Important Things This Week

This past week some pretty important stuff has gone down. Stuff that will change our country, and the world as a whole.

...

That's right! The reboot of Rainbow Brite aired on the 6th this week!

 For those un-familiar, Rainbow Brite made her debut in 1984, making the franchise 30 years old now! Interestingly enough, the franchise was not created by a toy company but rather by Hallmark Cards. Different toy manufacturers partnered with Hallmark Cards to create various toys featuring the property.

Quite a few classic 80's franchises have been getting reboots. My Little Pony, Transformers, GI Joe, Carebears - the list goes on. But what makes Rainbow Brite interesting is that the new series isn't for television, rather, it is for Hallmark's media streaming site Feeln. The show is produced in-house, likely with Adobe Flash from the look of it.

This is a preview for it, made entirely of clips from the first episode. I'll get this out of the way now, the animation doesn't look so good. Having used my super sleuth skills to procure the entire episode, I'll break some parts of it down here.

Right away, the show lets you know it's going to be 80's-tastic, with more rainbows and sparkles than you can handle. The main character, Rainbow Brite herself is a high-energy ball of the stuff, which is a departure from the original 80's version but it works. Starlite (The horse) so far works as an egotistical voice of reason and good bumper for Rainbow Brite. The new kid, Bryan, is a kid. From earth. Yea. He helps ground things and explain stuff in a natural way, so having him around is helpful.

We get to meet Stormy and Dark Princess (who is voiced by Molly Ringwald and it's super obvious), who are bad guys. Why? Well so far, it's because they live in a drab castle that rains indoors. But it's likely there's more to it. In fact, the show seems to be gearing up towards a more adventure based show. Rainbow Brite and Stormy both have magic powers

So writing-wise, everything seems alright. It's the visuals that get things messy. Strait-up gonna say it, the animation doesn't look very good. Not very many people work on the show, so what they were able to cobble together is somewhat impressive all things considered. The painted style of some of the backgrounds and props is nice.

Is this new Rainbow Brite worth taking a look at? If you're into all things 80's, it couldn't hurt. But if you're in the market for a show about a high energy girl doing all sorts of magical stuff, you might have better luck holding out for Disney's upcoming Star Vs. The Forces of Evil