Help finish the 'Rainbow Parade Cartoons Volume 2' Blu-ray!!

Hi. My name is Steve Stanchfield, and I run a small company called Thunderbean. We're a small animation studio and Blu-ray label that releases rare cartoons and animation from the golden age. Over the years we've restored and released hundreds of films, from lost stop-motion shorts to restoring entire series of cartoons, often from incredibly rare material from archives and collections all over the world.

Even though Thunderbean is super small, we’ve been able to do a lot with the resources we have. Making a profit is never the motivating factor of the company, but rather continuing efforts to fund restoration of rare films. I work full-time as an animation and animation history instructor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan- and on things for Thunderbean daily, along with a group of dedicated freelancers who all love making these things available. They all work hard to get these labor of love projects done.

We’ve been working for a while on restoring the second half of the Van Beuren “Rainbow Parades” cartoons, and are releasing them in a Blu-ray set called ‘Rainbow Parade Cartoons, volume 2.”

The Rainbow Parade Cartoons were the final effort from the New York-based Van Beuren Studios. They're beautifully designed and animated. Thee first half of the series was made in Cinecolor, and released as a Blu-ray called "Rainbow Parades, Volume 1". The second half of the series was made in 1935 and 36. Over the years these cartoons have kept finding new audiences, making their way onto 16mm home movie prints, then Television in the 50s, then a lot of appearances on VHS tapes in the 80s and 90s- and now youtube of course! They've needed some attention to make them shine for many years.

We're restoring the series, working with Blackhawk film’s 35mm master materials stored at UCLA film archives. We’re on the last three films, with two almost finished. One of those, Bold King Cole, is from the original successive, 3 strip technicolor camera negative. They’re all looking amazing, and we’re so happy we’ve had a part in making good restored HD versions of these films finally available.

As a small company, the revenue that Thunderbean makes is almost all going toward finishing this project— but resources are still tight (niche labels have a niche audience!). We’re right at the end of the project, and a little boost to help with final restoration costs and replication would help would make a huge difference in getting this project completely finished..

This GoFundMe campaign is designed to help this collection get past its last goalpost, and into reality as a product.

So, if you're able to help give this great little set a boost, we're incredibly grateful for your contribution! As with the successful funding of ‘Mid Century Modern 3’, we will be including all donor names in the booklet that comes with the set! We'll also be giving a special set (BDR) to everyone that donates. Thanks to all that have helped support this little business through these years and thanks so much if you’re able to help!