Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
"Do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?" That's sort of a weird question. How famous could he be if the song has to ask whether you remember him?
Rudolph was originally created in 1939 in a book by Robert L. May, commissioned by the now defunct department store chain Montgomery Ward. Apparently the store had been giving away children's books at Christmas time, and this was the least expensive way to do it. Over 70 years later, people are still telling and re-telling this tale of an zoologically implausible bioluminescent Rangifer tarandus.
Of course, if you've ever looked at a picture of an actual reindeer (caribou, as we North Americans say), you've surely noticed that it doesn't have a little black button nose like a cat; it has a big, broad muzzle like a horse. But in all illustrations of this story, you'll always see the reindeer depicted as little, sprightly Bambi-like animals with black noses. Presumably they just couldn't figure out how to make this
Anyway, following the runaway popularity of the book, a cartoon was produced by Max Fleischer. I just watched this cartoon for the first time--it's about five minutes long--and it is certainly different from the Rankin-Bass version everyone remembers. Wikipedia tells me it is a more faithful adaptation of the book, but having never read the book I can't confirm or deny that.
In this cartoon, Rudolph is a young reindeer who moves and behaves like a deer (albeit a talking deer), but he also lives in a house, sleeps in a bed, and has a mother who inexplicably wears clothes. (In fact, she dresses a lot like Alice from the Brady Bunch.) On that fateful "foggy Christmas Eve," Santa is delivering presents to Rudolph's house when he discovers the little fellow's shiny nose, and the rest is history.
I guess the Rudolph story is one where, if you grow up with it, you fail to appreciate how absurd it is. Why in the world would a reindeer have a glowing nose? The title calls him a "red-nosed reindeer," and of course the song lyrics say it is a "very shiny nose," but it's more than shiny--it actually produces light, like a firefly. I know it's a fantasy story, but there's fantasy and then there's just weird. You're just supposed to take for granted that "red-nosed" means "having a 500-watt headlight for a nose."
But the entry that I'm really supposed to be reviewing is the stop-motion classic originally broadcast in 1964. This deviates quite a lot from the original story, but judging from the Max Fleischer cartoon, I'd say it was an improvement. In this version, Rudolph is already a part of Santa's entourage from the beginning, but he runs away after being taunted by his peers. He is eventually joined in his wanderings by two companions: Hermey, an elf who wants to quit the family business and go into dentistry, despite lacking a D.D.S. degree; and Yukon Cornelius, the blustering treasure hunter with the disturbing habit of licking the tip of his pick-ax. (In the originally-aired version, we eventually find out that Cornelius is digging for peppermint, but the altered version that's usually broadcast cuts this scene, and we're left perplexed.)
Rudolph also has a friend in Clarice, a young doe who is willing to see through his curious appearance and appreciates him as a person. Clarice never grows antlers, the movie again seeming to confuse reindeer with white-tails.
My favorite character is the fearsome Abominable Snow Monster (Yukon Cornelius calls it "the Bumble"). In an upsetting scene near the end, Hermey pulls all of its teeth out without administering novocaine. The creature is then driven over a cliff, but we're relieved to discover later on that it is unharmed ("Bumbles bounce," Cornelius reassures us). The toothless giant is now gentle and kind, subsisting, we can only imagine, on a diet of Jell-O and applesauce.
The Island of Misfit Toys is another creative addition to the story. The best Misfit Toy is the Charlie-in-the-Box, unappreciated because his name isn't Jack. (On the other hand, who over the age of two plays with a jack-in-the-box? I mean the toy, not the burger joint.)
This movie is enjoyable enough to continue watching once a year. It features some memorable songs and a snowman that looks exactly like what Burl Ives would look like if he had been transformed into a snowman. (That just goes to show that it is possible to make a snowman look like a real person, in spite of Jack Frost's failure to do so.) At any rate, since it is so popular, it clearly is
1. It's wrong for reindeer parents not to spend time with their reindeer children.
Rudolph's dad has the same voice as J. Jonah Jameson from the old Spider-Man cartoon.
2. It's okay to be different.
Especially if the thing that makes you different eventually becomes convenient for your boss.
3. Dentistry is a praiseworthy profession.
Dental hygiene is important, and dentists are uniquely capable of fending off wild animals.
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