Movie Reviews: Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer

Title: Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer

Cast:

Bettina Bush as Rainbow Brite
Andre Stojka as Starlite
Robbie Lee and Twink
Scott Menville as Brian
David Mendenhall as Krys
Pat Fraley as Onyx
Les Tremayne as Orin
Rhonda Aldrich as the Dark Princess
Jonathan Harris as Count Blogg
Peter Cullen as Murky
Pat Fraley as Lurky

Directed by: Bernard Deyries and Kumiko Yabuki

Country: United States and Japan

Distributed by: Warner Brothers

Genre: Children's Fantasy

Year of Release: 1985

Synopsis: Somewhere on a distant planet far away from Earth, a selfish, spoiled, and greedy princess plans to have personal possession of a diamond planet called "Spectra" which in this movie is the source of all life across the universe. To do this, she has created an army of robots called the "Glitterbots" to enslave the inhabitants on Spectra by zapping their will and using them as slaves to cover up the diamond in a gigantic net. Meanwhile, back on Earth, winter continues to prolong even past the first two months of the year. And when Rainbow Brite receives a message from a strange robotic horse named Onyx about what's happening to Spectra, she and her horse Starlite travel there to investigate. Upon their arrival to the diamond planet, they soon meet with a boy named Krys, who is brash and arrogant, and reluctantly joins Rainbow Brite in her quest to save the universe from eternal darkness.

Personal Comments: Now before I go over this, I know that some you out there might snicker and laugh at me for reviewing this as it's a pretty silly movie compared to the stuff that I'm normally into these days. But what the heck; I used to watch this movie on a regular basis back in my early childhood years. So I might as well do a review on this particular movie for the sake of nostalgia. Anyway, as I've already mentioned, "Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer" is one of those movies that I've known my entire life. In fact, I used to love watching it every day as a child back in the heart of the 80s although not nearly as much as I've enjoyed stuff like He-Man, Transformers, Voltron, Robotech, and Thundercats. But what can I say? I've always had a rather broad and massive imagination and always willing to explore different things regardless. And as fate would have it, "Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer" turns out being one of those things that I was open to back in those days.

Anyway, first let me start off with the franchise. As most people know, this movie is based on a 1984 television series simply titled "Rainbow Brite", which was an American/French/Japanese production by DIC Entertainment and Tokyo Movie Shinsha. If I'm not mistaken, the franchise first started off as a toy-line in 1983, consisting of dolls with brightly colored clothes and hair. And then later the following year, the franchise was picked up as a Saturday morning television series. Much like in the way Transformers first started off as a toy-line in 1984, and after meeting with great success in having sold millions of toys across the world, it was picked up as a cartoon show later in the same year. Needless to say the series had become tremendously popular upon its release, creating a generation of fans worldwide. But enough of that. Now let's focus on the movie itself.

Originally released November 5th, 1985, this was the first and only film ever given to Rainbow Brite. The story is pretty basic with the whole idea of some spoiled, greedy, and apparently nameless princess who has such a huge and overwhelming desire to obtain a planet shaped diamond for herself. The Princess herself as I remember from way back in the day was pretty nasty. In fact I didn't forget how much of a total bitch she was with her overly greedy attitude and her fiery childlike temper. And of course this whole idea about a diamond planet that gives life to the universe by shedding its light is well... Superficial now that I think of it. Because everybody knows that it's the "sun" that gives light to our planet as well as the entire solar system in which our planet is located in. And there were some parts in this movie that i couldn't help but to question. For example, the parts where Rainbow Brite and Krys ride on their horses into the vacuum of space. Now to get all scientific here, how the hell can Rainbow Brite, Starlite, and Krys breathe in space? I mean Onyx doesn't have to worry about that because he's a robot. So it only makes sense that he'd be able to survive in the void of space. But who am I to judge? This is a children's fantasy movie for crying out loud. And in movies like this, you are more than likely to stumble upon things that are pure fantasy as such is the case with countless other movies, cartoons, and comics. But back when I was a child, it seemed pretty practical and convincing to me at first. Because I was only 2 years old at the time this movie was released. So I didn't know any better.

Another thing I'd like to go over is the ally who Rainbow Brite meets in this movie, who is none other than the Spectran boy named "Krys". Based on what I know, Krys was a new character who was introduced to the franchise with the release of this movie. He was voiced by David Mendenhall, who fans know as the actor who voiced Daniel Witwicky from the original Transformers movie, which was released in theaters only a year after this film. Now, when we first meet him, Krys comes off as arrogant, annoying, and totally obnoxious. And above that, he's also a bit sexist as he believes girls are inferior to boys. What were they trying to teach kids back in 1985? Oh yeah, and of course, Murky's voice is Peter Cullen, who fans all know as the voice of Optimus Prime. Though I have to admit that I had no idea that was his voice until years later when I got a hold of some the information I found on this movie from the internet. Because if you think about it, it's pretty hard to tell that that was Peter Cullen who voiced Murky as most fans are more familiar with his role as the voice of Optimus Prime. But then I guess Cullen was just full of surprises even back then. Now, Murky and Lurky, despite being the main villains of the TV show, they don't really serve much purpose in this film in the grand-scheme of things. And sadly, neither do most of the other supporting characters in this film. Most of them only appear in specific parts of the film, or they're just part of the background, and they serve no purpose whatsoever. It's a lot like how the Wolfpack Freedom Fighters from the Sonic universe have no purpose.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand, when Rainbow Brite and Starlite first come across Krys on Spectra after narrowly escaping from the Princess's robot army, he seems pretty cocky and arrogant at first. Often belittling Rainbow Brite for her gender and believing that he has what it takes to stop the Princess all alone. Frankly, I always found his cocky attitude to be pretty amusing seeing as Krys had no weapons or special powers to begin with. In fact, that always had me wondering how he managed to survive on his own without any help of any kind. My best guess on that would be that he was probably just lucky to have evaded capture for as long as he could until he ran into Rainbow Brite in his debut appearance. When the two finally arrive at the Princess' palace, they try to convince her to leave planet Spectra as it is. But the Princess refuses to listen, doesn't take no for an answer, and she pretty much hands their asses to them. The Princess steals Rainbow's belt, and the two are then placed in a dungeon where Krys continues being a smart ass and a prick. But they're in luck when Onyx arrives, although he has some difficulty getting into the cell. Rainbow convinces the robotic horse to get Starlite. The two make a plan to infiltrate the castle, so that they can snatch back the belt that was stolen earlier, and the heroes escape. Of course, the Princess banishes them to the prison planet, where the group is taken hostage, and Rainbow escapes in a cavern to find Orin. Throughout the majority of the film, Rainbow Brite and Krys often spend a great deal of the time clashing and arguing until the elderly sprite Orin, convinces them to put aside their petty differences and work together. I must admit that this movie has taught me a lot about opening up to others and not to be too biased or judgmental towards people for their differences. Besides, if one is too biased, judgmental, and closed minded, then how is one ever supposed to make any friends in this life? And for this, I have to admit that this movie has a very good message about the importance of friendship and cooperation. And I'm glad that I saw this back in the day for this reason. But that's about it.

Oh, and I don't want to forget that I always thought Onyx, the robotic horse with rockets for feet was a pretty interesting character. As a robot, his speech was pretty simplistic and straight forward as he had no emotions, but was undoubtedly as loyal to Krys as Starlite was to Rainbow Brite. In fact, I didn't forget how he often repeated certain words like "Danger" or "Emergency" whenever he sensed such. Anyway, Krys is pretty much a joke throughout the beginning to the middle of the movie. That is until we reach a certain part in the film where Orin gives Rainbow Brite a special prism to give to Krys to wear around his wrist as he would with a watch. The prism gave him numerous advantages; mainly with the ability to burn solid matter or encase enemies in crystals. However, the prism could only work for him with the help of Rainbow Brite's rainbow, which is emitted from her magical color belt. Meaning that if she didn't use her rainbow on Krys's prism, then it would be useless and he would not be able to use it anytime he wanted to. Which was kind of a bummer for him on that part. I mean why would Orin leave the kid completely defenseless with absolutely no means of protecting himself or the people on his planet? And for that matter, why would he give him a weapon that only works with the power of Rainbow Brite's magic? I mean Krys got totally ripped off. But in the end, Rainbow Brite and Krys managed to become friends, and together with their combined power, they were able to defeat the Dark Princess and save the universe from her greed and obsessions. And so the final showdown involves the two children infiltrating the princess' palace for the second and final time, where they fall into a valut of water, and come across this creepy monstrous creator of sorts. Which Krys makes short work of with his new found weapon. And with their combined strength, they destory the princess' jewel, and when she tries to ram her ship into the planet, Rainbow stops her with her rainbow, resulting in the fiery death of the main antagonist. This film is kind of violent for a kid's movie.

The animation in this movie is pretty good for its time. Mind you, it's not really the best I've ever seen, but it works well with the film, and the backgrounds and special effects are nicely done for the most part. Especially considering that this was back in the 80s when America and Japan made cartoons together. And back then, cartoons had such awesome quality animation with their detailed drawings, rich colors, and fluid movement. I mean sure, this doesn't compare to other such movies that have better quality animation. In fact there are countless examples that come to mind that tops this. But I'm in no position to compare this to other such movies. Because what matters more is that the movement and special effects were awesome considering that this was done entirely in traditional 2D cel-animation. Heck, even I know that this was awesome even back in its time. And trust me, I know quality animation when I see it. It's also worth mentioning that Krys and Onyx would later appear in the TV series that followed after this movie, which continued from 1986 until 1987. Oh yes, and this movie was released on DVD in 2004. But sadly, it's out of print. But it should be available on Netflix if you're curious about it. Other than that, I have no idea were you're going to get a copy of this movie if you're curious about it.

Overall: In all honesty, Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer is not a bad film for its time. But it definitely hasn't aged well. This movie is good mostly for nostalgic memories. All in all it's a mostly light-hearted and kid-friendly film. Though it does have some questionable moments (those lizard men, and the anti-climatic death of the Princess). Again, it's not a terrible film, but I do see why people would find this movie cheesy by today's standards. But even so, it has a special place in my heart after all these years. Sure it's pretty dated, and it does have a vast number of errors and plotholes. Not to mention it tends to lag in its story flow with characters that are not important, and scenes that have virtually nothing to do with the plot. But the thing is I used to watch this movie as a child. Therefore, it still has a great level of nostalgic value for me to this day. Especially for the message it has about the importance of friendship and cooperation. I have not seen this movie in a number of years. But despite how long it's been since then, my memories of it remains as vivid as if though it were just yesterday. And for the most part, this film is still good mostly at memory. Because all in all, it was an okay film for the time it was released in. But the message it contains never grows old.

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