Rudolph's Shiny New Year

After Santa and Frosty made their sequels, Rudolph has to have a sequel. This is where Rudolph’s Shiny New Year is made. 

If you’re wondering, “Why don’t you review this on New Year Eve or Day?” It’s a sequel after the original, and I’m not waiting at the end of the month to review and even make it the last thing. You’re either getting this or Island of Misfit Toys?

Rudolph (reprised by Billie Mae Richard) was assigned by Santa to see Father Time, as he was assigned by Father Time (voiced by Red Skeleton) to find the baby New Year. The Baby New Year ran away from the caretaker because of his big ears. The Baby New Year is made to start a new year to age quicker into the new Father Time the next year as tradition. Baby New Year is being eyed on by a giant vulture named Eon, because doesn’t want to turn into ice and snow since his eon time is up.

Rudolph rides on a mini Time Bandit boat to the Archipelago of Last Years find the Baby New Year back in time.

*Shark jump over Rudolph in a boat.*

A giant whale with a clock on its tail named Big Ben saves Rudolph from Eon, as Ben became Rudolph’s ride. Rudolph came across a caveman named OM or One Million

Rudolph: Anyone’s home?

OM: Willy McBean, you’re back! Did you bring back Rasputin Von Rotten? I want to show him how much we evolve…wait, you’re not him! Sorry, you did sound similar.

, a knight named Sir 1024 (voiced by The Riddler’s Frank Gorshin), and 1776 aka Benjamin Franklin.

First I’ll address the Elephant in the room, there’s a real reason why Rudolph looks different; after the original Rudolph ended, Rankin Bass donated 8 of the main models to the executives as gifts. 1/3 of them survived to be displayed at the Antique Roadshow recently, as Rudolph is missing his red nose, and Santa missing eyebrows and one of his mustaches that you swear went to the barber from Frosty. Thus this is the main reason why you’ll never see Hermy and Yukon in any of the sequels by Rankin Bass. Sorry if you’ll be eternally disappointed. They can try to recreate them, but it’s time consuming and these Christmas films come out usually one or more a year. So they have a new model for Rudolph, but deage him and give him white cheeks. We’ll assume he was hugged by the Spotted Elephant, who was secretly a pink elephant that was mostly bleached. You can argue Rudolph shave part of antlers off for the elves’ tools. The deaging I’m partly assuming is the Bambi effect that people love the young deer than when they do grow up.

“The older they get, the cuter they ain’t!”

-Patty Bouvior from the Simpsons.

Speaking of which, Santa is voiced by Paul Frees, yet it’s The Year Without Santa Claus’ film model. It’s made confusing that Frosty is in their world as Santa as voiced by Frees, until Christmas in July is he voiced by Rooney. In fact, Peter Cottontail has the Santa Claus’ Coming To Town model and voiced by Frees, and he reprise his role in The First Easter Bunny. Oh god I’ve gone cross-eyes! Maybe Santa has selective voice, as Ms. Claus may do Doctor Who regeneration. You can argue that Mick Rooney was busy when he was in Pete’s Dragon in the making before release in 1977 while Shiny New Year was 1976, but what Red Skeleton’s excuse is since he’s in the same film. Maybe since Red is the villain’s sidekick, he gets less screen time enough to lend his voice here.  

Now let’s address the shark in the room. Rudolph uses a boat to time travel to the past. Surprisingly he didn’t have a thought of going back to his past. Even though he went to 1965.

Rudolph: Father Time, if I can travel back in time, can I-

Father Time: Rudolph, whatever questions involve you meeting yourself in time traveling, doesn’t go to the North Pole during your time or your parents’ time. The less you go to that time, the better. Now if you excuse me, I got to check up on April Valley.

Here’s a weird fact. I own the VHS of the entire Rudolph trilogy, but Shiny New Year was shown last, while Christmas In July was the second film. I almost had confusion why Rudolph doesn’t know Big Ben.

When Rudolph goes to the island of 1023 AD, they showed most of the Fairy Tales characters. Odd enough, some of the characters and setting looked almost exactly like the designs in Festival of Family Classic. Prince Charming finally looks different than looking like Gulliver’s Travel’s prince to be recycled thrice.

Towards the end of the film, Rudolph had a recap of the previous version assuming animated by Mushi Studio. It’s a nice design as I do want to see this Rudolph animated more often. I was going to think Twas the Night Before Christmas was in continuity, but the Reindeers were tiny and Santa didn’t have a mustache. So that film is off my mind for me to think they’re involved. Now why not recap it with the original footage and showed how Rudolph changed from the first film to this film is assuming they don’t have VHS tapes of them since they didn’t exist much back then.

This is a decent continuation of Rudolph I do like. It expands the world Rudolph is in that you may question a lot the possibility and easy access to the magical setting.

We can complete this trilogy with the next film, but there’s one more film that Rudolph and Ms. Claus from Year Without Santa Claus made their silent cameo when we pull out an ice block and lend an ear with Nester, the Long Eared Donkey.