Holiday TV specials have been one of the major staples of the season since the childhood of the Baby Boomer Generation in post-WWII America, but of all of them, there are none so iconic as those produced for CBS by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass, hence, the Rankin/Bass Productions. Beginning in 1964 with arguably the most famous Christmas special of all time, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the stop-motion animated adaptations of popular Christmas carols have since been played annually, regularly pulling strong ratings and have since become family traditions for families across the world.
But they're also creepier than hell. I'm convinced that the staying power of these programs is almost entirely based in nostalgic value, with parents watching it with their children, and everyone appreciating them for the sake of their own childhood memories. Because I've neither the time nor willpower to sit through all of them, I've only watched four of them, specifically the best-known and most popular.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is by far the most popular of the Rankin/Bass holiday TV specials, and the great-grandaddy of all seasonal TV specials. Of course, there had been plenty of Christmas television events since the technology had become widely available in the previous decade, but those were usually variety show events, centered around a particular celebrity or brand. Rudolph was the first of the stop-motion animated specials produced by Rankin/Bass, and I think it might not be unreasonable to say, the creepiest. Based on a Christmas character and accompanying carol created in 1939 as a promotion for retail company Montgomery Ward, the story is pure post-WWII Americana; Rudolph (voiced nasally by Billie May Richards), the misfit reindeer with a red light bulb for a nose, is a social pariah who teams up with a couple of other social undesirables, and through their freakishness, they ultimately save Christmas for everyone.
Despite the painstaking process of stop-motion animation (not actually "claymation," the characters are created with advanced mechanical armature puppets, each moved minutely between single-frame shots, filmed over the course of 18 months), the overall product has a shabby feel to it all around. The animation is certainly not up to par with the modern technologies of studios such as Aardman or Laika, but worse, the story is an irrational mess. The timeline makes zero sense (supposedly this all takes place in the course of under a year), the characters are shakily defined, and the themes are hazily presented. Yes, everyone learns to accept these misfits at a seemingly fascist North Pole, but only once they've proved they can be adequately exploited. Plus, Rudolph features the nastiest little Santa of any widely-seen Christmas work. He's an old grouch who treats Rudolph as poorly as the "other reindeer" do, if not worse! He doesn't seem to be doing any actual work, but he always complains about being busy, and disses on his elves' singing.
I'm not sure what to make of Hermey either. For one, I don't know what "Hermey" is short for, but I'm tempted to guess "Hermaphrodite."
For more on this creepy classic, check out I-Mockery's 16 Serious Questions Raised By Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: http://www.i-mockery.com/shorts/rudolph16/
The Little Drummer Boy (1968)
Rankin/Bass' take on the religious origins of Christmas is probably the least popular of these four specials, no longer playing annually ("War on Christmas," you know), but in 1968, it was the second stop-motion animated special made by Rankin/Bass, following up on the hugely popular Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Based on 1941 song, Carol of the Drum (the title later changed), popularized in 1955 by the Trapp Family Singers (of THE SOUND OF MUSIC fame) and later versions, The Little Drummer Boy gives the original song's titular figure a name and back story. Aaron (voiced by Teddy Eccles), an Israelite lad who loathes humanity for the death of his parents, and whose only possession is a drum given to him from them, lives outside of society with a camel, a donkey and a sheep. He's kidnapped by Ben Haramad (voiced of Jose Ferrer), a conman/showman who hopes to exploit the boy's talents, and Aaron finds himself caught up with the Magi, who summon him to the Christ-child's bedside in a moment of need.
Like the other stop-motion animated stories from Rankin/Bass, The Little Drummer Boy is overwhelmed by a visual creepiness, but it does try to have a serious story with real pathos, which is interesting, but the characters are just too silly looking, especially at their most seriousness.
Frosty the Snowman (1969)
Frosty the Snowman is the most popular of the hand-drawn animated Rankin/Bass specials, telling the troubling story of a snowman brought to life by a magic hat, who then takes a little girl with him to the North Pole, where she starts to suffer from hypothermia. There is an adult in hot pursuit, hoping to put an end to the foul snow-beast, but the snowman consistently foils him, nearly fatally at times. That's what I see.
Honestly, my favorite character in this animated short is the antagonist, Professor Hinckle (voiced enthusiastically by Billy De Wolfe), the worst magician in the world, who only wants to get his hat back from the stupid kids and their creepy snowman, but those behind the product simply don't realize the unparalleled value of this character. Frosty was a moron.
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (1970)
This is the second-most popular of the Rankin/Bass TV specials, probably because it has one of the most awesome Christmas villains of all time. Mickey Rooney voices Kris Kringle, aka Santa Claus, who as a baby was discovered by a family of toymakers who live in a cabin in the wilderness. I don't understand the relationships of this family. They're made up of several little elf guys, all of whom look like miniature Santas, plus a full-sized old marm named Tanta. We know that the little guys are brothers, but while it's implied that Tanta is their mother, this is never made clear, and there's no apparent father either, so she may be sleeping with all of them [wretch], but I suppose that's beside the point. Anyway, Kris grows up to be the only full-sized male of the group, and Tanta will be damned before she does anything useful, so Kris takes charge of taking all the Kringle's toys over the mountain (past an evil warlock) to the next village, Sombertown (subtle). In Sombertown though, the coolest mayor of all time, Burgermeister Meisterburger (voice of Paul Frees, who you may recognize as the "Ghost Host" at Disneyland's The Haunted Mansion), has declared all toys illegal. The Burgermeister is awesome; this guy actually makes a huge bonfire of childrens' toys, in front of the sobbing children, in the town square and arrests Santa Claus, without any eventual retribution, although of course, Santa, the hardened criminal, escapes. Which brings me to one of the most inexplicable plot holes ever; the Winter Warlock, in prison with Kris, laments his loss of magic and mentions to Kris' squeeze, Jessica, that all he has left is a few knick-knacks, like magic feed corn, which he specifies is useless against prison walls, but because they have magic feed corn, they escape on flying reindeer (who eat the corn). Nobody says anything about the prison walls. This is obviously because Jessica exchanged sexual favors to the prison guards for them to set her friends free, but they couldn't put that in a children's program.
No comments:
Post a Comment