 2" which shows that Rainbow Land was a Death World before Wisp brought color into it.
- Dark Is Evil: The King of Shadows is as evil as his name suggests, and he controls the power of darkness.
- Death by Despair: A late spring results in (mostly non-fatal) mass depression for the Earth in The Movie.TV newscaster: "Hospitals report patients have stopped asking when they'll get better. Things have become so depressing in fact...in fact, why am I even here?! Why should I be the only one who hasn't given up?!" (walks out)
- Demoted to Extra: After the movie, Brian only appeared in two episodes and he was barely in both of them.
- Depending on the Artist:
- The episode "Rainbow Night" has a completely different version of the entrance to The Pits compared to other episodes and the movie.
- In the original greeting cards, the proportions of the color kids (especially Rainbow) as well as their facial features tend to differ between the artists. G.G. Santiago's design is considered the definite canon, however.
- Devour the Dragon: A variation: in the Star Stealer movie, the Dark Princess got a Kick the Dog moment when she took the gemstone that she'd been carrying and treating like a pet for the whole film, and threw it into her mineral-burning ship's furnace to get a little extra power when it was low on fuel.
- Disappeared Dad: In "Mom", there's no mention of Murky's father.
- Dragon Ascendant: The pilot had a dark, sinister, magical villain called The King of Shadows. It wasn't established whether he was a demon or simply a Sorcerous Overlord, but either way, he had a bumbling minion named Murky Dismal. The pilot ended with The King defeated, so Murky filled the Big Bad slot for the remainder of the series.
- Dumb Muscle: Lurky's stupidity is virtually unsurpassed in all of fiction, but given his size, he's reasonably strong physically.
- Everyone Has Standards: Plock from "Star Sprinkled" tricked Twink into giving him the Color Cave and planned to turn it into a tourist attraction but he tried to stop Murky from turning it into a Gloom Cave and gives it back to Rainbow and company after she rescues him from Murky.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Practically the premise of the show is that everything is, indeed, better with more color to it, and a lack of color ruins everything.
- First-Run Syndication: While the specials aired by themselves, the series aired with Popples, and Ulysses 31 as part of the "Kideo TV" block.note
- The Foreign Subtitle: The 80s cartoon is known as Mahou Shoujo Rainbow Brite(魔法少女レインボーブライト) in Japan.
- Forgotten Phlebotinum: Wisp brought a suitcase with her when she was first brought to Rainbowland. Then a living shrub stole it and she abandoned it.
- Freudian Excuse: It is revealed in the episode "Mom" that, when Murky was an infant, he loved colors, and he expressed this by coloring on the walls. This angered his mother, who told him, "You're going to get rid of every bit of that color if it takes you all day, if takes you the rest of your life."
- From Special to Series: The cartoon began as a series of specials, then a movie, and then a series, of which the specials became a part.
- Girliness Upgrade: The 2000s doll series lengthens Rainbow Brite's, Moonglow's, and Tickled Pink's hair, as well as putting them in more intricate outfits with jewelry (with a focus on fashion) and ribbon batons in an attempt to mix a magical girl aesthetic with later era Barbies.
- Girlish Pigtails: Patty O'Green (with two braids), Indigo (with low pigtails), and Tickled Pink (with high pigtails).
- Gloomy Gray:
- Without the power of Rainbow Brite and The Color Kids, Rainbow Land is like this. After their return to power, the only place that remains like this is The Pits, a place even Rainbow's power cannot bring color to.
- Murky's Gloom Gas is gray and has the effect of causing those caught in it to feel despair. Interestingly, Stormy is immune to it because she actually likes gray clouds.
- Harmless Freezing: Creatures covered in ice in "The Beginning of Rainbowland" resemble statues, but they can break out relatively easily if someone gives them a reason to fight. It’s what initially happens to Starlite, until Wisp frees him.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Before Rainbowland gets turned into the happy world it truly should be, it's full of such places as the No-Return River and the Tangled Forest.
- It's All About Me: The Dark Princess only cares about what she wants, even at the expense of the entire universe.
- Kaleidoscope Hair: In the movie, The Dark Princess's hair is red, but in the series, it's orange-red with yellow streaks.
- Kick the Dog: For most of the movie, The Dark Princess had a sizable green gem with her that she treated like her Companion Cube, stroking it like a pet or keeping it on a leash. All that tenderness disappeared when she was on a spaceship that used minerals as fuel and was running out of fuel: she threw that gem into the ship's furnace to keep it going. Downplayed in that she didn't do this to an actual living thing, but it does drive home how callous The Dark Princess could be.
- The Magnificent: Starlite is the most magnificent horse in the universe. And if you ever forget, he'll be sure to remind you.
- Merchandise-Driven: The show was made to sell toys, so new toys often got their own episodes.
- Minidress of Power: Seeing as they are extremely short, even for children, this trope is invoked. Patty O'Green in particular is a walking Panty Shot (they're basically short shorts anyway, so things stay PG).
- Minion with an F in Evil: Lurky. He thinks colors are pretty and doesn't have any idea what to do half the time.
- The Movie: Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer.
- Multiple Head Case: The monster guarding Canary Yellow in "The Beginning of Rainbowland, Part 2" is a two headed creature, with the heads bickering about if they should eat her or not. Luckily, thanks to Wisp confusing it (and Murky and Lurky botching another attempt to stop her), it never does so.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: In the movie, Murky's bumbling attempt to ally with The Dark Princess results in his spaceship crashing through her throne room and distracting her, allowing Rainbow to defeat her.
- Not Quite Dead: The Princess's ship hurtles out of control and then violently explodes into dust in the movie. Come the series, she shows up intact and just as nasty.
- Not Quite Flight: Starlite can gallop on rainbows as if on solid ground, but he still needs Rainbow to create them for him. Inverted in the movie with ON-X, a robot horse who can actually fly.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Murky has his moments, such as when he captured and tortured Moonglow with light. In the same episode, he nearly killed Rainbow by pushing her into a pit, and in the TV specials, he worked for The King of Shadows.
- Omnicidal Maniac: The Dark Princess wants to steal Spectra even though it will cause everyone and everything else in the universe to die. Later she tries to destroy it since she can't have it.
- Painting the Frost on Windows: Rainbow Brite and her friends bring colors to the entire world, helping people be happy.
- Pet the Dog: In the movie, The Dark Princess comforts her pet gemstone and promises she won't let Rainbow Brite or Krys hurt it. This goes out the window when she needs it for fuel, though.
- Plucky Girl: Wisp. Before she had any powers or allies at all, she went into a Death World with the intent of saving it.
- Premiseville: The franchise is set in Rainbow Land, with the movie involving Spectra the diamond planet.
- Rainbow Motif: The Color Kids are all named and themes after the colors of the rainbow, led by Rainbow Brite who has all of their colors.
- Remember the New Guy?: Stormy and Tickled Pink show up in the movie, while Moonglow first appears in episode 4, both with absolutely no explanation. In the same episode, Starlite looks at Murky's Paper-Thin Disguise and muses, "I thought I knew all the Color Kids."
- Riddle for the Ages: Who was Wisp before she arrived in "The Beginning of Rainbowland"? Why does she arrive as if being sent on a mission, and who sent her?
- Ride the Rainbow: Rainbow Brite uses rainbow pathways to travel places, mainly between Earth and Rainbowland.
- Running Gag: Murky calling Lurky [insult] brain, although he does call him by his name sometimes. Also overlaps with Mad Libs Dialogue.note
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Monstromurk. It probably would have gone better for Murky if he hadn't made a habit of taunting him every night before bed...
- Spoiled Brat: The Dark Princess expects everyone to do as she says, throwing tantrums if things go wrong.
- Stealth Pun:
- Besides being a literal flying horse, On-X is also a literal "iron" horse. There's also the aforementioned Red Butler, though it's obvious to adults, just not to kids.
- The Dark Princess has a Companion Cube in the shape of a cut green gem. Considering the colloquial term for them, she literally has a pet rock.
- Sugar Bowl: Which does not preclude the occasional threat of a Sugar Apocalypse. "The Beginning of Rainbowland" suggests that the King of Shadows had caused one before Wisp showed up, plunging the land into hopeless gloom and causing even the Sun to hide itself away for its own protection.
- Technophobia: Sorrel the Sorcerer hates how magic-users are being told to 'get with the times' and use modern tech like spaceships. When his ship breaks down, Sorrel complains that it never would've happened with a magic carpet.
- Title Theme Tune: As with most Western animation productions. However, the movie uses a completely different one in the movie during the end credits.
- Token Minority: Depending on the source, Indigo is either African-American or East Indian.
- Token Romance: Brian's crush on Rainbow goes nowhere due to him being Demoted to Extra.
- Unexplained Recovery: The Dark Princess shows up in the last episode of the show with no explanation as to how she survived her ship exploding.
- Vain Sorceress: The Dark Princess is proud of her looks, her castle, and her magic gemstone.
- Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey:
- It's often hard to take Murky Dismal seriously, even if he is Rainbow Brite's nemesis throughout the series. In the premiere, he was working for an evil sorcerer named The King of Shadows, and while this setup lasted, Murky and the King had this dynamic.
- After the King's death and Murky's promotion to Big Bad status, Murky's idiotic assistant Lurky is even harder to take seriously than Murky, so he ends up creating this dynamic with him.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The Dark Princess wants to steal Spectra for herself even though it will kill everyone else in the universe. Later, when she is defeated, she tries to ram her ship into Spectra and destroy it.
- Villain Exclusivity Clause: Murky and Lurky have only one goal in the original series: to drain the world of its color and/or defeat Rainbow Brite and the Color Kids. (The only other villains were the King of Shadows and the Dark Princess.) Averted in the 2014 reboot, as the story has an arc.
- Villainous Badland, Heroic Arcadia: Rainbow Brite and the Color Kids live in Rainbowland, a bright and cheery world where they spread color and joy to everyone they meet. Except for The Pits, a dull and dreary spot of the world where the malevolent Murky Dismal and his henchmen Lurky reside, hatching villainous schemes to bring doom and gloom to Rainbowland.
- Villain Team-Up: In the movie and final episode of the TV series, Murky allies with the Dark Princess to help her destroy Rainbow Brite.
- Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: While Rainbow Brite isn't a princess, her and Krys's initial relationship bordered on this in The Movie, with Rainbow as a Tsundere and Krys as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: There's an episode where one of Murky's creations, the Monstromurk, is said to frighten Murky. Lurky, in an uncharacteristic display of intelligence, asks Murky why he doesn't destroy the Monstromurk if it scares him. Justified in that Murky thinks he can still find a use for the Monstromurk's abilities.
- World-Healing Wave: In the movie once Spectra is restored, all of the colors come back to earth.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: The name of Rainbow's friend from the movie is written as "Krys", but pronounced like "Chris".
1996 Toyline
- Adapted Out: Everybody but Rainbow Brite and (maybe) Indigo is replaced with new characters in this toy line. It's a large part of why it was considered to be In Name Only and so poorly received.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Instead of being a human child who ascended to who she is now, this Rainbow Brite is the child of the humanoid sun and the rainbow.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: The Color Crew, instead of using Star Sprinkles to bring color to the Earth, uses glow-in-the-dark paint. The dolls came with tiny containers of washable glowing paint, plus paintbrushes, so you could paint on their clothes.
- Five-Token Band: Rainbow Brite is the mostly-blonde white girl, and The Color Kids are replaced by The Color Crew, comprising East Asian Cerise, South Asian Indigo, black Ebony, and Ambiguously Brown Amber. Rainbow Brite appears to have a counterpart in Sparkle Brite, who is black, but there's no indication of where she's from.
- Multinational Team: Rainbow Brite is from space, but the Color Crew are normal Earth humans from different countries, inverting the original setup.
- Non-Indicative Name: All of the Colour Crew have Colorful Theme Naming, but their character designs don't actually reflect those colors. Indigo's theme is orange for some reason.
2009 Webisodes
-
Cut Short: This version only had a short 5-minute promo video and little else.
2014 Reboot
- Actionized Adaptation: It has more action scenes and explicit comedy than the original series.
- Adaptational Badass: Rainbow Brite, Stormy, and the other Color Kids have definitely more active control of their powers, and they show it.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the original series, Stormy was a friend and ally of Rainbow Brite. In the reboot, while she and Rainbow were friends once, they've apparently had some kind of falling out, with Stormy joining up with The Dark Princess. She eventually has a Heel–Face Turn, though.
- Adaptation Name Change: Twink is now named "Mister Glitters".
- Adapted Out: Moonglow and Tickled Pink are completely absent from this version, possibly due to the failure of the previous reboot (in which they had effectively replaced the main color kids). Also, despite the Dark Princess returning as the main villain, Count Blogg once again fails to make a comeback. (Most likely because he would have been superfluous against Murky, Lurky and Stormy). For the same reason, Stormy has been stripped of Skydancer.
- Age Lift:
- Krys was a kid in the original, but here, he's Brian's dad.
- While the 1980s Rainbow Brite and the Color Kids were vaguely kids, they looked way younger than Brian. This series explicitly shows them as the same age.
- Because Destiny Says So: In the reboot, Rainbow believes that Brian came to Rainbowland for a reason. Her belief is later validated when she correctly pieces together that Brian is the son of the Spectra Warrior Krys and in turn is a Sentinel of Light like herself and Stormy.
- Big Damn Heroes: Brian saving and restoring Rainbow's color in the first episode of the reboot after Stormy drained it and was about to zap her with lightning.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The Star Sprinkle Rainbow Brite gives Brian early on in "Cloudy with a Chance of Gloom" is what ends up allowing Brian to save himself and later on her later in the episode.
- When Lurky picks up Brian's hamster, something falls off his head. It turns out to be the Ring of Hallow Light that the bad guys had come to Earth for.
- Composite Character: The Dark Princess is a combination of the original Dark Princess and The King of Shadows. Like the King, she's the Arc Villain, and Murky and Lurky start out as her minions, but she has the name and design of the Princess along with her selfishness.
- Death by Adaptation: Krys has already been dead for probably several years before the series begins.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: The first series had its share of sparkles but this cranks it to 9.
- Face–Heel Turn: Stormy used to be a friend of Rainbow Brite, but turned against her to serve the Dark Princess. She later pulls a Heel–Face Turn back again and makes amends with Rainbow.
- Fashionable Evil: The Dark Princess wears a bodysuit with black and grey shades, many gold accessories, and a red cap that more or less matches her hair.
- Furry Reminder: Starlite (who acts far more human than his original incarnation) struggles to open a door with his hooves, only to remember that he's a horse and kick it open instead.
- Genki Girl: Rainbow Brite is portrayed as being much more hyperactive and excitable.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Brian is the son of Krys, a warrior of Spectra.
- Hand Blast: Most of the characters that fight do this, including Rainbow Brite when she isn't fighting. Brian, too, when he puts on the Ring of Hallow Light and becomes the Sentinel of Light Unseen.
- Henshin Hero: Brian as the Sentinel of Light Unseen.
- Invisible to Normals: It's made explicitly clear that normal humans aren't able to see Rainbow, yet Brian is somehow able to see her. In the original, this was because she'd already accidentally exposed her existence, but in the reboot, it's Rainbow's first clue that Brian is half-Spectran on his father's side.
- Legacy Character: Brian as the Sentinel of Light Unseen for his father, Krys.
- Mythology Gag:
- Rainbow Brite hums the original theme song to herself.
- Brian's sleep shirt has an 11 on it, like his original shirt.
- The motorcycle Brian's given resembles On-X, i.e., black with red trim.
- Not Quite Flight: Rainbow and Stormy ride on discs of rainbows and clouds, respectively.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: In the reboot, after two episodes of being The Dark Princess's lackey, Murky rewires The Color Cannon into a Mind-Control Device and nearly takes control of Rainbowland himself.
- Parental Bonus: Knowledge of optics and meteorology can help viewers understand the setting and some of the jokes. This causes some
Fridge Brilliance, as light is just part of the electromagnetic spectrum. - The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Rainbow uses "kittens" as her password, which Lurky somehow managed to figure out.
- Race Lift: Played with; Shy Violet has an epicanthic eyefold, and general character styles make Indigo Ambiguously Brown instead of (East) Indian.
- The Starscream: Murky tries to rewire The Color Cannon and turn it into a Mind-Control Device in order to take control of Rainbow Land himself, but fails.
- Totally Radical: Executives seemed to think Rainbow would appeal to newer audiences if she talked "street" sometimes.
- Turn the Other Cheek: Rainbow Brite is quick to offer a chance for Stormy to make up with her in the reboot since she still considers Stormy a friend. Everyone else, however, is not so kind.
- Unwitting Pawn: Stormy in the reboot ends up being manipulated into serving the Dark Princess.
- Wrench Wench: Shy Violet has a knack for science and mechanics.
