Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976)
Background Information
Creators:
Written by: Romeo Muller
Directed by: Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. Voices of: Billie Mae Richards, Red Skelton, Morey Amsterdam, Frank Gorshin, Paul Frees, Don Messick, and Harold Peary Narrated by: Red Skelton Composers: Johnny Marks and Maury Laws Production:
Producers: Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr.
Production company: Rankin/Bass Productions Distributor: Warner Bros. Television Distribution |
Chronology
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
- Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976)
- Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979)
Synposis
Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976) is a continuation story taking place right after the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had left off. After Santa Claus's return from his hectic trip around the world, little did he know that his job wasn't over just yet. As he begins to settle in, an urgent letter from his dear old friend Father Time was brought to him, explaining in the letter, Happy: the Baby New Year had gone missing. It is said that if the baby is not found in time, the new year cannot proceed as planned and the old year will continue on in a cycle forever.
Before midnight strikes on New Year's Eve, Santa summons Rudolph for the task due to the advantages of his bright red nose that can be used for the foggy weather. Rudolph sets off on an adventure to look for Happy but comes across Eon an "ugly buzzard" who is also looking for Happy. Eon's objective was to steal the baby for himself in order to live an immortal life, without the baby's presence Eon's life will perish. With time vastly running out, Rudolph and with the assistance of his new friends: 1 Million B.C. and Sir 1023, and 1776, rush to search for the runaway baby through the islands of the Archipelago of Last Year.
Before midnight strikes on New Year's Eve, Santa summons Rudolph for the task due to the advantages of his bright red nose that can be used for the foggy weather. Rudolph sets off on an adventure to look for Happy but comes across Eon an "ugly buzzard" who is also looking for Happy. Eon's objective was to steal the baby for himself in order to live an immortal life, without the baby's presence Eon's life will perish. With time vastly running out, Rudolph and with the assistance of his new friends: 1 Million B.C. and Sir 1023, and 1776, rush to search for the runaway baby through the islands of the Archipelago of Last Year.
Personal Thought
In my perspective after watching "Rudolph's Shiny New Year," I noticed that in the stop motion claymation film, not only is clay it's major component structure, but the producer(s) have experimented on different techniques when creating the set design and characters. In my opinion I found that very smart and creative. For example for Rudolph's fur, they used needle felting in order to mimic human/animal hair.
In the stop motion film, the scene that caught my eyes the most was when Happy had met the three bears in a similar way with how Goldilocks met them in the "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" story. I believe that Happy is a resemblance of Goldilocks. In my point of view, they are similar in many ways such as performing an accidental trespassing, they are both trying to attain some sort of comfort on which it is evident to when they try the bears' different belongings, last but not least they are both a runaway child probably caused by society's discrimination towards them, thus of their isolation. It isn't told why or how Goldilocks was in the forest in the beginning of the story, but I assumed that she ran away because why would she go inside the forest in the first place?
Another reason why this was my favourite scene is because it reminded me of the first animation assignment I did in class where we had to draw a character but from an alternative universe.
In the stop motion film, the scene that caught my eyes the most was when Happy had met the three bears in a similar way with how Goldilocks met them in the "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" story. I believe that Happy is a resemblance of Goldilocks. In my point of view, they are similar in many ways such as performing an accidental trespassing, they are both trying to attain some sort of comfort on which it is evident to when they try the bears' different belongings, last but not least they are both a runaway child probably caused by society's discrimination towards them, thus of their isolation. It isn't told why or how Goldilocks was in the forest in the beginning of the story, but I assumed that she ran away because why would she go inside the forest in the first place?
Another reason why this was my favourite scene is because it reminded me of the first animation assignment I did in class where we had to draw a character but from an alternative universe.
My favourite character from the film was Rudolph. He is a unique reindeer with a red bright nose, which made him stand out from the others. Growing up Rudolph had been bullied and faced humiliation because of it, but as time goes on despite of society's discrimination towards him he decides to embrace and love his nose because he was born with such a power no one had but him. Seeing the first film, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and the sequel "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" You can really see how much of an improvement his confidence evolved and no longer is he afraid of anyone laughing about his nose anymore.
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Some technical feature that amazed me the most was how much frames it took in order to have a smooth resulting movements with the characters. My favourite scene was when the caveman 1 Million B.C was singing to Rudolph, what caught my eye's the most in that particular scene was how they were able to imitate the actions of a caveman: I keep wondering how the producers made him jump around swinging on tree branches.
Another scene that I appreciated the effort on was during New Years celebrations towards the end. The producers did a really good job on making the characters "come to life" you can really feel the atmosphere and happiness around the crowd of people. Here you can see below how much movement and facial expressions each character presents.
Have A Happy New Year
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Link to video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghQI-3MGt5A
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Link to video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzI-ev88xmU
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