I understand that the puppets could've been better designed, but the reason why the Rudolph model used in this film looks so vastly different is because the original puppets were given away to crew members after production on the original special ended, not realizing how successful a classic the movie would become, where they were handled by children and battered, and only two original puppets from the original Rudolph have survived to this day. They've since been restored and displayed in museums and exhibitions.
Am I the only one who unironically likes the song Santa sings to Mrs. Claus? Say what you want about the placement of the song in the movie, but the idea of Santa comforting his wife when they think they might die by singing about how much he loves her? Not to sound sappy but that’s genuinely sweet.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Lost all power in his nose 'Cause the instructions he heard Were impossible to follow He was to always recognize Propaganda and deceit But he was a newborn child So he was set up for defeat AND THERE WAS NO POINT IN GIVING HIM THE LIGHTED NOSE!
Yeah, and "blinky" never was all that "bright." God knows he was easy enough to deceive!! Half the time, he talked all slow, like he was "stoned." He, no doubt, grew up to be one of those kind-hearted souls that mean well, but aren't all that smart.
Scratcher could've easily been Fireball, the other young male Reindeer he met at the beginning of the original special. The supposed history between the two of them would make more sense and he'd be a much more clever antithesis to Rudolph as one of his former bullies who never grew out of his prejudices.
It's also worth noting that Mickey Rooney also voiced Santa in The Year Without A Santa Claus, which also seems to be where the reindeer design comes from
That scene where you're summarizing Winterbolt's absurd plan. Did you actually do that, or did you read all of it more slowly and then speed up the audio. If you actually read it that fast... damn.
Winterbolt's death always scared ME, too. Also, I have to admit, this movie is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me; yes, it's awful, and I know it's awful, but for some reason I always look forward to it on television...there's something I just can't help but like about seeing a whole bunch of my favorite Rankin/Bass characters all together like this. It's horribly executed, but I still enjoy it, in my own twisted way. (pauses) I have nothing further to add. An excellent review, sir!
3:22 - No, it wouldn't make sense, because the Winter Warlock turned into a good guy midway through Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, so how would it be an evil territory in that case?
Bobsheaux is talking about before Santa met Winterbolt. Before the two met Winterbolt was a bad guy and he was the ruler of the territory. It was only because of Santa's kindness that Winterbolt became good and gave up the territory
Regarding the cinematic universe comment, most people seem to forget that Universal made a shared universe with its black and white monster movies - Frankenstien, Dracula, etc. Only inconsistency I noticed was how Lon Channey Jr. played Lawerence Talbot in all his appearances, but Dracula was played by Bella Lugosi twice, not *count*ing his stage preformances.
You're right. I heard for the longest time Universal Studios has been working on trying to reboot the cinematic universe but it's not working out well for them. Though yeah I think if any company were to do their own cinematic universe nowadays I would want it to be Nintendo as I think it would be awesome to see characters like Link,Mario,Shulk and so on to interact with each other.(And what got me to think of that idea was Brawl's Subspace Emissary.)
He has the power of suggestion, not mind control. The only way he'd be able to persuade Santa to walk off a cliff is if Santa kinda already wanted to die anyway. That's awful, but a suicidal Santa would make a far better holiday story than this one *:/*
i'll give this to Rankin Bass, when they want to be charming, they do kinda appear creepy at times, but when they want us to be scared, they nail it out of the park
I JUST REALIZED THE REASON THAT RUDOLPH LOOKS OFF!! THE WHITE PART OF HIS FACE IS SUPPOSED TO STOP AT THE EDGES OF HIS MOUTH, NOT UNDER HIS EYES AND BEHIND HIS CHEEKS! I also always hated it when Rudolph always had those tiny antlers in the sequels.
Actually, as time went on, they "got better" at giving him more of a face. Not only that, but he was about 13 years old, there. Even reindeer faces change as they grow. As for those tiny antlers in the sequels, that never did make sense. But intelligence rarely ever filters into these productions. Naturally, Rudolph's voice would have got deeper and his antlers would have got even BIGGER as he would have reached at least average size for a fully grown reindeer of his type. He was, no doubt, a rapidly growing boy. Bigger every year, I'm sure.
Murdoc Cipher interestingly, the original puppets from the first special were all stolen, I believe. This explains why they constantly turned him back into a kid, it was cheaper to recreate his smaller form.
@@marissawolff8491 Why are you calling me a hater for pointing out that I dislike this particular Rudolph design? What does that accomplish other than trying to start a fight?
the genie of the ice scepter genuinely terrified me as a child and, i'm not to that point in the video yet so i don't know your reaction but, not to mention Winterbolt's unnecessarily gory death........
I wouldn't call it "gory"--there was no blood--but it was CREEPY. Winterbolt turning into a spooky tree scared me as a kid, and when I saw Santa Claus Is Coming To Town for the first time a short while later, I was nervous the same thing was going to happen with Winter Warlock. (My mother reassured me, "No, sweetie, he's going to end up a nice old man." And he did. With one of Rankin-Bass' best songs to boot.)
Well, Jennifer, I did find a tree that looked just like it near the beach in Monterey California. It was gray, ugly, and UNBELIEVABLY dead!!! Guess it was poor old Winterbolt. He made the best damn firewood I ever burned!!!
20:55 The reason she throws the guns is because they’re filled with blanks. Plus they’re made of iron which traditionally is used as a defense against magic.
Now I really want to see an evil Rudolph doppelganger. Imagine it, a reindeer who's heart is filled with nothing but darkness and pure evil, fur that's darker than the average reindeer, scars that run all over his face and body, with one dead eye and razor sharp antlers that are blacker than the night.
You know, in Winterbolt's defense; his voice actor, both Rankin-Bass and Hannah-Barbera regular Paul Frees, tried his hardest to be as intimidating as possible in this role. Something that's not easy to do with a series like this.
That and it would've been distracting to hear him voicing Santa Claus in the same thing as there aren't too many differences between his voices for the two of him, thus why they most likely got Mickey Rooney to reprise his role.
Well, since Paul Frees was voicing King Winterbolt, it makes sense that Mickey Rooney was reprising his role as Santa Claus, because he was literally the only other actor who could reprise his role besides Paul. Stan Francis (the first original voice of Santa for Rankin/Bass) only got to voice Santa once and passed away in 1966 which was long before the Christmas in July movie was being made, and even if Stan were still alive and active in the late 70s, he most likely would've been unavailable since he was based in Toronto (so was Billie Mae Richards in the 60s, but I'm assuming she may have moved to Los Angeles sometime after that), and Paul's voices for Santa and King Winterbolt sound very similar if not exactly the same, so they would've blended if he voiced both of them in the same thing. Perhaps they could've had Paul reprise his role as Santa and someone else entirely as King Winterbolt (maybe Christopher Lee), but I'm glad it happened the way it did. I do agree that it was stupid for Rudolph's shining nose ability to be granted to him at birth by another character, and noticed that as a problem when I saw it last year.
I did find a dead old tree on the beach near Monterey California! It looked just like winterbolt, complete with that looked like a spooky old head and face! My wife can be superstitious and said it looked demonic and that we should leave it alone. I said it looked just like that evil "ice king" in that Rudolph and Frosty's July movie. I ignored my wife's superstitious warnings and cut that old eye-sore down. And you know what? That was the best damn firewood I ever burned!!! If that was Winterbolt and he was slowly getting re-vitalized, .. I certainly fixed THAT!!!
last year i was on a rankin-bass special kick, so i looked up as much history as i could. as it turned out, i'm not sure if they did this to every figure they used, but for at least the original rudolph the red nosed reindeer, they didn't really care what happened to the figures after filming was finished. they ended up gving them to friends and family as toys. most were destroyed from time or wear from being toys, but some were recovered and fixed up some time in the 2000s and put on display. (the only two i can remember them talking about fixing up was an angel, and the original santa and baby rudolph) so, i think that's why they kept re-designing rudolph every movie he appears in.
mewthemew I wonder if that's where they got the idea for that Pinocchio special? Specifically the part where the puppet master tells Pinocchio he's going to redesign the girl puppet?
So yeah, Rankin/Bass de-aged Rudolph for Rudolph's Shiny New Year in '76. It's kinda like how Petrie learns how to fly at the end of Land Before Time, but he doesn't fly in the sequels. Or how Bumblebee doesn't talk in the Transformers sequels. I guess it's the creator's way of keeping a character the way the audience remembers/likes them in an ongoing series, regardless of it's effects on continuity.
10:35 You're talking about Rankin & Bass here. The best they could often do for villains (especially in their holiday specials) was a slightly more miffed Oscar the Grouch! XD ...though I will give them some credit. This is probably one of the few movies where they actually kill the bad guy. 20:20 Which actually makes more sense for Rudolph to be singing it with Frosty instead of Hermes, because both of them are legitimate freaks of nature. Rudolph is a mutant with a glowing red snozz and Frosty is an wintry abomination brought to life by devil magic.
Nevermind the villain's horrible death, what about how easily he died. If all they had to do was bust his staff, then why seal him away? He's easier to kill than Ganon from the Zelda CD-I games. Oh, right, because this movie is poorly written. Also, I wouldn't worry about the retcon about Rudolph. Why? Because the Rankin/Bass stuff that came after seems to prefer to pretend that crap didn't happen. If you wrote that, wouldn't you want people to forget it, too.
You'd think Rudolph being the messenger of the gods would be pretty awesome. Kinda disappointed now. As for Winterhold not making Santa walk off a cliff I think it might be because he only has the power of SUGGESTION not mindcontrol. Well that's the impression I got at least.
6. Winter Warlock vs Winterbolt 7. Mumble: King of the Abominable Snow Monsters 8. The Amazing Jack Frost 9. Santa Claus is Coming to Town: Age of Burgermister 10. The Amazing Jack Frost 2
What? Red glitter is crack...? So...that means my classmates and I were't just doing whimsical arts and crafts in elementary school but...drugs? Egads....
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was a song written in the mid-1940s to promote a department store Christmas plush toy that year. I think it was J.C.Penney's. There's this hilarious Rifftrax short featuring said song/story, where, if you look closely, you'll see little Rudolph dolls in almost every single frame. Cute, and almost subliminal.
It was Montgomery Ward's, and the promotion was a picture book (in 1939) that pre-dated the song (which came along ten years later). The Fleischer animated short came before the song and was adapted from the book, but a later reissue featured a new opening credits sequence with the song.
I remember Montgomery Ward's. That store chain has been gone for one VERY long time. Yeah, if Santa Claus actually DOES exist, he may have dog-like reindeer that fly and talk, but I doubt very seriously that God had the "sense of humor" to furnish Santa with an actual red nosed one!!! If fact, I bet that they were probably quite "intrigued" at the notion of a Christmas reindeer with a glowing red nose. An idea that probably STILL gets "roll-eyes" from the big guy. Sorry folks. And Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July looks like it would have happened sometime back in the very early 1900s. Maybe even a bit earlier. This means that, unless Rudolph had gotten to eat from the Biblical tree of life ( something only SANTA and his WIFE are permitted to do! ), he would be long dead by now, anyway!!!
15:20 I like the "We're a Couple of Misfits" motif playing in the background. Might've been the composers being lazy, but it fits the scene pretty well.
19:13 I've always thought that the reason Rudolph's nose was restored by the magic from Frosty's hat. The reason Winterbolt wanted the hat was so he could find the secret to it's magic, which would allow him to replicate it, resulting the "army of snowmen" idea he had. Then I thought to myself, maybe Lady Boreal created the magic in the hat sometime before Professor Hinkle came into possession of it, similar to how she made Rudolph's nose glow, as a last ditch attempt at destroying Winterbolt once and for all.
In fact it's the flower that brings Frosty to life. I believe Professor Hinkle got the hat on Easter and Hocus Pocus knew of its magic because he was an Easter Bunny alongside Peter Cottontail. The Bonnet talks in Peter Cottontail which Kris Kringle is in. Lady Boreal may also be responsible for bringing Baba back to life and guiding Aaron to Bethlehem
Honestly, as weird as this movie is, I consider it to be one of my favorites. I look forward to watching it every year. I love the idea of Rudolph and Frosty crossing over, I love seeing Frosty's family, and I just love the overall weirdness of this. I will admit this is definitely one Rankin Bass' weaker films, but there are worse than this. Cricket of the Hearth and The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold are the ones I consider to be worse. I never enjoyed either of them, and their plots are so messy. Also, as much as I love this movie, I can't stand Ethel Merman's character. She annoys me so much. 8I
I had an aunt that was a lot like Ethel Merman's character. Oh, GOD how she would talk a person's EAR off while your'e driving down the road!!! I almost drove off and left her back at Johhny Quick!!! But I am too good a PERSON to do that to somebody. But, man, was I ever "tempted!!!"
22:51 I just want to point out for those you haven't watched this film, that this is a joke right here, Rudolph actually stays behind to help the circus pay off its debt.
@@theatomicfox178 Yeah, that one's really rather charming and has a lot of subtle humor, such as Rudolph saying that the Island of 1965 was "too noisy". Hmm, what famous band played one of their most high-profile concerts that year--which featured so much screaming from the audience they couldn't hear their own songs?
I remember this movie (Specifically when Lady Boreal gives baby Rudolph his ability) and I just dismissed it as some weird dream since I was like, 6. So.. it’s real...
Yeah, Bob, I hate to say it, but this is another movie I like. Right up there with When Good Ghouls Go Bad. And even if you don't like it, this is nowhere NEAR one of the "worst Christmas specials ever."
I like this one too, despite the continuity of the two stories. One of my fave Christmas movie gems... especially for Rudolph's story arc. At least I can appreciate the opinions of others, whether they like it or not.
I believe I can kind of explain the opening with Rudolph's nose. Winterbolt was casting a spell to try and take out his light (can't really remember why) but it doesn't work
I know it's bad, but just seeing Frosty and Rudolph together is just so awesome. I was this movie when i was younger and was just blown away by the pairing of thise two iconic character. It's one of my guilty pleasures that i do get teased for, but i don't care and happily make fun of some of the inconsistencies of the film. It's bad, but fun bad.
+MadameSomnambule yes there is a live action version from 2006 and it has John Goodman as Santa, Delta Burke as Mrs. Claus, and Michael McKean and Harvey Firestein play the Meiser Brothers.
In all fairness, Lilly throws the guns because they only shoot blanks--but she knows they're made of iron and guesses that breaking the scepter will cripple Winterbolt.
I know this movie is ridiculous, but it's still one of my favorites. Seeing all of those old characters together is really cool to me, despite a handful of continuity errors.
Yeah, this special/movie was very... badly done in execution... but I sadly admit I still enjoy putting it on during december in the background while I'm getting things ready. I'm a sucker for cute things, and this movie was full of cute moments. I do however acknowledge it's flaws, it's continuity errors, it's plot holes, and overly complicated yet some how dumb story, and that it could have been MUCH better, but all in all it's harmless compared to other christmas specials I've seen here and there.
As Bobsheaux has said on many occasions. LIKE the bad movie. LOVE the bad movie. There's nothing wrong with enjoying a movie just because you do. Just don't defend it to the death when people criticize it or tell people they should die because they don't agree with your opinion. LOL And yes, Rob...I still like Maleficent! :P
Yeah, Hermie will NEVER reach puberty with Rankin & Bass constantly reversing their AGES!!! He'll never be able to grow that nice orange beard he always wanted to grow, either!!! And he will never get any TALLER. He will never be big enough to beat up that mean "Boss Elf." Hermie started to get a bit taller and he grew tufts of orange hair in two new places! But then Rankin & Bass reversed the poor guy's age, too!!!
Bobsheaux: “Now, it turns out Rudolph’s nose was given to him by the gods?” Me: As private parts to the gods are we, they play with us for their sport!
I was always under the impression that the hat did give his powers back tbh. Or at least, it activated them again. Kinda like when you buy a gift card at Walmart and it's not active until you scan it at the register.
22:07 you have a magical, talking whale that can swim through time periods. Pretty sure he can manipulate time in some way there. Also to note on the "why'd he trick Frosty into giving up his hat" it's simple. Winterbolt is evil, this gets him what he wants without a fight AND it still makes sure that Rudolph is out of the picture.
Dnd 5e Suggestion spell "The suggestion must be worded in such a manner as to make the course of action sound reasonable. Asking the creature to stab itself, throw itself onto a spear, immolate itself, or do some other obviously harmful act ends the spell."
First Rudolph and Frosty movies were great! I watch them every Christmas and it never gets old. I think the same about the second Frosty, but everything after that was just....yeah.
Please review Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny, it is just so much "what the actual fuck is happening and why" that you simply cannot pass it up, Please, I'll even subscribe if you do
Rudolph and Frosty Christmas in July was a good Christmas movie of Rankin Bass, that did a good job connecting many of Christmas specials of Rankin Bass.
I ain't gonna lie... I did as well. But it's because it's right in your hears if you're wearing headphones and sorta of surprises you. So in essence... A jump scare sound.
Oh yeah I remember watching this special. Honestly this may be just me but I kinda enjoy it a bit. Granted yes some things don't add up or make sense but it's not the worst I have seen in terms of Rankin Bass. But I can agree the songs are just filler which is not good.(After all if you're gonna put song numbers they need to serve a purpose.) I wonder though have you ever seen the special with Jack Frost? That one was really good if you ask me. You should make a review of that special in December because I think you would like it. Also I didn't know they made another Frosty movie i'll have to watch it sometime as I thought Frosty Returns was the un-official sequel to the original movie.
I honestly can't hate Rankin Bass films. They're corny, dumb, and often pretty lazy, but hey, at least their holiday movies are memorable. Plus almost every Rankin Bass movie (like this one)stars Paul Frees, so that's a plus to me.
9:35 I can't unhear the Haunted Mansion when Paul Frees speaks, and at this point, I really wanted him to say something about a "corruptible, mortal state".
YAY! Christmas in July! ...I hope this ends the way I think... The reason why it's a different model for Rudolph(and Santa) is because the originals were believed to be destroyed(though they were found about 10 years ago) and they quickly had to make new ones. Why has Rudolph de-aged? ...Because the Kool-Aid Man is red... 2:59 ...I didn't get that one... 6:45 I so thought you were going to put the Transformers poster there... 15:31 Ah, casual 70s racism. ...And why is the Misfit song playing...? 17:35 Oooh, please review Mad Monster Party! 20:58 Well they explain the gun shoots blanks, so they weren't loaded. 22:05 Well, he is a whale of time and it's established that time is just a bunch of different islands, so he just had to take a left turn at Albuquerque. ...1976. Nice to be watching Bobsheaux reviews again! Sorry I had to skip Land Before Time month.
Santa in the wedding scene in this also reminds me of Martin Freeman (Tim from The Office) when he said to Brian Pern that he'd grown his beard for a Chas & Dave biopic!
