Monday Musings: Synchronizing the Ranking/Bass Christmas Specials

If you're at all familiar with Christmas in America, you know that there are some old claymation and hand-drawn animation TV specials that come out of the woodworks this time of year. Rankin/Bass made quite a few of them, and even branched out into other holidays like Easter and New Year's, and more than a handful of them featured at least one of a trio of characters that these specials have (further) established in the public consciousness: Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman, and Santa Claus. A few years back, during our yearly rewatch of many of these specials, my wife objected to the disparity in Jack Frost's portrayal in the second Frosty special, Frosty's Winter Wonderland. I set about thinking up a way to bring this special into agreement with Frost's eponymous special and the seeds of this theory post were planted.

The Rankin/Bass "trinity" of holiday figures

Before I get into this, let me clarify which specials I'm including: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, The Year without a Santa Claus, Frosty's Winter Wonderland, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, and Jack Frost. I'll also briefly consider The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. These are the 9 specials that feature one or more of the trio mentioned above (along with Jack Frost who's featured in both Frosty's Winter Wonderland and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July) in a major capacity using the same voice actors and designs (for the most part). I'm not including the 2008 production A Miser Brothers' Christmas even though the designs and some of the voice actors are the same, mostly because I have not seen it but also because it wasn't produced by the original teams and therefore doesn't fit with my theory about how the originals all fit together.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

The original Rankin/Bass holiday special is also one of the most problematic in regards to synchronizing all of the specials. Produced 6 years before Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, it features a Santa not voiced by Mickey Rooney but by Stan Francis; Santa here also has less of his jolly, loving demeanor and participates in the other reindeer's shunning of Rudolph after the shiny red nosed is unmasked. This special is also the only appearance (apart from a humorous cameo at the end of Santa Claus is Comin' to Town) of Rudolph as an adult reindeer. If we wish to view the other Rankin/Bass Santa/Frosty Rudolph specials as being part of the same universe (and who wouldn't?), Rudolph must be dealt with.

My answer to the discontinuities? Sam isn't giving us the straight truth. Yes, the snowman is lying (or at least embellishing). This accounts for Santa's otherwise uncharacteristic behavior, Mrs. Claus's unusually dark hair (she always has white hair after this special), and Rudolph's there-is-no-spoon passage to adulthood. The general story of the song still applies to the rest of the universe (the song even gets a reprise in Shiny New Year), but without Santa's complicity in reindeer bullying.

Frosty the Snowman

The first appearance of Frosty, this special offers little problems for the theory of a single universe. Santa is once more voiced by someone who is not Mickey Rooney, but his appearance here is more in keeping with his later characterization. This special also introduces the idea of Christmas snow being particularly magical, an idea which will return later on. Santa's knowledge of the Christmas snow's magic makes sense once we get to his first full-fledged special.

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Only a year after Frosty's premiere, Santa Claus was given the full origin story treatment. I've written before about my love for this special. This is the original special to feature Mickey Rooney in the role, and he'll continue to reprise the role in future Rankin/Bass productions. (As is typical of these specials, it is narrated by someone who figures into the story only tangentially or not at all, but aside from Rudolph that doesn't present any major issues.)

Town also introduces the first major magical character apart from Santa himself: the Winter Warlock (please, call him Winter). Although only a side character in this special, Winter is the beginning of a pretty collection of magical wintry figures these specials will introduce.

The Year Without a Santa Claus

The first special to introduce a narrator who is integral to the story, Year without a Santa Claus represents Santa's dark night of the soul, in which the man who has come to represent the Christmas spirit begins to wonder if his job is worth doing. Rudolph isn't to be seen, but Vixen (who would have been among the adult reindeer in both Rudolph and Town) is present in the more-adorable and sympathetic fawn size. (Perhaps this is the child of the adult Vixen seen in other specials or, more likely, the adult reindeer are a product of the previous storytellers' embellishments.)

Here we meet another wintry figure: Cold Miser (who is presented as the son of Mother Nature and the brother of Heat Miser). Cold Miser is far more ambiguous than Winter Warlock was. He isn't given a redemption arc and is presented as an antagonist or obstacle more than a villain.

Frosty's Winter Wonderland

Frosty's first sequel (and the only traditionally animated one to share continuity with the rest of Rankin/Bass' specials), Winter Wonderland introduces two new characters who are of vast importance later on: Frosty's wife Crystal and Jack Frost. Jack's role in the universe is something I'll talk about more when we get to his special later on.

Rudolph's Shiny New Year

The first of these specials to center on a non-Christmas venture, Shiny New Year delves into the realm of time with its plethora of retired Years, Father Time, and characters like Big Ben the whale who will return later in the series. Aside from being Rudolph's first sequel, this special doesn't add much to the wintery themes of the other specials. It does offer a condensed version of Rudolph's backstory (that conveniently leaves out any complicity in bullying on Santa's part).

Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July

Or, the special that took too long. (It's actually considered a feature film, but it's still bloated.)

Anyway.

Christmas in July is the Avengers-style team-up that caps off the bulk of the franchise. All three big names are present (Santa doesn't get a name drop, though) and the mythology of Rudolph's nose and Frosty's origins are built up some more. Frosty's wife Crystal makes her second (and so far as I know, last) appearance in any medium, along with their snow-children, Milly and Chilly. (That's some magical Christmas snow, if snowmen can reproduce. *ahem*)

The most interesting aspects of this special center on Rudolph's nose. It is revealed (*cough*retconned*cough*) that Rudy's nose was blessed by the heretofore-unheard-of Lady Boreal, the Queen of the Northern Lights. When the evil wizard Winterbolt (unrelated to Winter Warlock, so far as we know) breaks free of her enchantment, Lady Boreal places her power in the newborn Rudolph's nose as a way of preserving the power to defeat Winterbolt. Winterbolt, by the way, wants to reclaim the territory wherein lays Santa Claus' domain. Because jolly old toymakers equal certain doom or something.

This special also sees the return of Jack Frost, still on good terms with Frosty after his reform in Winter Wonderland. Jack's breath is used to keep Frosty and family chilled on their return to the North Pole at the story's end. It's a nice nod to the previous special, as is Big Ben's help in getting Jack's attention.

Jack Frost

After giving the character a minor role in two specials, Rankin/Bass finally gave us an origin story for the icy sprite. Until I started writing this post, I hadn't realized that it was actually one of the last holiday specials Rankin/Bass produced. Other than The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, it's the last special in this universe, with only some lesser-known specials like Pinocchio's Christmas coming in between. Because it's the last, Jack Frost could be viewed as a retcon of the previous appearances of the character. However, I'd like to present my original theory (which is what started all this).

In Jack Frost, Jack is one of a number of sprites and spirits in charge of winter weather under the fearsome Father Winter. He falls in love with a human woman and begs for Father Winter to make him human. Jack is able to defeat the local villain and acquire all the arbitrary accouterments of humanity but fails to win his lady love's heart, and so he returns to the realm of the winter skies. Although the narrator of the special, groundhog Pardon-Me Pete, makes it seem that Jack never lost his sense of playfulness, Jack's (chronologically) later appearances in the series say otherwise. Some time after he lost his chance at love and humanity, Jack seems to have become bitter and jealous of anyone who gained praise for winter (see Winter Wonderland, though it seems that Santa Claus escapes Jack's notice, perhaps since he isn't specifically associated with snow and ice*). After he encountered Frosty and learned that there was still joy for him in the world, he regained his playful and kind-hearted nature, though the change to his voice was permanent.**

* Incidentally, this theory began because my wife didn't like Jack's mean-spirited appearance in Winter Wonderland and (not realizing this special came much later) I attempted to reconcile the two. She didn't like my theory much better than my reason for making it.

** Why didn't they just have Paul Frees reprise the role for Jack Frost? Why?

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is not entirely incompatible with this shared universe we're exploring, but it must be considered an alternate version of history much as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is. Life and Adventures follows a similar structure to Town -- Claus is raised by elves or fairies, learns to make toys as a way of spreading joy in a gloomy world, and eventually sets up his gift-giving on Christmas Eve with the help of elves and other magical folk. But hey, every expanded universe needs a good alternate universe story, right?


This post has already got to be longer than I anticipated, so I'll save my theory about all the winter magic flying around for next week.

Are you a fan of the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials? Which one's your favorite? Let me know in the comments.