Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer every year is the same as setting up the tree. Every year I would look forward to seeing this along with the others but what a fantastic durable show this has been. When I hear Burl Ives in anything…I think of him as the narrator Sam the Snowman of this program.

The characters are wonderful. Well except those other young reindeer who really come down on Rudolph when his nose lights up.

Hermey the elf who wants to be a dentist
Clarice – The reindeer who likes Rudolph just as he is red nose and all.
Yukon Cornelius the prospector who loves silver and gold and has a tongue that can find his silver and gold.
Abominable Snowman – The bad guy of the show who only needs a dentist to make him a good guy.
Head Elf – He leans on Hermey to get his elf self-act together and discourages him from being a dentist…I never liked him too much.

Throughout the special, Yukon Cornelius is seen throwing his pickaxe into the ground, taking it out and licking it. It turns out that he is checking for neither gold nor silver; Yukon was actually searching for an elusive peppermint mine. In a scene right at the end of the special’s original broadcast, deleted the next year to make room for the Misfit Toys’ new scene, Cornelius pulled his pick from the ground, licked it and said, “Peppermint! What I’ve been searching for all my life! I’ve struck it rich! I’ve got me a peppermint mine! Wahoo!” The scene was restored in 1998 and has been reinstated in all the subsequent home video release except for the 2004 DVD release. However, this scene is still cut from recent televised airings.

The Island of Misplaced Toys got to me when I was a kid. I really felt sorry for these lonely toys. King Moonracer was over the island and tried to convinced Rudolph to tell Santa about them so he could pick them up and find kids who would play with them.

Related image

The original 1964 airing did not include the closing scene where Santa picks up the misfit toys. That scene was added in 1965, in response to complaints that Santa was not shown fulfilling his promise to include them in his annual delivery.

The stop animation in this works really well.

The songs are really good. Silver and Gold, Holly Jolly Christmas, Jingle Jingle Jingle, We Are Santa’s Elves, There’s Always Tomorrow, We’re a Couple of Misfits and The Most Wonderful Day of the Year.

https://christmas-specials.fandom.com/wiki/Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer_(Rankin/Bass)

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

30 thoughts on “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”

  2. it’s a classic and definitely a part of the charm of Christmas to me, too. Always watched it as a kid and I still try to every year to this day. Like you, I liked those misfit toys! Poor toys. And the snowman – he was so cool.

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    1. The misfit toys gets to me every year…

      Off topic kind of: I found a couple of Christmas songs that I never heard from bands I love coming up in the next two days…can’t wait to see how many people have heard them.

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      1. Cool – I look forward to it! I actually heard a couple this morning that while I knew, I don’t hear much and might try to get bits together on them for next couple of days too.

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  4. I haven’t seen it recently. The last time I watched it they replaced the scene at the end where Sam the Snowman and the rest of the cast sing “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” with a Claymation Destiny’s Child singing it while they rubbed up against Sam. Really screwed up the end.

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  5. It’s my go-to for holiday movies. I love all of the characters in it! One I watched last year on netflix for the first time and watched this year also is, “Klaus.” It has that same heartwarming charm to it that this one does.

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      2. Now the day of Christmas yes…we never watched tv on Christmas…leading up to it…every night would be a different show…but yes socializing is the better custom.

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      3. It was mostly the 24th, the 25th and the 26th I was referring to. The 24th was all about setting up and decorating the tree and exchanging presents and singing Christmas songs that evening. The 25th and 26th primarily was about eating! 🙂

        BTW, my comment about not watching TV wasn’t at all meant to be judgmental! We certainly did watch TV as well leading up to Christmas. I don’t recall any particular film or TV show that we watched every Christmas.

        But I well remember listening to my favorite radio station SWF 3 where they played song submissions from listeners. I used to enjoy that!

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      4. Oh yes!!!! The eating was great. We would eat on the 24th at my grandmothers and go home and eat again on the 25th.

        I didn’t take it that way Christian. That is the best way though…decorating the tree we would do earlier (NOT this year…we still have to decorate) but yea leading up to Christmas was great.

        I did listen to the radio then to hear Christmas songs…now of course they are thrown at us.

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  10. I have always loved this movie. Clarice singing “There’s Always Tomorrow” is so pretty. “Whoever heard of a Charlie in the Box…” I felt sorry for the misfit toys. I don’t remember anything about the peppermint mine thing!

    I love Santa Claus is Coming to Town with a red-headed Kris Kringle and Fred Astaire. Then, there was The Year Without a Santa Claus with Heat Miser & Snow Miser.

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    1. My mom’s name was Clarice…you don’t see that name as much any more.
      The poor misfit toys when they gave up hope…is a sad thing.

      Oh yea…I do like that one also.

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