Top 10 Favorite Animated Christmas Specials-#1

Welcome as I continue counting down my top 10 favorite animated Christmas specials. My #1 is a pretty obvious choice, but what else could it have been? When I was a kid watching this kicked off Christmas for me in many ways. In fact, just seeing the ad in TV Guide was enough to get me excited.  I give the you the granddaddy of all Christmas specials. Simply known as :

 

The ironic thing is that this feels so dated. The animation is crude, even by Rankin/Bass standards, and the story is full of things you’d never see today. From the bullying of Rudolph to the flat our sexism (at one point Donner when heading out to find Rudolph says “No, this is man’s work!” and when the abominable is defeated they worry about getting “the woman folk” home. Those poor defenseless women…who set out by themselves to find Rudolph!).

Anyway, I am getting off track. This is of course based on the famous song and one thing the special has over the song is that everyone apologizes to Rudolph before he is asked to guide Santa’s sleigh. That’s a big thing, I think anyway. But the story stays true to the song which is good (even if the song sends a bad message). The story is simple, Rudolph and Hermie feel rejected so they run away.

But the story raises so many questions. Why is Santa such a jerk? Does he have to gain weight every year? Why does the elf leader’s voice change before the elf song? Why does Rudolph’s nose exclude him from reindeer games? Who in the world made those misfit toys anyway? If children rejected them why does Santa think the kids he sends them to will like them? Why did the abominable wait so damn long to eat the reindeer he captured? How exactly did Cornelius survive the fall and reform the snow monster? He says they bounce but that’s not enough! Why is the snow so bad this winter compared to other years? It’s never been stormy before? When did Santa stop going down chimney’s? Actually the last one has a partial answer. Believe it or not, the Land of Misfit Toys ending was not in the original special. It was added when people wondered what the heck happened to them. Originally the elves just threw packages down.

Like with Charlie Brown the first broadcast was different then one we grew up with. It was black and white, there were GE commercials through the show, and some scenes were deleted and changed. Anyone remember the Peppermint mine scene? Yeah if you didn’t know, the reason Cornelius keeps licking his pick ax is that he is looking for peppermint. We see this and Hermie’s exasperated reaction to it in this cut moment after Rudolph takes off (along with a glimpse of Donner, Clarice, and Rudolph’s mother looking on and commenting how proud they are of him). The scene was removed for the aforementioned misfit toys scene (and more commercials of course). These quick scenes give closure to the characters, without them they just kind of disappear after the “Holly Jolly Christmas” song.  Speaking of songs, another change was “Fame and Fortune”, the song which replaced the “Couple of Misfits” reprise Hermie and Rudolph sing after they meet.  By the way, “Misfits” is much better, I think and fits the story better. Rudolph and Hermie aren’t looking for fame and fortune, they’re running away because they’re a couple of misfits! Both these are restored in he DVD version I own and I can’t even watch the edited TV version anymore.


I think there are a few things that make the special so memorable. One is the head Elf, he always makes me laugh with his yelling. The second are the songs, but I’ll get to that. The third is the Island of Misfit Toys. That scene just has a real charm, so much that as I noted people demanded the extra scene at the end to explain their final fates. Though you do wonder who got drunk and made these silly toys. And finally, the reason this is so loved is Rudolph himself. The voice actress Billy Mae Richards is just fantastic making Rudolph a simple yet adorable character we can’t help but love. She really makes you feel his pain when he is so hurt, and share his joy when he is excited. By the way she also voiced a lot of the Care Bear specials over the years.

So what about the amazing songs? Rankin/Bass is hit or miss in the song department, but here they all work. Heck even “Fame and Fortune” is not bad really. I have the album in my Ipod and love “Holly Jolly Christmas”, “Silver and Gold”, “We’re a Couple of Misfits”, the title song of course, and even the elf song has its own unique charm. The one dud is that awful song Clarice sings to Rudolph. Ugh. It seems like love songs and Chritsmas specials just do not mix.

Oh and less I forget the other element that makes this so loved..Burl Ives! This special put him on the map and he is just fantastic as Sam the Snowman. Every narrator in a R/B special made after this was basically trying to copy Ives, some did it better than others. He really helps to tell the story and  I love all three sings he sings.

I talked about the half ass unofficial sequel several years ago and how painful that was. I also mentioned Rudolph’s Shin New Year, I have issues with that. And finally there is Rudolph and Frosty:Christmas in July. Yeah, he less said about that the better. There is only classic. This special has been around since long before I was born and will probably be around long after I am gone. It is as much a part of Christmas as “A Christmas Carol” or “It’s a Wonderful Life”. I love watching it every year.