“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1964)

Retro Review #16: Now, new and improved in HD! Don't be too cool to watch this again as an adult!

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1964)
+ TV special, !@ 52m
+ Based on song “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949) by Johnny Marks
+ Based on literature (poem) “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1939)❗🔙🔜⭐ by Robert L. May
+ 2️⃣/32 TV specials in Rankin/Bass multiverse ⭐
+ 1️⃣/? TV specials in Rankin/Bass holiday multiverse ⭐
+ 1️⃣/? TV specials in Rankin/Bass stop-motion holiday universe ⭐
+ 1️⃣/2 TV specials in Rudolph series ⭐

A+^

Grade: A+^ (20.0) / HOF: 12
EQ 👍? | 📖? 👥? 📽️? 🎼? (Coming soon upon re-review)
DW 😎🕶️🚫?.? | 🌚? 🌝? (Coming soon upon re-review)
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R 💻⬆️⬇️? 👀⬆️⬇️? 🛐⬆️⬇️? (Coming soon upon re-review)

Produced by Arthur Rankin, Jr., Jules Bass. Written by Romeo Muller. Directed by Larry Roemer.

“Could it be that some of you are not acquainted with the story of Rudolph?” asks Sam the Snowman in the opening minutes of this Christmas classic.

If you haven’t seen this, at least in your childhood, it’s a good bet that you and your family before you didn’t celebrate Christmas at all. I can only speculate, but I’m guessing that if you’ve never seen it yet, you won’t be inclined to do so in the future.

So unlike most reviews, I’m not going to write primarily to the reader who’s never seen the subject under review. There just aren’t enough in this case.

Instead, I’m going to encourage those of you who haven’t seen it as a grown-up to reclaim some childhood memories and watch it again.

I’m sure I watched this several times as a kid. I’d say at least five times, quite likely more, probably only stopping when I was too cool to watch a show for kids as a teenager.

I probably even saw it on our black and white television, before we finally upgraded to color around 1970. I do remember having a brief crush on Clarice, the cute little doe who always believed in Rudolph. 😊

Rudolph and Clarice. © The Rudolph Company, L.P.

Do you have memories about watching this as a kid, or with your kids?

As you may have noticed in the review header, I’ve capitulated and called this a TV special, not a TV movie. I pointed out before that the dividing line between special and movie on TV is less clear than that between short film and feature film. But after more reading and research, it seems to me I will reflect terminology used by others better if I consider anything under one hour on TV, that isn’t a regular episode of a TV series, to be a special. So.

This special is based on the song of the same name, by Johnny Marks. The song was based on a 1939 book by Robert L. May, which I hope to read and review in the future. Marks was famous for writing other Christmas standards such as “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and wrote all the songs in Rudolph. The soundtrack is arguably one of the better Christmas soundtrack albums ever, with narrator Burl Ives, as Sam the Snowman, leading the way, singing the title song and two others.

Sam the Snowman, voiced by Burl Ives. © The Rudolph Company, L.P.

Of course, the most famous recording of the title song was by Gene Autry and reached #1 on the US charts for Christmas week in 1949.

I’m quite grateful for that since Autry was the original owner of the MLB Angels franchise, my favorite baseball team. And those Rudolph royalties likely helped him sign the free agents that delivered the first three playoff appearances to Angel fans from 1979-1986!

“You would even say it glows.” © The Rudolph Company, L.P.

But I digress. Don’t just revisit this for the music. If you watch this in HD for the first time, you will be impressed by the textures of the costumes, props and sets. Stop motion animation was the earlier version of today’s three dimensional computer animation. Now, traditional animation has nearly vanished, but it was the stop motion models that were the forerunners of today’s animation by computer modeling.

Another benefit of revisiting this gem as an adult is noticing forgotten details. This was my second HD viewing, in maybe five years or so. Both times I was delighted by beautiful atmospheric effects I had forgotten. To borrow from a different famous narration, “Look! Up in the Sky!” And this time, I also noticed that Yukon Cornelius carried a gun (Oh, the horror!), and it looked exactly like a toy pistol I owned as a kid.

Rudolph, Hermey and Yukon Cornelius. © The Rudolph Company, L.P.

As fun as it is to revisit Rudolph as an adult, don't neglect showing it to your kids before they become too-cool teens. It’s arguably the very best Christmas special ever for younger kids, and it’s as close as you can get to safe for all ages—except perhaps for toddlers who would be scared of the abominable snow monster!

There have been many different versions with different scenes added, deleted and edited over the years. You can read about the differences on IMDb. The original version probably doesn’t exist anymore. Early edits mostly made cuts to increase time for commercials. Current versions have tried to return as close as possible to the original. The 2005 version is found on most current physical media such as Blu Ray discs, and also streams on Fandango/Vudu. The 2024 version was just broadcast on NBC on December 6 and reportedly will replace the 2019 version and stream on YouTube TV and Hulu+.

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, you'll go down in history.”

Yep.

© The Rudolph Company, L.P.

Onwards!

+ last viewed (~7) 12/7/24, HDX7, 1.33, 1M <2005 CBS Edit>
+ first viewed 1960s, bw, sd2, 1.33, 1

Versions:
<1964 original broadcast>
never viewed, sd, 1.33, 1

<1965-1997 Edits>
last viewed (~5) 1970s, sd2, 1.33, 1
first viewed 1960s, bw, sd2, 1.33, 1

<1998 CBS Edit>
never viewed, sd, 1.33, 2?

<2005 CBS Edit>
last viewed (2) 12/7/24, HDX7, 1.33, 5M
first viewed 2022, HDX7, 1.33, 5M

<2019 Freeform Edit>
never viewed, HDX, 1.33, 5M

<2024 NBC Edit>
never viewed, HDX, 1.33, 5M

+ 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🎈⛄🎄🎅🎶🦄🧙🛡️😏😥🥸🐾🐾🦌🦌

+ ✅❌? NR (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ 😡? 😵‍💫+? 🤬+? 🤭+? 🫣+? (Coming soon upon re-review)

+ 👀 (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ ✝️ (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ ✡️ (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ 🗽 (Coming soon upon re-review)

Originally posted to text group 2024-12-08
Last updated 2025-04-14

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