Saturday Supercast 24 - Christmas Cartoon Specials, Part 1
December 17th, 2009With the holiday season upon us, The Saturday Supercast is back with episode 24. In honor of the very merriest of seasons Jerzy, Kevin, and Shawn decided it was the perfect time to tackle some Rankin/Bass specials from the 70s & 80s. This episode is the first of a two part exploration taking a look at the magic and wonder of some amazing stop motion animation (Animagic for those Rankin/Bass-o-philes out there.)
Though Stop Motion Animation has been around since the turn of the 20th century (with some of the earliest work attributed to Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton’s The Humpty Dumpty Circus in 1898, not to mention notable live-action/stop-motion pastiches such as The Lost World in 1925 and King Kong in 1933), it wasn’t until the 50s & 60s that the medium really enjoyed a golden era. Between the work of Ray Harryhausen & Willis O’Brian in films such as Mighty Joe Young (’49) and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (’58), and Art Clokey’s Gumby (’57) & Davey and Goliath (’60) series on television, stop motion was wowing audiences all over the world.
Beginning with The New Adventures of Pinocchio in 1960 Rankin/Bass established themselves as one of the foremost pop culture animation houses in America. Arthur Rankin Jr. & Jules Bass (along with a bevy of puppeteers, seamstresses, artisans, animators, musicians and talented actors & voice actors) spent the better part of thirty years bringing exceptional all-ages entertainment into our homes and theaters. In fact, from the debut of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer in 1964 Rankin/Bass became synonymous with the Christmas season. Between 1964 and 1985 the studio produced 18 beloved Christmas specials and feature films including Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town, The Little Drummer Boy, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and Jack Frost.
For this special holiday episode of the Supercast we decided to kick of the discussion with a look at the 1974 classic inspired by Phyllis McGinley’s poem of the same name, The Year Without a Santa Claus…
In the episode, aside from an in depth summary of the film, we also mention some comic strip inspired seasonal specials such as Ziggy’s Gift (parts 1, 2, & 3), Blondie & Dagwood, and Cathy (parts 1, 2, & 3), as well as some other 80s Christmas cartoon specials like Garfield’s Christmas (parts 1, 2, & 3), Pac-Man: Christmas Comes to Pacland (parts 1, 2, & 3), and the He-Man & She-Ra Christmas Special. We also discuss the swell Rankin/Bass tradition of casting wonderful narrators for their specials including Fred Astaire, Burl Ives, Jimmy Durante, Red Skelton, Buddy Hackett, and of course Shirley Booth in The Year Without a Santa Claus, as well as the interesting choices for voice actors including Robert McFadden (best known for playing Snarf and Slythe on Thundercats), Paul Frees, Bradley Bolke, Dick Shawn, George S. Irving, and the number one star in the world Mickey Rooney.
In addition we dig into some of TYWaSC merchandising, the newly produced sequel from Warner Brothers called A Miser Brother’s Christmas (which reunites Mickey Rooney and George S. Irving), how Rankin/Bass has that It’s a Small World vibe from the famous Disney attraction, growing up with and without a white Christmas, epic adventure (Rankin/Bass) vs. schmaltzy storytelling (e.g. Olive the Other Reindeer, Growing Pains Christmas special (parts 1, 2, & 3), and Santa Claus: The Movie) in holiday specials, the Boris Karloff reading of McGinley’s original poem, The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus, other Rankin/Bass productions (such as Thundercats, Silverhawks, Tigersharks and the Hobbit), the weird storytelling aesthetics and well-drawn villains of Rankin/Bass productions (Kubla Kraus, Burgermeister Meisterburger, MonStar, Mum-Ra, and the Winter Warlock), the very high degree of craftsmanship in the R/B productions, The differences between the original poem and the animated special, trying to figure out when the special is set (using references and homages like the Charlie Chaplin cameo and the Keystone Cop-like police officer), the connection to the previous Christmas special Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, Murray Laws & Jules Bass’ musical collaborations, as well as replacement animation.
If you’re interested in watching The Year Without a Santa Claus it’s available in both a stand-alone release as well as part of the newly repackaged Classic Christmas Favorites set from Warner Brothers. You can also view it for free via youtube (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5.)
As for us, well you can find more of Jerzy’s work at:
Make Like a Tree Comics
jdrozd.blogspot.com
Art & Story Podcast
Kevin is freelance illustrator, comic creator, and podcaster whose work can be found at:
Kevin Cross.net
Big Illustration Party Time Podcast
Ghettomation Podcast
Money Mod Webcomic
…and Shawn is a blogger and irregular podcaster whose stuff you can find at:
Branded in the 80s
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December 17th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
As a religious person, I rather enjoy the spritual cartoons (although I never really got into Nester). There’s one I first saw a few years ago with Angela Lansbury that was an original story about an orphan who helps remind an orphanage about Christmas or something like that. I’d like to see it again, but I can never find it. My favorite’s Rudolph, but for more personal reasons. (I know what it’s like to be teased constantly and feeling useless. That was a large part of my childhood.)
As far as “Life and Time of Santa Claus”, I liked hearing the Thundercats voice actors and all, but they made a 2 hr (with ads on Cartoon Network) cel-animated version with Robbie Benson as Santa that I thought worked a lot better, as they had more time to really flesh out the story, and the big battle at the end works better in cel than in stop-motion.
I’m also surprised nobody mentioned the recent live-action remake CBS made. I haven’t seen it, but I’m wondering if it’s any good?
December 21st, 2009 at 10:04 am
Shawn, I totally got the Mickey Rooney/Saturday Night Live reference. Take heart!
The Angela Lansbury special by Rankin/Bass is “The First Christmas: The Story of The First Christmas Snow.” Roger Miller narrates the story as a donkey.
December 21st, 2009 at 3:08 pm
It’s “Life and Adventures of Santa Claus,” not “Life and Times.” The various versions are based upon a story by L. Frank Baum.
I’ve always felt that Rankin/Bass had a very turn-of-the-century quality about it. This is likely because the material was produced during the 60s when there was a lot of nostalgia about that time. It’s sort of like the way this decade saw a 70s revival. This would also be the age in which many people’s grandparents of the time grew up in, which could account for it. In relative terms, it would be like the post-war 40s and 50s today.
YouTube is available in Canada. There’s no restrictions on it. However, Hulu (and basically all the US network TV sites) is US only. And the major US broadcasters such as ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, FOX and WB have always been available in Canada (provided one has the means to receive it), so Canadians have seen all the same specials.
And it’s worth noting to mention The Enchanted World of Rankin Bass site at rankinbass.com. It’s essentially a fan made site but it’s the most informative site for Rankin Bass material.
The copyright on much of this material is confusing. Most of it had been in public domain before WB bought the library, and in many cases the material may still be, depending upon what country you’re in. (And as a general rule, once something is PD it can’t be copyrighted again.) So it’s possible to find cheap copies of the material out there and in some cases, such as old library copies, the material may still be PD. Although WB did acquire the masters so the best copies come from them. There’s a lot of VHS stuff floating about for almost nothing, if you can find a place that still sells VHS tapes.
December 22nd, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Shadowwing - Yeah, I was reading about the live action remake (I heard WB mistakenly replaced the animated classic with this flick on the recent Classic Christmas Favorites set), but I haven’t seen it. Personally, I usually rather watch cartoons than “live action cartoons”, but it’s something I might give a viewing to this season. Thanks for pointing that out…
PRG - Cool, I’m glad somebody did! (For those interested in seeing the bit, click on the “number one star” link in the show notes above. And thanks for answering Shadowwing’s question!
Patrick - Yeah, I corrected it for the show notes. I get the title mixed up all the time because of the common “life and times” bit in a lot of titles. That’s a keen observation on the tone and feel of Rankin/Bass being very turn-of-the-century. It’s interesting to go back and see what was huge, nostalgia-wise, in the past and see how it influenced the then new pop culture. Sort of like how the 80s are weirdly pervading today’s pop culture. Yeah, that’s what I figured with Hulu, it’s really weird to think that some sites are blocked in certain countries. I totally didn’t know that about the public domain status on the Rankin/Bass stuff, that’s interesting. Thanks for listening guys!
December 26th, 2009 at 8:26 am
That’s the name, but I still can’t find it anywhere, and ABC Family (who seems to have the rights to every Rankin/Bass Christmas special except for the original Rudolph) hasn’t aired it in a long time. (At least they did a slightly better job with Christmas shows this year, but they’re still giving a poor showing of their “25 Days of Christmas” event. As much as I loved The Incredibles, it’s not a Christmas movie.)