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YMMV / Rainbow

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Band:

  • Ending Fatigue: "Stargazer" is a song that tells a story. The song continues for two minutes after the story is over, and fades out instead of having a decisive end.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Some fans dismiss all albums made after Dio left the band. "Since You Been Gone" (from Down to Earth, and one of their biggest hits) and "I Surrender" (from Difficult to Cure) are usually the only things that get a pass.
  • Replacement Scrappy:
    • Are you a vocalist in Rainbow not named Ronnie James Dio? Sucks to be you.
    • Are you a drummer in Rainbow not named Cozy Powell? Then it also sucks to be you.
  • Signature Song:
    • "Man on the Silver Mountain", "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll", and "I Surrender".
    • Also "Stargazer", which more often than not shows up in lists of best metal songs of all time. With justice: it's one of those songs that puts the "epic" in Epic Rocking.
    • "Catch the Rainbow" may also be considered this, due to being played regularly at their live performances, including the band's name (although, to be fair, most of the songs Dio wrote do), and being generally awesome.

TV Show:

  • Awesome Ego: Zippy is a narcissist and a know-it-all, and that's often why fans like him!
  • Cult Classic: Rainbow is among the most popular retro British children's TV shows.
  • Jerkass Dissonance: Despite being rude, arrogant, selfish and annoying, Zippy is perhaps the most popular character on the show.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Bungle's appearance in the first series was... rather unsettling. Unsurprisingly, his costume design had been changed dramatically at the start of the second series to give him a friendlier and less disturbing appearance.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Auntie Liz from "Overhelpfuls" is played by Liz Smith, who would later be best known for playing Mrs. Cropley in The Vicar of Dibley and Nana in The Royle Family.
  • Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Zippy and George are obvious muppets and thankfully come off as fake enough they look alright. Bungle however is a person in a suit, and aside from the freaky design, his movements are realistic enough to come off as unnerving. His appearance was especially uncanny in the first series.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: George is pink, softly-spoken, and has long eyelashes. But as you can guess by his name, he's a boy.
  • The Woobie: George and Geoffrey, with how annoying Zippy, and to a lesser extent, Bungle are.

1996 Film:

  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Jackie to Frank "why didn't you go with him?" re: her husband leaving. Is she asking why Frank didn't go with him to make sure he came back? Or is she saying she wishes he'd run away too?
  • Angst? What Angst?: Peter shows nearly zero angst about his mother having to be hospitalised for lack of oxygen.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
    • In the airport the children decide to get their pictures developed of the rainbow. Instead of asking the sheriff if they can, they opt to duck and hide leading to an elaborate chase around the airport. The BLAM comes from the fact that cartoon sound effects are added in and are completely out of place. The entire film basically stops so the Sheriff can get one-upped in slapsticky ways.
    • The strange girl in the tree the kids meet when they get dropped in Kansas. She creeps them out for a couple of minutes before her father drives them to the sheriff station, talking about how she never gets out of the tree. A lot of time and attention is devoted to such an insignificant character. She also gets this odd line which solidifies her BLAM status.
      Girl: You fell out of the sky.
      Mike: You saw us?
      Girl: I saw colours.
  • Cult Classic: The film didn't get a release in the US but has become something of a nostalgic classic for 90s kids who watched it.
  • Designated Villain: Dan Aykroyd's character. He's essentially there to be kind of a dick to the kids and prevent them from developing their pictures.
  • Funny Moments: When Jackie has to pick the kids up from the airport, news crews surround them due to her network leaking the story. She snarks "great. Now the whole world knows!"
  • Inferred Holocaust: Mikey and Mutt end the film being dropped right in the middle of the Amazon rain forest. We can only hope they find another rainbow to take them back to civilization soon.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Some people track the movie down to see the scenes in the rainbow, which were filmed with prototype HD cameras.
  • Narm:
    • The airport slapstick scene, especially when the cartoon sound effects start playing.
    • The trailer is so schmaltzy and inspirational about following your dreams, it results in saccharine. Especially since there's none of that in the actual movie itself.
  • Narm Charm: The sequence of the colour being restored to the world via Happy Rain is a little corny, but still makes for a nice emotional payoff.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Some of the scenes as the colour drains from the world are a bit disturbing, such as when people have to be hospitalised for lack of oxygen or riots break out.
  • Padding: The extended scene in the airport essentially is there to pad Dan Aykroyd's screen time out.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Steve's actor Jacob Tierney would later become known as the creator and star of the TV series Letterkenny.
  • Special Effects Failure: Downplayed but you can notice that in the rainbow portions, although the characters speak, you never see their mouths move. This is because the scenes were filmed underwater and sound was dubbed in later.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome:
    • The scenes inside the rainbow are still pretty stunning — achieved by submerging a green screen inside a diving pool and an instructor working carefully with the child actors to achieve the desired effect. The result is that it looks considerably better than a lot of 90s green screen effects. They were filmed with prototype HD cameras too.
    • The effects to show color draining from the world are also quite impressive for the 90s.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Some parts of the film are quite dark for children's fare — such as there being literal riots in the streets over the color draining from the world, and a harrowing scene where a reporter describes what's happening to the world. The backstory of Mike and Steve's father running away is also quite mature. And it averts Gosh Darn It to Heck! by having characters drop "shit" and "crap".

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