Rankin/Bass 3: The First Christmas Snow

December 4, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

The next entry I’m looking at in my Rankin/Bass month is the 22 minute program The First Christmas: The First Christmas Snow. The rather ungainly title refers to a nativity play put on but really the The First Christmas Snow is more the plot of the special.

The First Christmas Snow unfortunately is one of the weaker entries I’ve seen but that’s not to say it doesn’t have some positive elements. It’s just very syrupy and preachy. More along the lines of something you’d watch as a kid in Sunday School to teach a principle than a real piece of cinema.

It tells the tale of a little blind boy named Lucas who is lost in a storm watching over his sheep and some nuns including Sister Theresa take him in and care for him. Theresa is voiced by Angela Lansbury and I could listen to her all day. Basically little Lucas gets to know the nuns and starts to feel at home with his sheep at the monastery.

But mean old Father Thomas (Cyril Ritchard) doesn’t think it is the right place for a little boy and insists he be taken to the orphanage. But Lucas and his friend Louisa pray for a miracle and they get what they ask for and more. Lucas is also trying to thwart off pranksters who lose his sheep and also trying to find the perfect gift for Sister Theresa.

there’s a Christmas pageant where Lucas and Louisa are our angels (did any of you doubt that would be the case?)

The thing that makes this bit watchable and sweet in its own way is the songs. Angela Lansbury sounds completely lovely singing White Christmas, Christmas Snow is Magic and Save a Little Christmas.

The stop motion is fine but not the best I’ve seen from Rankin/Bass and it’s just so syrupy it is hard to recommend- and that’s coming from an adamant apologist for many Christian films.

If you need to have a sub for Sunday School and want to teach about faith and miracles it would be a fine choice but I can still think of better. Honestly any of the veggietales shorts would be better with a similar message.

So this will definitely be near the bottom of my Rankin/Bass rankings if I do one but luckily it is only 22 minutes and I can stand just about anything for that long.

Rankin/Bass 2: Santa Claus is Comin to Town

December 4, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Let’s talk about our first holiday short in Rankin/Bass month (I’ll try to mix up the holiday and non-holiday). We are talking about Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I have to say from the start this is not one I remember watching as a kid. I remember Rudolph but not this one for some reason. I’m not going to say this was my first watch-through but if I have seen it was a long time ago.

With that said, I will say- this movie is weird. It’s just the oddest assortment of strange story, characters, animation, and everything else. I don’t think that is a bad thing per say but it’s just a bit hard to write about. It’s really a very befuddling movie!

Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town aired on ABC in 1970 and it is basically a Santa Claus origin story. Our narrator is SD Kluger (SD for Special Delivery) voiced by Fred Astaire who isn’t given as much to do as you might think.

Basically there is a villain named Burgermeister Meisterburger (a great name!) who hates everything. One morning a baby is dropped on his doorstep and he sends it away to the ‘orphan asylum’ and then the animals rescue the baby from him and the Winter Warlock and then take him to stay with the Kringle Family who make toys. Who knew St. Nick had such grim beginnings!

But luckily the Kringles are sweet and lovely people and Kris grows up and wants to restore the Kringle family as the official toymakers of the King (who knew the king needed such a thing?). So he sets out to make and deliver toys.

Unfortunately Burgermeister has outlawed all toys and basically any other kind of fun. Everything in Sombertown (the name of Burgermeister’s kingdom) is dark and gray and sad. He not only bans toys but declares they are ‘illegal, immoral and unlawful and that anyone who has a toy will be placed in a dungeon!’. These must have been quite the toys!

So that’s sort of the set-up and I won’t give any more away but it involves the magic of the Winter Warlock and Kris Kringle’s attempts to circumvent Burgermeister’s crazy laws. In the course of the story you find out origins for Santa’s name, his relationship and marriage to Mrs Claus, presents under the tree, Christmas trees, going down chimneys, December 24th for presents, flying reindeer etc.

I could see someone really roasting this movie. It’s just so nutty but I enjoyed watching it. It’s only an hour so it didn’t wear out its welcome and did surprise me with the strange choices. The ending is very odd in that Santa doesn’t really save the people from Burgermeister. His family rules for generation until the townsfolk come to their senses. That’s more than a little disturbing if you really think about it…

The voicework by Fred Astaire, Mickey Rooney, Keenan Wynn and Paul Frees is all fine and fun to hear but nothing too special.

The music is a bit of a letdown with nothing that stood out for me. Songs like ‘No More Toymakers to the King’ and ‘First Toymakers to the King’ weren’t anything special and ‘If You Sit on My Lap Today’ made me a little uncomfortable. It’s just odd for Santa to be asking kids to ‘be prepared to pay’ for sitting on his lap.

So overall it is an odd trippy little film but I enjoyed watching it. Have any of you seen Santa Claus is Coming to Town? Have you watched it recently? Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Trailer Battle: Civil War vs Batman v Superman

December 3, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Just wanted to share with you guys this video I made looking at the recent Captain America 2: Civil War and Batman v Superman trailers.

What did you guys think of the trailers? What is your excitement level for both of these films?

Rankin/Bass 1: The Hobbit

December 3, 2015December 3, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

So we are starting off Rankin/Bass month off oddly enough by looking at a non-holiday TV special they made. It was the first attempt to translate JRR Tolkien’s epic fantasy novels to either big or small screen and while imperfect I enjoyed watching it.

I should state out front a couple of biases I have. First, I love the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. They are in the running for films I’d take with me on a desert island. Second, I hate his Hobbit movies. I found them deadly dull and without the moral weight of the LOTR movies. Third, I like the LOTR books, but do not like The Hobbit, which I have never been able to get through. There are no stakes in The Hobbit. It’s just an adventure and that’s not enough to draw me in (I’ve never been that into fantasy especially as a kid). I probably would have liked the Peter Jackson Hobbit films if he had made one or at most two.

All that out of the way, let’s talk about this film. It is traditional sketch style animation and aired on NBC in 1977. I’d say for a made for TV movie the production values are top notch. Everything from the voice talent of people like John Huston and Paul Frees to the wonderful music by Jules Bass and Maury Laws is done at a feature film level. There is also not as much rotoscoping as the Ralph Bakshi LOTR film, which I also see some value in and don’t hate.

The Hobbit of course tells the story of Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit in Middle Earth who goes on an adventure to help his friend Gandalf, the wizard, Thorin and the dwarfs to burgle his way into the Lonely Mountain. The goal is to confront the dragon Smaug and get the treasure in the mountain that belongs to the dwarfs. Along the way they meet elves, a creature known as Gollum, a race of giant spiders, and have a Battle of Five Armies.

Amazingly enough what took Peter Jackson nearly 9 hours and 3 movies to tell, this film tells us in 1 hr 17 minutes! That’s a huge win in this films column for me! That said, there are times when if I hadn’t seen the Peter Jackson films I might be confused. The Gollum scene, for instance, makes sense because I know the book and live action films. If I didn’t I might wonder what the heck this strange creature was doing? It seemed to me this film assumes a cursory understanding of the Tolkein world for all of its viewers which may not be unreasonable given the popularity of the book.

There are also large sections of the book that are left out or are compressed into just a few minutes when I could have used a little bit longer. Particularly towards the end with the battle it felt very rushed.

The music is wonderful with much of it coming from lyrics in the novel. Folk singer Glenn Yarbrough has a beautiful tamber to his voice and it was really quite calming whenever his singing would come on screen. I particularly like The Greatest Adventure.

I will say if you don’t like this kind of folk music you won’t enjoy this film. It’s very predominant but luckily I do so I enjoyed it.

I appreciated some of the touches that were different than the Jackson films like the take on Gollum voiced by Brother Theodore was totally different than the Andy Serkis version. This is more like a monster with riddles than the more human-like characters we get with Serkis.

I guess enjoyment of this The Hobbit depends on how open you are to something different than the version you are used too. As I don’t care for the recent Hobbit films I was more than open to this different telling of the story. It’s very sweet and more like a fairytale than an epic quest of good vs evil in LOTR.

That said, there are some scary scenes for very small children such as when they are caught by the giant spiders. But in general if your kid is dying to see LOTR this may not be a bad option.

Like I said it is sometimes too jam packed and certain elements in the animation feel a little dated but for a made for TV movie from the 70’s I was impressed. It’s different and overall I liked it.

What about you? Have you seen this version of The Hobbit? What’d you think? Please put in the comments section.

Annie Awards Nominations 2015

December 2, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Tonight they put out the nominations for the latest Annie Awards for greatness in animation. Pixar was the big winner with 21 nominations between Good Dinosaur and Inside Out. This year they divided the best feature nominations into an independent and best category which seems strange to me. I personally would have included When Marnie was There in the all-out best category but they put it in Independent. That movie seemed to resonate more with me than other people so I get it (what else is new!). Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet also got a nomination which despite issues I think was deserved for the quality of the shorts.

I would be shocked if the 5 for Best Animated Feature are not the Oscar nominees. Shaun the Sheep is certainly deserving. The Peanuts Movie is fantastic and Anomalisa I’ve heard nothing but great things about (it doesn’t get released by me till 2016).

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

“Anomalisa”
Paramount Pictures

“Inside Out”
Pixar Animation Studios

“Shaun the Sheep Movie”
Aardman Animations

“The Good Dinosaur”
Pixar Animation Studios

“The Peanuts Movie”
Blue Sky Studios, Twentieth Century Fox Animation

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE-INDEPENDENT

“Boy and the World”
Filme de Papel

“Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet”
Ventanarosa

“The Boy and the Beast”
Studio Chizu

“When Marnie Was There”
Studio Ghibli

For television we have some worthy nominations but nothing too unexpected. It might have been nice to see Star Wars Rebels or Rick and Morty get some nominations but hard to argue with what they picked. Wander Over Yonder and Gravity Falls particularly deserve the shout-out.

BEST GENERAL AUDIENCE ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION

“Bob’s Burgers”
Episode: “Can’t Buy Me Math”
Twentieth Century Fox Television / Bento Box Entertainment

“BoJack Horseman”
Episode: “Brand New Couch”
The Tornante Company

“Moonbeam City”
Episode: “Quest for Aquatica”
Titmouse, Inc. / Comedy Central

“The Simpsons”
Episode: “Halloween of Horror ”
Gracie Films in Association with 20th Century Fox Television

BEST ANIMATED TELEVISION/BROADCAST PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN

“Clarence”
Episode: “Turtle Hats ”
Cartoon Network

“Gravity Falls”
Episode: “Not What He Seems”
Disney Television Animation

“Harvey Beaks”
Episode: “A Day of No To-Do”
Nickelodeon

“Sanjay & Craig”
Episode: “Street Dogg”
Nickelodeon

“Star vs the Forces of Evil”
Episode: “Blood Moon Ball”
Disney Television Animation

“Steven Universe”
Episode: “Jail Break”
Cartoon Network Studios

“Wander Over Yonder”
Episode: “The Breakfast”
Disney Television Animation

For full list of nominees and all the other categories go to http://variety.com/2015/film/in-contention/pixar-picks-up-25-annie-nominations-1201650793/

What do you think of the nominees? Anything surprise you?

Rankin/Bass Month Introduction

December 2, 2015December 2, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Hey guys! I just wanted to announce my Christmas series I am doing for my blog. Last year I did Scrooge Month where I reviewed 35 different versions of Christmas Carol. I thought long and hard about what to do for this year and decided it would be fun to talk about the Rankin/Bass animated specials and films, many of which are Christmas related.

Most people will be most familiar with Rankin/Bass stop motion TV specials including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and The Little Drummer Boy.

I love stop motion so I look forward to seeing all of these shorts again especially the one’s I haven’t seen or haven’t seen in a while.

Most of these films are from the 70s so it will be interesting to see how they age.

They also have traditional animation like Frosty the Snowman including a film I have already reviewed called The Stingiest Man in Town. I will not be reviewing that again.

Rankin/Bass Productions was founded by Arthur Rankin Jr and Jules Bass in 1960 in Japan. Many of the starting animators like Toru Hara would go on to work on Studio Ghibli with Hayo Miyazaki.

They were able to keep working with many of the same talent over the years including Maury Laws who did almost all of the music and Romeo Muller who wrote most of the screenplays. Paul Frees was also a frequent voice talent for them.

But over the years they also worked with many great stars including Andy Griffith, Burl Ives, Casey Kasem, Fred Astaire, Art Carney, Red Skelton, Walter Matthau, Danny Kaye and more.

Do you have a Rankin/Bass special that you love to watch around Christmas? I would love to hear about it and I look forward to the series. Like last year I will not be giving grades for this series as it is meant to be a joyful experience and not as critical as I might otherwise be. It’s Christmas for goodness sake!