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Archive for the tag “Rankin/Bass”

18 Dec 2021

Adventures Of Santa Claus

Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again! Christmas-style, even!

Last week, we covered Rankin/Bass’ origin story for the Big Guy with Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town from 1970. Later Rankin/Bass specials seemed to stay in continuity with that version. But this time, they went with something quite different.

L. Frank Baum, best known known for creating the Wonderful Wizard Of Oz and related stories, included Santa in his extended fantasy world-building. He put the rising Claus in a faerie forest that was more Narnia or Middle Earth than we were used to seeing for our jolly sleigh jockey.

Though the two Animagic Santa origin specials were made 15 years apart, the first one was repeated every year and was heart-canon for kids. This contradictory backstory went over like a lead balloon. Even though it does have more satisfying (albeit mostly implied) badassery on the part of Santa’s pagan allies.

This 1985 telefilm was the final Animagic stop-action production.  The full title is The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. Rankin/Bass would hang on a while longer with flat animation, including the Thundercats and Silverhawks of all things. More from the OldHorseman.

 

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11 Dec 2021

Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town

Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!
Christmas-style, even!

I’m a little torn by this one… On the one hand, a pimptastically-dressed, strapping young man struts into town and starts bribing children to sit on his lap and kiss him? Seems like he’d fit right in with Brandon and the other pedos. Except that his interaction with minors is always in public, and he sparks-up a romance with the very first full-grown, age-appropriate woman he meets. (Rankin/Bass and their curvy redheads… See MAD MONSTER PARTY from a few weeks ago.)

On the other hand, Kris Kringle’s story is all about non-compliance with arbitrary authority. That’s a lesson a lot of Americans need to revisit these days. Better to be declared an outlaw and a rebel than to let pathetic Little Tin Gods run your life!

This one tends to get butchered quite a bit on TV. Not for the cringe of children exchanging kisses with strange adults for toys… Mostly so they can squeeze-in a few more commercials, avoid traumatizing wee snowflakes with the burning toy pile, and minimize the rebel message.

Note the quick Rudolph cameo. Unlike Santa, the elves, and the eight original reindeer, who were all public domain, Rudy was the property of Robert L. May, who created the character for Montgomery Ward in 1939, so they had to brush him off as “another story”, though the producers had licensed him before, and would do so again.

SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN’ TO TOWN came in 1970, when Rankin/Bass Animagic was at it’s peak… They’d do a rather different origin story for Santa 15 years later as the form’s swan song. More from the OldHorseman.

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06 Nov 2021

Mad Monster Party?

Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again! Hallowe’en style, even!

Why should Christmas get all the Rankin/Bass Animagic? Here’s their nod to classic horror characters — Mad Monster Party?, released in 1967. Voices include the real Boris Karloff, Phyllis Diller, and Allen Swift’s impressions of a dozen others. Jules Bass, who directed, went on to great fortunes, co-directing The Last Unicorn in 1982. More from the OldHorseman.

 

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