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Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

List Price: $19.98
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bumble Up!
Review: Okay, so the movements of the characters look a bit awkward sometimes, and the dialogue rarely matched the lip movements. Oh yes, let's not forget the occasional not-so-synchronized sound effect or two. Big deal. Despite these quirks, the Rankin-Bass stop-motion classic "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is always on my short list of Yuletide chestnuts to watch each and every holiday season. And this is from a guy who usually can't stand musical productions! I guess it's just due to the holiday spirit somehow managing to weave its way through that labyrinthine façade of jadedness I've built up over the course of the rest of the year, and warmin' up that black little heart of mine, encouragin' me to enjoy such corny numbers as "Why am I Such a Misfit?", "We Are Santa's Elves", and "Island of Misfit Toys". I'm still not hip to "There's Always Tomorrow", though. Oh well, ya can't please everybody alla' the time...

Actually, the main reason I catch this classic bit o' stop-motion 'toonage each year is for the chance to see my fave character on the show. It's not Rudolph, nor is it Hermey, the elf with aspirations of becoming a dentist. Neither is it Santa Claus, King Moonracer, or the pick-pokin' prospector Yukon Cornelius. Nope, my fave "Rudolph" character is... Bumble, the dentally-challenged abominable snow monster. Hey, what can I say-- he's gotta be the most adorable-lookin' "heavy" ever cast in a Christmas special! Oh man, did I just use the word "adorable"?! I think that sound I hear is the revocation of my "Macho Men Club of America" membership...

Anyhoo-- aside from the show itself, this platter has a couple extra features, none of which are particularly extensive. Included among the sideshow fluff is the "Fortune and Fame" song that temporarily replaced Rudolph & Hermey's "Misfits" duet following their self-imposed exile from Christmas Town. After watching this piece, I found myself glad this DVD's producers decided to put it off to the side, and keep the original song in place. Also thrown in is the original TV spot for the show, which harkens back to the days when an entire hour of prime-time network TV programming was sponsored by some corporation or another, and was referred to as the "(Name of Corporation) Adventure Hour", or something of the like. Apparently the corporations found it less than cost-effective to advertise their names on an entire hour of tube programming in the ensuing years following the original broadcast of this show, and decided to try their hands at stickin' logos on sports stadiums and arenas...

Oops, almost forgot: also included is the Spanish-language rendition of the show, and a ten-minute-long "fireside" monologue with co-producer Arthur Rankin, who talks about the significance and symbolism of Rudolph's adventure, as well as a few technical details regarding stop-motion animation. Although I was aware that one of the show's production designers was Paul Coker (I recognized his style right away after I became a regular reader of MAD magazine), I was not aware that fellow MAD artist Jack Davis also had some input on the looks of the characters. I guess his influence was subtler, hmm? I was also kinda wowed to discover that the stop-motion animation work was done in Japan! Does this mean that, technically, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is anime? It would definitely explain why Rudolph and the other reindeer have those big ol' eyeballs...

'Late

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER-1964
Review: Even though Rudolph is still telecast, the tape and dvd are worth buying because you will see things not shown on tv because of commercial time, you can see larry d. mann the voice of yukon cornelius in a my favorite martian story called butterball, bill bixby says do you know down by the old mill stream a larry says yes, i buried my last three victims there. Rudolph came out during a landmark year for the entertainment industry, at the theatre, mary poppins on the radio, the beatles, rolling stones, supremes, temptations, on tv besides rudolph these shows that inspired remakes and updates, flipper, underdog, bewitched, addams family, gilligans island, jonny quest, munsters

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolute Every-Year Holiday Classic!
Review: This is one amazing show that everybody loves. The unforgettable characters and memorable music make "Rudolph" one of the videos my family never fails to watch each winter. See, I'm 16 years old and didn't grow up with all these stop-motion, "Animagic" Rankin/Bass holiday special shows, but I do love them. For the longest time I watched "Rudolph" every Christmas and "Peter Cottontail" every Easter, but didn't know the wealth of other wonderfully great shows awaiting me. Luckily just today I finished watching the Rankin/Bass marathon on TV, and was introduced to some other incredible classics that I must buy: "Pinnochio's Christmas," "Jack Frost," "The First Christmas," "The Little Drummer Boy," "Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey," "The Year without a Santa Claus" (the best one), "Rudolph's Shiny New Year," and more. I know most of the voice acting because I enjoy watching older TV sitcoms and game shows, in which all these 70's actors and actresses starred. "Rudolph" will always remain a favorite part of my holiday traditions. The characters of Yukon Cornelius, the Bumble, Clarice (Rudolph's girlfriend), and Hermey, along with the songs like "Silver and Gold" and "Santa's Elves"--oh, and let's forget the BEST part of all, those poor little Misfit Toys!--make this one video you can't afford to miss.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great story, AWFUL SOUNDTRACK!
Review: Rudolph is a classic story, and the visuals on this DVD are marvelous. Rudolph is now crisp, clear, and sharp looking! The only flaw is the TERRIBLE SOUNDTRACK. Something is wrong with the pitch and it sounds UNBEARABLE! Sony, please fix this problem and reissue this classic with the proper respect!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Adorable!
Review: Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer was made about a year before I was born so I practically grew up watching it every Christmas of my childhood and now I own it on DVD and I think it is one of the best Christmas specials made by Rankin and Bass. It is a sweet story with adorable claymation puppets and the songs are so catchy and cute but not in a sappy cloying way and I recommend this DVD.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Missing ONE VERY important item!
Review: Where the heck is the Rankin/Bass production credit jingle at the end of the show????

You know..the white & blue Rankin/Bass logo with that catchy and memorable 60's Rankin/Bass sound clip that is at the end of the cartoon!!

Sony Wonder......You goofed BIG TIME here!!

Otherwise....Rudolph's great as ever, every Christmas!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The deservedly beloved 1964 Bass-Rakin television show
Review: In just telling the story in the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" would make for a decent enough animated holiday television show. But where the 1964 production from Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. achieved greatness was in the creativeness it showed with the supporting cast. The story is narrated by Sam the Snowman, voiced by Burl Ives (who sang the second most popular version of the song after Gene Autry's orignal), and Rudolph (Billie Mae Richards) becomes friends with both Hermey (Paul Soles), the elf who marches to his own drummer, and Yukon Cornelius (Larry D. Mann), the prospector. However, the most unforgettable characters in this story are the toys from the Island of Misfit Toys: Charlie-in-the-Box, the Spotted Elephant, and the others, along with their leader, King Moonracer.

The result is a much deeper version of the story than was even hinted at in the lyrics of Johnny Marks' classic Christmas song. We all now how the story is going to end on that foggy Christmas eve, so it is everything leading up to that fateful night that is where this story gets its deserved reputation as Rudolph is not the only one who ends up having their life take a turn for the better, as even the Abominable Snowman finds he can put the finishing touches on a perfect Christmas. Besides, how often does a dentist get to be the hero in a Christmas story?

Bass-Rankin took at similar approach in 1970 with "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town," and while that animated holiday show is pretty good and worth watching each Christmas season, this one is better. If you have been in a store and seen the looks of pure delight on people's faces when they see the line of toy figures associated with "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," then you already know this. Hard to believe this particular "Rudolph" will enjoy its fortieth anniversary next year.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Bad DVD - Good Story
Review: We've all seen Rudolph many many times. There is no argument the story is very good. My not-so-good review has to do with this dvd itself. Picture quality is very poor. You'd probably have a better picture just taping the special off tv and watching it on VHS. Many specks, lines and dull color. Also the DVD says you get 135 minutes. The actual movie is not even an hour and you get only 15 minutes worth of features - the Fame and Fortune Song, Arthur Rankin, and a tv promo. They also advertise on the box that there is a spanish version on the dvd which is useless to those of us not speaking spanish - they must be counting the spanish version in the 135 minutes which is wrong because other dvd's with other languages don't count that in the minutes. Guess, I thought I was getting more here than I got. With the other Rankin Bass dvds you get bonus at least one bonus Christmas story. Not here. Wish I would've passed on this one and just played my old VHS tape - which is better than this. I would suggest holding off on purchasing this one and what for a remastered one to come on the market in a few years - this was a disappointment.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Christmas Classic
Review: This is one of my favorite Christmas movies of all time. This is just one of those movies you watch every year because it just makes it Christmas, like the cookies Grandama or Mom makes, or the little kids crawling under the tree to get the presents in the back.

"His beak blinks like a blinking beaker."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Christmas Classic
Review: I've loved "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" since I first saw it as a little girl, and I still love it today. It's one of my favorite Christmas movies, and I recommend it to anyone :)

The story is about Rudolph a reindeer with a glowing red nose, who is teased by everyone, except for his friends: Clarice, a beautiful young doe, Herny a Elf who wants to be a dentist, and Yucan Corneilous (sp?) who wants to search for silver & gold. Rudolph & his friends have a adventure with the Abomidle Snow Monster, and when they come back to Christmas town, Santa tells everyone that the weather is too severe and Christmas is cancelled! But thanks to Rudolph's nose, Christmas is saved. :)
~~~~~
I love all the songs in this movie, but my favorite one is probably "There's Always Tomorrow" sung by Clarice. I recommend "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to everyone, it's a great Christmas classic :)


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