Hey guys! Welcome back to another Christmas special review. Today I'm going to be talking about the 1964 NBC special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. However, I'm going to be looking at it a little differently than I normally would've had I reviewed this on my old blog. So let's get into it.
I have been watching Rudolph for about thirty years now. Every year, around this time, whether it's on TV or on DVD, I will watch Rudolph. Why? Because it's one of my favourite Christmas specials, besides Frosty the Snowman and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. But, I've never seen Rudolph in the same way that I saw it last night when I sat down to watch it on the The Original Christmas Classics Anniversary Collector's Edition DVD box set that used to be my grandfather's. In the past I've seen it as a simple tale about a Reindeer whose nose glows bright red, an Elf who wants to be a dentist, and Santa Claus. It's so much more than that though.
I am autistic and while I know that Rudolph and Hermey aren't autistic I can still relate to both characters because they're misfits, just like myself. One line that really resonated with me is when Hermey is in the workshop working on a doll, pretending she's a patient, needing work done on her teeth, and the Head Elf, who apparently has no name, says to him, "You'll never fit in!". Why does that resonate with me? Because when I was in high school, I wanted to fit in so badly, despite being the only kid in the school who was physically disabled and used a wheelchair. This was back when I thought I just had physical challenges to overcome, not knowing that I'm autistic. It wasn't until I got to college that I realized that not only would I never fit in, but that, maybe, just maybe, I didn't WANT to fit in. I wanted to be weird and unique and not care what anyone else thought.
That's what Rudolph is all about. Learning to accept the differences within yourself as well as in the people around you. Not only that, but it's about other people's inability to accept these two misfit characters just because they're different than everyone else. Which is so resonate in today's society as we struggle to be tolerant of other people's cultures, skin colour, and sexuality. Even disabled people are often forgotten about by society. And while I think the turnaround on the characters accepting Rudolph and Hermey was rather quick and out of nowhere, I think that's just because we didn't see the Head Elf or the other Reindeer while Rudolph, Hermey and Yukon Cornelius were on the Island of Misfit Toys and dealing with the Abominable Snow Monster, and they don't appear again until the end of the special. Which makes their acceptance a bit jarring. All except for Rudolph's father, Donner, as we see him realize that he was at fault for trying to hide Rudolph's nose in the first place.
I'm not a huge fan of stop motion animation, preferring either traditional 2-D animation, or 3-D/CG animation. Just because I find that stop motion animation is rather limiting in terms of facial expression and movement, though set design is very good. However, I feel that it works for Rudolph and for Santa Claus is Comin' to Town better than other stop motion animated movies and TV shows that I've seen over the course of my life. I can't imagine Rudolph being done in the 2-D style that Frosty or How the Grinch Stole Christmas are done in. The sets are gorgeous, the characters are well designed, even if their expressions are pretty limited. Especially the human characters like Santa and Cornelius and the form of animation used in this special make it what it is. 2-D animation is fine for the 1948 short cartoon, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and the 1998 feature film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie, but for this, stop motion is perfect.
The songs in this special are awesome. My favourite songs are "There's Always Tomorrow", sung by Clarice to Rudolph, after the other Reindeer had made fun of him and Coach Comet expels him from the Reindeer Games, "A Holly Jolly Christmas" sung by Burl Ives as Sam the Snowman, who is the special's narrator, and of course the titular song, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which is also sung by Burl Ives. In fact, I know that it is Christmas time when I hear the Burl Ives version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". I also have two new favourite songs. One being "The Most Wonderful Day of the Year" sung by the Misfit Toys. The other is "We're a Couple of Misfits" sung by Rudolph and Hermey at various points at the beginning of the special.
I don't have anything to dislike or outright hate in this special. However, if I had to pick something, it's that complete turnaround with the Elves and Reindeer suddenly accepting Hermey and Rudolph at the end. I know they only had so much time to tell the story in, but it's kind of a fast turn and a little jarring. I'm not going to knock it too much though since this is a fantasy, not real life, so it doesn't have to be realistic for me to enjoy it.
That's my review of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I might be back tomorrow with another post, but I'm not entirely sure yet. Alot of news is coming out of Disney concerning Star Wars, Lucasfilm in general, Marvel, Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, so I might come on here and talk about all of that tomorrow. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Have a great evening guys and I'll talk to you all later.
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