Thanksgiving is officially over, which means one thing: Christmas season has begun. For the next several weeks, it will be difficult to do anything without hearing Christmas music, seeing Christmas decorations, and turning on the TV to find Christmas specials. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has been a staple of stop-motion holiday programming for more than fifty years. Screen Junkies has released a Rudolph Honest Trailer in honor of the season, and it's...well, a pretty epic reminder of just how crazy the special really is. Check it out!
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had to take some serious liberties if it wanted to stretch the Christmas carol out into an hour-long TV special, and some of those liberties were pretty wild. I completely forgot all about King Moonracer and his role as ruler of the Island of Misfit Toys, although that might be because the Island of Misfit Toys is a horribly depressing place populated by toys that sing horribly depressing songs to the visiting wannabe dentist, orally-fixated prospector, and deer. My mind may have just blocked it out as something too bizarre to actually be real.
That said, the many additions weren't all totally trippy. The classic story of forbidden lovers was an important part of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Rudolph and Clarice weren't exactly Romeo and Juliet, but there's something distinctly sweet and only slightly odd about two young deer falling for each other despite all odds. The little romance does help distract from Santa's reign of terror over the elves. In fact, the whole Christmas crew got together for such a happy ending that it's easy to forget that Bumble made a habit of eating reindeer alive before he was reformed. Nothing a few non-memorable songs can't fix.
As weird as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is from start to finish, it has nothing on the 1976 sequel. Rudolph's Shiny New Year sends Rudolph on a mission to islands set in different eras on a desperate mission to track down Happy the Baby New Year before an evil vulture called Eon the Terrible can stop time and live forever. Rudoplh the Red-Nosed Reindeer gets a little creative with a Christmas carol; Rudolph's Shiny New Year sounds more like a Mad Lib than a movie.
If you haven't caught Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in a while, you probably won't have to wait too much longer until it hits the airwaves this holiday season. Take a look at our list of the worst TV Santas to see some Christmas cheer even crazier than Rudolph, and don't forget to check out our breakdown of the best bits of Christmas from non-Christmas movies. If you're not yet in the holiday spirit, a supercut of Christmas movies might be just what you need to start feeling max merriness. See our midseason TV premiere schedule to discover what non-Christmas TV you'll be able to watch in the not-too-distant future.
