Animation Celebration Saturday - Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas In July

Rankin-Bass, 1979
Voices of Billie Mae Richards, Mickey Rooney, Jackie Vernon, and Shelly Winters
Directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass
Music by Maury Laws; Lyrics by Johnny Marks

Hoping to expand their holiday empire, Rankin-Bass combined their three most popular characters to create this movie, which debuted on ABC in November 1979. They even threw popular comic Red Buttons and beloved Broadway star Ethel Merman into the mix. Did they manage to pull off this complex Christmas crossover? Let's head to the North Pole for an epic battle and find out...

The Story: Centuries ago, the evil ice wizard Winterbolt (Paul Frees) ruled the North Pole with a heavy and frigid hand, until the Lady Boreal (Nellie Bellflower) puts him into a deep sleep. When he awakens years later, he discovers that Santa Claus (Rooney) has moved in and started his toy-making factory. He sends a blizzard to get rid of him, but Lady Boreal uses the last of her magic to make the baby reindeer Rudolph's nose glow bright red. Rudolph ends up pulling Santa's sleigh, to Winterbolt's frustration. Lady Boreal tells Rudolph that his nose will stop glowing if he ever uses his power for evil ends.

Meanwhile, Frosty (Vernon) and Crystal (Winters) have returned to the North Pole and started a family, with two children of their own. They all get an offer to star in the circus by Milton the Ice Cream Man (Buttons), who has come to pick up ice cream for the beach-side 4th of July parade. He wants to marry his sweetheart, tightrope walker Lanie Lorraine (Shelby Flint), but her mother Lily (Merman) is in danger of losing the circus to the unscrupulous Sam Spangles (Don Messick). Milton offers to set Frosty and Rudolph up in an act, but Frosty can't go where it's hot. Winterbolt appears, giving him and his family amulets that will allow them to remain in one piece until the fireworks end on the 4th of July.

Santa and Mrs. Claus (Darlene Conley) are supposed to pick them all up and take them back to the North Pole, but Winterbolt traps them in another huge blizzard. He encourages a jealous reindeer named Scratcher (Alan Sues) to trick Rudolph into stealing the money from the show and giving it to Sam. Winterbolt forces him to lie and say he did it on purpose. It takes another appearance by Lady Boreal and one from Rudolph's whale friend Big Ben (Hal Peary) to remind him that he's no liar...but he is a good friend.

The Animation: One of the last of the stop-motion Rankin-Bass programs. The streamlined designs of Rudolph and Santa from Rudolph's Shiny New Year carry over here; Rudy's a little thinner and less babyish than he was in the original special. There's some surprisingly complicated special effects for Rankin-Bass. The North Pole battles between Boreal and Winterbolt look pretty darn good, as do those all-important fireworks at the circus.

The Song and Dance: Kudos to Rankin-Bass for rounding up as many of the voices from the original specials as they could get away with at the time. In fact, this would be the last time Richards and Vernon voiced Rudolph and Frosty respectively. Winterbolt is definitely one of their more interesting villains, and one of the very few to not be redeemed. He's truly a nasty and (pardon the pun) ice-cold piece of work, willing to use blackmail on snowmen and a baby reindeer to further his ends.

Favorite Number: The big number here is "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," which becomes a circus spectacular with Laine dancing on a revolving tree and animals and clowns representing elves and toys. It's rather charming, and is probably the best thing about this. Crystal's first version of the ballad "Everything I Always Wanted," sung to Frosty in the North Pole as she tells him how important he is to her, is really lovely, as is Santa's "I See Rainbows" sun to reassure his wife when they're lost in the blizzard. Rudolph and Frosty celebrate their restoring Rudolph's nose and good name with a cute reprise of "We're a Couple of Misfits" from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

What I Don't Like: Good grief. The story is far too complicated and melodramatic for its simple characters. None of this makes a lick of sense. It's so bizarre, it makes Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band look almost normal by comparison. At least Merman gets to sing four songs and takes down Winterbolt in the end; Buttons barely has anything to do, besides pine over the girl. (And why did they dub Rooney? He's perfectly capable of doing his own singing.)

What happened to Scratcher after he returned to the North Pole? We never do find out if he rejoined Santa's sleigh or what happened to him after Winterbolt's demise, nor do we see him punished for his part in tricking Rudolph.

The Big Finale: I can handle some of the stranger Rankin-Bass specials...but this one is a little too odd, even for me. Only truly devoted fans of Rankin-Bass need apply. Everyone else should be fine with the originals.

Home Media: Easy to find on DVD and streaming.

DVD
Amazon Prime