Rainbow Rangers

Rainbow Rangers
When you mix Paw Patrol and Shimmer and Shine in a blender, this is what you get.
Genre: Science fiction Adventure Comedy Action Running Time: 11 minutes (segments) 22 minutes (whole) Country: United States Ireland Release Date: November 5, 2018 – April 15, 2022 Network(s): Nick Jr. Created by: Rob Minkoff Shane Morris Tim Mansfield Elise Allen Distributed by: Sony Pictures Television Starring: Aileen Mythen Juliette Crosbie Phillipa Alexander Zehra Naqvi Penelope Rawlins Dan Russell Seasons: 2 Episodes: 58 (segments) 29 (whole)

Rainbow Rangers is an American-Irish computer-animated television series produced by Genius Brands which premiered on Nick Jr. on November 5, 2018. The series follows seven 9-year-old girls who reside in the kingdom of Kaleidoscopia. The show received 2 seasons and then was renewed for a ten-episode third season switching over to 2D animation. After that, the show was either cancelled on a "normal episode" finale or is currently in hiatus.

Plot

Rainbow Rangers is set in a magical land called Kaleidoscopia. It focuses on seven 9-year-old girls who are the guardians of both nature and their land. Each of the girls, including Rosie Redd, Bonnie Blueberry, Indigo Allfruit, Anna Banana, Mandarin Orange, Pepper Mintz, and Lavender LaViolette, is inspired by the colors of the rainbow. Each girl is given a different power, including speed, strength, and music, to use to protect the citizens, clean the planet, and strive to make the world a better place for everyone.

Why They Should Be Called the Painbow Rangers

1. This series uses identity politics as a marketing point, but it fails in the end because the show is very glitzy and glamorous. The only real tomboy on the team is Indigo "Indy" Allfruit, who is portrayed in a bad light compared to the other girls.
2. The theme song is annoying even when it gets to show the girls' generic superpowers.
3. Similar to Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service, Peppa Pig, and Fireman Sam since season 6, the show commonly introduces new characters and vehicles just to sell toys and nothing else.
4. As mentioned with WTSBCTPR#2, the superpowers for the girls are generic and what you would see from a generic superhero franchise:
   • Rosie Redd, the leader, has both strength and x-ray vision power, which often times is underpowered for specific episodes as the main villain, Preston Praxton, easily outmatches her with his traps.
   • Mandarin "Mandy" Orange has the ability to hypnotize and charm animals with her signature hypno-flute, but with the limitation that it works only once without a proper explanation.
   • Anna Banana has a unique ability to communicate with animals, but how it actually works remains in mystery. Outside of that, Anna becomes fundamentally the weakest Ranger as she offers very little outside of animal communications.
   • Pepper Mintz has "inviso-power" that isn't a cloaking device like how most spies or stealth assassins would use; it is a blanket called the Shimmer Shawl that she has to hold on to. This comes with the major drawback where animals, including their Prismacorn companion Floof, break free of the blanket. It often times causes more problems within each of the episodes Pepper has to use said blanket, where each of the 11-minute episodes are padded out by mistakes that occur throughout their mission.
   • Bonnie "B.B." Blueberry is fundamentally the strongest out of the seven as she can summon and craft out various objects that easily trivialize certain missions. It is never made clear on what are the limitations of the Construct-O-Max as several of the episodes could be made much easier if B.B. could 3D generate the parts needed for each solution for both animal rescue and the environment.
   • Indigo "Indy" Allfruit has a super speed ability and pretty much nothing else at her disposal.
   • Lavender LaViolette is basically similar to Titania from Warframe as she has the ability to shrink down and fly like a butterfly. Other than that, the flying power is pretty much all she has.
5. The show itself is derivative of other more successful franchises:
   • The name "Rainbow Rangers" comes across as a Power Rangers knockoff just by looking at the title alone.
   • The entire premise of this show is similar to other superhero/rescue themed preschool shows, namely PAW Patrol, Team Umizoomi, and Wonder Pets!.
6. Poor voice acting. For example, when the girls are getting ready to save the world, they sound too tired instead of ready. This would likely mean even the voice actors themselves hate the show too and didn't want to voice the characters.
7. The CGI animation can be cheap, lazy and unfinished, even for 2018 standards, which can be dated by the late 2000s. Each of the rangers are just introduced with stills which have text fly in, which isn't really impressive. There are even scenes where it cuts forward several times. For example, in "Northern Lights", Anna Banana digs through an ice cave, but the scene that shows her doing it shows her jumping position to position and then has her zoom back to starting position afterward instantaneously, which is just janky looking.
8. The girls can somewhat look creepy to some of the audiences.
9. The characters are also one-dimensional. For example:
   • Rosie Redd is a generic leader.
   • Mandarin "Mandy" Orange is a generic cheerleader.
   • Anna Banana is a generic sweet girl.
   • Pepper Mintz is a generic bookworm.
   • Bonnie "B.B." Blueberry is a generic smart girl.
   • Indigo "Indy" Allfruit is a generic prankster.
   • Lavender LaViolette is a generic fashionista.
   • Floof is a generic Prismacorn who's somehow able to breathe underwater or in outer space.
10. Preston Praxton is just a generic petty scheming villain, much like Mayor Humdinger and Zeta from PAW Patrol and Shimmer and Shine respectively. While his payloads are decent against the rangers, it follows the pattern of where the Rangers come up with a plan to free themselves from their so-called "booby traps" and then they put a stop to his actions afterward.
11. Season 3 changes from the cheap CGI animation to the choppy Flash animation as its budget was cut with its move to Kartoon Channel.
12. They tried to ride off the COVID pandemic by making a special double-length episode called "Bunny-20", an obvious parody of COVID-19. While the episode does in fact have good morals, it ends up being a great example of how this show tried to be hip and relevant by referencing current events. In fact, Praxton somehow manages to buy up all of the bunny masks, which can be considered scalping, where sometime is bought in bulk and then resold for marked up prices, which in 2020, happened to both GPUs and PS5 consoles.

Redeeming Qualities

1. While the theme song is annoying, it's still catchy.
2. Some morals of the show are good for kids, like when they teach kids to take care of the Earth.
3. Some of the episodes actually talk about protecting wildlife, including where in "Divided We Fall", they explore the themes of poaching wild elephants.
4. Kaila, who guides the Rainbow Rangers to the mission, does a very good job as the leader, including communicating about the Rangers' objectives.

Reception

The show has a 4.2/10 on IMDb and a 68% on Google users.

Trivia

• The original concept of Rainbow Rangers would've had Kaila's sister, Acrimonia be the main villain, featuring the ability to turn everything monochrome via her weapon of choice; the ChromeCrush. Nothing about her design has been revealed officially except for a silhouette.
• Phillipa Alexander, the voice actress of Pepper Mintz, Floof, and Kalia, also provided the voice of Charlotte on the English dub of Bunny Maloney.

Comments

Loading comments...