Rudolph's Shiny New Year

"Rudolph's Shiny New Year" is the 1976 stop-motion animated sequel to the 1964 television special "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", produced by Rankin/Bass.

Plot

In this television special, Rudolph has just come back from delivering Christmas presents with Santa Claus when he is asked by Father Time to find the next Baby New Year before midnight on New Year's Eve. The baby, named Happy, was humiliated and laughed at constantly by everyone he met because of his large ears and thus ran away. Unless Happy is returned in time to take his position as the new year, the old year won't end and the date will perpetually remain December 31. Father Time speculates that Happy is hiding out in the Archipelago of Last Years, where the Old Years retire and rule over an island styled to resemble the year they ruled over.

Rudolph first travels to the island belonging to One Million B.C. or "O.M." for short. O.M. is a caveman whose island is anachronistically inhabited with friendly dinosaurs. After unseen visits to the islands of 1893, 1492, 1965 and 4000 BC, Rudolph and O.M. head for the island of Sir 1023, a knight whose island is filled with medieval trappings and fairy tale characters. They then travel to the island of 1776, which reflects Colonial America and is ruled over by "Sev", who resembles Benjamin Franklin. Sir 1023 and Sev join Rudolph and O.M. on their quest along with "Big Ben", a whale with a clock attached to his tail.

As Rudolph and his friends search for the baby, they repeatedly encounter the villain of the special, a giant buzzard named Eon. Eon is destined to live for exactly one eon after which he will turn into ice and snow. Since his eon will be up at the end of the year, he plans to kidnap Happy so as to prevent the year from ending and thus prevent his predestined death on January 1. Eventually, Eon captures Happy and takes him to the Island of No-Name, which is located "due north of the North Pole".

Rudolph and his friends succeed in rescuing Happy from Eon. Happy's large ears cause Eon to laugh, thereby filling him with warmth and preventing him from turning to ice and snow. With Santa's help, Happy is brought to Father Time's castle just in time to begin the new year, which is designated "nineteen-wonderful".

Archipelago of Last Years

When a year ends, the old year retires to the Archipelago of Last Years and selects an island for himself after which time on that island remains frozen for eternity as the year in which the old year ruled. Among the islands of the Archipelagos of Last Years are:

* 1,000,000 BC: Represented as a prehistoric island that consists of dinosaurs and cavemen. O.M. lives here.
* 4000 BC: During Rudolph's search for Happy the Baby New Year, Rudolph mentioned that all its inhabitants wanted to do was build pyramids.
* 1023: Represented as a medieval island filled with fairytale characters. Sir 1023 lives here.
* 1492: In Rudolph's search for Happy, he mentions that the people on that island were too busy discovering things to help them.
* 1776: Represented as a Colonial American island that celebrates Independence Day every day. Ben Franklin (1776) lives here.
* 1893: During Rudolph' search for Happy the Baby New Year, he mentions that the inhabitants have never heard of Happy.
* 1965: Rudolph concluded that island was too noisy in his search for Happy.

Cast

* Red Skelton - Father Time (Narrator)/Baby Bear
* Billie Mae Richards - Rudolph
* Morey Amsterdam - One Million BC
* Frank Gorshin - Sir 1023
* Paul Frees - 1776, Santa Claus, General Ticker, Eon
* Don Messick - Papa Bear
* Harold Peary - Big Ben

DVD details

Released with The Year Without a Santa Claus
*Release date: October 31, 2000
*Full Screen
*Region: 1
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
*Audio tracks: English

Trivia

*The Rudolph in this special looks noticeably younger than the Rudolph in "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" despite taking place in the same month. This somewhat different model for Rudolph was also used in Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July.
* A lady with blonde hair at the front of the crowd at the end of the special was also used as the mother in "The Year Without a Santa Claus"
* The camel who carried Rudolph and General Ticker to Father Time's castle was the same camel who served as "Joshua" in "The Little Drummer Boy," another Rankin-Bass puppetoon.
*In one scene the characters are on a boat using a calendar page as a sail. The calendar page is of August 1928, a reference to writer Romeo Muller who was born on August 7, 1928. The calendar page is inaccurate since it shows the month starting on Thursday, whereas August 1, 1928 was actually a Wednesday. Not only that, the page gives August thirty days instead of thirty-one days.
*In the "The Moving Finger Writes" sequence, the calendar dates seen accurately reflect a common year starting on Monday.
*None of the characters from the original special returned except for Rudolph and Santa Claus.
*The special currently airs on ABC Family as part of the 25 Days of Christmas programming block; it also has occasionally aired on sister network ABC.

External links

*imdb title|id=0073640|title=Rudolph's Shiny New Year
* [http://dumbbaby.net/a/315.shtml Satirical review at Dumb Baby]
* [http://progressiveboink.com/archive/shinynewyear.html Satirical review at Progressive Boink]