Hey folks, hope you’re having a nice holiday season! If you
recall, back in December 2013 I did a post on almost all of the major holiday
specials produced by Rankin-Bass. To me, no Christmas is complete without
watching the studio’s many holiday classics. And given the fact that that
original Rankin-Bass post is currently the fifth most-read post on this site,
clearly a lot of you love Rankin-Bass too. It just goes to show how timeless
Rankin-Bass’ specials truly are and the strong appeal that they have to
audiences both young and old. Sure the animation is very dated by today’s
standards but the characters, songs, and messages of these specials will always
be unforgettable. That’s why the company recently celebrated its 55th
anniversary. That’s why ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ has been consistently
aired on TV for over 50 years, with many of the studio’s other specials soon
set to celebrate their own big yearly milestones as well in the years. Yet
despite all of the great things that have come from these specials, it’s
disappointing that in some places they have fallen victim to a more cynical
modern mindset. Because if you ask me, that kind of attitude goes against the
powerful messages that these specials have always conveyed that make them
essential viewing during the holidays. Like I said before, yes the animation is
dated to the point where it can produce some truly bizarre visuals (case in
point, remember the song ‘My World is Beginning Today’ from ‘Santa Claus is Coming
to Town’, which is nowadays cut from the ABC version? Talk about an acid trip.)
and there are elements of certain specials that were clearly subjected to the
social norms at the time. However, their charm more than makes up for what they
may lack in terms of visual ‘beauty’.
Today you can consider the following post as a companion
piece to the original Rankin-Bass post that I did two years ago. The main
reason why I’m doing a second post is because when I did that original post, I
didn’t cover all of the major Rankin-Bass holiday specials. I only covered the
ones that I had seen up to that point. So today, I’ll be doing quick reviews of
three of the studio’s specials that I hadn’t covered before. If you want to
check out that original Rankin-Bass post, a link will be provided below. But
for now, let’s close out my all-encompassing tribute to one of my favorite
animation companies of all-time by looking at the final few Rankin-Bass specials
that I haven’t yet seen. This time, I’m going in order of release unlike last
time where I went in the general order of when I first seen the Rankin-Bass
specials, starting with the three that I had seen on a regular annual basis
since I was young (‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, ‘Frosty the Snowman’, and
‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’) and then going into the ones that I had seen
at an older age, like ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ and ‘Jack Frost’. I’m aware that
I may still be forgetting a few of Rankin-Bass’ lesser-known holiday specials
but these three are the last major specials that I know about so there will not
be a ‘Part 3’ to this.
http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2013/12/rankin-bass-christmas-specials.html
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1974)
Starting off today’s post is the studio’s 1974 traditionally
animated special ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’. Obviously it is inspired by
the classic Christmas poem of the same name but no, it is not just a
straight-forward adaptation of that poem. If it was like that, then the special
would only be like five minutes long. Instead, it tells the story of a town
named Junctionville that tries to get back on Santa’s good side after a young
mouse named Albert (again this is Rankin Bass so just go with it) writes a
letter to Santa that mocks him by saying that he ‘doesn’t exist’, to which
Santa responds by sending back all of the town’s letters to him and threatening
to ignore them on Christmas Eve. So yeah, like ‘Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas
in July’, the plot admittedly has a bit too much of a downer vibe to it at
times, something that seems questionable for a holiday special. Also, like
‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, the Santa in this special comes off as, to
put it bluntly, a bit of a dick given how he’s willing to completely ignore an
entire town just because one person wrote a bad letter to him. I mean
technically Albert’s letter implied that it came from the whole town but still…
But despite this special’s flaws, it still manages to be a
decent entry in the Rankin-Bass library.
There’s some nice songs packaged in
there like ‘Give your Heart a Try’, a song that the Father Mouse, voiced by George
Gobel, sings to his son in the hopes of easing his cynical nature towards Santa
and ‘Even a Miracle Needs a Hand’, sung by Joel Grey who plays a clockmaker
named Joshua Trundle who comes up with the idea of building a special clock that
would play a song on Christmas Eve as a means of convincing Santa not to ignore
Junctionville. But when the clock gets damaged, again as a result of Albert’s
interference, Joshua still remains optimistic that a miracle will happen as he
sings the song to his kids. The animation is nice for the time, producing some
colorful visuals, and Albert, despite all of the trouble that he gets into in
regards to nearly ruining Christmas for the entire town, does have a nice
little arc in which he takes responsibility for his actions in order to save
Junctionville’s Christmas, and the ending does provide a heartwarming contrast
to the melancholic nature of the special’s dilemma. And while the special only
covers the actual poem at the beginning and end, it does do a really nice job
in giving visuals to this iconic story. So in short, ‘Twas the Night Before
Christmas’ is an enjoyable, albeit occasionally flawed, entry in the
Rankin-Bass lineup that is definitely a nice old-fashioned tale to watch during
the holiday season.
NESTOR, THE LONG-EARED CHRISTMAS DONKEY (1977)
This special follows the titular Nestor, a donkey who, as
the title points out, has ridiculously long ears, which results in him being
mocked by his peers, just like when Rudolph was mocked for his glowing nose,
due to his general clumsy nature as a result of him constantly tripping over
his ears. But when he ends up getting kicked out of his stable by his owner, he
soon finds himself helping Mary and Joseph get to Bethlehem. ‘Nestor’ is a
pretty decent entry in Rankin-Bass’ filmography though there are a few issues.
For one thing, the special feels very rushed in places. At just 24 minutes
long, the special speeds through the story pretty quickly. I can’t really
explain why but other Rankin-Bass specials that were this long were just better
at managing a smoother pace. Not only that, but the design of the human
characters in this particular special, other than Mary, look, well, kind of
weird. But aside from that, Nestor is a pretty likable character. Sure he may
just technically be a ‘carbon copy’ of Rudolph given the fact that he’s a
‘misfit’ ridiculed for his, to quote Sam the Snowman from ‘Rudolph’,
‘non-conformity’ but he does go through a really nice arc in which he gathers
the courage to help get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem so that she can give birth
to Jesus. So in short, Nestor is by no means one of the studio’s best efforts
but as per usual with Rankin-Bass, it’s a nice little family-friendly affair to
watch around this time of year.
PINOCCHIO’S CHRISTMAS (1980)
So in Rankin-Bass’ interpretation of Pinocchio, the famous
wooden puppet first came to a life as a talking tree before he was cut down and
the piece of wood that remained was then carved into a marionette by Geppetto. Originally
I was going to say that this sounds really silly compared to what happened in
Disney’s ‘Pinocchio’ but I have been made aware that this was just like what
happened in the original book ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’ by Carlo Collodi so
at the very least, thankfully this wasn’t as messed-up as the book. Anyway,
despite the fact that I had never seen this special before this year, I must
say that I really liked ‘Pinocchio’s Christmas’. Like the classic Disney
version, this special does a nice job in conveying a nice message for Pinocchio
to learn, even though at first he succumbs to some bad habits in order to get
Geppetto a gift for Christmas. It doesn’t mean he’s a bad, um, ‘kid’… he just
doesn’t know any better. And the message that this special covers is a nice one
for this time of year; that a gift from the heart is much more valuable than
one that is simply bought. It’s sort of like ‘Gift of the Magi’ without
Pinocchio and Geppetto having to give up something valuable to them in order to
get a gift for the other person that went with the possession that they had
just sold.
The stop-motion animation is solid as usual and there’s some
nice voice-acting work from the likes of George S. Irving (who many of you will
recognize as Heat Miser from ‘The Year without a Santa Claus’) as Geppetto,
Todd Porter as Pinocchio, and Alan King as the puppet-show master (‘Stromboli’
in the Disney version) that tries to take advantage of Pinocchio for financial
gain. There’s also some nice songs in there as well, including ‘Forget It’, a
‘duet’ that Geppetto has with his mirror reflection (again, would you expect
any different from Rankin-Bass?) about the struggle over what gifts to get, and
‘The Whole Truth’, a song performed by the Fox and Cat (‘Honest John’ and ‘Gideon’
respectively in the Disney version) in which they try to prove to Pinocchio
that they’re telling the truth, during which they repeatedly get comically
struck by lightning. There’s even a few references near the end in regards to the
original story and Pinocchio’s journey to become a real boy, including the ‘turning
into a donkey’ incident on Pleasure Island and the encounter with the giant
whale. Maybe it’s a bit overlong for a story of this size but overall I was
surprised to find that I really liked this one despite the fact that I had
never seen it before. No it’s not one of Rankin-Bass’ all-time best but it’s a
very enjoyable addition to the studio’s library and one that I will definitely
be re-watching on an annual basis from now on.
And there you have it…
the last three Rankin-Bass specials that I will be covering on this blog. What
are your favorite Rankin-Bass specials? Sound off in the comments below and of
course, I wish you all Happy Holidays!
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