Skip to main content

story identification - 1980s live-action movie where individually-coloured nations on clouds fight


I saw this movie in July or August 1986. It wasn't a commercial movie - I didn't see it in a normal movie theatre.



The story takes place somewhere there are 3 nations, each on its own cloud. The yellow nation, where the story's hero is from is modern and everything is yellow. There are overtones of a police state here. The hero is some kind of tinkerer/inventor and creates a large hoop that enables him to fly. (Picture Vitruvian Man where the circle is a yellow hoop, except he's wearing a yellow jumpsuit.)


The hero flies to the red nation, which is more overtly militaristic. Here the hero encounters a young woman dressed entirely in red. Guards (in red) chase him off, but she gives him a red rose. She is taken to her father, who seems to be the generalissimo in charge. The architecture of the red nation is brutalist; large blank slabs. I remember large square plinths, but I may be conflating memories of Golgorath.


Meanwhile, people have been watching our hero fly through a telescope in the blue nation. The blue nation is very Louis XIV, aristocrats and courtiers with lots of blue lace.


The hero returns to the yellow nation where he is immediately arrested and dragged before the ruler (queen?). He presents her with the rose and she glares at it until someone douses it with yellow paint, at which point she picks it up and smiles. Nastily.


The hero is put to work building more flying hoops. Some time later, troops of yellow painters (yellow coveralls, yellow power-rollers, yellow backpacks full of paint...) are sent flying to the red nation. At the same time a huge (blue) hot-air balloon takes flight from the blue nation, and they converge on the red nation.


The yellow and blue contingents start painting the red nation, which fights back with a huge machine that I recall looking like a gigantic (red) fireplug. Of course blue paint meets red paint, red paint meets yellow paint, yellow paint meets blue paint, and everyone marvels at the new colours.


I seem to remember a title like "Color Wars" but that's not helping me find it.



Answer




Overview



Rainbow War was featured in the Canadian Pacific Pavilion as part of Expo 86 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. It is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Pyramid Media.


Trailer:





A fan site has more information about the film, its cast, and its production history.


Plot


Three nations with strong ideological differences go to war when new technology brings them into contact with each other. Blue King, Red King, and Yellow Queen:


Blue King Red King Yellow Queen


Not everyone finds their differences repulsive. Yellow Boy and Red Princess:



Yellow Boy and Red Princess meet Yellow Boy and Red Princess flying


The three sides in the battle discover that their differences can combine in beneficial ways and that they have much to gain by working together, which leads to peace:


Rainbow War battle Orange Pink Rescue Blue King sets a rainbow fashion trend. Three Kingdoms


Various scenes



The hero is some kind of tinkerer/inventor and creates a large hoop that enables him to fly. (Picture Vitruvian Man where the circle is a yellow hoop, except he's wearing a yellow jumpsuit.)



Flying hoop blue- er, yellowprints. Yellow Boy flying



The hero returns to the yellow nation where he is immediately arrested and dragged before the ruler (queen?). He presents her with the rose and she glares at it until someone douses it with yellow paint, at which point she picks it up and smiles. Nastily.




The blades of the Yellow Queen's mask ordinarily lie flat against her hair, but they move to new positions when she feels strong emotion. In this scene, the outermost blades swivel forward, accentuating her menacing smirk.


Red rose painted yellow Yellow Queen smiling



The hero is put to work building more flying hoops. Some time later, troops of yellow painters (yellow coveralls, yellow power-rollers, yellow backpacks full of paint...) are sent flying to the red nation. At the same time a huge (blue) hot-air balloon takes flight from the blue nation, and they converge on the red nation.



Flying hoop factory Blue fleet Red telescope Yellow fleet



The yellow and blue contingents start painting the red nation, which fights back with a huge machine that I recall looking like a gigantic (red) fireplug.




Fireplug Fireplug and dog


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...