Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer

If you were born in the late 70's or early 80's then Rainbow Brite was the cartoon to watch. From the colors to the music, this movie brings back my childhood. This is a great cartoon with good morals and a good ending. Rainbow Brite has to save the world from an evil Princess who thinks that she can have anything she wants. Who else but Rainbow Brite, with the help of her new friends Khris, can bring sunlight and rainbows back into the world. This is an essential cartoon to watch!

I remember years ago reading in a TV Guide an article about a video store which asked you to select more than one movie title just in case one or the other was already checked out (it was written because back during this time period rental stores were still a new novelty to many at the time), and it mentioned a young teenage girl who was babysitting a small boy who was around five years old. The boy's parents had instructed her to let him select a movie to keep him occupied, and they were standing in line with the two titles he had selected: "The Shaggy Dog" and "Rainbow Brite and The Star Stealer."

When interviewed, she remarked with freaked-out anxiousness, "I sure hope it's 'The Shaggy Dog' they've got. I'll ***DIE*** if it's 'Rainbow Brite'." The article described her as making the comment with "all the air of one about to get sick on the carpet."

She spoke pretty much for everybody out there except a tiny select few who were introduced to this film as small girls back during the time period. That's because we have here what just might be the one film that single-handedly represnts everything terrible that happened to animation during the eighties!

Now to be fair, there were a lot of "cute" children's cartoons that came out during the period which were designed strictly to be animated advertisements for the toys they were based on. (I exempt "The Smurfs" from this list not only because they were great, but because they were never designed to sell toys in the first place and were in fact based on a famous European comic strip.) Most of them were terrrible with cheap animation and dumbed-down plots. The only film out of all of them which has managed to amazingly age with grace is "The Care Bears Movie".

Now, I don't have a big problem with cartoons designed for young girls--provided they are done right. For example, I actually enjoyed watching the "Strawberry Shortcake" specials made for television during the time because they had a lot of deliberately silly humour and also because they actually had imagination to the concept (adults will now see all the tounge-in-cheek jokes in "Shortcake" that went over their heads as toddlers). But this one isn't even fun on a campy level, save for the portions where it becomes unintentionally hilarious. It's just bad bad bad bad BAD.

I've always got the impression that Rainbow Brite was created as a Care Bears ripoff, and that point of view remains unchanged today. It is simply the most unoriginal and unimaginative of all the eighties offerings in its genre. Everything present here has been done before better somewhere else by even cheap lousy cartoons from the time which just somehow managed to not be AS cheap and badly written as this one. It was also considered a bomb compared to its competition, and if you dare see it you'll see why. Oh yes, it also has the most self-conscious and pretentious voice acting I've ever encountered this side of badly-dubbed anime.

As a friend of mine once remarked, "Don't let kids watch this film unless you want them to learn bad manners from Rainbow Brite's stuck-up horse! Can you imagine how many little kids will watch this film and all want to grow up to be stuck-up horses?!" (No, I'm not kidding about that description of Starlite, it's true.)

Avoid, avoid, avoid. Unless you take a particularly wicked pleasure in watching an animated embarrassment fall on its face, that is.

(Oh, by the way, in case you were wondering... the teenage girl I mentioned was later relieved to the point of jumping and shouting "ALRIIIGHT!" when she learned her young charge had gotten his hands on 'The Shaggy Dog' instead.)

Rainbow Brite was the very first movie I ever saw at a movie theater. Though the animation may have been poor and the quality cheezy, it was enough to thoroughly encaptivate and enthrall a little 5-year old girl. To this very day, I still remember scenes and clips in my head of my favorite childhood toy coming to life on the big screen.

I don't care what people say. This movie is SO entertaining. I got the movie when I was 6, and I watched it for about the 50th time last week. I'm 21 now, and I still find this Really entertaining. Just because it was meant for kids does not in any way mean that it is only able to be loved by kids. Yes, the plot is rather... plebian, in most aspects, but it is endearing and has a very compelling quality to it. I still have my toys, and I want the belt she wore. I am also looking for the first movie, and don't know the title. If anyone knows, get in touch with me...

I found this movie on one of my old videos, after "Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster" (which should INSTANTLY give you an idea of it's tone) and I hadn't seen it in a while so I decided to watch it. I didn't remember much about Rainbow Brite except I used to like the cartoon and that it was cute. Most people feel that way about her. You probably do to.

Well, when the movie started, I wondered if it was the right one! It didn't fit the mold of Rainbow Brite as I remembered her. But it turns out she kicks butt! This has to be the strangest animated movie EVER! I can't believe these characters were so popular (the series isn't much different) while being so bizzare. As soon as I watched this movie again, it became one of my favorites.

I really don't want to give too much away. Just know that if you see the movie in the video store, rent it and watch it. No questions asked. You will get a kick out of it. Especially the outrageous Princess character. And the robotic horse. And the hypnotized sprites.

If you can't tell by know, this is an 80's cartoon that is really an undiscovered "head" movie in disguise! Have fun!