RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER
(1964)
Background:
The song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was written in 1949 by
Johnny Marks, brother-in-law of May, and recorded by Gene Autry the
following year. Since then, everybody and their jingle dogs have recorded
the song. The claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer appeared
in 1964. When Reagan deregulated advertising, the elf song was
typically cut when this aired on network television for many years.
Notes: Videocraft International Productions.
Summary:
Sam the Snowman (Burl Ives), our narrator, welcomes us to
Christmastown (the North Pole) whose
"#1 citizens are the Clauses," and explains that "some years ago" a
blizzard threatened Christmas.
We see Mrs. Claus pushing food at a relatively skinny Santa, and Sam
says, "It's always the same
story." He trumps up the surprise notion that some of us haven't heard
the story of Rudolph and
tells us to "pull up an iceblock." The credits run. One spring prior to the big blizzard, Donner and "Mrs. Donner" have a
calf with a hideous facial
deformity. Their anxiety is justified when Santa visits the cave, sings
the self-promotional "Jingle
Jingle Jingle," and tsk-tsks about Rudolph's nose. What Sam refers to as
a "nonconformity" the
Donners decide to keep hidden. Reindeer, we learn, also must regularly
hide from the Abominable
Snow-Monster, and Dad Donner shows Rudolph how he uses his antlers to
pretend to be a stick. Meanwhile, Hermey the elf is not happy in his toyshop work, but his
orthodontal career
aspirations render him a "misfit." Rudolph is made to wear a nose-cover
which he complains is
"not very comfortable." Donner insists that "self-respect" is more
important. And Christmas comes
and goes. The next year, the elves practice their own self-promotional song, "We
Are Santa's Elves" ("We
work hard all day, but our work is play"), but Hermey is missing, working
on dolls' teeth instead of
"practicing" how to be an elf by going "hee hee and ho ho." He gets
chewed out by the chief elf and
decides to take off. Meanwhile at reindeer practice, girlie deer flirt with Rudolph and his
new friend Fireball. Coach
Comet announces, "My job is to make bucks out of you." Rudolph speaks
awkwardly with one doe,
Clarice, and when she says she thinks he's "cute" he flies and impresses
the other reindeer. But
his fake nose pops off and the others laugh in derision: "Hey,
Fire-snoot!" "Shnozz!" Santa tells
Donner he should be ashamed of himself and Comet says that "we won't let
Rudolph join in any of
our reindeer games." Clarice still walks homewards with him, singing in non-sequitur
reassurance, "There's Always
Tomorrow For Dreams to Come True" ("We all pretend the rainbow has an
end, and you'll be there, my
friend, some day"), until her father snatches her away from Rudolph the
freak. Hermey and Rudolph meet up, sing "Fame and Fortune," and Hermey
proposes, "What do you say we
both be independent together?" Unfortunately, the Abominable Snow-Monster
is able to track them
because of ol' Fire-snoot. The next day they meet Yukon Cornelius, a
prospector with a dogsled
team that includes a poodle. He rants about silver and gold, minimally
prompting Sam the Snowman
to sing "Silver and Gold," a supposedly anti-materialistic tune rating
tinsel and wrapping paper
above precious metals ("What would a Christmas tree be" without sparkly
crap all over it?). Cornelius needs to get supplies: "cornmeal, gunpowder, hamhocks,
guitar strings." But the
Abominable chases them until they create an ice-break and float away. We
learn that Donner is
headed out to look for Rudolph, telling the Mrs. that "This is man's
work." Mrs. D. and Clarice
venture out themselves anyway. The adventurers have now landed on the Island of Misfit Toys, where a
Charlie-in-the-box and
other plaything rejects sing "When Christmas Day Is Here" ("Toy galore
scattered on the floor;
there's no room for more, and it's all because of Santa Claus!"). In the
course of the song, we
meet a water pistol who shoots jelly, a bird who swims, a cowboy who
rides an ostrich, a boat
that sinks, a bear with feathers, an elephant with the pox, and a
ragdoll. (A long-standing
question has involved the undetectable flaw in the ragdoll. One myth has
it that she is a homicidal
maniac, but the barely known fact is that she is included among the
Misfit Toys because she pees
hydrochloric acid.) The leader of the island, King Moonraiser, a rage-aholic flying lion,
searches the earth for
unwanted toys and brings them to the island. Rudolph, Hermey, and
Cornelius are not welcome since
the island is exclusively for toys ("Even among misfits you're misfits"),
but the tyrant
nevertheless extracts a promise from them that they'll notify Santa Claus
of the Island's
existence. That night, Rudolph sneaks off alone, not wanting to
jeopardize the others because
of his snoot. Rudolph grows antlers and supposedly realizes "you can't run away from
your troubles," although
he seems to have mangaged to do so quite well so far. He returns to
Christmastown's taunts of
"Neon-Nose" where Santa tells him the other deer have gone to find him.
As Rudolph sets out to
retrieve them, the big storm hits. Rudolph finds the cave of the Abominable Snow-Monster, a
geo-architectural hell-mouth, in which
the other deer are presumably about to be eaten. Rudolph gets conked out,
but Yukon Cornelius
and Hermey happen along. Hermey oinks to lure the Monster to where Yukon
can pick-ax ice and a
boulder down upon him. Hermey removes the Monster's teeth and when Yukon
bullies the Monster
towards a cliff, he, Abominable, and the dogs all fall over to their
grisly deaths. The others are all very sad "but they realize that the best thing to
do is to get the women back
to Christmastown." For it is nearing the holiday. Santa promises to visit
the Island of Misfit
Toys and Hermey will open a dentist's office with the chief elf holding
the first appointment.
Donner apologizes. Then Yukon appears again, insisting Snow-Monsters
"bounce" and that he has
"reformed" this one. Abominable places a star on the top of a tall
tree. The next day is Christmas Eve and Mrs. Claus is still pushing food --
"Eat, Santa, eat. The
children expect a fat Santa." However, weather reports are bleak: "We'll
have to cancel Christmas."
When Santa announces this, lo, a nose revelation: "What I'm trying to say
is: Rudolph, with your
nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?" After a rousing
rendition of "Holly Jolly
Christmas," Santa is now fattened enough to burden nine reindeer, and
with much pomposity ("Full
power!" "First stop: the Island of Misfit Toys!") they take off into the
Arctic sky. After resignation to nihilistic despair among the Charlie-in-the-box,
the elephant with the pox,
and the ragdoll, Rudolph's nose and Santa show up, the misfits hitch a
ride, and all toys are
distributed down chimneys the world over as the credits run and the
Rudolph song is rendered.
Santa has the final word: "Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!"
Robert L. May (1905-1976), a copywriter for Montgomery Ward in
Chicago, created Rudolph in 1939 as a poem, adding the character to the
list of Santa's reindeer given in Clement C. Moore's famous "A Visit from
St. Nicholas." The store had traditionally had a coloring book give-away
at the holiday season and wanted to save money by offering their own
production. May rejected the names Rollo and Reginald for the reindeer,
and the store initially had some reservations about the red nose
implications, but the character became popular and spawned a 9-minute
cartoon in 1948.
Produced: Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass (the production team
responsible for The Last Dinosaur)
Directed: Larry Roemer
Written: Romeo Muller
Story: Robert L. May
Title Song: Johnny Marks
Voices: Larry Mann, Billy Richards, Paul Soles.
The technique of verisimilitude is exemplified effectively with
newspaper headlines showing grim
winter scenes very unlike the claymation atmosphere characteristic of the
remainder of the show.