Little House on the Prairie

When my mom homeschooled us, she used the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder to teach us about American frontier life. Who better to turn to than someone who'd lived the experience firsthand?

Well, as some might know, the Little House books weren't entirely factual, though they did very much depict frontier life in an accessible way for young readers. The author had written an autobiography of her life, but it was rejected by publishers. So she worked with her daughter to tell her story in a more accessible format for young readers, and so began the Little House books, which told a somewhat sanitized version of her life as a daughter in a pioneering family. 

The books were popular with readers, with a TV series from Michael Landon starting in the 1970s loosely inspired by the books, and even an anime series based on the first two books about Laura in Japan. (Anime girlboss Laura.) The later books and further research into her life formed the basis of two more TV movies released in 2000 and 2002, and then The Wonderful World of Disney produced a live action miniseries adaptation of "Little House on the Prairie" in 2005.

The legacy was of course embraced by the publishers who were publishing a spinoff series by the heir of Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, taking an approach to telling a fictionalized account of Rose's girlhood. And then other authors attempted to write similar series about Laura's mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. I actually attempted to collect and read these books back in the day, though now I'm a little more skeptical of their value outside of trying to expand the franchise, most of these books now being out of print. (I'd argue that at least the Rose books have a little more claim to authenticity than the others.)

Now Netflix has a new adaptation of "Little House on the Prairie," an eight episode first season with a second season on the way already. It's an interesting case of adaptation if you're familiar with the books and their history. Is it good? Yes.

If you want a straightforward adaptation of the book, you're better off going with Michael Landon's pilot movie for his series. Laura and Mary (her older sister) are considerably older than their literary counterparts. Baby Carrie isn't around at the start, but this is in line with the true story and she's born during the course of the first season.

The book depicts the family as being very isolated in the Kansas prairies, with the town of Independence said to be "forty miles" away, but modern estimates suggest it was really only fourteen, young Laura either mishearing or the older Laura misremembering when she wrote the book. The series makes use of a nearby town to give the story a supporting cast, including adding a native American family from the Osage tribe with a daughter that Laura befriends. The Osage are given an increased presence, the series attempting to more accurately depict what was going on with the tribe being upset that settlers were moving onto their land.

At the end of the book, Pa is upset when he discovers he didn't actually have a legal claim to the land he was living on and decided to move out. This is in the first season as well, but it's depicted far more dramatically. 

So while the book accuracy isn't great, the creators of the series deserve some kudos for attempting more historical accuracy. 

Also, Luke Bracey as Pa? Uh, thank you...

A Christmas Carol by the Toronto Civic Light Opera Company

 

I've written about the Toronto Civic Light Opera Company's audiobooks before as they produced productions of the first three Oz books, but they're moving on to other classics. First up is Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, just in time for its 180th anniversary.

The Company is still using MP3CD as their distribution format with DRM-free mp3 files being present on a CD. Some CD players can play these right away, or you can use a computer to play back or copy to a mobile device, or you can use a disc player in your home theater to play them.

It'd be very surprising if anyone reading this didn't know the story, but just in case, A Christmas Carol opens on a Christmas Eve during the mid-19th century as moneylender Ebenezer Scrooge runs business at his counting house. Concerned only with his money, he refuses to donate to charity or celebrate the holiday with his nephew. However, that night, Scrooge is warned by the ghost of his deceased partner, Jacob Marley, that he will be visited by three spirits, who show him visions of the situations that shaped him into who he is, how he is regarded in the present, and how his choices will affect the future. Its themes are still shockingly relevant after almost two centuries.

As might be surmised from the name of the company, they are based in Canada. The production is done via Joe narrating and the cast of the company performing dialogue as their characters. In addition, sound effects, music and vocal effects (such as characters laughing) are included to make the story more immersive. What might knock it down for some listeners is that the cast doesn't do British accents, they perform with their own accents. I can't claim none of them are doing voices as I'm not familiar with all of them, but they don't attempt to sound British. Which honestly, that's fine, but some listeners might prefer voices that match where the story is set.

Over all, this is another good option for audio book listeners who want to enjoy an audio version of Dickens' classic.

The CD is packaged in a jewel case featuring a color front image that appears to be from one the company's live productions of a play based on the story. The back lists the music used in the production and the cast, while the four-page booklet also includes a track list, some information about the story and production and photos of the cast.

To get a copy, visit http://joetunes.ca

I Grew Up In Mario Mania

 I remember the day my older brothers got a Nintendo Entertainment System. As they had birthdays in April and March, my parents got them the console as a gift for both of them. I don't remember what year it was, but it had Super Mario Bros. 3 as the included game.

I didn't get to play it much, I was the little brother just watching them swap turns between Mario and Luigi as Player 1 and Player 2, as the characters traveled a fantastic landscape, meeting fantastic enemies, some with vulnerabilities and others who were nearly invulnerable unless you had a power star.

In time, they picked up a few other games, including the classic Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt cartridge. They only occasionally rented Super Mario Bros. 2 which was my actual favorite of the NES trilogy. Later they also got a Super Nintendo Entertainment System with the mother of them all cartridges: Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario World.

It wasn't until years later I got to play the games for myself through emulation. Today, I can easily play many Mario classics and new titles on my Switch, the first gaming console I owned myself.

I knew early on that Mario appeared in other games. Some I got to see played, others I didn't. There were puzzle games like Yoshi, Yoshi Cookie and Dr. Mario. Mario also appeared in other mediums, branded on merchandise aimed at kids, from socks and underwear to toothpaste and shampoo as well as toys.

Mario had also featured in a variety of TV shows, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World presented animated adventures of Mario and Luigi and their friends in adventures based on the games, the writers and animators imagining the world of the games a little further than what you could get through in an 8-bit or 16-bit platform adventure. There were also Mario comics, similarly imagining the Mushroom Kingdom.

So, let's step out of my experience with the Mario franchise to its history. Nintendo was stepping out of toys into making video games and tried to license Popeye for a video game: the player would control Popeye, jumping over obstacles and climbing up platforms to rescue Olive Oyl from Bluto. When they weren't able to secure the rights, they reworked the concept with new characters: Bluto became a giant gorilla they named Donkey Kong. Olive Oyl would be replaced by a girl named Pauline, and the player would control a red and blue-clad carpenter who got the name "Jump Man." Donkey Kong became an arcade hit.

Jump Man would return as the villain of Donkey Kong Jr., as you controlled Donkey Kong's young son trying to free his father from Jump Man's imprisonment of him.

Donkey Kong had a third game, but Jump Man wasn't in it, instead spinning off into his own arcade game: Mario Bros. in which he got the name Mario and his brother Luigi (wearing green instead of red to differentiate him). They got their own game as a launch title for the NES console in the US, Super Mario Bros. which introduced concepts that would become iconic for the franchise: the Mushroom Kingdom, mushrooms, flowers and stars that game Mario and Luigi special abilities, Bowser, the host of enemies, the Mushroom Retainers (later known as Toad) and the Princess. (In the US, she was called Princess Toadstool. In Japan, she was always Princess Peach, the name she eventually came around to in North America.)

The original manual of Super Mario Bros. claims Bowser transformed the people of the Mushroom Kingdom into blocks and plants and Mario has to save the Princess who has the power to restore everything.

The original game didn't have a lot of variance in the world: overhead levels were set up different, creating increasingly difficult stages, but largely were the overhead land, largely on ground with some pits, some underground areas where the brothers fought enemies through a dungeon, underwater stages, stages where Mario had to jump from platform to platform, and every fourth stage was a castle where Mario would face off against an enemy disguised as Bowser, until the eighth "World" (each group of four levels) where you finally got to face off against Bowser for real and rescue the Princess.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is a divisive game in the fandom as there's two sequels to the first game. The "real" version was another game much like the first one with much harder challenges that wasn't released in the US until it was included in a "remastered" form as The Lost Levels in Super Mario All-Stars. What the US got as the sequel was a partly re-skinned and somewhat re-engineered game originally called Doki Doki Panic, a game made for Japan's Dream Factory festival, now with Mario characters instead of the original characters who were part of the event's marketing. This game introduced Subcon, a kingdom Mario dreamed of, as well as recurring villains like Ninjis, Shy Guys, Birdo, Pokeys as well as a few who didn't pop up again. It also allowed you to play as Mario, Luigi, Peach or Toad for the first time, each having special abilities.

Super Mario Bros. 3 was a huge step forward for the games as they place Mario's adventures on an actual map as Mario and Luigi traveled through multiple lands, facing off against Bowser's children and restoring stolen magic wands to the kings of the lands before facing off against Bowser who has stolen Peach again. Suddenly, there were different worlds with themed variations: grasslands, desert, underwater, giants, clouds, ice, pipes and lava.

Then we got into the 16 bit era with Super Mario World on the Super NES. Mario traveled through Dinosaur Land, a new land threatened by Bowser when he and Luigi were supposed to be on vacation with Peach. Assisted by a dinosaur named Yoshi (who Mario could ride, which offered a change in gameplay), they face Bowser, his children and a host of new and old villains.

As the games continued, the storytelling got more advanced. The launch game for Nintendo 64, Nintendo's first console with 3D-rendered graphics, Super Mario 64 has Mario jump into paintings in Peach's enchanted castle (Bowser again) to enter stages that had different objectives each time you played.

The biggest world-building games occurred when Mario branched into RPGs with Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the Paper Mario series and the Mario & Luigi series. Now the characters had dialogue and more complex storylines. A lot of the original stories found in the original game manuals didn't really work with what was eventually established.

In addition to his platforming games which continued to find new challenges on each console they released on, Mario and his cast had other successful franchises like the Mario Kart racing series and Mario Party, and while Super Smash Brothers is actually a tournament fighting game for all of Nintendo's franchises, Mario and his cast are certainly featured.

So, how long before Mario made it into movies?

Very quickly. In fact, Mario's first movie was in 1986. It was an anime only released in Japan titled Super Mario Brothers: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach. It only had the first Super Mario Bros. game to draw lore from. But 1993 brought a Hollywood-produced live action movie, Super Mario Bros. Starring Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi, it reimagined the lore of the games into a more family-friendly but very weird Blade Runner knockoff. It was a box office bomb and fans of the games hated it because it didn't embrace the wonderful world the games presented. It has since picked up a cult following, with sensibilities and knowledge of the behind the scenes stories helping new audiences understand the challenge the movie had.

 

 

That movie also made Nintendo wary of licensing their games out to be made into movies. But now, thirty years later, we have The Super Mario Bros. Movie, created through a partnership with Nintendo and Illumination Animation.

Frankly, if we'd gotten this movie thirty years ago, my child self would have been over the moon in love with it.

The movie is based around the story we've largely understood from the first game and seen depicted in the opening of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show's theme song: Mario and Luigi are plumbers in "our world" (Brooklyn) who wind up in the Mushroom Kingdom after going through a pipe they find while on a job, joining a campaign against Bowser.

There's just some twists: Princess Peach is not a damsel in distress now, vowing to save her kingdom of Toads from Bowser, appealing to the Kong nation (did I mention Donkey Kong eventually had his own spinoff and development that sometimes crossed back with Mario?) for aid. Given that the games have given us multiple instances of Peach being heroic (in Super Mario RPG, she even joins Mario's party and becomes one of the recommended members to have on hand, doing maximum damage with a frying pan), this is a welcome development, though some critics have decried this as being a "politically correct" or "woke" change. It makes Peach more interesting, so I'm all for it.

The movie is a load of fun with gags, lots of action and Easter eggs for fans of the franchise (one used to market the movie is a commercial for "Super Mario Bros. Plumbing" using a reworked Super Show theme song). The characters are used to good effect. Even Mario Kart winds up getting a tribute in the plot. One moment I had to applaud early on has Mario jump and run through obstacles in Brooklyn, clearly paying tribute to the 2D platform origins of the franchise. Peach also tests Mario with an obstacle course, letting him try it again and again, much like how the games allow you to try again. Even The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach gets a reference.

If any element is underserved, it might be Luigi, who winds up quickly getting caught by Bowser's minions and held prisoner and isn't able to join the action until late in the movie. Yet it still gets him right by having him be more prone to getting scared but still joining Mario in his fight against Bowser. He recognizes the danger to himself more keenly than Mario, but is still willing to step up and fight.

There isn't a deep plot here, Mario and Luigi want to prove themselves to their family but aren't doing well in their new plumbing business, but then wind up saving a kingdom. The Mario games have never had deep storytelling, so it's not unfaithful to the franchise, though if they had found an angle for a deeper story, that wouldn't have been the worst thing.

If you're wanting a good time at the movies you can guiltlessly take your kids to, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is it.

And stick through the credits for a potential sequel hook!

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...