Wherein, Beachy (and others) discuss the animated works of Rankin-Bass Productions (mainly because
I like them and grew up in an age when their holiday specials were a mainstay of December television).

I'll start off with a little historical research, but I plan on moving into a sequential review of most of their
animated works and specials. I have a bunch of them on order, so I should have them in a week of two.

Arthur Gardener Rankin Jr. (July 19, 1924 – January 30, 2014)
Arthur was born into a family of New York actors and is listed on over 1,000 TV projects. He began his career
in the 1940s as an art director for ABC. He partnered with Jules Bass originally to make television commercials.

Jules Bass (born September 16, 1935)
Jules was born in Philadelphia and worked in advertising until the early 1960s when he partnered with Rankin.
Apart from directing and producing, Jules is also a composer, lyricist, and author.

Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment
Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass founded Videocraft International, Ltd., a New York City-based production
company on September 14, 1960. Although most of their "Animagic"—puppeteering stop-motion animation
production—was headed by Tadahito ("Tad") Mochinaga, and similar puppet work had been pioneered by
George Pal (on Puppetoons) and Art Clokey (on Davey and Goliath and Gumby). The more traditional 2D
animation work of Videocraft International was mainly outsourced to several animation studios in Japan:
Topcraft, Toei Animation, Eiken, and Mushi Production.

One of the earliest Videocraft projects (made at Dentsu Studios) was The New Adventures of Pinocchio
TV series in 1960 based up Carlo Collodi's character of a stringless puppet boy. 130 five-minute episodes
were produce (mostly in 5-episode story arcs).

In the above episode, Pinocchio and his friend, Cricket, once again encounter the Fox and Cat con men.

Their second project, Tales of the Wizard of Oz was another TV series of 110 five-minute episodes, this time adapting
the stories of L. Frank Baum and featuring 2D animation produced by Crawley Films in Ottawa, Canada. Several of the
main characters, the Scarecrow (Straw Man), the Tin Woodsman, and Cowardly Lion were given additional names:
Socrates, Rusty, and Dandy. Dell Comics also adapted the series in Four Color #1308 (May 1962).

The character likenesses, design work, and stories served as the basis for a later hour-long TV special, Return to Oz.
It first aired in the United States on February 9, 1964 as part of NBC's The General Electric Fantasy Hour series, and
Dorothy's slippers here are "silver" in color as in the books, not ruby.


I just watched this one last night and it was fairly enjoyable. The Wicked Witch returns—as her melted-by-water body hardens
again as winter sets in, although her reconstituted form lacks her magical powers. She visits with her cousin, the The Wretched
Witch of the Wastelands and borrows some temporary magic; she then lures Dorothy back to Oz hoping to claim the silver shoes
(which will help the witch to regain her magic powers permanently) before her borrowed magical powers run out.

Meanwhile, Dorothy's friends have all lost their Wizard-granted gifts (due to the machinations of the witch), so Dorothy wants to
help them instead of first seeking her own protection in the city of Oz (as she was advised by the good witch, Glenda).

I continued the tradition with my own kids of watching all the holiday specials they produced over the years. We love them. I am not sure I've seen anything non-holiday by them with the exception of the Return of the King and Hobbit movies.

They just put out a new blu-ray with 4 of the most popular classics for Christmas.

I per-CHAYS-ed it.

I've seen a few beyond the Tolkien movies. For example, when I was growing up, there was a show called
The Saturday Superstar Movies. Rankin/Bass did four of those, but I only remember Willie Mays and the Say-
Hey Kid. And they later did the Thundercats cartoon. And when I was in my "Godzilla" phase a few years back,
I stumbled upon a not-so-great King Kong Escapes film.

I think one of Frosty cartoons wasn't holiday related, and neither is the Wizard of Oz material. They have some
cartoon Monster material, and I'm interested in seeing that.

Yeah, I nearly went for the Blu-rays instead, but I was hoping to get as many as possible, and I was able to
track down more of them on DVDs. When my orders come in, I will have the following specials

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
Cricket on the Hearth (1967)
The Little Drummer Boy (1968)
Frosty the Snowman (1969)
Santa Clause is Comin' to Town 1970)
'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)
The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)
The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow (1975)
Frosty's Winter Wonderland (1976)
Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976)
Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977)
The Stingiest Man in Town (1978)
Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979)
Jack Frost (1979)
Pinocchio's Christmas (1980)
The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold (1981)
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985)
Santa Baby (2001)
The Miser Brothers Christmas (2008)

Ah, okay, here's a few more non-Christmas specials that I remember seeing at least once:
• The Mouse on the Mayflower (1968)
• Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971)
• The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor's New Clothes (1972)

And a few specials I can't recall at all:
• The Ballad of Smokey the Bear (1966)
• The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians (1970)
• Festival of Family Classics: The Arabian Knights (1973)
• The First Easter Rabbit (1976)
• The Little Drummer Boy: Book II (1976)
• The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town (1977)
• The Ivory Ape (1980)
• The Flight of Dragons (1982)
• The Sins of Dorian Gray (1983)
• Beauty and the Beast (1983)
• The Wind in the Willows (1987)

What about the Monster Party?

Mad Monster Party is a lot of fun. Co-written by Harvey Kurtzman. I watch it every couple of years.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000A0GPEA/?tag=imwan-20

A couple of weeks ago I received this on Blu-ray. Had never heard of it before, but had to check it out with that cast! It's a mix of live action and stop motion. Hoping to get a chance to watch it over the Christmas holiday.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WP3LMSC/?tag=imwan-20

I would have thought the Little Drummer Boy book II is Christmas. I have that one, but have never actually watched it. The rest of those are unfamiliar to me. I think I have seen Wind in the Willows, but also could be confusing it for the Disney one.

I haven't seen it, but I thought I listed it. But I confused it with The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie (1972–1974)
Episode: The Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters. Monster Party is one that I wish to see.

Be sure to leave a review of that one. I am very interested.

I think it is. I was just listing it in the second grouping as ones I didn't recall ever seeing. But, subsequently,
I looked at some of the scenes for the Smoky the Bear special, and I do faintly remember some of that one.
Some of those in the second group are also live action. Maybe there's also some animation. I don't know.

I've got this one on the DVDs.

Also I am a die-hard fan of Rankin/Bass's finest work, THUNDERCATS.

(Also SILVERHAWKS and TIGERSHARKS, though these are lesser takes on the core concept of compound-word-made-up-of-two-syllable-descriptor-and-one-syllable-animal-name.)

I've seen most of these - not the ones Beachy's listed as the specials he didn't recall - but the 'main' ones, which were on TV every Christmas when I was growing up.

Very informative, Beachy! I have fond childhood memories of several of the holiday specials, but wasn't aware of many of these productions. Rankin/Bass did a lot more than I realized they did.

I remember seeing "The Flight of Dragons" advertised when it came out and really wanting to watch it, but was unable to and have never had the opportunity since. And I used to like "Thundercats" pretty well. "Silverhawks" not so much. And they were beating a dead horse by "Tigersharks."

I prefer their Hobbit movie over that long bloated Peter Jackson thing.

Thanks, Daphne.