12 Days of Cinematic Christmas #11: The Rankin/Bass Christmas Specials

Produced by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass

There’s two things people remember the name of “Rankin/Bass Productions” for: their productions of The Hobbit and The Return of the King and their Christmas specials. Despite the Tolkien specials gaining somewhat of a cult classic following over the years (and definitely were instrumental in influencing a young Peter Jackson) it’s clear that the Christmas specials are what immortalized the company in the eyes of generations of children from the 1960s onward.

Decades before Ed Catmull and John Lasseter would revolutionize 3D animation with the advent of Pixar, the team at Rankin/Bass Productions was creating fantastic wonders of the imagination every holiday season in a way no other studio was doing. Sure, stop-motion animation had been around since the days of Willis O’Brien with King Kong and Ray Harryhausen with…literally everything else, but it was always used as a special effect rather than a full-on artistic medium. Under the guidance of Japanese stop-motion artist Tadahito Mochinaga and his special “Animagic” process of creating animation we got such memorable specials as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and The Little Drummer Boy. And that’s not forgetting the 2D animation work such as Frosty the Snowman, which was made in very much the same art style. Each special ended up becoming a huge ratings hit, and they went from being shown only once each year to now playing several times on network television during the Christmas season.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer may be the stand-out of all their works, featuring Burl Ives’ iconic take on the titular song and “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas”. The colorful supporting cast of characters such as Hermey the Elf, Yukon Cornelius, and the group of characters who populate the Isle of Misfit Toys. If anything, many may remember being terrified as a child by the Abominable Snow Monster! Santa Claus and Frosty also feature memorable turns by classic Hollywood actors Fred Astaire and Jimmy Durante as the respective narrators for each special, with their own fantastic voice casts to boot.

With their combined focus on humor, heart, and technical wizardry these shorts, along with A Charlie Brown Christmas, became the definitive Christmas television specials for decades to come, with filmmakers like Jon Favreau and Wes Anderson both having paid extensive homage to these specials in their works. Each story manages to put a unique spin on a classic tale while always ending with a great message for kids and adults alike. There really is something special about seeing these stop-motion puppets talk and dance and move around in a way only this oft-neglected medium could: it very much feels like magic at times. It truly would’ve been remiss to not include these iconic specials on this list!

The only real frustrating part is that they’re notoriously hard to find anywhere on streaming outside of simply watching them when they air on TV! Definitely recommend buying one of the DVD/Blu-Ray collections to have for you and your family for years to come.