Favorite Episodes: Rainbow Brite

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Okay, this is sneaky, I know. Rainbow Brite only ever had 13 episodes. But it was my very, very favorite cartoon when I was a kid. I had quite a few recorded on VHS tapes, and whenever my mom would let me pick a video to rent, I would always go for "The Mighty Monstromurk Menace," but it was almost always either checked-out, or had the wrong tape in the box.

It started out as a two-part primetime thing, then 2 more two-parters were made. Then, 8 episodes came. There was also a theatrical release film, which my parents recorded for me when it ran on television at some point. It wasn't my favorite, but it had some great scenes. I'm not ashamed to admit I also own BOTH live-action VHS tapes of Rainbow Brite (the zoo and the birthday party)... and I bought them on eBay when I was in college.

I also had the lunchbox, a play tea tray, and a bunch of books (some complete with audiocassette), in addition to a Twink doll and a Baby Brite doll. Um, I also own the curtains. I thought they were gorgeous in my rooms from my last two years of college and my two years in graduate school. Like I said, it was my very favorite.

So, I thought I'd mention my favorite thing about each of the episodes today. I'm going with the chronological order to the story, not the order in which the episodes first appeared. I'm also not going to use links, since that would mean that I am essentially showing you where the entire series appears online, and I kinda think that's bad form. It's pretty easy to search for using the titles of the episodes, so I'll leave it at that.

1 & 2. "Beginning of Rainbowland" I've watched this one the most, since we had the *true* VHS of it, not a bootleg recording. This meant it was easy to watch, since there was no need to figure out what tape it was on, then fast-forward or rewind to get to the right part of the tape to view it. When I was in high school, I watched it with my brother and our respective best friends, and we were shocked at how many things in it can be taken sexually, LoL. But, my favorite thing about this episode is Rainbow heading out to find the seven color kids... I particularly love the giant bird scene with Canary Yellow.

3. "Peril in the Pits" This one is kind of a giveaway. I like it when Rainbow takes Brian to Rainbowland, starting from how he's sad to how she makes him a rainbow to how he gets colored, to the trip there and his arrival. Although I like it much better when he gets there on his own by using his key later on.

4 & 5. "The Mighty Monstromurk Menace" I like the bottle. I like it when Monstromurk is inside, I like watching the bottle bounce around, I like his escape, I like how Rainbow gets trapped, and I like how Monstromurk ends up back in it in the end.

6. "Invasion of Rainbowland" This is the very last episode I ever saw for the first time, and it came YEARS later after I saw the rest. It's definitely not a favorite, but I like that Violet is able to make his spaceship run on Star Sprinkles... you know, because they're prevalent everywhere... haha.

7. "Mom" It just amused me in general that Murky thought that he could convince his mom that he ran the Color Castle. I mean, really? He thought he could make that persona ring true in her eyes?

8. "Rainbow Night" This episode is probably the closest love-hate thing I have in this series. I love Moonglow and the concept behind her, but at the same time, I'm not the biggest fan of the kidnapping or the plot of this episode. My favorite part of this episode is near the beginning, when Rainbow and Puppy Brite are admiring Moonglow's work.

9. "Star Sprinkled" This episode is probably in the exact middle as far as favorites and least favorites go. But, it contains my favorite scene EVER from this show. From about 1:40-3:10 in this clip, we see the process of the color crystals being mined and how they end up as star sprinkles. I must have watched this sequence fifty times as a kid. That might be an underestimate, actually.


10. "Chasing Rainbows" I think that the idea of being able to confuse people so easily as to who is the robot and who isn't is intriguing. I believe I *may* have tried this approach and tried to make people think I was a robot. But my robot was more akin to VICKI from Small Wonder, LoL.

11. "Murky's Comet" I like the parade, plain and simple. The Color Kids are the band and the Sprites decorate and the cool people ride the horses.

12. "A Horse of a Different Color" I love the fact that we get to see all of the horsies in one place, even On-X from the Star Stealer movie! And Murky's fake horse used to make me giggle so hard! I always thought that romance in the horsies could have resulted in a really cute and super-neat pony.

13. "The Queen of the Sprites" This time, my favorite scene is one near the very end. When Rainbow is trying to capture the Princess, her rainbows go all around, surrounding her in belts of color. It just looked SO NEAT when I was a kid... and it kinda still does. ;)