Rankin Bass wanted to do another Christmas
stop-motion film after 4 years. The best option is go to the very beginning of
Christmas with the Little Drummer Boy.
Greer Garson tells a story about a little drummer
boy named Aaron wonders in the desert with his camel named Joshua, Donkey named
Samson, and a sheep named Baba. He wonders alone because his parents were
killed by desert bandits with an assault of weapons and fire. (Less than
implied his father was stabbed) Aaron vow to despise people ever since.
Aaron is being capture by Ben Harramond (voiced by
Jose Ferrer.) and Ali to be their performer in Jerusalem. Later, Ben, Ali, and
Aaron came across the Three Wise Men. The Wise Men; Melchior, Casper, and
Belvoir are following The Star to their new holy king. Ben sold Joshua to the
Wise Men since their camel got weak. Aaron has to find his best friend of a
camel to where the Wise Men and his royal caravan are.
I like Ben Harramond. Jose Ferrer’s performance
makes a convincing smuggler and a good player of business. Aaron as a
character, his backstory is tragic, but he’s not an interesting character. His
hatred is only at stares, which is effective, yet most of Aaron facial is
stubborn with some small vengeance.
“Urge to kill, rising!”
-Arron, being dubbed by Homer Simpsons from The
Shinning.
It’s when he had his last straw of a tragedy at the
end is where it gripping, almost symbolizing that he would be alone when he
loses more of his family to the worst of humanity. What makes Samson the Donkey
to Aaron is unknown to me in friendship as it’s the least things happened to
him than others. The music is mostly forgettable, except for the beginning and
last music of the Little Drummer Boy theme. The dialogue is timeless to fit
time period, though questioning how Aaron knows what a gator, a frog, a lion,
or an elephant if he lives in what’s going to be the Israel Desert.
This is the most characters Paul Frees in Rankin
Bass, he voices the Three Wise Men, Ali, the soldier of the caravan, the Roman
Soldier, and Arron’s father.
Aaron’s Mom was voiced by June Foray for two lines.
This isn’t enough for me to talk about her here, so I’ll give more details
about her when we get to the next Christmas film she got more to say as the
second character, at least originally.
There’s another Little Drummer Boy done by
VeggiTales, where there’s a little more emotion felt there, if they didn’t
mention any pop culture, try to do comedy, and Broccoli Aaron’s parents lived
at the end. There’s an animated version done by Burbank Animation. The best
Little Drummer Boy I do know is done by Animaniacs.
Little Drummer Boy is often the weakest Rankin Bass
in title character. Ben Harramond and the ending is what are worth the gift to
give as we can accept. This end what should have been Book One, but apparently
we have Book Two to read through.
So Rankin Bass’ non-holiday films at the time didn’t
do well between 1964 and 1967, and them filming new parts of Rudolph gave them
better stain power with Christmas. So they would go in 2D animation with a
Christmas classic from The Man Who Created Christmas with Charles Dickens. A
Christmas Carol would be too obvious to start with, so they went with Dickens’
lesser known Christmas Classics. Thus they went with Cricket on the Hearth.
I was aware of Cricket on the Hearth as seen in the
commercial in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer VHS in 1998. I didn’t get to see
it until late 2000s when PBS of all stations. When you want to see what is
instantly called a kids film, you would never expect a controversial with the
only time you see a character get shot by a revolver. I’m not kidding.
Tackleton’s Crow, Uriah and his henchmonkey and henchdog get shot by a Sea
Captain for exchanging the cricket as good luck charm for payment of bullets.
This is the first time for Rankin Bass they started
to use reoccurring actors with Paul Frees, while Roddy McDowell and Hans
Confied would only occur in the late 70s and the rest in the 80s.
The animation was done by TCJ Animation Center, who
would later become Eiken Stuido; the company better known animating Tetsujin
28-go aka Gigantor in the US. This was the only time a Rankin Bass was animated
by them. I can see why, their animation is the weakest start, but not as bad as
their animation they did in The Red Baron and even their start as their Wizard
of Oz films. It feels like it would be in full circle that their animation
starts with a one-shot animation and ends similar with Wind In the Willow.
The music isn’t memorable, the melody is nice with
Celab’s Christmas Song sound the strongest, and yet mostly pointless. The most
pointless is Moll the Cat singing in the animal underground, as it’s a Big
Lipped Alligator that means nothing. They haven’t learned their lesson yet
after Mad Monster Party of used of songs only for padding and would get the
point when Frosty happens.
It’s an OK Christmas film. If there’s a film that
needs to be remade, Cricket on the Hearth should be one of them. It could be
longer with the characters they did cut out from the book, keep Bertha and
Edward a couple than siblings to avoid being a Folger commercial, show how
Bertha and Edward got together, show Tackleton more moments than as a manager,
and may keep the Cricket to be important.
Though after watching The Man Who Invented
Christmas, I wonder how Charles Dickens thought of Cricket on the Hearth.
Dan Steven as Charles Dickens: Crinket, Crunka
Lunka, Crocket, ooh Cricket!
*As Charles Dickens said the name, Cricket Crocket
appeared on the Hearth behind Charles.*
Cricket Crocket: Hello, Hello! Cricket Crocket’s the
name, and I’m here to make better with something on their si…
*Charles Dickens swat Cricket Crocket with a book of
Punch and Judy.*
Charles Dickens: Forget it; I’ll just make the
Cricket on the Hearth a metaphor! I hope no one got a better idea with a
cricket somewhere else in this country.
It could be done by a better 2D animation for TV or
laughably limited for theater. It could be in complete CGI without making a
stupid comedy that’s seen in Sony Animation, Blue Sky, Warner Bros. Animation, and
Illumination to go the route of the Lorax again, or about every bad CGI
animated films that have to include pop culture reference in anything set
before the 21 century. If could be live-action with CGI Cricket, but it’ll fall
into the same category as the Alvin Chipmunk genre; the distracting bad CGI
character with a loud mouth mostly white guy we’re going to focus more on, a
pathetic villain, and pop music. Paddington is the only rare exception out of
all of them.
If you want to see a better Christmas film with a
Cricket..
*A screen of Disney’s From All of Us, but I pushed
it away.*
..besides the obvious. I’m talking about Chuck Jones’
A Merry Cricket Christmas. While it can be a little rehash of A Cricket in Time
Square, the friendship with the poor characters are nice, it look nice, and the
ending scene is just beautiful. You can barely find it online, but you can find
it as part of the Chuck Jones Rudyard Kipling Trilogy in stores, mostly Rite
Aid or Walgreen.
Cricket on the Hearth is a weak start for Rankin
Bass Animated Christmas, but not bad enough. The next film is to go deep with
the meaning of Christmas with The Little Drummer Boy.
After Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: The Movie
bombed, the company, Goodtimes wants to try again to be on par with the 1964
film. So they decided to make a sequel to that film while ignoring the actual
sequels in between; basically going by Godzilla sequels ideals. This is where
Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys came in.
Richard Dreyfus as Scoop T. Snowman tells the story
how Rudolph became famous for guiding Santa’s Sleigh that night, but he grows
some doubt and believes he’s being used. Rudolph and Hermey the Elf Dentist is
going on Hermey’s Dentist Mobile by sea to the Island of Misfit Toys to help
King Moonracer dental problem, as warned by an aerophobia kite (voiced by
Tarantulus of Beast Wars, Alec Willow). After Hermey’s “cure” to Moonracer,
Rudolph and Hermy crashed the mobile at an iceberg near Castaway Cove, where
they came across a toy hospital led by Queen Camilla (voiced by Jamie Lee
Curtis). The villain, the Toy Taker has stolen all the toys in the world
through the pied piper, even at Santa’s toys got stolen. Rudolph, Hermey, Clarice,
Yukon Cornelius, and Bumble the Abominable Snow Monster find the Toy Taker and
save the Toys before it becomes a toyless Christmas for children around the
world.
When I first heard the name, I thought it was going
to be another Rudolph film as I became distant from it after the annoying taste
the Goodtimes version left. This all changed when I was wondering what was my
sister and Dad were watching in the living room while I was at the indoor porch
when I had a distant phase. I got to the part with Rudolph got to Queen Camilla
and afterwards, and I thought “Wait, is this our Rudolph, Hermey, Clarice,
Coach Comet, Yuko, and Bumble?” That moment was a glimmer of hope for me that
day.
The CGI is dated, but unlike that piece of rotten
egg drop as Peter Cottontail Movie, it perfectly captures the designs and voice
of the original Rankin Bass Rudolph film. It’s better to capture most of the
design and spirit than barely. Kathleen Barr, who previously voiced Rudolph and
currently voiced the Great and Powerful Trixie capture the original Rudolph
better than THAT OTHER VERSION!! Scott McNeal (best known as Waspinator,
Rattrap, Dinobot, and Silverbolt in Beast Wars) plays Hermey the Elf, Coach
Comet, and Yukon Cornelius; he does great matching three original characters to
a tee. The character I didn’t think they can make better, but did was Clarice. They
gave her a little arc that kinda mirrors Rudolph with the flying, which is welcoming to a
female Rankin Bass character that’s usually just the love interest/ support as
Rudolph does the supporting in return. Unlike Donna in Peter Cottontail the
Movie, or Ms. Claus in Miser Brothers Christmas, or Crystal
in Christmas In July, who does less their initial appearance and would either
be mother or part of the background. Her singing voice is as par, if not better
than the original, despite she has one at the end, but just like the original.
The characters they couldn’t capture are the
Snowman, the Doll and elves’ scale seem to be backwards, and Santa. Santa here
is sort of better here. They got the jolly part of him, as he’s less strict or
a jerk, and are about as sympathetic as John Goodman Santa. Not like Gary
Chalk’s other Santa in Christmas Story 2, John Goodman as Robot Santa Claus and
Year Without Santa Claus remake’s. I could argue that the elves are that small,
because originally in stop-motion the elves would be difficult to animate them
if they were half the size of Santa, despite Hermey’s model would be the
smallest when he’s with Bumble with the lack of mouth and eyebrow. Same thing would
happen again with Felix and It in Mad Monster Party. So making the elves
smaller would work to CGI’s favor. Then there’s Scoop T. Snowman. It would be
difficult to find an actor who’s on par with Burl Ive. However, SNL TV Funhouse
did a sketch with Sam the Snowman. Weird enough, both of them were release in
2001. Island of Misfit Toys was released in October 30, while SNL’s episode was
release in December 15. So timing wise would explain it, made at bad times in
2001, and made worst where Sam the Snowman would take Rudolph, Hermey, and the
kids to.
Scoop T. Snowman: If you’re wondering “Where is
Sam?” He grew tired of telling the same story, and Father Time has continuity
in timeline to fix. So Sam is going to spend his time in his igloo.
Speaking of timing, this was released along with
Robbie the Reindeer, the sequel to Rudolph starring his son. Because of the
copyright that Island of Misfit Toys, Goodtimes only used the characters in the
film, and debatable with Sam the Snowman. This means Robbie the Reindeer was
never allow saying Rudolph’s name, as they take the advantage of it as a
running gag that Blitzen doesn’t want to hear his name. Transformers also
suffered with the loss of using a female autobot, Moonracer.
What kind of ruins the film is timing of the film.
The first Rudolph was set anytime as timeless, but this sequel acknowledges
that video games existed, meaning this would set in the present time of 2001. What
should have been set months after the first film turned into years? This would
make the film confusing with the characters never aging. Then again, they’re as
iconic as Looney Tunes and the Simpsons; where characters don’t age unless
written yet the environment does. However, Rudolph in the original did age with
his body bigger, and antlers longer, but he had them shaved off for the elves’
tools. I’ll put more thought on the age thing with Rudolph when I get to Shiny
New Years. The best toys better than a teddy bear in 1970’s would be difficult,
other than smaller action figures. While this film would rip off Toy Story 2,
it’s debatable if Toy Story 3 would rip this film off, if the Bear was a
villain from the start than a surprise villain that mostly gets stale.
The music is mostly terrible. Goodtimes or Golden
Time is known for few good things, good music is never one of them. The
background music mostly sounds obnoxiously quirky, and couldn’t be on par with
Robert Mays with using the instrumental version of his songs in different
range. There’s some good music with the Toy Taker’s song sounding to this
film’s extent of menacing, and “The Best Christmas Ever” is a decent last
music.
Is this a bad film? Not bad enough to be considered
boring or awful. To me, this is a guilty pleasure of a film, along with Home
Alone 2, Rover Dangerfield, and to name a few. Given with the other Rankin Bass
sequels I’ll be dealing with, let alone any bad Christmas film, it was good
enough for me. I don’t judge a CGI film by their texture, just mostly if it’s
either a good style and/ or animate that style well. Rudolph the Red Nosed
Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys is flawed, but it could have been worse.
Take it for what’s it worth, and judge it for your selves. This may not be gold
film, but it’s Peppermint of a film that can fill me.
*Newspaper flying to the screen with different
articles.
First said, “Rankin Bass’ Pinocchio is a hit on TV!”
Second said, “What does this have to do with
Collodi’s book? I hope we don’t see a bunch of these in the future!”
Third said, Rankin Bass’ Tale of the Wizard of Oz is
an OK cartoon.”
Fourth said, “L. Frank Baum would be glad there’s
only one of his stories to get the film treatment, and this isn’t one of them.”
Fifth said, “Return to Oz is just a poorman’s Wizard
of Oz. I remember when Disney did one with that creepy Patchgirl. Hell will
freeze when we get a good Oz sequel.”*
If I live around being 70, I would see all the
episodes of the two TV shows when first released and barely in VHS. Whether the
shows flow in, well you would barely believe, but without them, we wouldn’t
have this film.
Oh pardon me; it’s still me, Retahensid the
Reviewer. What’s the matter, you ever seen a written review before?
It’s a nice time around the neighborhood for the
holiday, mostly for Christmas and runner-up with Hanukah. It’s the best time of
year, and Christmas Special is Rankin Bass’ strongest point. I’ll try to post two
film reviews in a day, in release order, and this include their related
sequels. *I cringed*
I don’t know how the franchise would have been
without Rudolph. Hmm, Rudolph? You minorities don’t know the story of Rudolph?
Well pull out a Styrofoam ice block and lend an eye!
You know all the reindeer from Dasher, Dancer, skip
a few, Donner and Dixon, but do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all! Of
course it’s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Burl Ive as Sam the Snowman tells the story how a
baby reindeer named Rudolph was born with a shiny red nose. As if you ever
called it, you would even say it glows. His father, Donner would hide Rudolph’s
shiny nose from everyone, including Santa and the Abominable Snow Monster.
In Santa’s Castle, all the elves are building toys
for Christmas, except for one blonde male misfit elf named Hermey. He doesn’t
want to be an elf, instead he wants to be a dentist, and all of the elves
denied it.
At the Reindeer Game, Rudolph had made friends with
Clarice and Fireball. Clarice told Rudolph he’s cute, as he’s happy enough to
fly in the air. (Don’t get that the wrong way.) However, Rudolph hidden red
nosed was reveal, as all of the other reindeers used him to call him name. They
never let poor Rudolph to join in the Reindeer Game, decided by Coach Comet.
Rudolph would meet Hermey to be “a Couple of Misfit” or wanted “Fame and
Fortune”. Along the way, they would be saved by Yukon Cornelius from the
Abominable Snow Monster.
They would be stumble upon the Island of Misfit
Toys, led by a flying lion named King Moonracer. Will Rudolph and gangs find a
place where they belong, be safe from the Snow Monster, and do it all before
Christmas? Why put suspense on a Christmas Classic when I simply answer with
these short answers. Elsewhere; no, yes, and yes.
Yes it’s dated a bit, especially being one of the
earliest special for TV, but Paul Coker Jr. design is simple to the point to
fit the simple story and Christmas feel. Having it being in stop-motion was a
better option as Rankin Bass’ first stop-motion, Pinocchio than simple 2D
animation that didn’t work for the Wizard of Oz and sequel. Many of the voice
actors from the original two TV shows carried over, as Billie Mae Richard
voiced Rudolph as the iconic reindeer we know today. Burl Ives is a good start
of a narrator and singer to give this classic a nice touch. Maury Laws and Johnny
Marks, Rudolph’s song writer did all the lyric and music, and they still hold
up how versatile it is for the atmosphere; it can be joyful, sad, or threaten.
There are actually 4 different versions of this same
film.
The first one is their 1964 debut, where it’s at
their fullest with the full “We Are Santa’s Elves”, “We’re a Couple of Misfit”,
and the Reindeer Ride showing Yukon finding what he needed, except for the
ending. The original version has Santa promising that he would save the Misfit
Toys, but they never showed it, as the elf just showed the credit on the
present. This kind of move would make Santa one of the worst Santa of all time,
adding up with how much of a jerk Santa was. Yes, the reindeer are jerks too,
but having Santa, the jolly big man to be less jolly but be a jerk doesn’t
sound right of a soul to a misfit when need more than one kind soul.
After the complaint, the second version is where
they add and subtract scenes to become the version I known the longest. They
shorten “We are Santa’s Elves”, and the reindeer ride. They replaced “We’re A
Couple of Misfit” with a song “Fame and Fortune”. Best of the addition is the
scene of Santa picking up the Misfit Toys and dropping them off by umbrella
through the credits. This would save the film for the better.
The third version was released in 1998. It’s the
second version, with the extended scenes from the first version, including “We’re
A Couple of Misfits” instead of “Fame and Fortune”. This version would help for
a certain sequel and is the closest to restoration of the first version. How
Donner is near Santa’s Castle instead of being at the sled is beyond me. Maybe
it’s Clarice’s Dad, they are voiced by the same voice actor Paul Kligman.
The fourth and recent version is the CBS version
since 2005. It’s basically the second version, with many scenes slightly sped
up, and combined the chopped audio of “We’re a Couple of Misfits” with the
visuals of “Fame and Fortune”. This is a terrible idea. It’s best to watch
version 2 or 3 than 1 and 4.
There is a previous version of Rudolph was the last
thing Fleischer made as a 7 minute short. Nowadays, people would know that
cartoon in a Disney Sing-A-Long (blame the public domain thing that happened in
the late 80’s.) and the Rifftrax Christmas.
“I need you tonight…”
-Santa Claus from Fleischer’s Rudolph the Red Nosed
Reindeer.
“Woah!!!”
-Roudolph, dubbed by Kevin Murphy of Rifftrax
Christmas.
Don’t get me started with Goodtimes Rudolph the Red
Nosed Reindeer. They may have a better Santa Claus, but the music aren’t good,
Rudolph was more of a jerk than all of the other reindeers, and the inclusion
of Stormella (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg) makes it contrived with the Winter
Storm being caused by magic than natural. “Let’s hope that never happens to
Rankin Bass Rudolph.” On a side note, there's another Rudolph film as Rudolph- Lesson For Life, released in 1996.
This is a classic Christmas I always enjoy watching
every Christmas. Its Rankin Bass groundbreaking best, spoofed by all and it’s
quotable by all in best or worst way…
“No, this is man’s work!”
-Donner said to Ms. Donner, narrated by Burl Ive.
This film might not be for everyone with little
moments like that including the conflicting jerks Rudolph. If it was made in
any other style with generic pop songs, dull visuals, and obnoxious or boring
acting, then it’ll be a terrible film to be forgotten.
There are sequels to Rudolph, but I’m going to hold
them off for a while since I need Frosty for Christmas in July, and I need Year
Without Santa Claus in order to review Shiny New Year to answer less questions
why Santa and the elves are different than Rudolph. Instead, I’m going to
review a sequel that requires none of the characters needed than the sequels
don’t need Hermey and Yukon. Join me for Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys.
It’s a great Christmas special to start with, and
helps to create many specials for years to come.
Let’s review their very last none-holiday film with
The Wind in the Willows.
James Thaddeus Toad of Toad Hall has a mania onto
various things starting with a steam boat. His mania is causing chaos onto his
town without him realizing it, as it brings Ratty on his boat and Moley at his
hole together. Ratty and Moley go through the riverside, as they came across a
literally direct less Toad in his steam boat to crash through them.
Ratty and Moley continue at a different boat to come
across Badger (voiced by Jose Ferrer), as they would stop at Toad Hall where
Toad is.
Toad spots a motorcar as it became his new mania for
one that he bought a motorcar as he made more unintentional chaos onto his
neighborhood. In fact, Toad kept buying cars after cars after destroying them
in Jackass style stunts.
Badger blocks Toad’s allowance and tries to repent
Toad, but repenting means nothing outside of his room. So they locked Toad in
his room, but he escaped to get to a motorcar by any means including stealing.
So the court gleefully yet echoing state their verdict that Toad is guilty and
thrown in the dungeon for 20 years. While he’s gone, the Weasels suddenly took
over Toad Hall to mostly trash his place.
Is Toad redeeming himself, and can we tolerate him
any longer through his mania and personality?
I have briefly seen this film when Nickelodeon used
to air any animated film that isn’t related to a Nicktoon. I mostly refuse to
watch it when it was on, mostly because I don’t want to watch film that Disney
already did their version without the constant reminder of the better known
adaption. I didn’t know back then this was a Rankin Bass film. I was going to
skip this film since there’s no complete film version online, but there’s piece
of them in youtube, and I found the full version in German. Since I know the
story going in, I’m OK watching the German dubbed as long I got English clips
involved.
Toad is voiced by Charles Nelson Reilly; you may
know his voice as Humpty Dumpty in Toby Bluth’s Babes In Toyland,
Humpty: When you grown my dear, and are as old as I…
The Goblin King in… (Labyrinth. Ha ha ha, very funny,
jerks. No this one isn’t even that.) A Troll in Central Park….
Llort: I know a place of rock and steel, and nothing
grows.
Duke of Owl’s nephew in Rock-A-Doodle…
Hunch: Uncle Dukey, Uncle Dukey!!
and…
“Shut up, Killer!”
-Carface voiced by Vic Tayback from All Dogs Go To
Heaven.
Yep, Killer from All Dogs Goes To Heaven. As unique
and entertaining he is, he’s better as side character in small dosage than a
main character. Yes he’s fitting for the character, but it’s funny that the
Disney version has common sense to not steal a car, thus would have some innocent
backing. This Toad is a crazy jerk and he wouldn’t defend him in court.
This is the rare case where the tone of the film is
fighting against each other. Toad wants it a wild comedy, the opening and Ratty
wants a relaxing tone, Badger wants a dramatic, and the music numbers just
break the film entirely. There are about 7, including the opening; all but two
of them mean little to nothing. One is about rowing, Toad’s little food, Toad
riding, and Weasels partying at Toad Hall, even a court has a song. We know
Toad is guilty of simply crashing a stolen car, but why stop there?
“He’s guilty of mayhem, exposer indecent. Freak out
behavior both chronic and recent. Drinking and driving narcotic possession, and
that’s page one of his ten page confession! “
-The cast of Steppin Out, in the Simpsons.
It’s very strange that the Disney version has less
musical moments than this one, and they have one and half; those halves are Christmas
caroling and New Years music. One of the characters that were dropped was Cyril
Proudbotton the Horse and was reduced to being a regular horse with a canary
yellow gypsy cart, though to be fair, that was a Disney exclusive character,
yet made sense that all animals speak than all but a horse. Even more strange
that Disney would something similar when they made a live-action version with
Mr. Toad Wild Ride. That film isn’t any better, and that has everyone’s
favorite villain song, The Secret of Survival.
As for the other characters, Roddy McDowell is a
good rat and the design looks like an actual rat. Speaking of actual, Jose
Ferrer as Badger is the best Badger I’ve seen and heard. His voice is mighty
good, and he does look like an actual Badger, unlike McBadger who looks like
human badger. Most of the animals in design look passable, except for Moley; he
looks creepy. Eddie Bracken voices Moley, who you know him as Mr. Duncan of
Home Alone 2. This is at this point that is this is the only one animated by
Cuckoo’s Nest Studio (who mostly animated Hanna Babera shows, Warner Bros show,
and got doomed when they did Mulan 2 and Universal’s Brer Rabbit), the last to
feature Jose Ferrer since Little Drummer Boy, and the very last time from them
we hear from Paul Frees as the Sea Rat, as he died in 1986, and the film was previously
recorded in 1985 and delayed after his death. It was the last in Rankin Bass,
his very last was voicing a T-rex with Gumby in The Puppetoons Movie.
Overall, Rankin Bass’ Wind In The Willow is fluff of
a mess for me. There’s little that can save, but it’s not enough. Not ordinary is
that they did a TV show of Mr. Toad with each episode having to deal with
different mania, while packaged with another Kenneth Grahame, Redundant Dragon.
That could have worked for a short series, with a chance of getting old! So the
limit for Mr. Toad story is best under half an hour.
What a shame to end the holiday special on the Wind
and the Willow’s note by struggling to be noticed, which that’s sadly to sum it
up. Made worst if I did included the animated King and I. They have made the
second complete stop-motion film with Willy McBean, but it wasn’t widely known,
and with the stereotype doesn’t help to get a wider audience. They try to work
stop-motion with live action integrate with the story with Daydreamer, yet
time limits, location, and the main actor’s puberty would work against them.
Many of the specials would either rely on the actors playing themselves or
fairy tales. The Hobbit films were the different exception. Rather if it was
the studio interference or lighting strike once for The Hobbit and misses
Return of the King, it was hard for them to continue to the point they would
carry the atmosphere and tone into their later films and work for fantasy, but
not enough.
The regular, Easter, and barely Halloween magic can
work few times. It’ll take a different kind of magic to ever attach people and
became everlasting for years to come. So long non-holiday Rankin Bass, and we
should say hello to Rankin Bass Christmas Specials. The specials that have put
their name better on the map.
Remember the Coneheads; those point headed aliens on
Saturday Night Live and had their own movie? Well we just happened to have an
animated special that was originally an animated series.
At Ramulak, Beldar (voiced by Dan Aykroyd) and Prymaat
(voiced by Jane Curtin) are on a mission to travel onto a new planet. They
landed at assuming the Hudson River in New York City.
Primad gave birth to her daughter from her head
on-screen. (You know, for kids! Wait, this was intended for adults on TV? How?)
After they made their contact their commander from
the monitron crystal, they were commanded to move to New Jersey. (I could say
this add the junk pile of bad films in NJ. Jokes on you, I recently moved to
North Carolina, and I didn’t count on the state to be commented on)
They made awkward friends with their neighbors, and
their daughter, Connie has a date with a human, Ronnie.
Will the Star Cruiser get the Coneheads off the
ground, as much as this pilot? The answer is too obvious. This
was a failed pilot, and judging with what I watched, I don’t blame them. If it
was a kids show, this won’t fly by. If this was an adult show, that’ll be a
rare time back then, but it could work now, but need to be vulgar to please
Adult Swim, Comedy Central, or Fox.
I do like the designs to capture the Coneheads more
than just the heads. This helps to make them unique to stand out, including giving
Aykroyd a tiny mustache. Ramulak is an alien world I kinda wish we see more
than Earth.
There are bad moments that would hinder this series,
and that’s their comedy.
Much like Mad, Mad, Mad Comedian, the laugh track
can ruin the film, and they play it on many moments, none of them are funny. What
worked in Saturday Night Live won’t work in an animated show and currently in
Saturday Night Live. I swear the live action movie or sketch explained more on
the alien device they used in the special more than just the ring as their “protection”.
This is the last film for Rankin Bass to be animated by Topcraft, before they
become Studio Ghibli. If this was animated today, it’s best to be animated by
Rough Draft or better trusted hand drawn animation studio, but never as Adobe
Flash/ Adobe Animate, or else it’ll be real crap.
If you’re interested to see an animated version of
an SNL sketch, this is an interesting failure to see to believe. Otherwise, you’re
better off watching SNL TV Funhouse sketch by Robert Smigel.
Now let’s review the last non-holiday special, The
Wind in the Willow.
Rankin Bass had one last chance with the Middle
Earth with The Flight of Dragons.
In the 10th Century valley, there’s a
swarm of dragons living happily with a Green wizard named Carolinus living with
them.
“You heard of me?”
-Yogurt played by Mel Brooks in Spaceballs. He does
look similar.
Carolinus tells his daughter Princess Melisande is he’s
getting weaker with magic and age. He has a meet that he summons his brothers; Solarius
the Blue Wizard, Lo Tae Zhao the Golden Wizard, and his evil brother of the Red
Wizard, Ommadon (voiced by James Earl Jones.)
“Behold, the Red Wizard!”
-Red Wizard Quintesson in G1 Transformers’ episode
of Madman’s Paradise.
Carolinus rides on his dragon, Gorbash flies to
their meeting place at a ruin. Carolinus purpose a realm where only magic
continue to exist while logical and practical become the modern’s standard.
Ommadon want to make fear and greed to be humanity’s weapon, which his brothers
disagrees.
The three brothers can’t be involved to fight
against Ommadon, Carolinus need to find a champion for a quest. He would lend
Gorbrash, Solarius’ Shield of Saturn and Lo Tae Zhao’s Flute of Healing Sleep
to the champion. He would get help from Antiquity (voiced by Paul Frees) that the
champion is in the 20th Century, he’s a man of science, a game
designer and the writers of the book this film adapting named Peter Dickenson
(voiced by John Ritter). He’s a good game designer of the game of Flight of
Dragons that he designed the game piece perfectly to the Carolinus and his
brother’s designs.
Gorbrash’s uncle, Smirgol the dragon warns the other
dragons has been controlled by Ommadon. Ommandon had his dragon named Bryagh was
going to kill Peter, but he dropped Peter to Gorbrash, and Carolinus cast an
unknown spell to fuse Peter into Gorbrash. The rest of the film is Peter in
Gorbrash’s body put in a quest to stop Ommadon with the help of Smirgol, Sir
Orrin the kinght, Araugh the Wolf (voiced by King Tut of 60’s Batman, Victor
Buono), Danielle the archer (voiced by Eowyn’s actress, Nellie Bellflower.),
and Jiles the woodland elf.
This is probably the closest for Rankin Bass to
actually do their Lord of the Ring in the second half of the film, with some
Star Wars given with James Earl Jones, Carolinus resembles an in-between of
Yoda and Yogurt, and the princess having Leia’s hair buns. This is not too
close to be crappy Eragon territory.
This is one of the rarest non-holiday Rankin Bass
films out there on DVD. I manage to find it in Watchcartoononline.
This reminds me of the TV show, Dungeon and Dragon, or
G1 Transformers’ episode Madman’s Paradise; someone from modern 20th
century to be put into ye olde fantasy world through portals or a game.
Thankfully having the board game makes since logic plays less in story and more
simple with the rules and magic.
James Earl Jones is awesome as Ommadon and his
design is a different kind of wizard with a rhino face. John Ritter is a
likable as the writer and as a dragon. He’s trying to work science in the
magic, which would get tedious, but he’s actually enjoying it and actually
being useful with it. Unilke Peter Cottontail Jr. and Albert from Twas The
Night Before Christmas, who has the logic, but are physically useless and will
doom the film. Fitting that Peter is wearing red tunic, as he would later voice
Clifford the Big Red Dog. This was their way to show the difference with their
dragons the way they fly with wings and helium. Personality wise, they mostly
show less of a Smaug tyrant but more butches than the Reluctant Dragon;
somewhere in the middle that makes them better noble.
If you watch this alone, it’ll be a decent film, but
when you watch this while binge watch The Hobbit, Return of the King, and The
Last Unicorn, it grow to make sense and how intertwine the Middle Earth works
and Gandalf words of how the world is changing and certain mythological being
are fading away. This could indicate a metaphor the magic for Rankin Bass, as
this is the last of non-holiday special to set in that world. After that, they’ll
be doing TV shows with the Thundercats and Silverhawks, then they will be relying again
what they did in the 70’s again with Mr. Toad again, and an existing TV show is
where the next review is the Animated Coneheads.
