| Genre: | Christmas, Animation, Family, Comedy |
| Director: | Larry Roemer |
| Narrated: | Burl Ives |
| Composer: | Johnny Marks |
| Language: | English |
| Producer: | Arthur Rankin Jr. |
| Cinematography: | Tadahito Mochinaga |
| Runtime: | 52 minutes |
| Company: | Videocraft International |
| Network: | NBC |
| Image Upright: | 0.9 |
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a 1964 stop motion Christmas animated television special produced by Videocraft International, Ltd.[1] It first aired December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the United States and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour.[2] The special was based on the 1949 Johnny Marks song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which was itself based on the poem of the same name written in 1939 by Marks's brother-in-law, Robert L. May. Since 1972, the special has aired on CBS. The network unveiled a high-definition, digitally remastered version of the program in 2005, re-scanned frame-by-frame from the original 35 mm film elements.
As with A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer no longer airs merely once annually, but several times during the Christmas and holiday season. It has been telecast every year since 1964, making it the longest continuously running Christmas TV special in the United States. The 50th anniversary of the television special was marked in 2014,[3] and a series of postage stamps featuring Rudolph was issued by the United States Postal Service on November 6, 2014.[4] A special exhibit was also mounted at the Masterworks Museum in Bermuda, where the original puppets are held.[5] In 2019, Freeform (formerly ABC Family) started airing the special as part of its 25 Days of Christmas/Rankin-Bass Christmas holiday programming block.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was initially met with a positive reception among critics, who praised the voice acting, soundtrack, animation style, characters, and sets. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is often regarded as one of the best Christmas films ever made, being featured on numerous "top ten" lists. It has become widely popular among both young children and adults familiar with the Christmas season, and has garnered a large cult following since its initial debut.
Donner, Santa's lead reindeer, and his wife have a new fawn named Rudolph. They are surprised to find out he was born with a glowing red nose. Donner attempts to first cover Rudolph's nose with mud, and later uses a fake nose, so Rudolph will fit in with the other reindeer. The following spring, Rudolph goes out for the reindeer games, where the new fawns learn to fly and are scouted by Santa for future sleigh duty. Rudolph meets a doe named Clarice, who tells him he is cute, making Rudolph fly. While he celebrates with the other bucks, Rudolph's fake nose pops off, causing the other reindeer to mock him and Coach Comet to expel him.
Rudolph meets and joins Hermey, a misfit elf who left Santa's workshop to follow his dream to become a dentist, and Yukon Cornelius, a prospector who has spent his life searching for silver and gold. After escaping the Abominable Snow Monster, all three land on the Island of Misfit Toys. It is a place where unloved or unwanted toys reside with their ruler, a winged lion named King Moonracer, who brings the toys to the island until he can find homes and children who will love them. The king allows them to stay one night on the island and asks them to ask Santa to find homes for them. Rudolph leaves on his own that night, worried that his nose will endanger his friends.
Time passes and Rudolph, now a young stag, returns home to find that his parents and Clarice have been searching for him. He then travels to the Abominable's cave, where they are being held captive. Rudolph attempts to rescue Clarice until the monster knocks him down with a stalactite. Hermey and Yukon eventually show up with a plan to help out Rudolph. Hermey lures the monster out of the cave by imitating the sound of a pig and pulls out the Abominable's teeth after Yukon knocks him out. Yukon drives the toothless monster back over a cliff and falls with it.
Rudolph, Hermey, Clarice, and the Donners return home where everyone apologizes to them. Yukon returns with a tamed Abominable, now trained to trim a Christmas tree, explaining that the monster's bouncing ability saved both of their lives. Christmas Eve comes and while everybody is celebrating, Santa announces that a big snowstorm is approaching, forcing him to cancel Christmas. Blinded by Rudolph's bright nose, he changes his mind and asks Rudolph to lead the sleigh. Rudolph accepts, and their first stop is the Island of Misfit Toys, where Santa delivers the toys to children.
The special, with the teleplay by Romeo Muller, introduced several new characters inspired by the song's lyrics. Muller told an interviewer shortly before his death that he would have preferred to base the teleplay on May's original book, but could not find a copy.[9] Other than Burl Ives, all characters were portrayed by Canadian actors recorded at RCA studios in Toronto under the supervision of Bernard Cowan.[10]
Rankin and Bass chose Canadian voice actors for two reasons. First, while the last radio dramas in the U.S. had ended production a few years previously, many were still being produced in Canada, giving the producers a large talent pool to choose from.[11] Second, Rankin and Bass, financially stretched while making Tales of the Wizard of Oz a few years earlier, had been able to complete that series only due to the lower labor costs in Canada.[12]
Ives' parts were recorded later. He and his character were added to the cast just before the end of production, after NBC and General Electric, the show's sponsor, asked Rankin and Bass to add a name familiar to audiences to the cast. Character designer Antony Peters intentionally made the Sam the Snowman character resemble Ives.[13]
After the script, concept designs and storyboards for Rudolph were done by Arthur Rankin Jr. and his staff of artists at Rankin/Bass in New York City. The company's trademark stop motion animation process, known as "Animagic", was filmed at MOM Productions in Tokyo with supervision by Tadahito Mochinaga and associate direction by Kizo Nagashima. Besides Rudolph, Mochinaga and the rest of the Japanese puppet animation staff are also known for their partnership with Rankin/Bass on their other Animagic productions almost throughout the 1960s, from The New Adventures of Pinocchio, to Willy McBean and his Magic Machine, to The Daydreamer and Mad Monster Party?
In the original production, Billie Mae Richards, who voiced Rudolph, was credited as "Billy Richards" since Rankin and Bass did not want to disclose that a woman had done the part. Antony Peters' name was also misspelled, as was the year of the copyright notice (which used Roman numerals), listing it as MCLXIV (year 1164) and not MCMLXIV,[14] potentially weakening the copyright.[15] [16]
The dolls for Rudolph and Santa cost $5,000 to make.[17] [18]
Since those involved with the production had no idea of the future value of the stop-motion puppet figures used in the production, many were not preserved. Rankin claimed in 2007 to be in possession of an original Rudolph figure.[19] Nine other puppets—including Santa and young Rudolph—were given to a secretary, who gave them to family members, which were eventually damaged over time due to poor storage. In 2005, the remaining two puppets of Rudolph and Santa were appraised on Antiques Roadshow; the episode aired in 2006 on PBS. At that time, their appraised value was between $8,000 and $10,000. The puppets had been damaged through years of rough handling by children and storage in an attic.[20] Toy aficionado Kevin Kriess bought Santa and Rudolph in 2005; in 2007, he had both puppets restored by Screen Novelties, a Los Angeles-based collective of film directors specializing in stop-motion animation, with puppet fabricator Robin Walsh leading the project.[21] The figures have been shown at conventions since then.[22] They were sold at auction on November 13, 2020.[23] [24] netting a $368,000 sale price, doubling the expected return.[25] On December 22, 2020, they were donated to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia.[26]
In May 2023, it was revealed by Rankin-Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt that the restored puppets of Santa and Rudolph were actually “publicity” copies, used for photography and other purposes rather than being screen used copies from Japan where the animation was done. These puppets were displayed at the NBC headquarters in New York before eventually given back to Rankin-Bass, whose secretary Barbara Adams took them home for her children.[27]
Ives, and his estate since his 1995 death, received annual residuals from the show, the only actor in it to do so. "This business of residuals was new to our union, which was not quite as strong as SAG or others in the States", Soles recalled in 2014. He, Richards and the other main cast voices received only a thousand dollars over the three years after the special's original airing; it has in some years since made $100 million. While Richards said in 2000 that her compensation was a "sore subject" for her, she had no complaints about the work itself. "I feel so lucky to have something that has made such an impact on people, and it's because of the story first and foremost."[28]
This version has the NBC "living color" peacock at the introduction. It includes the original end credits, in which an elf drops presents that list all the technical credits. It also includes commercials that were exclusively for GE small appliances, with some of the same animated elves from the main program introducing each of the products, and closing NBC network bumpers, including promos for the following week's episodes of GE College Bowl and Meet the Press, which were presumably preempted that Sunday for the inaugural 5:30 p.m. (EST) telecast. The College Bowl quiz show was also sponsored by GE.[29] The original does not include Santa traveling to the Island of Misfit Toys, but does include a scene near the end of the special in which Yukon Cornelius discovers a peppermint mine near Santa's workshop. He can be seen throughout the special tossing his pickax into the air, sniffing, then licking the end that contacts the snow or ice. Deletion of the peppermint segment in 1965, to make room for Santa traveling to the Island of Misfit Toys, leaves the audience to assume that Cornelius was attempting to find either silver or gold by taste alone.
The 1965 broadcast also included a new duet between Rudolph and Hermey called "Fame and Fortune", which replaced a scene in which the same characters sang "We're a Couple of Misfits". Viewers of the 1964 special complained that Santa was not shown fulfilling his promise to the Misfit Toys to include them in his annual toy delivery. In reaction, a new scene for subsequent rebroadcasts was produced with Santa making his first stop at the Island to pick up the toys. This is the ending that has been shown on all telecasts and video releases ever since. Until sometime in the 1970s, the special aired without additional cuts, but eventually more commercial time was required by the network. In 1978, several sequences were deleted to make room for more advertising: the instrumental bridge from "We Are Santa's Elves" featuring the elf orchestra, additional dialogue by Burl Ives, and the "Peppermint Mine" scene resolving the fate of Yukon Cornelius. The special's 1993 restoration saw "Misfits" returned to its original film context, and the subsequent DVD releases showcase "Fame and Fortune" as a separate musical number.
Most of the 1965 deletions were restored in 1998, and "Fame and Fortune" was replaced with the original "We're a Couple of Misfits" reprise. A short slide reading "Rankin/Bass Present" was inserted at the beginning of the special to reflect the company's name change.
Starting in 2005, CBS re-inserted the "Fame and Fortune" scene, albeit with the soundtrack replaced by a rather roughly edited version of "We're a Couple of Misfits". The special has also been edited to make more time for commercial advertising.
In May 2019, it was announced that Freeform would air the special as part of their annual 25 Days of Christmas line-up for the first time, alongside Frosty the Snowman.[30] [31] The agreement was later revealed to be an exclusive rights agreement, as CBS continues to broadcast the special over-the-air each November and December,[32] but not on Paramount+ nor, in an unusual case of blackout, virtual mutichannel video program distributors such as Youtube TV and Hulu + Live TV, which have traditionally carried all network programming in the same fashion as cable and satellite providers; CBS parent company Paramount claimed, copyright ambiguity notwithstanding, that it did not have streaming rights to the special.[33]
CBS still shows the version they have had since 2005, while Freeform's airings reinsert much of the material deleted or changed from CBS's broadcasts, such as the original version of "We're a Couple of Misfits" as well as the "Peppermint Mine" scene, making it the first time that the latter scene has been seen on television since the original broadcast.
When Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was first released on VHS and LaserDisc by Family Home Entertainment and Broadway Video from 1989 to 1996 under the Christmas Classics Series label, the 1965 rebroadcast print described above was used. It got re-released in 1997 by Family Home Entertainment and Golden Books Family Entertainment. It used the same print, but with the GBFE logo at the end instead of the Broadway Video logo. All current video prints of Rudolph by Classic Media are a compendium of the two previous telecast versions of the special. All the footage in the current versions follow the original 1964 NBC broadcast (without the original GE commercials) up until the "Peppermint Mine" scene, followed by the final act of the 1965 edit (with the Island of Misfit Toys finale and the 1965 alternate credits in place of the original end credit sequence).
In 1998, the special was re-released on VHS by Sony Wonder and Golden Books Family Entertainment. In 1999, the special was released for the first time on DVD by the two companies. In 2010, the special was released for the first time on Blu-ray by Vivendi Entertainment. This edit has been made available in original color form by former rights holders Classic Media,[34] (which in 2012 became the DreamWorks Classics division of DreamWorks Animation, and finally in 2016, part of Universal Pictures)[35] As previously mentioned, this is also the version that had previously aired on CBS, albeit in edited form to accommodate more commercial time. On November 4, 2014, they re-released the special on a 50th anniversary edition on Blu-ray and DVD.[36] The same 50th anniversary Blu-ray edition was released with an exclusive storybook; this was only sold at Walmart. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment re-released the special again on DVD and Blu-ray in 2018. Universal re-released the special on 4K UHD Blu-ray as part of The Classic Christmas Specials Collection (with Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town) in 2022.
See main article: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (soundtrack). The songs were written by Johnny Marks, with musical director Maury Laws composing the incidental score.[37] In addition to songs written specifically for the film, several of Marks' other holiday standards populate the instrumental score, among them "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day". Many of the songs are utilized in the score as musical themes for recurring characters and ideas, such as "Silver and Gold" (for Yukon Cornelius, sung by Burl Ives), "Jingle, Jingle, Jingle" (Santa, sung by Stan Francis) and "There's Always Tomorrow" (Clarice, sung by Janis Orenstein). Some of these themes are modified for dramatic purposes, particularly those of the Abominable Snow Monster, who has several interwoven themes; a primary motif, indicated by brass and an F minor key; a modulating chase theme led by tack piano; a tritonal attack theme combining the latter two; and finally the deleted song "The Abominable Snow Monster",[38] which is alluded to melodically during a scene in the Abominable's cave. None of the film's original score has ever been released.
In 1964, an LP record of the soundtrack was released on Decca Records. It contained different mixes of the original songs performed as they are in the special, with the exception of Burl Ives' material, which has been re-recorded. MCA Special Products released the soundtrack on CD in June 1995. It is an exact duplication of the original LP released in 1964. Tracks 1-9 are the remixed soundtrack selections while tracks 10-19 are the same songs performed by the Decca Concert Orchestra. The song "Fame and Fortune" is not contained on either release. On November 30, 2004, the soundtrack was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over 500,000 copies.
Ives re-recorded "A Holly Jolly Christmas", with different arrangements, for the song's 1964 single release. This version, along with a similarly newly recorded version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", was released the following year on his 1965 album Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.[39]
Books and other items related to the show have in some cases misspelled "Hermey" as "Herbie". Rick Goldschmidt, who wrote Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic, says the scripts by Romeo Muller show the spelling to be "Hermey".[40]
A Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer video game was released on November 9, 2010. The adaptation was published by Red Wagon Games for the Wii and Nintendo DS, and was developed by High Voltage Software and Glyphic Entertainment respectively. The Wii version was received poorly, and garnered extremely negative reviews from sites such as IGN giving it a 1.5/10.[41]
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer received an approval rating of 95% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on thirteen reviews, with an average rating of 9.37/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a yule-tide gem that bursts with eye-popping iconography, a spirited soundtrack, and a heart-warming celebration of difference."[42] Contemporary reports rated the special highly, with a 1970 survey from Clarke Williamson noting that viewers gave the special above-average reviews, only slightly lower than two other 1960s classics, A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Little Drummer Boy, and ahead of other specials of the era.[43] In December 2018, a Hollywood Reporter/Morning Consult poll which surveyed 2,200 adults from Nov. 15–18, 2018, named Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer the most beloved holiday film, with 83 percent of respondents having a generally favorable response to the title.[44]
The Rankin/Bass special inspired numerous television sequels made by the same studio:
The television special's familiarity to American audiences through its annual rebroadcasts, along with its stop-motion animation that is easy to recreate with modern technology and the special's ambiguous copyright status, has lent itself to numerous parodies and homages over the years.
Animator Corky Quakenbush has produced parodies of Rudolph for several American television shows: