A Rankin-Bass Christmas: An Index and Top Five

Arthur Rankin Jr.

So, here we are at the end of this look through the Christmas specials produced by Arthur Rankin Jr. and most of the time, Jules Bass as well.

I didn't grow up with these specials. I can't recall sitting through an entire special during my early years, so I had no nostalgia for them going in. I knew they were some of the most famous Christmas specials, right along with A Charlie Brown Christmas and Chuck Jones' animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Jules Bass

As a creative person myself, it was more interesting to see how the style of the specials changed over time. Rudolph was their first that set a standard, but they very quickly improved on it. So when I get to my Top Five, remember that while I recognize how important that was to their legacy, I believe they did better as they went on.

Anyway, here's an index to all of my blogs about their Christmas specials:

1. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
2. The Cricket on the Hearth (1967)
3. The Little Drummer Boy (1968)
4. Frosty the Snowman (1969)
5. Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (1970)
6. "A Christmas Tree" (1973)
7. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)
8. The Year Without A Santa Claus (1974)
9. The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow (1975)
10. Frosty's Winter Wonderland (1976)
11. Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976)
12. The Little Drummer Boy Book II (1976)
    
13. Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977)
14. The Stingiest Man in Town (1978)
15. Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979)
16. Jack Frost (1979)
17. Pinocchio's Christmas (1980)
18. The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold (1981)
19. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985)
20. Santa, Baby! (2001)

A little bit about availability. Most of these have digital copies available. For those who enjoy having physical media, read on.

2022 EDIT: There is now a complete set of the specials from 1964 to 1985 available in a DVD box set from Universal and Warner Brothers. This does not include "A Christmas Tree" or Santa, Baby! But aside from those, it makes an easy way to get the collection all in one go at last.

2023 EDIT: A Blu-Ray edition of the Complete Specials set is being released.

There are three companies who own distribution rights to these specials. Classic Media owns the Rankin-Bass library up through the end of 1973. The company was acquired by Dreamworks, who are currently owned by Universal. The five Christmas specials are widely available on DVD and Blu-Ray, both individually and as a set. Older DVDs and Blu-Rays of Frosty the Snowman also included Frosty Returns, but it is not on the latest releases. Select episodes of Festival of Family Classics have been released on DVD, but are out of print, and "A Christmas Tree" wasn't released on them. As of yet, that episode has only been officially released on VHS. If you ask me, it would be ideal to include it with The Cricket on the Hearth, but no one has.

If you're wanting to get one of the complete sets, be aware that there are some early Blu-Ray sets that don't include The Little Drummer Boy and Cricket on the Hearth. A later edition added them in, but with Cricket in standard definition as a bonus feature.

Warner Brothers controls most of Rankin-Bass' output from 1974 onward, this includes the Christmas specials, with the lone exception of Santa, Baby! which was released on DVD by Virgil Films, but is long out of print. However, digital versions are available for rental and sale. I've tried to see if Virgil Films is the official distributor of the special, but haven't had any luck.

Warner Brothers has released all of the specials they distribute to DVD and The Year Without A Santa Claus and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to Blu-Ray. (The former includes Rudolph's Shiny New Year and Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, but only in standard definition.)

'Twas the Night Before Christmas, Frosty's Winter Wonderland, The First Christmas, Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July and Jack Frost have all received individual releases. The Year Without A Santa Claus also includes Rudolph's Shiny New Year and Nestor. There is also a DVD that puts both Frosty's Winter Wonderland and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas together as a double feature.

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is available from Warner Archive, paired with Nestor. The Little Drummer Boy Book II is available on a DVD from Warner Archive along with The Stingiest Man in Town, Pinocchio's Christmas and The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold.

There are sets that bundle DVDs together and have some exclusive discs, so if you're trying to build a complete collection, these can save you some trouble and money. A four-disc set titled Classic Christmas Favorites bundles nine Rankin-Bass specials with the Chuck Jones version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The first disc is exclusive to this set (but the disc in my set is stamped with the title How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Deluxe Edition, which is a different set that bundles the classic with other Grinch animated specials, but despite that, it's the correct DVD) that bundles the Grinch special with The Stingiest Man in Town, Pinocchio's Christmas and The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold. The next disc is the DVD of The Year Without A Santa Claus with Rudolph's Shiny New Year and Nestor. The other two DVDs are the Frosty's Winter Wonderland and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas double feature and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July.

The three-disc set Santa's Magical Tales has the first disc also include the Grinch special, Pinocchio's Christmas and The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold. Bafflingly, you'd think it'd be easy to just include the same disc from the Classic Christmas Favorites set, but reviews confirm that The Stingiest Man in Town is not on this set. The second disc is the same The Year Without A Santa Claus DVD with the two other specials, but the third disc is an exclusive that includes Jack Frost, the non-Rankin-Bass A Miser Brothers Christmas and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July.

Finally, there are two collections in the 4 Kids Favorites lines, which each bundle four previously released DVDs together. The Merry Masterpieces set includes Frosty's Winter Wonderland, Jack Frost, The First Christmas and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. The Holiday Family Fun set includes Jack Frost as the sole Rankin-Bass entry, along with A Miser Brothers' Christmas, Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper and The Flintstone's Christmas Carol.

With these options, it is possible to build a complete set of the Warner Brothers distributed titles, but what options you choose will dictate if you get overlaps or not. All of them except the Warner Archive discs can be found inexpensively. And the Warner Archive discs aren't too expensive, but they aren't easily found in stores. It would be helpful if Warner could release a set or release more on Blu-Ray.

As previously mentioned, Santa, Baby! was released on DVD, but is now out of print. Copies can be found, but it depends on what you're willing to pay.

All right, now for my Top Five...

5 - The Little Drummer Boy

 The second Animagic special reaches out to the Christian audiences with a family friendly but very well-told story. Some technical issues pop up, but don't ruin a very enjoyable story.

4 - Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July

A big "finale" to the Rankin-Bass specials about Santa Claus, Rudolph and Frosty, this pulls off an exciting story. Plus, you get Ethel Merman.

3 - Santa Claus is Comin' to Town 

Rankin-Bass' original take on Santa Claus' origin provides a good time for families, complete with some really good songs.

2 - The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

I admitted to my bias earlier, but this is my list. Adapting a L. Frank Baum book, this was the darkest of the specials. Entering the mid-1980s, this should've been a new direction for Rankin-Bass, offering a story for all ages to sink their teeth into with enough whimsy and songs to make it fun for the young. Unfortunately, it was the last one for fifteen years.

1 - The Year Without A Santa Claus 

The most entertaining of the Rankin-Bass specials with the absolute banger that is the pair of Miser Brothers songs with a sweet story. If you only have time for one hour-length Rankin-Bass special during the holiday season, you can't really go wrong with this one.

I'm not interested in ranking the other fifteen. Most of them are good and if your favorite didn't make my top five, that's okay, it's just my list. However, I do have a pick for the worst... The Cricket on the Hearth.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: Santa, Baby!

 2001 saw Rankin-Bass return to TV networks for a holiday special, one last time. Santa, Baby! aired on Fox in a one hour timeslot. It wasn't just their final Christmas special, it was their final production, period. In fact, even saying "their" is a little misleading as while the company credit remained, Jules Bass wasn't actually involved.

Throughout the 1960s to the 1980s, Rankin-Bass tried to become a major player in television animation, trying to be taken seriously with adaptations of The Hobbit and The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien, but their most successful property outside of the Christmas specials, by far, was Thundercats. They did a number of theatrical pictures, the most famous being The Last Unicorn. Just about the only production in the 90s attributed to them was the panned 1999 animated version of The King and I, which really just amounted to Arthur Rankin serving as a producer.

As time went on, there were more companies to deal with. Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass weren't getting any younger. There would be many Christmas specials that would air once and then hardly be seen again. Their Christmas specials had to compete not just with each other, but with other new and old productions for what would get re-aired each year. Cable television afforded more outlets for older specials and series to find new audiences, but getting new productions for every timeslot was unheard of. They were trying to stay relevant in an ever-growing market and frankly, they just couldn't keep up. 

So after Santa, Baby!, the company was officially dissolved. Arthur Rankin died in 2014 and Jules Bass is retired. There will never be another Rankin-Bass production.

So, Santa, Baby! was one of the few, if not the first Christmas specials that they didn't take director credit on. That went to Lee Dannacher. The writing fell to Peter Bakalian and Suzanne Collins, the latter of which would go into writing books, including one that caught on titled The Hunger Games. Bet you didn't expect that crossover. It would also be the first Rankin-Bass special featuring a primarily African-American cast, both on and off screen.

We open in a suburb of a big city on Heptune Street, greeted by Melody Birdsong (voiced by Patti LaBelle), who points out how kind and full of Christmas spirit everyone is, and notes it's a big change from the previous year, leading us into a flashback, leading us with young Dakota (voiced by Kianna Underwood) hoping her songwriter father Noel (voiced by Gregory Hines) can come up with another hit song. Meanwhile, neighborhood superintendent Mr. Sweet (voiced by Tom Joyner) is frustrated at the local animal shelter with the frequently escaping animals.

Dakota finds Melody nearly frozen in the snow and takes her to her family's apartment, where she warms up next to the heater. The next morning, Melody is feeling better and reveals that not only can she speak, she's the Patridge of the Pear Tree from "The Twelve Days of Christmas," seemingly able to make the gifts from the song magically appear wherever she is. She offers Dakota a wish, and she wishes for her father to write a hit song. Melody makes no promises.

In order to inspire Noel, Melody makes him into a bell-ringing Santa Claus. When his wife sees him, she flirts with him, launching into the required performance of "Santa Baby." (In case you were wondering how an adult-oriented Christmas song made it into a family-oriented Christmas special.) Noel keeps working for the charity and witnesses the community interacting to celebrate the holiday. However, inspiration just isn't striking. When he tries pitching a song to an executive, it's terrible and when Dakota tells him the animals in the shelter need help, he lashes out at her, making her run off. Melody encourages him to go find her.

Noel finds Dakota with the animals from the shelter, and he looks in to find a kitten still inside the frozen over shelter. He tries to rescue it, leading to him accidentally causing a power surge, knocking out power for the neighborhood. Mr. Sweet realizes he's partly at fault and finishes rescuing the kitten, leading the community to begin repairing the animal shelter, while Noel is literally left hanging. Melody helps him safely get to the ground, telling him, "When you forget about your own problems and start to help others, that's when things start to brighten up."

Hearing the sound of the community working together gives Noel the idea for a new song called "The Heart and Soul of Christmas." Wanting to thank Melody, she summons the Five Golden Rings to transport them to Santa's Workshop, where Noel is brought in to fill in for Santa, who has a bandaged leg and can't make the run. During the deliveries, they deliver the animals from the shelter to new homes, while a club version of "Santa Baby" sung by Eartha Kitt plays. (She also voiced Dakota's cat Emerald earlier in a few scenes, and also chimed in during the earlier version of the song.)

Noel awakens to find sheet music of his new song and a scarf from Melody. Mr. Sweet arrives to inform them he's lifted his ban on pets. (So, why did they have Emerald again?) We go back to the opening year and see how much the community has grown closer as Melody flies through.

Overall, it was a sweet little story about coming together as a community, getting some great talent in the voice cast, but it was very quickly forgotten by most. And sadly, that's where these legendary producers finished their legendary run of Christmas specials.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

1985 brought the final "Animagic" Christmas special by Rankin-Bass. This is considered the final Christmas special by the company period as the studio closed in 1987, but the producers would continue working in animation and film.

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is the Rankin-Bass production that I'm most familiar with. Many of my readers know I'm a huge fan of L. Frank Baum and his Oz works, and the original book is by Baum, originally published in 1902, so I sought it out because of that connection. The book would also serve as the basis for an anime series, a traditionally animated film, some stage adaptations, a graphic novel, multiple audio dramatizations and some unproduced screenplays that have been floating around Hollywood.

Baum's Santa Claus was written before much of our common Santa lore was really set in public consciousness, so it varies in many ways and is definitely not to be considered in continuity with any other Rankin-Bass production. The Rankin-Bass adaptation was written by Jules Bass, using his Julian P. Gardner pseudonym one last time. The special was for a one hour time slot.

We open on Christmas Eve as Santa Claus (voiced by Earl Hammond) heads off on his annual deliveries, then below him in the Forest of Burzee, we meet the Sound Imp, Tingler (voiced by Bob McFadden), an original character created for the special, but feeling very at home in a Baum-based world. He runs through the Forest to tell the Great Ak, the Master Woodsman of the world (voiced by Alfred Drake), that the leaders of the Immortals are arriving. As Ak prepares to receive them, Queen Zurline (voiced by Lynne Lipton) of the wood nymphs wishes him success. Ak tells her and the audience that if he not successful at convincing them, this will be Santa Claus' last sleigh ride.

And then here comes the song everyone remembers from this: "Ora e Sempre," a surprisingly dark song for a Rankin-Bass production, which uses a line of Latin in a song about being immortal. This plays while Tingler introduces the Immortals, who then gather around a table. Ak makes his his pitch: to bestow on Santa Claus the Mantle of Immortality. To explain why he believes this should happen, he begins telling of the life of the toymaker.

Ak tells how many years ago, he found an abandoned baby and feeling pity for it, gave it to the lioness Shiegra to care for. It then switches to him telling this back then to a group of nymphs. This cut has been criticized because it cuts to a brief scene very similar to the Immortals meeting and it's not clear that this is another time period with a different audience until we see Necile (voiced by Lesley Miller) the wood nymph ask Ak what a child is. After hearing more, she is filled with curiosity and goes to find the baby, deciding to take him with her into the forest, knowing she can care for her trees and the baby.

Ak is surprised that Necile has broken the Law of the Forest, that no mortals may enter. She asks Ak to let her keep the baby. He agrees, deciding that she and Shiegra can share the duties. (In the book and other adaptations, Ak declares that this will be the only time that the Law will be relaxed.) Necile names the baby Claus, meaning "little one" in Burzee's language. With another song sequence, we see Claus grow up into a youth (voiced by J.D. Roth) in the forest.

Ak decides to take Claus on a journey around the world to see how mortals like himself live, Claus being shocked by the scenes of poverty, strife and warfare, especially how children suffer from these. He finally asks Ak why man is born if he must suffer so. Ak tells him he should leave the world a little better than he found it. Upon returning to Burzee, Claus decides to leave to become a friend to the children he can reach. He decides to set up a home in Laughing Valley, not far from Burzee, joined by Tinger and Shiegra. Soon, the Ryls (sprites who care for flowers), Knooks (sprites who care for animals) and nymphs of Burzee build a house for him so he can get straight to his work.

Claus is shown befriending children as he grows older, soon turning into a round and jolly older fellow. One winter's night when he can't leave for the snow, he's whittling at some wood, which he begins to fashion after his cat, Blinkie, a gift from Necile. Hearing a voice from outside, he goes to investigate and finds a boy named Weekum lost in the snow. Bringing him in to get warm, he presents him with the wooden cat he's made before taking him home. The children are delighted with the wooden cat and ask if Claus can make more. He agrees and diversifies the toys he makes, enlisting help from the Ryls and Knooks of Burzee.

Claus is threatened by the Awgwas, a race of creatures who can be invisible, who influence people to do wicked things. Claus' actions directly interfere with them, but Claus keeps making and delivering toys in defiance. They kidnap him, but he's able to call the Knooks for rescue. They resort to stealing the toys whenever he tries to deliver them. Finally, he goes to Ak, who tells the King of the Awgwas (voiced by Earle Hyman) to stop. When they refuse, Ak declares war, and armed with magic and the power of Good on their side, Ak and the nymphs are able to completely wipe out the Awgwas and their allies.

Peter Knook (voiced by Peter Newman) allows Claus to use deer on Christmas Eve to draw a sleigh to carry the toys. When Claus can't enter locked doors, he uses a chimney. When people find their presents on Christmas morning, they believe Claus must be a saint to do what he does, a young child mispronouncing "Saint Claus" as "Santa Claus."

We're now up to the present, where Claus has been delivering for decades. And now, he is soon to die. He even realizes this, making the first Christmas tree as something to be done as a memorial. (This was not the case in the book, in which he makes the first Christmas tree to present gifts to family who lived in tents, suggested to be an indigenous group.) There is a single Mantle of Immortality that can make a mortal being Immortal, and Ak makes the argument that Claus is worthy of it. The matter is put to a vote and all the Immortals vote in agreement. The Mantle descends on Claus, Necile kisses him and welcomes him to wake to a new life.

The special ends with a scene in which Ak has let Claus know what has been done on his behalf. He thanks Ak and says he'll try to be worthy of it, declaring he's committed his work to the children, "for in all this world, there is nothing so beautiful as a happy child."

I'm definitely biased towards this special. But now that I've watched the previous Christmas specials from the same team, this one has a good amount of cohesion. The songs are put to good use, stemming from the plot and they're very short, so they don't feel superfluous. There are no annoying B-plots, and the darker edge made this an ideal cult classic.

This felt like it could have been the start of a new style of Christmas specials for Rankin-Bass, however, it was actually the end.

Well, not exactly the end...

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold

 

1981 brought the final annual Rankin-Bass Christmas special. They had been producing one per year since 1974, and if you count "A Christmas Tree" from Festival of Family Classics, it was actually since 1967. Why did they stop? Well, there's probably reasons given somewhere, but likely a big one is that with over 15 Christmas specials under their belt, it was impossible for them all to be re-aired on network television. Other companies made Christmas specials as well, so as time would go on, fewer would get repeated. So, re-airing a handful of their older Christmas specials instead of producing a new one was an easy choice for Rankin-Bass.

So, what was the last annual one? The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold, penned by Romeo Muller, and slotted for a half hour timeslot.

We open with a leprechaun named Blarney Kilakilarney (voiced by Art Carney) who explains he's a "spinner of tales by choice," and teases "how we leprechauns brought the Christmas gold back to Ireland."

His tale begins with Dinty Doyle (voiced by Ken Jennings), a cabin boy on a ship called The Belle of Erin, who has been tasked to pull up a pine tree on an uncharted island the captain just found to be used on board as a Christmas tree. As Dinty performs this task, he is seen the Leprechauns of the Island, who are afraid that Dinty is pulling up "the banshee tree," which he indeed does, freeing a banshee, Old Mag the Hag (voiced by Christine Mitchell). She summons a storm, but when it subsides, a rainbow leads Dinty to a stash of gold. Did I mention we're only three minutes in?

As Dinty checks out the gold, he's stopped by Blarney, who takes him to his home and makes some tea, which an overhead Mag drops some potion into, but Blarney tells Dinty not to drink it yet, and proceeds to tell him about his life: there's two types of Leprechauns on the island, the Kilakilarneys, who mine for gold, and the O'Clogjiggers, who make shoes. He and other miners made a large stash of Christmas gold, hidden under shamrocks, but it attracted Old Mag, who wanted to get it to avoid turning into a puddle of tears. However, she can't steal it, it must be given.

He tells how Mag disguised herself (her never-ending tears give her real identity away) and went to the shoemakers, convincing Faye (voiced by Peggy Cass) to convince her husband, Blarney, to give away the gold. He guesses it was the banshee in disguise and he and Faye fight, ending with him being sent out of doors. Going to his mine, he discovers the other miners are gone, Mag convincing them to become shoemakers. He stands up to her, but just then, an earthquake strikes, turning the small peninsula the island used to be into the current Island of Tralee. Blarney gets the Lord of the Leprechauns (voiced by Bob McFadden) to confront Mag, convincing her to turn into tears in return for some gold, but they tricked her into having a pine tree planted over her, keeping her trapped.

Dinty realizes what he's done, alarming Blarney, who just drank some of the tea. Mag enters, revealing the potion was one of generosity, intending to make Blarney turn over the gold to her, but when she nearly forces him, he gives it to Dinty instead. If Dinty can keep it away from Mag until Christmas, they will have beaten her.

Dinty discovers his little boat to head back to the ship has drifted off, then hears a girl named Colleen crying on the shore, and she claims to have been shipwrecked. He tells her about everything he's learned about the Leprechauns and that he has the gold. She says that if he gives it to her, she'll get the Leprechauns to build a boat and distribute the gold all over Kilarney. He agrees, but realizes too late that Colleen is really Mag in disguise, who puts him under a cursed sleep.

The Leprechauns look over Dinty and hearing his story, Faye reconciles with Blarney. The Lord of the Leprechauns summons a rainbow that wakes Dinty. Mag goes to get the gold, but is caught by the first light of Christmas morning and turns into tears. The Belle of Erin arrives on the island, taking Dinty, the gold and the Leprechauns back to the mainland.

This is a pretty packed story for just 24 minutes. Still, it was rather fun. But the link to Christmas is pretty weak. You could easily remove it by having it take place during the night, say Dinty was retrieving the tree for firewood for The Belle of Erin's engine, and say that the Banshee can only be out at night.

Overall, not great, but good.

I said this was the last annual Christmas special. However, it wasn't the last Animagic Christmas special.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: Pinocchio's Christmas

1980 brought Rankin-Bass' first attempt to adapt classic literature as a Christmas special, this time being Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, taking several episodes from the book and giving them a Christmas slant as Pinocchio's Christmas. Jules Bass adapted the story as Julian P. Gardner (the wikis say Romeo Muller, but I'm going with the credit in the special).

The special doesn't take too much from other popular adaptations, though it's easy to see some design similarities between it and Disney's Pinocchio (Pinocchio wearing a similar hat and vest with a short sleeved shirt, Geppetto having a mustache and small glasses with an apron). Otherwise, it does a fine job of distinguishing itself totally from other versions. Interestingly, Rankin-Bass' first television series was titled The New Adventures of Pinocchio and offered modern adventures for the famous puppet. However, this version is not a continuation or follow up to that series, placing Pinocchio back in his regular time period.

Pinocchio (voiced by Todd Porter) sees his first snow during his first Christmas. Geppetto, the woodcarver who created him and acts as his father (voiced by George S. Irving), explains Christmas to his wooden son and presents him with an arithmetic book he sold his boots to buy. However, Pinocchio sells the book to buy a present for his father, but is then tricked into burying the money in the snow to grow a tree that'll bear many coins by the Fox and the Cat (voiced by Allen Swift and Pat Bright, respectively), who of course steal the coins and tell him it didn't work because he's been bad and the coins must have disappeared.

In need of money and worse off than when he started, Pinocchio joins a puppet show run by Maestro Fire-Eater (voiced by Alan King), but becomes smitten with a puppet named Julietta. When he hears that she's to be made over into a Magi for a Nativity show, Pinocchio runs off with her to the Enchanted Forest where the tree he was made from grew. While there, he tells her of his backstory, how the piece of wood he was made from was originally going to be firewood, but wound up being given to Geppetto, who made him into a puppet to sell, but when it came to life, he kept him as his son.

The Fox and Cat appear and try to sell Pinocchio on another scheme, but they're interrupted by a blue light that takes Pinocchio and Julietta to the realm of Lady Azura, the fairy with the blue hair (voiced by Diane Leslie). Lady Azura asks Pinocchio what happened, and he concocts a lie that makes his nose grow. When he tells her the truth, she says he hasn't been bad but simply foolish, and that she'll take Julietta, while she reunites him with Dr. Cricket (voiced by Bob McFadden), who previously lived in Geppetto's home but left when Pinocchio threw a hammer at him.

Meanwhile, Fire-Eater creates a puppet replica of Pinocchio to perform in his show, but it's only a puppet and proves a flop, so he throws it in the street, where Geppetto finds it and believes it to be his boy, somehow lifeless now.

The Fox and Cat find Pinocchio again and convince him to go teach Santa Claus' toys how to dance. (He fantasizes about it with a catchy song simply called "Dancin'.") He's instead thrown into a box and taken to a Duke (voiced by Paul Frees) to be given to his children as a Christmas present. However, they're unimpressed that their father thinks presents—no matter how lavish—will replace him actually spending Christmas with them. Pinocchio convinces him to stay with his family.

Stepping outside, Pinocchio and Dr. Cricket are given a lift home by none other than Santa Claus (voiced by Paul Frees). Geppetto is overjoyed that his son has returned, and they welcome Lady Azura and a now alive Julietta to share a simple Christmas breakfast of oatmeal with them. Lady Azura tells Pinocchio of his future (which will be familiar to anyone familiar with many versions of his story) with the assurance that if he tries to be good, someday, he will be a real boy.

This was interesting, re-contexualizing a literary adaptation with a holiday theme, and surprisingly, it works pretty well, though it would've been better had this been sandwiched with at least two other specials to adapt more of the story. It made for a fun special, but I can't help but feel making it Pinocchio might've limited the interest in it. People might see it as a Disney knockoff and avoid as they prefer that version. Plus there's the uncanny element of a story about a puppet being depicted in a medium in which everyone is a puppet.

I'd say this was very entertaining, and there's certainly worse items to squeak into a Christmas special lineup, but there's a lot of competition out there.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: Jack Frost

1979 revisited the character of Jack Frost from the previous specials, doing a little reboot to the character's appearance in a prequel story, penned by Romeo Muller.

We open not with Jack's story, but on a modern Groundhog Day as Pardon-Me-Pete (voiced by Buddy Hackett) emerges from his home to act scared of a shadow he seems to cast, then heads back in to enjoy six more weeks of hibernation. As he tucks himself in, he breaks the fourth wall and explains the shadow is a trick he does with Jack Frost to extend winter by six weeks. He then decides to tell us the story of how it happened.

Jack Frost (voiced by Robert Morse, replacing Paul Frees) visits a town called January Junction, a town of paupers under the iron rule of Kubla Kraus (voiced by Paul Frees), who taxes them into poverty, so they have no money. He has only iron servants and animals living in his castle. When he hears a girl named Elisa (voiced by Debra Clinger) say she loves him, he becomes smitten. He rescues her when she's sliding on a frozen river that Kubla breaks up with his iron horse's hooves by re-freezing the river and floating the piece of ice she's on to safety.

The special tells us of how snow and winter weather work in this fantasy version: snowflakes are designed by Snip (voiced by Don Messick), then thrown out by the snow gypsies, except one named Holly (voiced by Dina Lynn) who stores special snowflakes for Christmas. Father Winter (voiced by Paul Frees) oversees it all, controlling the winter winds and knowing when to start and stop the winter season. Jack asks Father Winter if he can become human so he can court Elisa. Father Winter agrees, but it will only be temporary unless he manages to gain a house, a horse, a bag of gold and a wife.

Jack, assisted by Snip and Holly, who are also taking human form at the moment, sets up shop as Jack Snip in a tailor's shop. Elisa does develop feelings for Jack, but her romantic feelings are taken with Sir Ravenal Rightfellow (voiced by Sonny Melendrez), who rescues her when Kubla kidnaps her. Kubla wants to destroy the town, and when he throws Jack, Snip and Holly into his dungeon, Jack decides to give up his humanity to save the town by causing an intense winter, freezing Kubla into his castle. (This also makes Snip and Holly go back to their sprite selves.)

As February 2 rolls around, Jack plays his first trick with Pardon-Me-Pete to extend winter. On the last day of winter, Father Winter allows Jack to become human for the last hour of winter, during which he knocks out Kubla, sends all his mechanical knights over a cliff to their ruin. When Kubla recovers and is tricked into falling out a window, Father Winter blows him away from his mountain.

Jack believes he can stay human permanently: Kubla's castle is now his house, with plenty of gold, and a mechanical horse, so he just needs Elisa to agree to marry him, but when he finds her, she's marrying Sir Ravenal. Jack goes back to his sprite self, and using his frost breath, turns the roses in Elisa's wedding bouquet white, which she recognizes as a "kiss" from Jack Frost.

Jack decides to content himself with his regular winter duties, and Pardon-Me-Pete reveals they've been doing the Groundhog Day trick ever since, which he enjoys for the extra sleep.

This is a pretty good story on its own. Visual and voice aside, it almost works with the rest of the Rankin-Bass canon, but Frosty's Winter Wonderland and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July suggested that Jack isn't invisible to regular humans as he is in this one. But it's not like the continuity between the specials has ever been perfect. Where does Snow Miser fit into the Winter hierarchy now?

So, I enjoyed it.

We're down to the last handful of specials now, folks.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas In July

 1979 brought Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, the longest Rankin-Bass Christmas special, pulling together their continuity from Rudolph (but ignoring Santa being a jerk, Yukon Cornelius, the Bumble and Hermey) and Frosty and onward. Romeo Mueller was still on board as writer. This would also mark the final Rankin-Bass Christmas production featuring Billie Mae Richards as Rudolph, Jackie Vernon as Frosty, Shelley Winters as Crystal and Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus. (Rooney would voice Santa again in A Miser Brothers' Christmas, but this wasn't a Rankin-Bass production.)

We kick off by showing Frosty and his family in Animagic for the first time, because he and Crystal now have two children named Chilly and Millie. They want to see "uncle Rudolph" sine his nose for them, which Rudolph offers to do for them, but as he tries, it begins to fizzle out.

The reason is revealed to be a cruel wizard named Winterbolt (voiced by Paul Frees), who used to rule the North Pole. He was put in an enchanted slumber by Boreal (voiced by Nellie Bellflower), the manifestation of the Northern Lights, but recognizing that he would return, she imparted her power into the nose of Rudolph with a special birthmark, telling him that he must never use his power for evil or it will go away. This was when Rudolph's nose glowed for the first time.

So, Winterbolt has risen again, and looking to take the North Pole back from Santa, and make the children of the world love him (also delivering toys, but giving them twice as many as Santa) so he'll be able to take over the world. Since Rudolph has helped Santa overcome winter storms, which Winterbolt can easily create, getting Rudolph out of the way is a prime objective for the evil wizard, and when we opened, Winterbolt was trying to stop Rudolph's power with his magic, but Rudolph is able to ultimately beat it.

Milton the flying ice cream man (voiced by Red Buttons) arrives in the North Pole and tells Rudolph about how he's in love with Laine Lorraine (voiced by Shelby Flint), the tight rope walker with Circus by the Sea, run by her mother, Lily Lorraine (voiced by Ethel Merman). However, the circus is in trouble and needs a good influx of sales, or it will be sold to Sam Spangle (voiced by Don Messick), a crooked businessman.

Winterbolt plants an idea in Milton's head to have Rudolph perform at the circus. Since it'd help someone, Rudolph agrees. When Chilly and Millie express interest in going, Winterbolt (currently unknown to the heroes) appears before them and offers the snow family amulets that will keep them frozen "until the final firework fades on the fourth." They accept and clear it with Santa, who, with some influence from Winterbolt, agrees to arrive on the Fourth of July just in time to whisk Frosty and his family back to the North Pole.

Rudolph and the living snow family are a huge hit for the circus, but little do they know that they are playing right into Winterbolt's plans. The evil wizard finds a rejected reindeer named Scratcher (voiced by Alan Sues) and sends him to get Rudolph to do something bad or at least appear to be bad in front of his friends. Arriving, Scratcher offers to help Sam Spangle and then tells Rudolph he wants to get a job with the circus. Meanwhile, Winterbolt whips up a terrible hurricane that forces Santa and Mrs. Claus to take a ground path on their way to the circus.

During the big Fourth of July show, between acts, Scratcher gets Rudolph to retrieve a briefcase holding the ticket sales for the night and give it to Sam Spangle dressed as a policeman, claiming that he's going to drop it off for a night deposit.

Realizing that the fireworks are about to go off, and Santa isn't there, Rudolph and Frosty realize that Frosty's time is limited. They try to stop the fireworks from being shot, but Lily has unfortunately lit the main fuse and can't extinguish it until the last charge has gone off. They have 100. Rudolph also realizes how he's been tricked into "stealing" the box office take for the night and since that was evil, his nose will no longer light up.

Winterbolt arrives and offers to extend the amulets' power indefinitely if Rudolph won't defend his own honor. Disgraced and less of a draw without his shiny nose, Rudolph walks by the sea and meets Big Ben, a whale from Rudolph's Shiny New Year and explains his troubles to him. Ben heads off to South America without explaining his plan. Meanwhile, Sam Spangle takes over the circus.

Frosty offers to deal with Winterbolt to get Rudolph's nose to shine again, and Winterbolt agrees in exchange for Frosty's hat, which keeps him alive. Frosty agrees, but the evil wizard doesn't hold up his deal, as he wanted to reverse engineer the magic of Frosty's hat to create an army of snowmen. Rudolph, having been told to be brave by the voice of the Aurora Borealis, confronts Winterbolt and manages to take back Frosty's hat. As he does so, his nose begins to shine again. Winterbolt swears revenge.

The next morning, the circus mourns for Frosty. But Rudolph arrives with a policeman, who has seized the stolen money and turns it over to Lily. She gives it to Sam to cover her debts, but the policeman takes it again, explaining that Sam is under arrest. He also gives them Frosty's hat, which restores him to life.

Winterbolt returns to threaten the circus, but Lily makes a daring effort in throwing her guns at his scepter, shattering it. Without his magic, he turns into a tree. This means all of his magic is ended, letting Santa and Mrs. Claus finally fly to the circus, and that the amulets he gave to Frosty and his family will no longer work. When Rudolph realizes this, it's too late and Frosty's family has melted.

However, Big Ben arrives with Jack Frost (voiced by Paul Frees), who restores the snow family with his frost breath. Santa arrives afterward to take Frosty and his family back to the North Pole, while Rudolph stays behind to help the circus some more. Santa reveals he gave some of his magic seed corn to Lily, and the special ends with an airborne circus parading through the sky behind Santa's sleigh, with Lily (reminder, this is Ethel Merman) singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Honestly, while the special suffers from the usual Rankin-Bass issue of too many songs and feeling too saccharine, we have a pretty good story that serves as a general "finale" to the Rankin-Bass Santa Claus specials. There's a threatening villain, an answer for why Rudolph's nose shines, and some good tension. If all of the previous specials with their loose continuity form a universe like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this would be their Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame in just 96 minutes.

But, like the MCU, the Christmas specials didn't stop there. After all, after Infinity War, we got a prequel about a new MCU hero...

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: The Stingiest Man in Town

 1978 brought a traditionally animated Christmas special from Rankin-Bass, The Stingiest Man in Town, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The songs and story adaptation were based on a previous teleplay from 1956, originally by Janice Torre, the animated script being handled by our old friend Romeo Muller. The original went for an hour and a half, the animated version was about fifty minutes.

The story should be familiar with anyone who's read the original Dickens story or experienced any of the various other adaptations or retellings. Our lead character is cruel, selfish moneylender Ebenezer Scrooge (voiced by Walter Matthau), who's so tight-fisted, he keeps a careful eye on how much coal is being used to warm his office, his clerk, Bob Cratchit (voiced by Sonny Melendrez), having to wear his coat inside to keep from freezing. He scorns goodwill and charity, particularly Christmas, regularly declining offers from his nephew Fred (voiced by Dennis Day) to celebrate the holiday with him.

However, this particular Christmas Eve, Scrooge receives a series of ghostly visitors, first of his business partner Jacob Marley (voiced by Theodore Bikel), who reveals his miserable afterlife, wishing he had been more charitable in his life. Following that are the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present (both voiced by Paul Frees), who show him visions of his past, and how his actions affect people right now, particularly Bob's little family, including his crippled child Tiny Tim (voiced by Robert Rolofson). Finally, there is the Ghost of Christmas Future, who shows him a very near future in which Tiny Tim has died and Scrooge has also died, with no one caring about anything he'd ever done.

Returning to his bedroom on Christmas morning, Scrooge anonymously sends a nice Christmas dinner and presents to Bob's family and joins Fred to celebrate the holiday. The next day, Bob arrives a little late for work, and Scrooge tricks him into thinking he'll be punished, before revealing he's giving him a raise and help him get Tiny Tim cared for. Scrooge becomes a more charitable man, his past misdeeds being erased by his new reputation.

The historical context of the story isn't well delved into, but more annoyingly, this is narrated by an animal character, particularly one named B.A.H. Humbug, an insect (voiced by Tom Bosley) who also leads several of the songs. One about how stingy Scrooge is at the start is even sung by a chorus of cats and dogs. Given how A Christmas Carol is about our humanity, it's odd to give narration duties to a non-human character.

The songs are all right, being lifted from the previous live action production. There's been other musical adaptations of the story, and I think their songs were better. These aren't bad, they're just not particularly great.

Overall, not going to be surprised if people continue to reach for Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, The Muppets Christmas Carol or Scrooge over this one. It's not that this is a particularly bad version of A Christmas Carol, it's just that there are so many other options that this had to do a lot to stand out and it didn't.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

 

1977 brought the twelfth Rankin-Bass Christmas special (if you add "A Christmas Tree," it's thirteen), based on a song introduced by Western/country singer Gene Autry in 1975: Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey. If you've never heard of the song outside of this special, join the club.

Rankin-Bass built their Christmas brand with Santa Claus stories, but they'd also do some Jesus-inspired specials with The Little Drummer Boy. So here in Nestor, the two collide in a half hour special penned by Romeo Mueller.

We open in the North Pole, where Santa heads off on his Christmas Eve journey, and we're greeted by Spieltoe (voiced by singer Roger Miller, who also serves as narrator), Santa's donkey who assists around the North Pole. Heading into the stable, he shows a nativity scene and points out that the donkey's ears are too short, claiming that he's descended from a long-eared donkey named Nestor who was there.

Flashback, we meet a young donkey named Nestor who lives in a stable with his mother under a breeder named Olaf. Nestor's ridiculously long ears (when he relaxes them, they drag onto the ground) make him an object of derision with the other animals.

When a centurion arrives to take some young donkeys for the Roman empire, he discovers Nestor's long ears and refuses to take him or pay for the donkeys he's taking. Olaf is so upset, he sends Nestor out into a cold winter night. His mother goes out to rescue him, shielding him with her body against the storm, but the cold takes her own life.

Heading out on his own, Nestor meets a cherub named Tilly, who guides him to a town some distance from Bethlehem. (Nestor is shown crossing a sea, but considering he lived in the realms of the Roman empire, he must've lived pretty far west, especially considering that he was in a place that had snow.) He joins a stable, where he's eventually sold to Mary and Joseph. He takes them to Bethlehem, following Tilly and his mother's voice through a storm, and when they can't find other shelter, he finds the stable for them.

Nestor's story ends with him returning to Olaf's stable, where he's eagerly welcomed back. Back at the North Pole, the returned Santa and his reindeer as well as Mrs. Claus (very clearly the same from The Year Without A Santa Claus) and the elves (who were seen replacing the donkey in the nativity scene with a more accurate model during the opening titles) join Spieltoe in remembering his ancestor.

Overall, this felt like a bottom of the barrel scrape for Rankin-Bass. When they based their previous specials around Christmas songs, it was songs that were established for some time, or have remained in the public consciousness very well. This was based on a two year old song that has generally been forgotten, and even with its clear Christmas connection to the Nativity, for some reason, it's also given a Santa Claus framing story.

Well, it's weird they got to the bottom of the barrel this fast, it wasn't like they'd done A Christmas Carol. ... Oh wait, what's the next one?

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: The Little Drummer Boy, Book II

 The sequel to The Little Drummer Boy followed in 1976, eight years after the first. The Little Dummer Boy, Book II does a fairly good job of continuing the story and style. The puppets have been revised, or perhaps recreated. They're very good matches, however. Only those with very good eyes for detail would notice. Jules Bass took over from Romeo Mueller as writer, however, using his Julian P. Gardner pseudonym. The voice cast has changed, with the exception of narrator Greer Garson.

The story opens with Aaron at the manger, thinking there is more he can do. Melchior, one of the wise men, asks for his help in seeing Simeon, a bellmaker who has created a series of silver bells he wants to use to announce the birth of Christ. However, Simeon is visited by a group of centurions collecting taxes, and when they find the bells, made of pure silver, they confiscate them, planning to melt them down into easier to transport bricks.

Aaron, his animal friends, Melchior and Simeon go after the centurions, Aaron playing his drum, offering to entertain the centurions in exchange for compensation. When Brutus, the lead centurion, is told that they need two sticks and kindling to start the fire, he takes Aaron's drum and uses that and its sticks to start the fire.

However, while this sorry scene takes place, Baba, Samson and Joshua pull the bells to safety. Aaron manages to slip away and helps Melchior and Simeon bury the bells, disguising them as sand dunes, a plot which tricks the centurions, who give up, leading Brutus to order that Simeon will not be reported so his own embarrassment at losing the bells will not be reported.

Simeon sets up the bells and plays them to announce Christ's birth. He asks Aaron to lead people to Christ's manger with his drum, presenting him with a new one he's made. Overjoyed at the replacement, the Little Drummer Boy plays once again.

The sequel honestly isn't bad. Not quite as moving as the original, though. There are certainly plot holes, a big one being that the special take place over a few days, but at the end, narration implies that the bells play on "Christmas Day," despite that Christ would be a few days old now.

This is one one of the specials that's a little more difficult to come by, despite it being on DVD. I'll be explaining the availability of the specials later, so hold that thought.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: Rudolph's Shiny New Year

 1976 brought the follow up to the first Rankin-Bass Christmas special, putting twelve years between them. Rudolph's Shiny New Year is supposed to be the sequel to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but the models are different, looking more like the models seen in Santa Claus is Comin' to Town and The Year Without A Santa Claus. Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, Clarice and the Bumble are nowhere to be seen. Plus, Rudolph is younger than the adult self he grew into in the first special.

Thus, I maintain that we're supposed to assume the general story of the first special took place, but a gentler version more in line with the jolly Santa Claus seen in recent specials. I'll get onto that later. Romeo Mueller returned to write this special.

This special opens directly after Rudolph's first flight, and as Santa is getting ready to relax, he gets a message that Father Time needs help finding the baby New Year (each year is represented by a person) or else time will stop at December 31 and be that date forever. Noting the continued bad weather, he sends Rudolph out to help.

Arriving at Father Time's castle, Rudolph is further briefed on the details, that the baby is called Happy and escaped to the Archipelago of Last Years, mainly because he was ashamed of his oversized ears. Meanwhile a giant vulture called Eon (the DVD subtitles spell it Aeon) is looking for Happy. If the New Year Comes, he will turn into ice and snow. I will note that Eon should be considered a Roc, especially as when he appears, the music riffs on the hymn "Rock of Ages."

The special spends quite a bit of time exploring the different whimsical islands, each styled after a past year's notable history, as Rudolph travels them with the help of a whale named Big Ben and meets new friends who accompany him. But eventually, Eon captures Happy and Rudolph leads a daring rescue mission that fails as Eon traps him and his companions in giant snowballs. Rudolph manages to break out using the glow from his nose and approaches Happy as Eon sleeps.

Rudolph encourages Happy to remove the hat he's using to hide his ears by telling him his own story, which is told with a round of the famous song about Rudolph and traditional animation. This shows Rudolph's nose beginning to glow and surprising his parents and his father covering it with mud. He attempts to play with other reindeer, but his nose breaks through and they refuse to play with him. Then a jolly Santa approaches Rudolph with his offer to guide his sleigh. Sure, this is a shorter version of the story, but much of the trappings seen in the first special aren't here or even hinted at.

Happy listens to Rudolph and when Eon sees Happy's ears, he begins laughing, which rescues not only Rudolph's companions (they've been trapped in those snowballs all this time), but also Eon as the sheer joy he feels from laughter will ensure he won't turn to ice and snow.

As the group convenes, the countdown bells to the new year begin ringing and Santa arrives just in time to get Happy to Father Time so he can take over as the New Year, marking the changeover with a celebration.

I felt this one was too long, designed for an hour timeslot. We get characters who ultimately don't add much to Rudolph's journey (I didn't even mention some of them) and the runtime is padded out with visits to the other islands. I would be interested in seeing if this was cut down to a half hour to see if the story could flow much more briskly.

Rudolph will return in one more special, but we're not there yet. Time for another sequel.

A Rankin Bass Christmas: Frosty's Winter Wonderland

 Frosty the Snowman finally received a sequel seven years later in 1976 with Frosty's Winter Wonderland. Returning were Jackie Vernon as the voice of Frosty and writer Romeo Mueller as well as the character designer and composer. Andy Griffith takes over as narrator.

The children who built Frosty are anxious for him to come back, and when Frosty hears it's snowed, he comes back and begins playing with them, much to the chagrin of Jack Frost, who feels like he's been upstaged by Frosty, so he begins trying to get back at Frosty by wrecking his games with the children or trying to steal his hat. All of these schemes backfire, however.

Frosty gets lonely when the children have to go home at night, so they propose he takes a wife to keep him company. They build a snow wife for him that Frosty names Crystal, and after they try to bring her to life, Frosty does it by presenting her with snow flowers he made with pure love. As they celebrate, Jack uses an icy wind to blow off Frosty's hat, sending him back to his non-alive state. However, Crystal restores him with a kiss.

Frosty and Crystal gather the kids to announce their wedding, but Parson Brown refuses as he's not legally allowed to marry snow-people. However, he suggests building a snow parson to do the job, lending it his hat and Bible. Jack tries to whip up a blizzard to stop the wedding, but Crystal and Frosty acknowledge that he's important to the winter season, which is very important to their continued existence, so he's invited to be the best man, which makes him stop being antagonistic.

Jack joins the fun and tries to keep winter going for as long as possible, but Parson Brown points out that the trees and flowers need to come back for Spring. So Jack joins Frosty and Crystal to the North Pole, with the narrator assuring us that they'll be back every time the season changes to a winter wonderland.

Honestly, I thought this might actually be better than the original Frosty special. It's not Rankin-Bass' best, but it was fairly enjoyable, and Jack Frost makes a nice antagonist who can be won over. The original felt like they were stretching the story of the original Frosty song to make a special. This one combines the lore of the first special with lore inspired by the song "Walking In A Winter Wonderland."

Speaking of older specials getting sequels...

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: The First Christmas — The Story of the First Christmas Snow

 This one is totally new to me. This debuted in 1975 and was written by Jules Bass himself under the pseudonym Julian P. Gardner. It appears to be a wholly original story.

The special opens in an abbey in southern France, where Sister Theresa (voiced by Angela Lansbury, who also serves as narrator) paints Christmas cards, featuring snowy images of her hometown or the First Christmas. However, it begins to storm and they see a shepherd boy get struck by lightning. Theresa and the other nuns head out to rescue him.

The boy, Lucas, awakens and is going to be fine, but is blind. The nuns help him care for his flock, and his dog Waggles. As Lucas recovers, he learns about snow from Theresa. He's never seen it because the town is close to the sea. He wishes he could see snow so much, he begins to dream of it. Meanwhile, Father Thomas (voiced by Cyril Richard) plans to take Lucas to an orphanage.

Lucas joins the Christmas pageant as an angel, becoming friends with Louisa, another angel. They talk about snow, and he reveals he's been dreaming of snow. However, not all the children are compassionate, and the three boys playing the wise men prank Lucas by hiding his sheep. The sheep get out, however, and head into a dangerous forest. Being a good shepherd, Lucas goes after them and begins to round them up. The boys confess to Theresa, who has them go after Lucas, who is still missing one lamb, who's fallen in a pit. The boys help Lucas rescue it and get back to the Abbey in time for the pageant.

After the angels sing their song, it begins snowing. Louisa explains to Lucas what the snow looks like, and her description makes him tear up. Surprisingly, his tears restore his sight permanently.

As the abbey winds down after the pageant, Lucas offers his flock to Theresa as he won't be able to take them to the orphanage. Instead, Father Thomas and Theresa agree that Lucas should stay at the abbey.

At 24 minutes, this one was another sweet little Christmas story written for those with a religious preference. It's not really bad, but doesn't really reach the same strength as the previous religious-themed special, The Little Drummer Boy.

The most frustrating part is the title. According to the wikis, the title is supposed to refer to the snow at the pageant, but I wonder why the unwieldly title couldn't at least be reduced to The First Christmas Snow. Regardless of the subtitle, one would expect The First Christmas would be a retelling of the Nativity story.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: The Year Without A Santa Claus

 On to one of the most popular specials! 1974, in addition to 'Twas The Night Before Christmas, Rankin-Bass also released The Year Without A Santa Claus, the second "animagic" special to feature Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus, based on the book by Phyllis McGinley, adapted by William Keenan. The story of the original book is present, but there are many new characters and subplots added in.

Mrs. Claus (voiced by Shirley Booth in her final role before retirement) narrates the special, opening by teasing that there was a year when Santa Claus took a holiday. She teases it was long ago "before you were born," after Thanksgiving, but before Christmas, that Santa woke up with a cold. His doctor tells him that a lot of people don't believe in Santa Claus, so he should be fine taking some time off. Santa decides he'll take Christmas off this year, shocking the elves.

Mrs. Claus contemplates taking over delivery duties herself, but then decides to send elves Jingle and Jangle with young reindeer Vixen to find someone who still believes in Santa. Unfortunately, they get caught in the crossfire of the feuding Heat Miser (George S. Irving) and Snow Miser (Dick Shawn) and are stuck in Southtown, a warm city in the southern United States.

Jingle and Jangle disguise Vixen as a dog by covering her antlers so they look like long ears and ask some children, led by one Ignatius "Iggy" Thistlewhite if they believe in Santa. The kids are skeptical about Santa, but then Vixen is caught by a dogcatcher. Already in over their heads, they call Mrs. Claus.

Santa discovers Vixen is missing and goes to Southtown to find her. Using just the name "Claus," he runs into Iggy, whose mother invites him inside. During their encounter, Ignatius asks his father and "Claus" if they believe in Santa Claus. His father says he does, and both he and Santa tell when Mr. Thistlewhite was a boy and didn't believe in Santa, but Santa came to his room and talked things over. They compare believing in Santa Claus with believing in love. Claus goes to retrieve Vixen from the pound and take her home, and Iggy realizes who he ran into.

Iggy meets with Mrs. Claus and Jingle and Jangle, who got a promise from the mayor to give Santa Claus a holiday of his own if they could make it snow in Southtown. They go to Snow Miser, who says he can't make it snow there because it's in Heat Miser's territory. Going to Heat Miser, he says he'll agree if he can warm up the North Pole for a day. Snow Miser doesn't want to give up the North Pole. So Mrs. Claus goes to their mother, Mother Nature, who makes the two agree to a truce: one day of snow in Southtown and one day of warmth in the North Pole.

Southtown's mayor holds up his end to get other mayors to declare a national Santa Claus day and children from all over the world send presents and letters to Santa, encouraging him to take a Christmas off if he needs it. However, one little girl writes him saying she'll miss him, the letter being presented with a performance of the song "Blue Christmas."

Touched by the love and kindness of the children, Santa decides to go make his deliveries after all.

This is probably the most entertaining Rankin-Bass Christmas special in the lineup so far. It has a very good story and great songs. In addition to the title song, "Blue Christmas" and "Here Comes Santa Claus," there's the touching "I Believe In Santa Claus," Mrs. Claus' "I Could Be Santa Claus," and the iconic songs for Heat Miser and Snow Miser.

The original Phyllis McGinley story is more or less represented: it was just Santa feeling exhausted and deciding to take a holiday, and when word gets out, Ignatius Thistlewhite is the one who says that Santa does a lot for the world, it's time to let him have something. Santa is touched by the gifts and letters he receives and heads out to make his deliveries anyway.

Another McGinley book, How Mrs. Santa Claus Saved Christmas, gets some tribute in "I Could Be Santa Claus." In that book, Mrs. Claus fills in for Santa when he falls asleep on Christmas Eve. As seen in the song sequence, Mrs. Claus puts on one of Santa's outfits and uses a pillow to plump up her belly.

As said, this is the second special to feature Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus. Is it the same continuity? The only issue I can find is the switch from the Kringles to the more standard elves. Maybe these are other elves who've come over the years.

The special got a live action remake in 2006, generally negatively compared to this one. In 2008, Heat Miser and Snow Miser were given their own special in A Miser Brothers Christmas. However, it was a Warner Brothers production without Rankin-Bass.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

 1974 saw the next Rankin-Bass special,  'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Still traditionally animated, Jerome Coopersmith and Larz Bourne took on the writing duties from Romeo Mueller, who'd written the previous specials. The special featured Joel Grey reading the classic poem as inventor Joshua Trundle.

The special opens on Christmas Eve as Joshua anxiously waits to see if Santa will visit his family, his anxiety shared by Father Mouse living under his home. The reason is revealed as letters to Santa were sent back to the senders in Junctionville. A letter in the Junctionville Register claimed that all the citizens don't believe in Santa Claus.

Joshua proposes building a musical clock tower that should get Santa to visit the town. The proposition is carried. Meanwhile, the father mouse discovers his son Albert wrote the letter. Father Mouse then encourages Albert to believe with more than just rationality.

The town does a test run of the clock tower, but it breaks down. And that's how a sad Junctionville was hoping Santa might visit them after all on Christmas Eve.

Father Mouse discovers from Albert that he had gone to check out the clock tower and had broken it. Father Mouse sends Albert to fix it, who manages to do it one minute after midnight, the music only just getting to Santa as he passes over. He visits the Trundle's home, with Joel Grey reading the poem over matching animation.

The Trundles and the mice wave goodbye to Santa, who seemingly leaves Junctionville after visiting just one house...

And that's the end.

Well, it was fairly inoffensive, though it seemed to revolve around just one mouse screwing over an entire town. And it's of course a huge stretch to pull a half hour special out of the Clement C. Moore poem.

Overall, not making the best of Rankin-Bass list here.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: A Christmas Tree

 1972 brought Rankin-Bass' next Christmas production. I say "production" because it wasn't a special, but an episode of Festival of Family Classics, a television program Rankin-Bass ran for 20 episodes, spread over 1972 and 1973. The series used traditional animation by Japanese animation studios.

Like Cricket on the Hearth, a work by Charles Dickens is loosely adapted. And we mean very loosely as the original text is a man's nostalgia of Christmas, first looking back to his childhood, then looking on it as an adult, then looking on it as an old man. Not really a story. The Rankin-Bass adaptation, penned by Ken Donnelly, is almost entirely original, only taking a bare concept from the tale and turning it into its own adventure. Indeed, when the episode was released on VHS, the packaging did not mention it was part of a series, and Dickens' name didn't appear on the front. It's yet to be released on DVD or Blu-Ray, and the rights are with Dreamworks and their current owner, Universal.

Still, it's an animated Christmas production by Rankin-Bass, and it's on YouTube, so let's check it out.

Brother and sister Peter and Mary meet their house guest, Charles Dickens. Taking them to their home, he begins to tell them a story they must also live that involves a Christmas tree. The toys and decorations become characters until one, Peter Piper, comes to life and tells them that the giant Horatio, the one that Jack defeated, has stolen the essence of Christmas. The Christmas tree transforms into the beanstalk and Peter and Mary go after it.

Aided by a mouse named Percival, they find the giant's castle, where his housekeeper Esmeralda hides them in an unused oven when Horatio comes home. He smells humans, and tells Esmeralda to light the oven to warm the place up. Percival helps Peter and Mary escape into the stove pipe, but Horatio catches them. They make a run for it and head back down the beanstalk, narrowly avoiding the giant, who confesses to a fear of heights.

Dickens and Peter tell them that the giant didn't have the essence, but it was stolen by the evil magician Mantu, and they must reclaim it. The star at the top of the tree grows to giant size and takes them to Mantu's magical realm, where a king imprisons them so as not to get on Mantu's bad side, but they find the star and head off. They're stopped by a snow-breathing dragon named Orlando (which honestly sounds pretty cool), but manage to evaporate him by exposing him to fire. Mantu himself flies after them on a flying carpet and shoots a magic icicle at them, which follows their moves. Peter jumps onto the carpet, making the icicle fly at Mantu, forcing him to destroy it. Peter steals the essence, throws it to Mary, who breaks the bottle, releasing it to the world.

The essence makes Mantu feel good, and Peter and Mary prepare to return home, only to wake up and discover they fell asleep during Dickens' story. They tell him of their adventure and assure him that his stories will help make Christmas great. He counters that Christmas will always be great as long as there are children to love it.

It's a rather fun, fluffy adventure that didn't really need Charles Dickens to help sell it. But at 22 minutes, I'd rather watch this than Cricket on the Hearth.

Yes, Rankin-Bass would eventually get to that other Dickens Christmas story, but it wouldn't be for a while.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town

 1970 brought Rankin-Bass' take on Santa's origin story, and offering a much needed reboot to their Santa Claus mythos introduced in Rudolph. Introduced by Fred Astaire as Special Delivery "S.D." Kluger, it uses the classic song as a basis of the story.

Kluger's vehicle breaks down and he reads some letters to Santa he's delivering to the audiences. These ask questions about Santa, and Kluger decides to give us the answers. (Don't open other people's mail, kids.)

The proper story opens in the German-ish town of Sombertown, ruled by the selfish Burgermeister Meisterburger (voiced by Paul Frees). One day, a baby is found on his doorstep with the name "Claus" attached to a license. Burgermeister orders the baby to be taken to the orphanage, but the baby is lost while being pulled on a sled and is taken by forest animals past the Winter Warlock to the home of the Kringles, a family of elves who have been making toys, but are unable to take them anywhere, so they pile up. The happy family take in Claus and call him Kris Kringle.

As Kris (voiced by Mickey Rooney) grows up, he hears how the Kringles used to be the "First Toymakers to the King." Kris is inspired to restore that honor and after he grows up, he goes to Sombertown to deliver toys. But Burgermeister has banned toys, and Kris quickly gets in trouble, and has to flee the town.

On the way back to the town, Kris runs into the Winter Warlock (voiced by Keenan Wynn), who captures him, but when he's presented with a toy train, Kris' generosity thaws his frozen heart and Winter, as he chooses to go by, becomes a staunch ally of Kris and gives him a magic crystal snowball that helps him find schoolteacher Miss Jessica (voiced by Lester Robie) who informs them that Burgermeister has not only destroyed all toys in town, but also ordered all people to keep their doors and windows locked so Kris can't deliver toys through them. So Kris sneaks in through chimneys and leaves toys in stockings.

Burgermeister goes on the offensive and imprisons the Kringles and Winter. He catches Kris coming down a chimney. Jessica gets some magic seed corn from Winter, which makes reindeer fly. She finds some reindeer and they fly Kris, Winter and the Kringles out of prison.

Kris is considered an outlaw, and he begins to change his appearance by growing a beard. The Kringles suggest he go by Claus, the name on the license found on him as a baby. He and Jessica marry, and they, Winter and the Kringles build a new home at the North Pole. (How they managed to walk there is up for anyone to guess.)

As Claus grows older, the Burgermeister's hold over Sombertown eventually ends, and the story of Claus spreads throughout the world. Because it's too much to deliver toys all through the year, Claus decides to deliver only on Christmas Eve.

The special ends with Kluger wrapping up the story and restarting his vehicle (which had broken down, but now works) so he can get the letters to Santa Claus, the credits running over a delightful stop motion sequence set to "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town," ending with Claus stepping out of his home and waving to the viewers.

This was fairly fun and far more good-natured than the grouchy Santa we saw in Rudolph. The models used in this one are completely different from the first Christmas special. Rudolph was teased in this when the reindeer are listed, but Kluger comments "No, that's another story."

One question I had was "Where does the prefix Santa come in to his name?" Never got answered.

Personally, I am a fan of L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, which was written before a lot of Santa lore was standardized, such as Santa Claus living in the North Pole and the names of the reindeer, so he does a very different story. However, Rankin-Bass adapted that as their last stop-motion production, offering yet another version of Santa Claus in their works.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: Frosty the Snowman

 

1969 brought the second traditionally animated special from Rankin-Bass, Frosty the Snowman. Introduced and narrated by an animated Jimmy Durante, the special ran for a short 25 minutes. It also limited itself to just the title song.

The story kicks in on Christmas Eve, where the first snow of the winter is falling as the children are in school. A magician called Professor Hinkle does a magic act for the kids, but isn't very good. He gets frustrated while trying to pull his rabbit Hocus Pocus out of a hat and throws it away. It winds up on the head of the snowman the children make, young student Karen naming him Frosty. The hat brings Frosty (voiced by Jackie Vernon) to life.

Hinkle, seeing that the hat obviously has some magic, wants it back, but the kids protest as they want to keep Frosty alive. Realizing that Frosty will melt when it warms up, Karen gets a train ticket to go to the North Pole. They sneak into a refrigerator car with Hocus and are on their way, but Hinkle hitches a ride as well.

Karen is freezing, so Frosty decides to take her somewhere to warm up. Hocus gets animals in a forest to build a fire, and then goes in search of Santa Claus for help. Hinkle arrives and puts out the fire, trying to steal the hat again. Frosty and Karen enter a greenhouse, which Hinkle locks them into. Frosty finally melts in the heat.

Hocus arrives with Santa, who restores Frosty and tells Hinkle to let Frosty keep the hat, threatening him with no future Christmas presents. Santa takes Karen home, allowing Frosty to romp with his friends one more time before going to the North Pole, as, with a reprise of the song, Frosty promises to be "back on Christmas Day."

Four of these in, I'm willing to say that most Rankin-Bass Christmas specials are short on depth. However, Frosty is better told than Cricket on the Hearth, doesn't contain authority figures being nasty to our hero like Rudolph. I don't want to compare it to Drummer Boy as that likely has a stronger story, the only real objection you could have is if you object to religious imagery. (And if you do, it's not like Santa and Frosty are any more real.)

So, Frosty, while not being substantial, isn't offensive. Good job, Rankin-Bass.s

I will mention that this version of Frosty has inspired several spinoffs, including some not made by Rankin-Bass. Due to the distribution rights being held by CBS and later Universal, Frosty Returns debuted in 1992, though it's not very good. It's been bundled with many home video releases of Frosty, but it's not on the latest DVD and Blu-Ray releases. I can remember seeing a little bit of it during a Christmas party in kindergarten (which would've been about the time it debuted). I haven't seen it since. In 2005, Universal debuted The Legend of Frosty the Snowman, which I saw when it aired, but I can't remember a thing about the story.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: The Little Drummer Boy

 1968 brought Rankin-Bass' third Christmas special, their second one in "Animagic." This one was inspired by the classic Christmas song of the same name, The Little Drummer Boy. Romeo Mueller returned as writer, as he'd also served as writer for the last two specials. Unlike those, however, this clocks in at a brisker paced 25 minutes.

We are quickly introduced to the titular drummer boy, named Aaron. He plays his drum in the desert with his three dancing animals: Samson the donkey, Baba the lamb, and Joshua the camel. He's caught by Ben Haramed, who runs a caravan of performers.

The special gives us a flashback to Aaron's past. He was given the drum by his father, but when thieves raided their farm, burning it to the ground and killing his parents, Aaron began to hate humanity, keeping to himself in the desert with his remaining three animals.

Back to the present, Ben Haramed takes Aaron and his animals to Jerusalem, where they prove to be the only successful act, but Aaron lashes out at everyone nearby. However, when the three kings, the Magi, come through Jerusalem, Ben Haramed is anxious to make some money from them, trying to get Aaron to perform. However, the Magi are on the move, following the Star of Bethlehem, and when they need another camel, Ben Haramed sells them Joshua.

Angered, Aaron leaves the caravan with Samson and Baba and follows them to Bethlehem, where he sees shepherds also following the star. Unfortunately, a chariot hits Baba, seriously injuring him. Aaron carries his lamb to the Magi, who are unable to help, but they suggest he ask another, the baby they've come to see. Aaron plays his drum for the Baby Jesus and as he plays, he feels sorry for hating people and repents. Baba is miraculously healed and reunited with Aaron.

Romeo Mueller said that this was his favorite work for Rankin-Bass and I guess I can see why. Honestly, I can't find much to criticize with this one. It may be a bit too Christian to a secular liking, but it keeps the story short and sweet, a good move away from how the previous specials filled extra time with unnecessary songs and extra B plots.

The only criticism I will bring up is that sometimes the animation seems to freeze and the cuts to commercials are placed oddly.

A Rankin-Bass Christmas: Cricket on the Hearth

The second Rankin-Bass Christmas special arrived in 1967, Cricket on the Hearth, loosely adapted from Charles Dickens' novella of the same name.

This isn't one of their more popular offerings, probably having to do with it being traditionally animated instead of "animagic," plus it's a little rough in the storytelling. It's one of five Rankin-Bass Christmas specials that are distributed by Universal, and when they released a collection of their specials on Blu-Ray, they initially only released three of them, only reissuing a new set recently with all five. Cricket was one of the newcomers, the other was the next one we'll cover.

I have only read a synopsis of the original Dickens tale, and the special says it's "suggested" by the Dickens story. Going from the synopsis, there's a simplifying of the story that Rankin-Bass employs. The original story features a married couple who are not present in the adaptation, who are friends with Caleb Plummer (voiced by Danny Thomas, who appears in live action introducing the special), who's promoted to a protagonist in this animated version, along with his daughter, Bertha (Marlo Thomas).

Getting an adaptation family displacement is Caleb's son Edward, who is now Bertha's beau (Ed Ames) instead of her brother. In Dickens, he was dating a girl named May. He is pronounced lost at sea while serving for the Queen's navy, while in the original, he was lost on a trip to South America. Bertha, in the special, goes blind from grief at this news. In Dickens, she was already blind. (But she was his sister there.) Caleb goes bankrupt trying to find doctors who can restore her sight. As a last ditch alternative to living on the street, Caleb takes a job at a toy factory for Mr. Tackleton (Hans Conreid), who also allows him and Bertha to live in a living quarters there. Tackleton, however, is a stingy man who demands that Caleb only use a small line to paint mouths on dolls, but Caleb sneaks full smiles on later.

Tackleton decides to marry Bertha, who accepts as her father told her that he was kind and handsome, having given them a home. Caleb meets an old man who says he has nowhere to go and lets them stay with him. The man seems disappointed when he hears of Bertha's engagement and leaves.

The main protagonist (and narrator) of the story is Cricket Crocket (Roddy McDowall), who lived on the Plummer's hearth for good luck. He moved with them and has been trying to help. The special invents many misadventures for him, during which he is kidnapped to be sold to China. During the carrying him to a ship, there's a scene in which he's carried through a bar, populated with anthropomorphic dogs and a similarly styled cat (Abbe Lane) sings a song called "Fish and Chips," serving as a "Big Lipped Alligator Moment" of the special. When Cricket is turned over, instead of paying the kidnappers, the human captain of the ship shoots them. Cricket plays dead, then gets tossed overboard, then is carried back home by a perfectly timed series of animals.

Helped by some toys who have come to life while the humans are asleep, Cricket finds the old man sleeping outside and discovers he's a disguised Edward, who returned and isn't dead. He convinces Edward to tell Bertha he's alive and he still loves her. The two marry on Christmas Day. Tackleton is upset, but when Bertha expresses that she still appreciates all he's done for her family and believes him to be handsome, he abruptly does a Scrooge-like change of personality.

The special ends with Caleb thanking Cricket for all the luck he's brought them.

Despite having an easy to follow story (loosely adapted from Dickens, who obviously didn't have all the animal misadventures), this is a really rough special. The runtime is loaded with songs, seven in a forty-nine minute runtime, including a couple reprises. That's close to two songs every ten minutes. The storytelling is obviously bolstered by gags with talking animals and such, and the much-remembered sexist line "You nincompoop! Paying any attention to the words of a gushing female!"

If they'd maybe gone for a half hour timeslot instead of an hour, maybe this would be better. Instead, it's a thin story stretched way too far.