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Rainbow Fish (TV series)

Rainbow Fish is a children's animated television series adapted from the book of the same name by Marcus Pfister. However, the television series does not follow the plot of the book; instead, it takes the character and the setting to create new stories. For the show's purposes, some characters were added and others were expanded. In the series, the fish live in a place called Neptune Bay (named after Neptune, the god of the sea), and attend "The School of Fish". The series also features a location called "Shipwreck Park", resembling the wreck of the RMS Titanic.

The series was produced by Decode Entertainment and EM.TV & Merchandising AG for Sony Wonder. It originally aired for a single season of 52 episodes, from January 8 to December 24, 2000.

Characters

  • Rainbow Fish (also known simply as "Rainbow") (voiced by Rhys Huber) is a proud and feisty 9-year-old male fish with shiny scales, and the main character of the series. He lives with his parents, Sol and Aqua, and his 12-year-old sister, Ruby, in a cave near Shipwreck Park.
  • Sea Filly the Seahorse (voiced by Chantal Strand) is a 9-year-old girl in the School of Fish. She is a beautiful mermaid-seahorse hybrid who is often seen reading books. She eventually becomes best friends with Rainbow Fish and Blue. She is friendly and has orange hair.
  • Blue (voiced by Andrew Francis) is Rainbow Fish's best friend, a 9-year-old bluefish who is modest and contemplative. He has a baby sister named Turquoise. Blue is based on the small blue fish from the Rainbow Fish book series by Marcus Pfister.
  • Ruby (voiced by Chiara Zanni) is Rainbow Fish's ruby-colored and bossy 12-year-old sister. She is often arrogant and self-centered. Although Ruby means well, she regularly gets Rainbow Fish into trouble because she occasionally gets jealous. Despite this, she loves him, just like their parents, Aqua and Sol.
  • Aqua (voiced by Ellen Kennedy) is an aqua-colored fish and Rainbow's mother, while Sol (voiced by John Payne) is a purple-colored fish and Rainbow's father. They support their son and daughter in any way they can, always providing them with courage and love.
  • Principal Gefilte (voiced by French Tickner) is the proud principal of the School of Fish, known for his strictness about behavior.
  • Mrs. Chips (voiced by Ellen Kennedy) is the only teacher at the School of Fish, instructing students in art, history, mathematics, science, and literature.
  • Wanda the Octopus (voiced by Kathleen Barr) is the wise owner of Neptune Bay's fast food restaurant. When Rainbow Fish and his friends are feeling down, she offers them sound advice. She is based on the Wise Octopus from the original book.
  • Chomper (voiced by Christopher Gray) and Stingo (voiced by Bill Switzer) are two bullies at the School of Fish. While they don’t physically harm others, they frequently bully and tease Rainbow Fish and his friends. Chomper is a shark, and Stingo is a stingray.
  • Sherman Shrimp (voiced by Alex Doduk) is the smallest student at the School of Fish, and as a result, everything looks big to him.
  • Sir Sword (voiced by Colin Murdock) is a local swordfish, upper-class, and somewhat of a busybody. He is sometimes grumpy, sometimes civil, and tends to think of himself as superior to others.

Episodes

Production

Before the series was announced in 1997, Sony Wonder, the kids & family entertainment label of Sony Music Entertainment (later Sony Pictures Home Entertainment), originally acquired the rights to Marcus Pfister's book The Rainbow Fish into a direct-to-video adaptation. But one year later in 1998, Sony Wonder announced it would adapt the book into a television series with Sony Wonder producing the upcoming series & handle international distribution and partnerning German entertainment company EM.TV & Merchandising to handle co-production for the upcoming series & handle European distribution.

In May 1999 when Sony Wonder had brought New York-based American animation studio Sunbow Entertainment one year prior in 1998 during the development of the adpatation of The Rainbow Fish, Sunbow Entertainment took over international distribution of the upcoming adaptation of The Rainbow Fish from its parent Sony Wonder while it retained North American distribution to the series. Later in that year, Canadian television studio Decode Entertainment joined the upcoming co-production series with them appointed Toronto-based Funbag Animation Studio to handle animation services for the series while HBO Family commissioned the series for the network.

Distribution to the series had taken to different owners when the series ended, Sony Wonder (now Sony Pictures Kids Zone) had sold its television arm including distribution rights to the series (excluding Europe) to German management & entertainment company TV-Loonland in October 2000, however Sony retained the North American home video and international audio rights to Rainbow Fish; Munich-based kids & family entertainment alum Made 4 Entertainment (m4e) would take over distribution to Rainbow Fish when they brought TV-Loonland's catalouge.

m4e's Belgian production studio & competitor Studio 100 under its distribution arm Studio 100 International currently hold distribution to the series for Europe when they had brought EM.Entertainment GmbH, the German kids & family entertainment arm of EM.Sport Media AG in May 2008, Studio 100 would soon take over worldwide distribution to the series when its distirbution arm Studio 100 International (known as Studio 100 Media) had brought a majority stake in m4e ten years later in February 2017, that reunited the library of co-producer EM.Entertainment with the catalouge of Sony Wonder's television division.

Broadcast

Internationally, the series aired on Rai 3 in Italy, on La 2 and Cartoon Network (Small World) in Spain, on ARD in Germany, on MTV3 in Finland, on HBO Family in the United States, on Tiny Pop in the United Kingdom, and on Disney Channel (Playhouse Disney) in Australia.

References

External links