The woman who voiced the iconic cartoon character Rainbow Brite is weighing in on the series’ longevity 40 years after its premiere.
Bettina Bush, who was only 12 when she first read for the title character’s role, said the secret of Rainbow Brite’s enduring popularity was ‘so easy’ to explain.
‘She is such a beacon of hope,’ Bush, 52, said while speaking to People. ‘She envelops and embodies all the positive things that set kids on fire, that get them excited.’
She added that the title character’s cheerfulness could be infectious.
‘If you’re feeling down, look up. You might see a rainbow. Everybody feels that way,’ she added.
Bush went on to explain how she came to voice the classic children’s cartoon character.
Bettina Bush, who began voicing Rainbow Brite when she was only 12, is weighing in on the series’ longevity 40 years after its premiere. She told People the secret to Rainbow Brite’s enduring popularity was ‘so easy’ to explain; seen in 2017 in Hollywood
‘She is such a beacon of hope,’ Bush, 52, said. ‘She envelops and embodies all the positive things that set kids on fire, that get them excited’; still from Rainbow Brite
She recalled how she was working on the series The Littles — her first show — back in 1984, when she was just 12 years old.
At the time, The Littles’ producers approached her about auditioning for a new show.
‘They brought in this black-and-white drawing of a girl named Wisp, and they said, “What do you think she sounds like?” And I just did the voice. And then I was cast,’ Bush revealed.
Wisp would become the title character after teaming up with a fairy named Twink and Starlite the talking horse to obtain the Color Belt.
With it, she was able to rescue the Color Kids — who had been imprisoned by the King of Shadows — and to restore color to the fantastical land, which was renamed Rainbow Land.
The original series consisted of five special television episodes, followed by a feature film — Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer — released in 1985 and a standard television season that aired in syndication from 1986 to ’87.
Rainbow Brite originated the same year that she began appearing on television as a Hallmark greeting cards character, and the design was subsequently licensed to Mattel for a line of children’s toys.
A three-episode mini reboot of Rainbow Brite aired years later in 2014 on Hallmark’s streaming service Feeln, with Young Sheldon actress Emily Osment voicing the title character, while Molly Ringwald voiced the villain, the Dark Princess.
She added that the title character’s cheerfulness could be infectious. ‘If you’re feeling down, look up. You might see a rainbow. Everybody feels that way,’ she added; seen in 2016
The original series consisted of five special television episodes, followed by a feature film released in 1985 and a television season that aired from 1986 to ’87; still from Rainbow Brite
Last month, Variety reported that Crayola Studios and Hallmark had joined forces to develop a new theatrical feature film and a television series featuring the Rainbow Brite character.
Per the show’s logline: ‘Rainbow Brite, a friend, hero, role model and creative inspiration who brings all the colors of the rainbow to the universe, is transported to a dark and gloomy place with a mission to bring color, light and happiness to the world.’
An image from the new series suggested it would abandon the hand-drawn animation that gave the original series its distinctive look, in favor of now-standard computer-generated animation.
While looking back on her history as Rainbow Brite, Bush revealed that the show’s producers only realized how big of a character they had on their hands when they saw the extreme demand for an album of music sung by the character.
She shared that the producers originally looked for a professional singer for the album — eventually titled Paint A Rainbow In Your Heart — but after failing to find a singer that perfectly matched Bush’s tone, they gave her a try at doing Rainbow Brite’s singing voice.
She told People that they began by having her sing Happy Birthday, and after that went well enough she sang Tomorrow from the musical Annie, as she had recently appeared in a production of it.
After hearing the tune, Bush recalled: ‘They said, “OK, great. Rainbow Brite is going to have an album and so we’re going to need you to sing for her.”‘
She added: ‘When that album came out, and it was so popular, that was when I was like, “OK, wait, this is kind of a bigger deal.”‘
Bush didn’t realize how popular the character was until she was asked to also do Rainbow Brite’s singing voice for a music album
Bush isn’t currently attached to a reboot announced in October, but she hopes to ‘play a role, to write a song, to just be a part, to be included’; pictured in 2007 in Culver City, Calif.
Bush looked back on her early interest in acting, which began at age four, when she appeared as a lamb in nativity scene for a Christmas pageant.
‘I was super meticulous about getting my lines right,’ she said, adding that she ‘got them right.’
It helped that her parents — including her father, Charles V. Bush, the first Black US Air Force Academy graduate and first Black page for the US Supreme Court — were both ‘ride or die’ when it came to helping her achieve her acting dreams.
‘My dad, because of his background … he was very much like, you stay true to who you are, and you don’t let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are,’ Bush recalled fondly. ‘And so I came out the gate knowing who I was, and he was just going to be supportive of it, period. And as long as I kept my grades up, which I did, then there was no issue.’
She added that her parents’ support gave her a lot of ‘freedom’ to experiment with an acting career.
Bush, who has two teen children — daughter Cassie, 14, and son Jesse, 13 — went on to have several acting roles, including voice parts on Rugrats and its sequel series All Grown Up.
She also made a name for herself in commercials by singing some of the ‘I’m Lovin’ It’ jingles from McDonald’s advertising, and she is also a popular video game perform thanks to her performances as Gloria (originally voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith) in the Madagascar games series.
Bush doesn’t appear to have any current involvement with the upcoming Rainbow Brite reboot, but she revealed she’s ‘really hoping’ to be a part of it if possible.
‘It would be really fun to play a role, to write a song, to just be a part, to be included,’ she said.
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