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.