It could be that I didn't first see "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" until well into adulthood, but one question still nags, year after year:
Why is everyone at the North Pole such a dick?
It's the like the producers took the cruelest line of the song ("All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names; They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games") and ran with it.
But Rudolph's not the only victim. Hermey finds himself the new social outcast for wanting to be a gay dentist. I realize this is the '60s, but that's messed up. Mrs. Clause (ball-breaker extraordinaire) brow-beats her husband into staying fat for Christmas. Donner's a misogynist douche who keeps the wife at home ("NO! This is man's work!").
Rudolph gets the short end of the stick (which is an understatement) in more ways than one during this holiday staple. His old man Donner shuns the kid just for being born with a light-up nose. Santa does the same and bars him from being on the sleigh team. Then he gets laughed out of reindeer games. Dude can't even mack on the ladies without being attacked by their bigoted fathers. And here's the kicker: Rudolph's the one that pulls Santa's fat out of the fire and saves Christmas.
And Burl Ives is okay with all of this! He just stands there, plucking a soundless banjo. The moral here seems to be "if you're different, we don't want you! ... unless you save the day, no thanks to our ingrate selves, then you're part of the family!"
Yukon Cornelius is the only reasonable of the non-victim characters, and he's daffy as all hell. You can't help but love that guy.
But at the end of the day, this was a glimpse into a time when "Christmas Special"s were few and far between. And I do have a fondness for the sets and stop-motion work involved. There's just something about Ives' voice and watching the visuals (without thinking too much about why everyone here's a douche) that makes this one watchable, every year.
6.5/10
Why is everyone at the North Pole such a dick?
It's the like the producers took the cruelest line of the song ("All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names; They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games") and ran with it.
But Rudolph's not the only victim. Hermey finds himself the new social outcast for wanting to be a gay dentist. I realize this is the '60s, but that's messed up. Mrs. Clause (ball-breaker extraordinaire) brow-beats her husband into staying fat for Christmas. Donner's a misogynist douche who keeps the wife at home ("NO! This is man's work!").
Rudolph gets the short end of the stick (which is an understatement) in more ways than one during this holiday staple. His old man Donner shuns the kid just for being born with a light-up nose. Santa does the same and bars him from being on the sleigh team. Then he gets laughed out of reindeer games. Dude can't even mack on the ladies without being attacked by their bigoted fathers. And here's the kicker: Rudolph's the one that pulls Santa's fat out of the fire and saves Christmas.
And Burl Ives is okay with all of this! He just stands there, plucking a soundless banjo. The moral here seems to be "if you're different, we don't want you! ... unless you save the day, no thanks to our ingrate selves, then you're part of the family!"
Yukon Cornelius is the only reasonable of the non-victim characters, and he's daffy as all hell. You can't help but love that guy.
But at the end of the day, this was a glimpse into a time when "Christmas Special"s were few and far between. And I do have a fondness for the sets and stop-motion work involved. There's just something about Ives' voice and watching the visuals (without thinking too much about why everyone here's a douche) that makes this one watchable, every year.
6.5/10