| Main Page |
| Gallery |
| Transcript |
| "The Rainbow, Part 3" | |
| Series № | 2 |
| Episode №: |  46
|
| Air date | 7 December 1970
|
| Episode Guide | |
| "The Rainbow, Part 2"
|
"Zahara's Song"
|
"The Rainbow, Part 3" (French: Arc-en-ciel, 3) is an episode of the second series of The Magic Roundabout. In the UK, it was the 46th episode to be broadcast of that series, with Eric Thompson's narration. It was later re-narrated by Nigel Planer, retitled "Strange Weather", and broadcast for Channel 4 as the 40th episode of the 1992 series on 26 February 1992.
Plot[]
Florence and Dougal are going to a part of the garden that Florence had never seen before. After some typical banter, they come across some new flowers in a cold area and meet one named Icy Daisy, which Dougal laughs at. The flower dares that if anyone tries to pick her, it will colour in a flash. Florence promises her they won't, and stares at the trees dreamily. Afterwards, Dougal urges her to get up, and they leave to see what else they can find.
They then come across a smoking totem pole, who calls Florence "paleface". Again, Dougal can't stop laughing at this, as they leave. They meet Ermintrude, and Dougal suspects she's been at the flowers again. Ermintrude tries to cover it up, saying the flowers got mixed up with the grass, and mentions Florence to look up. Florence looks up and sees that another colour is missing from the rainbow. Dougal comes to the conclusion that Ermintrude had ate the rainbow's greenery and slurped the yellow as well. The cow doesn't seem to care, commenting she loves a leaf more than life.
Florence and Dougal are experiencing a typical English-weather day in the garden; one minute it's cold, and the next, it's hot. Florence comments that with weather like this, it's hard to tell which type of clothes to bring. They come across a blue part of the garden where the weather is freezing. They meet Sidney the sunflower, who wants to get a tan, but finds the climate no good without a sun. Florence tries looking up at the sky and wait for the sun, but Dougal convinces her it won't come up here, and they leave to find some heat.
In a red part of the garden, the weather is now steaming, and Dougal and Florence come across a caterpillar with a pipe. Dougal asks the caterpillar, shouldn't it should take care of itself, but the caterpillar doesn't seem to mind the warm weather. Florence and Dougal return back to the normal part of the garden, where the weather is neither hot or cold. Ermintrude arrives and says that she prefers this "in-betweeny" weather, for at least they get a lot of rainbows. As Florence sees one up in the sky, she and Dougal decide that the English weather is always unreliable, and that they should come prepared with a cardigan next time.
After visiting the lands in orange, yellow, indigo, and purple, Florence and Dougal continue their search for the rainbow's green colour. They head to the land of the colour blue, where they find it to be dark and cold. The land's resident blue flower tries to lull the duo into staying, remarking that it's the land of dreams, and describing all the different shades of blue they can admire. This puts Florence in a dreamy state, but Dougal urges her to wake up, so they can keep searching.
Dougal and Florence then leave the land of blue and enter the land of red. They meet a smoking totem pole, a Native American stereotype named "Oeil de Coquelicot" (Poppy-Eye), the red land's keeper, who ends his sentences with "I say" ("J'ai dit"). The totem pole also describes the different shades of red there are, with Florence and Dougal playing along with his sentences. They leave the area afterwards, with no success on finding the green colour. As they're about to break the unfortunate news to Mr McHenry, Ermintrude arrives and says that she ate the colour green, because it was the land of grass and herbs. Florence still finds the rainbow pretty, but finds the colour yellow missing as well. An embarrassed Dougal confesses to having eaten the yellow land from the previous story, since it was the land of sugar. Ermintrude says that Dougal is so greedy, it's scary.
Characters[]
- Dougal
- Florence
- Ermintrude
- Mr McHenry (mentioned)
Trivia[]
- This, along with five other episodes, is one of the earliest of the series 2 color episodes made (not counting the series 1 holdover "Dylan the Sleepwalker").
Version differences[]
- Compared to Thompson's English narration, as well as the French version, which are both only slightly similar, the Nigel Planer narration has a completely different storyline. Among the various changes, the rainbow isn't the focus of the story, the blue flower is a male character and the totem pole is now a caterpillar.
Releases[]
- The AB Productions redub of the French version was released to VHS in 1997 on the 7th volume of the AB/TF1 Video collection.
- The script for the Eric Thompson version was included in The Adventures of Ermintrude novel, retitled "The Rainbow".