Comments on: Rudolph Restored

Rudolph Restored

filmgeek — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:05:38 -0800

If you've grown up in the states, odds are you've seen/watched the highly rated Christmas special, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Trailer here

When the production was over, the animation company put the puppets in a closet. When they were due to be thrown away, a secretary got permission and took them home. Her children played with the puppets for years...nobody thought they'd be of value. Some of them broke, and last year they were found. (not all were intact.)

Photos of the Restoration. Close up of the restored Rudolph. There were a number of films after (over 10+ years after the first,) Rudolph's Shiny New Year, Frosty Christmas in July and Island of Misfit Toys. These (and many other films) are Rankin/Bass productions. Some people also know Rankin Bass for their animated version of the Hobbit and the Last Unicorn. Rankin/Bass previously mentioned on Mefi

By: filmgeek

filmgeek — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:06:56 -0800

Oh, and a favorite of mine, the Mad TV parody.

By: Brittanie

Brittanie — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:21:11 -0800

This post is awesome. So many memories...

By: AwkwardPause

AwkwardPause — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:21:23 -0800

'Tis a long yarn. Yarrr.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:23:20 -0800

Nobody wants a Santa puppet...with a hole in it's head.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:26:27 -0800

You are obviously not a Firefly flan.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:28:54 -0800

What about Clarice?

By: Tullius

Tullius — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:47:48 -0800

Dewd! This post is great!

By: knave

knave — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:00:34 -0800

What about Clarice? Judging from the dilation on those pupils, she's possibly quite aroused. Just to add a little extra to the disturbingly-attractive-animal syndrome.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:01:24 -0800

Is a seven-para FPP a new MeFi record?

By: craniac

craniac — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:11:43 -0800

Two thumbs up. Can you imagine what rudolph would fetch at auction?

By: nonmerci

nonmerci — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:00:56 -0800

I love this post.

By: matty

matty — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:03:11 -0800

UMMMMM... YOU GET THE FAVORITE POST OF THE YEAR AWARD. hands down.

By: th3ph17

th3ph17 — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:26:02 -0800

="http://static.flickr.com/2/2056451_ca79949cb4_m.jpg" width="240" height="194" alt="hermyconan" />

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:58:54 -0800

It could be worse. All the models from the older "Wallace & Gromit" movies were carefully stored in a warehouse. Unfortunately, it burned down last year and they were all destroyed.

By: schoolgirl report

schoolgirl report — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:14:36 -0800

I'm mildly curious about the upcoming live action version of Rankin/Bass' "Year Without a Santa Claus," if only to see what they do with the classic Heat Miser and Snow Miser songs.

By: mgorsuch

mgorsuch — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:18:22 -0800

You know, call me a scrooge or a grinch, but I think Rudolph is a terrible story. All of these other reindeer dislike Rudolph until he seems to have some sort of gift that they can take advantage of. How terrible and sad is that? But, anyway ;-)

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:35:58 -0800

mgorsuch, I also though the Rudolph tale had an undercurrent of 'conform! conform!' What kind of games do Reindeer play, anyway? and what about the humble bumble snowman? my clear favorite character from all of them.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:48:05 -0800

The real story of the puppets sounds like a fairy tale itself. Maybe someone will do an animated documentary.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:58:46 -0800

I'm quite sure this post did not require seven paragraphs. Please do not do that again.

By: briank

briank — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 06:00:00 -0800

If this doesn't win the Best Post competition, then I'm putting coal in Matt's & Jess's stockings. Forever.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 06:02:07 -0800

Liberation in the workshop:

We ain't Santa's elves, Go and fuck yourselves. Hey, big mouth, We're heading south, Cause we ain't Santa's elves.

(What to sing when it gets stuck in your head.)

By: butternut

butternut — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 06:03:20 -0800

I saw the guy with the puppets on Antiques Roadshow!

By: Cyrano

Cyrano — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 06:09:30 -0800

OK, confession time: I've never successfully read my way through the Lord of the Rings books. Read The Hobbit? Sure. But to this day I still come to a screeching halt at Tom Bombadil in The Fellowship of the Ring. Nope. Sorry. Not putting up with this guy. That being said, I loved the whole story and the reason I loved it before Peter Jackson was the Rankin/Bass animated hobbit movies. Also, we watched The Last Unicorn in when I was in the fifth grade. After we watched it my teacher gave the whole class a writing assignment to tell the story of what really happened to all the unicorns. After playing D&D for two years at that point, I wrote a story about how they were all captured by ogres and turned into mince meat pies. It earned me a D+ and a "concerned" meeting with the teacher and my parents. I blame Gary Gygax.

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 06:14:30 -0800

I find it sad that so many of the puppets were lost. Having said that, every year my wife makes me watch the movies. Every year I ask her why the female reindeer don't have antlers like they are supposed to. Every year she tells me to shut up and just watch the damn movie. It's a Christmas tradition!

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 07:30:45 -0800

UMMMMM... YOU GET THE FAVORITE POST OF THE YEAR AWARD. hands down. Forget that. A post of this quality requires Matt to have Shigeru Miyamoto and Steve Jobs show up at filmgeek's place for dinner.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 07:39:35 -0800

We demand to know the location of Heat Miser!

By: matty

matty — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 07:55:30 -0800

"I'm Mister Green Christmas I'm Mister Sun I'm Mister Heat Blister I'm Mister Hundred and One They call me Heat Miser, What ever I touch Starts to melt in my clutch I'm too much!"

By: bayliss

bayliss — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 08:20:59 -0800

It makes me terribly sad to think that somewhere the SnowMiser may have melted in someone's attic. I've always loved him. The HeatMiser scared the crap out of me when I was a kid.

By: kimdog

kimdog — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 08:34:26 -0800

Rankin and Bass Rudolph is my favorite holiday special bar none. It's a quirky story with and the animation suits it perfectly. I bought a collection of small plush characters, and they are my favorite part of holiday decorating (Herbie is my favorite). Does anyone know why the doll was a misfit toy?

By: jpburns

jpburns — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 08:34:49 -0800

This is weird, the part about them being "lost." I specifically remember taking the NBC (New York) studio tour in the late 60's (maybe early 70's), and seeing them is a display case. I remember some elves and the "Abominable," for sure... I've seen it every year since 1964. It's a family ritual to watch and mock it. Here's my take on it a couple of years back in my comic strip.

By: jrossi4r

jrossi4r — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 09:01:59 -0800

Does anyone know why the doll was a misfit toy? The island is for toys who are unwanted or unloved, not necessarily defective. For some reason, the doll was discarded. Maybe her owner didn't like the color of her hair or her dress or simply outgrew her. I like to think the writers left her a blank slate on which to project our own insecurities.

By: snofoam

snofoam — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 09:06:10 -0800

in the island of misfit toys is a parable about homosexuality and our society's intolerance of it, and the main character is a gay elf, although this is represented in the film as him wanting to be a "dentist." if you are as juvenile as myself and watch the movie with this in mind, it's pretty hilarious. in all fairness, though, some of my best friends are dentists.

By: emjaybee

emjaybee — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 09:10:34 -0800

Hey, we just watched this last night. My 13-month old was fascinated, but he likes Muppets, so I think anything puppety works for him. Santa was SUCH an asshole, though. That always confused me as a child--he actually tells Rudolph's dad he should be ashamed of himself for siring Rudolph. For having defective mutant-reindeer sperm? Talk about blaming the victim! Maybe Santa took govt. money to store nuclear waste at the Pole, and that's why Rudolph happened. The whole thing is such a relentless propaganda piece for Christmas(tm), and yet so very, very odd.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 09:23:26 -0800

I thought the doll was discarded because it couldn't say "Mama", or something to the effect. Anyway, in the vein of the notorious Oswald in a Jam photo (mentioned in MeFi thread #30609), behold: The War on Christmas is Over.

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 11:30:28 -0800

One story about why most of these puppets were lost is that they had been sprayed with a non-glare solvent before being put in front of the cameras. At the time of that writing, Donner had survived, and was occasionally displayed. Had no idea two of the most important had been found! Great post! (Still, my favorite was Santa Claus is Comin' to Town with Fred Astaire and Mickey Rooney.)

By: joseph_elmhurst

joseph_elmhurst — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 12:20:21 -0800

Oh, my wife loves Rankin/Bass and their X-Mas specials in particular. Last year she "eeeked!" at the top of her lungs when she saw the Original Christmas Classics DVD set at Costco. Naturally, we had to buy it. Now that I have a daughter, I weep for the future. We're Jewish, even! I'll lay off the italics next time

By: filmgeek

filmgeek — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 18:23:18 -0800

Strangely, I'm also one of the chosen tribe Joseph. And I had to make sure my niece and nephew are familiar with this.

By: annieb

annieb — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 14:31:05 -0800

Does anyone know why the doll was a misfit toy? Yes. She said "Daddy"( of DaDa) instead of "Mama". Also, the "Charlie" in the box as opposed to "Jack"; a train with square wheels; and a parrot that swam like a fish.

By: annieb

annieb — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 14:31:28 -0800

sorry, "or DaDa" not of.

By: kimdog

kimdog — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 20:30:26 -0800

Ah... that makes sense, because at the end she ends up in the arms of a little boy! Thanks!