Happy New Year's Eve! - Rudolph's Shiny New Year

Rankin-Bass, 1976
Voices of Billie Mae Richards, Red Skelton, Harold Peary, and Morey Amsterdam
Directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr.
Music by Johnny Marks; Lyrics by Maury Laws

Our final review of 2019 returns us to the Rankin-Bass well one more time for the second special revolving around Rudolph's adventures. How does Rudolph's busy New Year's look nowadays? Let's return to the North Pole just as Santa receives an all-important letter to find out...

The Story: A week before New Year's Eve, Santa (Paul Frees) gets a message from Father Time (Skelton) requesting that Rudolph come to his castle, just beyond the Sands of Time. He wants him to find the Baby New Year, Happy, who ran away after the castle staff laughed at his big ears. If he can't find Happy, the diamond won't drop to signify the end of the year, and time will stand still. The massive monster bird Eon the Terrible (Frees) also wants Happy to keep from dying at the end of the year. With the help of Big Ben the clock-toting whale (Peary), Rudolph travels to the Archipelago of Last Years, a series of islands where each of the old years lives, to find the baby and make sure that he's back in time for the diamond to drop and the year to begin.

The Animation: Somewhat similar to Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas In July, only here, Rudolph is depicted as a younger reindeer with smaller antlers and looks closer to the original design. There's some awfully cute designs here, too, especially Happy and the Three Little Pigs and Baby Bear at the fairy tale island. Some of the backgrounds are nice as well, especially in the fairy tale land and 4th of July segment. We also get a glimpse of Rankin-Bass' 2D animation style in the brief "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" number.

The Song and Dance: This used to run fairly frequently on cable during the Christmas season when I was a child, and I have some very fond memories of it. My favorite character by far here is Big Ben, voiced by a warm and witty Harold Peary. He has some of the best lines, including when Rudolph is first riding in his mouth after they meet. I'm also very fond of bubbly OM, aka One Million, the oldest Father Time, voiced by Morey Amsterdam. (And Baby Bear is sooo cuddly and cute! I want a stuffed Baby Bear!)

Favorite Number: "Turn Back the Years" takes Rudolph and Big Ben to the Archipelago as Rudy reminisces about the past and keeps a red glowing vigilance through the fog. OM gets a big number amid the (anachronistic) dinosaurs and colorful plant life on his island, "It's Raining Sunshine." "What a Wonderful World We Live In" introduces the fairy tale island home of Father Time 1023 with a series of famous nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters...and everyone, from the Three Little Pigs to Miss Muffet and her tuffet to Cinderella and her prince, haven't seen Happy.

My favorite song from this one is the touching "The Moving Finger Writes." Father Time explains the passing of time...and the importance of memories and remembering...in this simple and moving song. Not only is the song the best in the special, but the number just has the Baby New Year going from month to month, growing older and wiser with each change of season. It's a sweet and lovely sentiment, especially for New Year.

What I Don't Like: While not as strange as Christmas In July, this is definitely one of the weirder Rankin-Bass specials. The sequences with the fairy tale and colonial islands are pretty much filler and exist to give Skelton more to do and for Rankin-Bass to squeak in another holiday, respectively.

The Big Finale: I'll admit, this is a guilty pleasure of mine. Even if you didn't grow up with it, it's worth running as background at your New Year's Eve party due to the cast and some good songs.

Home Media: It was originally released on DVD as a triple-feature with The Year Without a Santa Claus and Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, which is what I have. Alas, that DVD is now out of print. Your best bet would be streaming.

DVD
Amazon Prime