Told and
Sung by Red Skelton
Original
Airdate: December 10, 1976
Airs
annually on Freeform’s 25 Days of Christmas
Available
as a bonus special on The Year Without a
Santa Claus DVD and Blu-ray
The trend of Rankin/Bass making sequels to their older
specials continues with their biggest property, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, getting the treatment this
time. I technically shouldn’t count this
since it’s more of a New Year’s special than a Christmas special. Still, it’s
listed as a Christmas special and Christmas figures are heavily featured, so I
think it’s worth talking about here.
Now, if my review of Frosty’s Winter Wonderland is anything to go buy, you might think that I might not
look too fondly at Rankin/Bass’ sequels to their highly regarded works. Well, this may be a surprise to you, but I
actually like this Rudolph sequel a
lot.
Much of its appeal has to do with the never-ending stream of
creativity in the interpretation of how New Year’s works. It takes the concept of a Baby New Year and
gives it insightful background of how the baby represents given years. He starts growing up on January 1, and keeps
growing older until December 31 when he retires to an archipelago of islands
where the people and places of that year are preserved. This idea is central to the special’s plot
when Rudolph is commissioned by Father Time to find this year’s Baby New Year
called Happy, who has gone missing. He must be retrieved before December 31 or
else the old year will go on forever. As
Rudolph is sent down the Archipelago to search for Happy, the special’s
creative aesthetic continues to shine with the imaginative characters
he comes across. Father Time himself is
a likable father-like character who gives Rudolph creative ways
time works and is a pleasing narrator for the special thanks to Red Skelton’s
voice work. On the waters, his guide,
Big Ben, is a hilarious smart-talking whale who can also be useful when
fighting off trouble, especially with the bongs of the clock on his tail. Each of the islands are represented by their
own set of imaginative characters too.
There’s an overly optimistic caveman named O.M. from 1,000,000 B.C. A
really loud and dramatic knight in shining armor named 1023 comes from 1023 when
fairy tales occurred. Finally, there's a kindly Ben Franklin lookalike called Sev from the
island where everyday is Independence Day.
Each of Rudolph’s allies on his quest are creatively conceived and are
entertaining in execution, especially when they interact with each other. Because they’re so lovable, I don’t mind that
the supporting characters from the first special don’t show up. I mean,
those characters started on their own desired paths at the end of that special. Anyway, even the antagonist is highly
creative and even impactful as a character.
He’s a monstrous vulture called Aeon who spends the special trying to
kidnap Happy and preserve the old year. He
does his job well as a villain making for some truly frightening scenes to
catch you off guard, but what makes him compelling is his motivation. Aeon can only live for an eon, and his is
up this New Year’s Eve, so he’s simply keeping Happy hostage to keep himself
alive. He doesn’t even treat him too badly when he does capture him. Basically,
while his actions aren’t justified, when you see that Aeon is just trying to
avoid death, they are at least perfectly understandable.
So, we have an interesting concept of how New Year’s works,
lovable and creative new characters, and even some enjoyable, catchy songs to
help illustrate the concepts and settings.
However, you might wonder what Rudolph has to do with all this,
believing that he’s just there for audiences to latch onto something familiar
so they’ll stay for the show. If
that’s the case, you’d be surprised to see how much he relates to the conflict
when you learn why Happy ran away in the first place. He has big ears which everyone laughed at
whenever they saw them and got him depressed and hurt. Throughout the
special, while he tries to hide his ears under a hat, circumstances get it off
and the ears exposed leading to the same thing happening in every island Happy
ends up in. The way people mock and
laugh at Happy’s ears is very similar to how others viewed Rudolph’s nose at
first which makes them share the feelings of ostracism. Because of this, it’s appropriate that
Rudolph is the one who talks sense into Happy.
Via a charming upbeat Red Skelton cover of Rudolph's song
against a traditionally-animated interpretation of Rudolph’s backstory, Happy
is led to reveal his unusual feature.
However, when Rudolph ends up laughing too, it turns out that the use of
Happy’s ears is to make people laugh. I
can see that the story is trying to say that the ears are supposed to make the
New Year a wonderful feel-good one, but it also implies that Happy is meant to
be laughed at. Does he really want that,
and would that mean to same for how Rudolph’s nose was laughed at which was
even more prejudicial? Either way, the
reveal does lead to a nice finale where Aeon is cured of his curse while being
warmed up from laughing at Happy’s ears. Following that is the ending Happy New Year song
when Happy is brought to Father Time at the last bong which is a lively and
triumphant number to go out with.
While this special isn’t as timeless or memorable as the
first Rudolph special and has a questionable moral, the things it gets right
are highly commendable. The new
characters are enjoyable, the villain has significant depth, the
songs are a joy to listen to, and Rudolph himself is worked into the plot
better than you’d expect. Everything
comes together as a Rankin/Bass special that's still impressive in many ways all the same.
The Ranking
Highly Recommended
The Ranking
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town
- The Year Without a Santa Claus
- Frosty the Snowman
- The Little Drummer Boy
- Rudolph’s Shiny New Year
- The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow
- ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
- Frosty’s Winter Wonderland
- Cricket on the Hearth
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next special for yet another Rankin/Bass sequel and the only one of their works to be nominated for an Emmy, The Little Drummer Boy Book II.
If you would like to check out other Rankin/Bass special reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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