What A Cartoon Movie! - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Lost it at Bob’s pitch of “Toy Story 5: We Love the Dump” 😂

Matt Martin

If you ever want to see how Larry D. Mann's cartoon voice acting sounds when he's the main star, Larry was the principle voice actor for DePatie-Freleng's ""beloved"" theatrical series The Blue Racer. There's a lot of Yukon Cornelious sounding characters, especially when he's asked to do vocal caricatures of celebrities like W.C. Fields (because I guess kids in the 70s were clamoring for W.C. Fields parodies). Though fair warning, there are a lot of racist portrayals of Japanese characters and (though not as problematic) very "check, please" style jokes that'll annoy Bob. Great podcast Bob and Henry! These early Rankin-Bass specials always used to make me uncomfortable when I'd see them on TV reruns or when our elementary classrooms would play them on VHS. I have a very specific traumatic memory of when my school showed the R-B Peter Cottontail special. When the evil rabbit blew bubblegum to stop Peter's rooster alarm clock from waking him up seeing the helpless rooster float into the air traumatized me for years. As I've grown older I've developed a ton of respect for the design mentality of the studio. Even if not all the studio's output entertains me.

tiny crow

In 2014 there was a stop motion tv special for Will Frerrel's Elf called "Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas" made be Screen Novelties (yes the ones who also worked on that stop motion Spongebob special). It's basically a retelling of the Elf movie, but done in as a stop motion musical. It's an interesting watch to say the least.

MilesDX

So I dunno if you know about this. But this movie had a sequel! It was made in the 2000's and it's CGI and it's pretty bad. About the only thing really worth mentioning is that it's true to the original in one very special way: they hire non union Canadian voice actors to play all the characters. Scott McNeil plays both Herby AND Yukon Cornelius and does a pretty good job at both. And the actress they got to do Rudolph does a pretty spot on impression of the voice from this movie. In all other respects though it's a pretty bland and unremarkable film and doesn't have the artistry that this one does. Just skip it.

Devin Hoffarth

I love the "Do you recall" lyric for how little sense it actually makes. Now listen children, you might know these 8 famous reindeer, but tell me this, do you know about this other, even more famous and well known reindeer?

Paul

I grew up remembering the “Misfits” version for the most part because my older Gen-X cousin gave my sister and me a VHS copy in the the early ‘90s that we watched every year (more times per season than the once-a-year TV airing that we may or may not have caught, especially since we already had the VHS tape and could watch it whenever we wanted). Henry and Bob, were you perhaps remembering a VHS tape as well? That might explain why you’re more familiar with the superior “Misfits” version of the special.

Kat Heagberg

For folks that want to scratch the misfit toy itch (but in live-action), one of my favourite Christmas films of all time is LOVE & PEACE, a musical kids film from the director of SUICIDE CLUB. Well, unless you want to avoid having your tear ducks drained by a bunch of misfit puppet toys that live in a sewer and love to have parties.

The Important Cinema Club

As a North American dude who celebrates Christmas, I've seen this special countless times over the years - though not in the last few. Of course as you grow up you talk with your friends about how the messaging is a little... awkward in places, and that was INCREDIBLY true for me on this rewatch. This point was actually captured very well in Shane Black's "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" when Michelle Monaghan compares Rudolph's acceptance in the end to Black kids being accepted because they could do great at a sport, which is obviously not really the INTENDED message, but when you're watching a 1960s short with adult eyes in the 2000s+, it's hard not to see where it falls a little flat. Otherwise, in terms of pure artistry, this special does hold up really well and it's brevity is nice, compared to some other Christmas classics that overstay their welcome a bit (I'm thinking specifically of Elf, since Henry brought it up briefly, which always loses me hard in the third act). -- As I've grown up, ESPECIALLY in large part because of university undergrad always sticking me with exams until around the 20th or 21st of December, with long lasting psychic damage, my Christmas spirit has dwindled a fair bit to the point where I absolutely cannot stand the people who start blasting Xmas music and movies immediately after Halloween. That being said, watching this last night for today's podcast didn't actually bug me, and maybe there's a little hope for it this year... besides that I work up until the 23rd (but since I don't get paid time off, that's not necessarily a bad thing).

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

Man, we really need to cancel mistletoe. It’s used for creepy consent bypassing kisses and since it was what Loki used to kill Baldur, it’s also directly related to the beginning of Ragnarok. What an evil plant.