Summary
The media is no stranger to 80s reboots.Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesandTransformershave seemingly constant rebootsin movies, television shows, and comics with new spins on classic characters coming out every year.He-Man,Voltron, andDucktaleshave also had reboots in the last couple of years. There’s something, however, about girls' properties that make them a harder nut to crack. There are exceptions, such as Lauren Faust’sMy Little Pony: Friendship Is Magicand N.D. Stevenson’sShe-Ra and the Princesses of Power, that manage to find their audience. However, reboots of those properties aren’t as prevalent in the zeitgeist as the franchise’s for their male counterparts. Earlier this week,The Hollywood Reporterannounced that both afilm and a television series are in development forRainbow Brite. Despite the main character’s iconic status,Rainbow Britemight be one of the hardest 80s cartoons to reboot.
Rainbow Brite is like theSonic to Strawberry Shortcake’s Mario. Both are mascots created for greeting card companies. Whereas Strawberry Shortcake has had a steady presence since the 2000s, reboots of Rainbow Brite seem to struggle with how to strike a balance with old and new fans alike. Since Neal H. Moritz and Toby Ascher at Original Film havesuccessfully translatedSonicto the big screen, they might be able to repeat the same trick with Rainbow Brite, but they have an uphill battle ahead of them.
Gen 1 ofRainbow Briteestablished the lore. A young girl named Wisp is dropped off on a colorless land overrun by monsters. (An opening similar toOsamu Tezuka’sUnico.) She wants to bring color and happiness to the land and becomes the titular Rainbow Brite through the use of the Color Belt. She defeats the evil Shadow King, befriends a little sprite named Twink and a dandy horse named Starlite and frees the seven Color Kids, all of whom have jurisdiction over a specific color. Despite not being a critical success, the toys and subsequent television series and movies were beloved.
However, there’s been confusion as to how to modernize the original. The Gen 2 of the dolls attempted to do away with the Color Kids completely and centering on ethnic diversity. While toy manufacturers Up, Up, and Away had their heart in the right place, this change erased the original magic and was a dud. Another attempt at an animated reboot wouldn’t come until Gen 4. First, there was a series of low quality webisodes from Animax Entertainment. This attempt tried to make Rainbow Brite more of a fashion doll line, ala something likeBratzorMonster High. However, the three-episode miniseries that was released on FeeIn (now Hallmark+) in 2014 is much more infamous for its low quality and for turning the titular character into a hyperactive product of the time that had the tendency to spout catchphrases. Another animated adaptation was not made for Gen 5, although there was a five-issue Dynamite Entertainment comic series that ran from 2018-2019. The comics, written by Jeremy Whitley, are by far the best reboot attempt. That story followed Wisp, an active hero, who wasisekaied from Earth to Rainbow Land. Unfortunately, the comic never found its audience and its story ended prematurely.
The Real Main Character ofRainbow Briteis the Villain
Why exactly do these reboots fail? What is it aboutRainbow Britethat makes it especially hard to adapt? Part of the problem lies with the fact that the real protagonist ofRainbow Briteisn’t Wisp at all, but rather Murkwell “Murky” Dismal, the color-hating villain of the series. Of all characters, Murky is granted a backstory. (His mother punished him for painting the walls of his home with crayons, an experience that apparently wasso traumatic for him, he dedicated his life to erasing color.) Most episodes of the original series have the tendency to focus more on his misadventures with his dimwitted, though ironically color-loving, sidekick Lurky. A rewatch gives the impression that the writers of the original series had a much easier timewriting the mad scientistthan they did the protagonist of her own series or even the Color Kids. The standouts from the original are when Rainbow Brite has to face a much more formidable protagonist, such as much too quickly tossed aside King of Shadows from “The Beginning of Rainbow Land” two-parter or Dark Princess, a jewel-hungry tyrant who looks like she stepped out of a hair metal music video, from the movieRainbow Brite and the Star Stealer.
Rainbow Brite Should Be Embraced as a Magical Girl
So what’s the best path forward? Rainbow Brite is best when she’s an active character in her own story. In Japan, her series was already calledMagical Girl Rainbow Briteand areboot should embrace that. Like classic magical girls, she has a special item that makes her transform into a hero,she has a mascotin the form of Twink, and she has a lot of colorful allies. She doesn’t need an Earth male friend like Brian or even a space boy like Krys. These boy characters have always detracted from her starring role and her own storylines. Additionally, like in the Dynamite Entertainment series, she should be allowed to fight enemies. Murky might have been a staple in the past, but in order for Rainbow Brite to be taken as a hero, she needs a villain that she can impressively go toe to toe with, similar toSailor Moon’s evil queens or Sailor Galaxia. Rainbow Brite has always had the potential to be an iconic hero, and it’s about time she was given her opportunity to shine.
Rainbow Britemight be one of the harder 80s cartoons to adapt to the modern era, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth trying. The upcoming reboots have the opportunity to finally help Wisp come to her full potential. As long as she’s taken seriously as a character, her magical girl qualities are embraced, and she’s given a suitable villain, there’s no doubt her adventures will be the success they were always meant to be.
