Rainbow (1996 film)
Rainbow is a 1996 family adventure film directed by Bob Hoskins, written by Ashley Sidaway and Robert Sidaway and starring Bob Hoskins, Terry Finn, Jacob Tierney and Saul Rubinek. The story concerns four children and a dog whose journey in a magical rainbow results in an adventure that finds them on a race against time to save the world.
From a technical standpoint, it was also the world's first all digital feature film to be created using digital recording technology for both picture and sound.
Shot entirely with Sony's first Solid State Electronic Cinematography cameras and featuring over 35 minutes of digital image processing and visual effects, all post production, sound effects, editing and scoring were completed digitally.
The Digital High Definition image was transferred to 35mm negative for theatrical release.
| Rainbow | |
|---|---|
| File:Rainbow 1996 poster.jpg | |
| Directed by | Bob Hoskins |
| Written by | Ashley Sidaway, Robert Sidaway |
| Produced by | Robert Sidaway, Nicolas Clermont |
| Starring | Bob Hoskins, Terry Finn, Jacob Tierney, Saul Rubinek, Dan Aykroyd |
| Cinematography | Freddie Francis |
| Edited by | Ashley Sidaway |
| Music by | Alan Reeves |
| Country | UK / Canada |
| Budget | US$8 million |
Story
Mike is a rambunctious 10-year old living in New Jersey. He has an eccentric magician grandfather, Frank, a loving, untidy mother, Jackie, and a 13-year old brother, Steve, who dreams of escaping. One day after a rainstorm, Mike experiences a RAINBOW unlike any he has ever seen before. He's sure that it was "real" and when he and his friends, Tissy and Pete, explore the spot he saw it land upon, they discover a scorched crater thirty feet wide and a mangy Mutt.
He brings the dog home, much to Jackie's dismay, and Tissy tries to explain to him that rainbows aren't real. But Mike knows what he saw. He saw it land.
Pete and Tissy try a science experiment on the scorched earth and they see it turn brightly colored and then disappear. They decide to search for the Rainbow with Mike, using home-made measuring equipment and school computers, knowing that next time they'll have to get to the Rainbow quickly before it disappears.
One day during school, it starts to rain. The Rainbow appears and Tissy, Mike, Pete and Steve race out of school and tear off on their bikes in hot pursuit. After a race through the city, they catch up with the Rainbow and, stepping inside it, are taken on the ride of their lives. An exhilarating, dazzling, kaleidoscope -- a dizzying, whirling, rollercoaster ride through the air!
However, when they get to the end of the rainbow they find themselves in Kansas!
When the Sheriff of Sativa Falls tries to put them on the plane back home, the kids escape and get their photos of the Rainbow ride developed. Finally arriving home, they are met at the airport by stern parents and inquisitive reporters. Jackie punishes the boys and nobody believes their story. Steve sells some of the gold pieces he swiped from the Rainbow to a pawnbroker. A group of punks from his school steal two more from him. A teacher, Sam Elliot, starts to look into the kids story.
...meanwhile something begins to happen to the atmosphere...the temperature rises... and color begins to fade...
Sam, Jackie, Frank and the kids realise the missing gold from the Rainbow is the reason the Earth's losing its color. And if the Earth loses the color green, plants will be unable to conduct photosynthesis and production of oxygen will cease within seventy-four hours, of which sixty-nine have already passed. It's a race to save the world!
After breaking into the pawnbroker's shop and a fight with the punks from school, our gang recover the missing pieces of gold and Mike is drawn to the spot where the Rainbow first appeared to him. He replaces the gold.
Color is returned the Earth and Mike and Mutt are taken on another whirling ride which this time lands them way outside America...