''Rudolph's Shiny New Year'' is a 1976 American-Japanese Christmas and New Year's

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

and a standalone sequel to the 1964 special ''

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert L. May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on ...

'' produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. The special premiered on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

on December 10, 1976. Three years later, it was also aired on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Comp ...

in Japan on December 24, 1979, under the Japanese dub title 赤鼻のトナカイルドルフ物語 (''Akahananotonakai Rudorufu Monogatari'').

Plot

Just after the events of ''

'', Santa Claus receives a letter from his friend

Father Time Father Time is a personification of time. In recent centuries he is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, sometimes with wings, dressed in a robe and carrying a scythe and an hourglass or other timekeeping device. As an image, "Father Ti ...

asking for help to find Happy the

Baby New Year The Baby New Year is a personification of the start of the New Year commonly seen in editorial cartoons. He symbolizes the "birth" of the next year and the "passing" of the prior year; in other words, a "rebirth". Baby New Year's purpose varies by ...

before midnight ("the 12th bong") on New Year's Eve or else it will be December 31 forever. Santa sends Rudolph out to find him due to the snowstorm currently happening outside. An evil giant

vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

named Eon the Terrible is supposed to live for exactly one eon after which he will turn into ice and snow and disintegrate. As this particular eon will end January 1 of the New Year, he plans to kidnap Happy to keep the year from ending and stop time, thus preventing his predestined death. General Ticker (a military clock) and the great Quarter-Past-Five, or Quart for short (a camel with a clock in his hump), bring Rudolph to Father Time's castle beyond the Sands of Time. Father Time speculates that Happy, who ran away due to his big ears being laughed at when they were first seen by Nanny Nine O'Clock, is hiding out in the "

Archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

of Last Years" where the Old Years retire and rule over an island styled to resemble the year over which they ruled. When Rudolph is attacked by Eon on the ocean while en route to the Archipelago, he is saved by Big Ben (a sperm whale with a clock attached to his tail) who transports Rudolph across the ocean. Upon arrival in the Archipelago, Rudolph first travels to the island belonging to a

caveman The caveman is a stock character representative of primitive humans in the Paleolithic. The popularization of the type dates to the early 20th century, when Neanderthals were influentially described as "simian" or " ape-like" by Marcellin Bo ...

named O.M. (short for One Million B.C.). O.M. inhabits an island anachronistically inhabited with friendly

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s and other prehistoric creatures. As Rudolph and his friends search for Happy (who left after his hat accidentally fell off saving a baby

Pterodactyl Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to 6 ...

and revealing his big ears, causing the dinosaurs to laugh), they repeatedly encounter Eon. After other off-screen visits to the islands of 4000 B.C., 1492, 1893, and 1965 have been completed without success, Rudolph and O.M. head for the island of 1023 (pronounced "ten to three," as in the time 2:50), belonging to a Scottish

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

with a long beard named Sir 1023 whose island is filled with

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

trappings along with several fairy tale and

Mother Goose The figure of Mother Goose is the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. As a character, she appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as a nursery rhyme. This, howeve ...

characters. Meanwhile, Happy manages to befriend the Three Bears, but becomes saddened when he removes his hat and exposes his big ears to them, causing him to leave again despite Baby Bear begging him not to go. The group then travels to the island of 1776, which reflects Colonial America and is ruled over by "Sev" (AKA 1776) who resembles

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

. Following Happy's seeming rejection on the Island of 1776 following the daily parade, Eon kidnaps him and takes him to his lair on the Island of No-Name which is said to be located "due north of the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

". The group now leaves the Archipelego in pursuit. Catching up to Eon, they attempt to rescue Happy. However, Eon (upon being awakened by the sound of O.M. tumbling) thwarts them by sending an avalanche down on the group and trapping them inside giant snowballs. Managing to melt his way free using his nose, Rudolph climbs up to Eon's nest where he finds Happy, who refuses to leave. Rudolph shows Happy his nose and tells him his own story of being bullied because of his nonconformity before asking Happy to let him see his ears. Happy does so, and Rudolph, like everyone else before him, laughs at the sight. Happy once again gets upset, but Rudolph explains that the sight of Happy's ears had made him feel so wonderful that he had to laugh out loud, just like it had done with everyone else. With this declaration, Happy shouts out with joy, but causes Eon to awaken. Rudolph quickly tells Happy to take off his hat and leave it off for good. At the sight of Happy's large ears, Eon bursts into uncontrollable laughter which sends him tumbling down the side of the mountain and into the three remaining snowballs, freeing O.M., 1023, and Sev. Rudolph realizes that Eon is now so full of warmth and happiness that it would be impossible for him to turn to ice and snow. Santa arrives and the gang returns to Father Time's castle with Happy just before the 12th bong, which is designated "19-Wonderful".

Archipelago of Last Years

When the old year has been retired, they settle on an island in the

of Last Years where time remains still on that island. Among the islands of the Archipelago of Last Years are: * 1,000,000 BC Island: Represented as a prehistoric, anachronistic island that consists of

s, other prehistoric creatures, and

cavepeople The caveman is a stock character representative of primitive humans in the Paleolithic. The popularization of the type dates to the early 20th century, when Neanderthals were influentially described as "simian" or " ape-like" by Marcellin Bou ...

living together. O.M. lives here. * 4,000 BC Island: Rudolph mentions that all its inhabitants wanted to do was build

pyramids A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

. *

1023 Year 1023 ( MXXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * The Judge-Governor of Seville in Al-Andalus (modern Spain) takes advantage of the disinte ...

Island: Represented as a medieval island filled with fairy tale characters. The year 1023 is said in Father Time's narration to be when all the well-known fairy tales and

nursery rhymes A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

actually happened. Sir 1023 lives here. *

1492 Year 1492 ( MCDXCII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. 1492 is considered to be a significant year in the history of the West, Europe, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Spain, and the N ...

Island: Rudolph mentions that the people on that island were too busy discovering things to talk to Rudolph and O.M. *

1776 Events January–February * January 1 – American Revolutionary War – Burning of Norfolk: The town of Norfolk, Virginia is destroyed, by the combined actions of the British Royal Navy and occupying Patriot forces. * Januar ...

Island: Represented as a Colonial American island that celebrates

American Independence Day Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...

on a daily basis. 1776 (Sev) lives here. *

1893 Events January–March * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * Mark Twain started writing Puddn'head Wilson. * January 6 – Th ...

Island: Rudolph mentions that the inhabitants have never heard of Happy. 1893 was indeed an unhappy time as a major economic depression called the Panic of 1893 hit the United States that year. * 1965 Island: Rudolph stated that island was "too noisy" to search for Happy. Among the noisy world events of 1965 included Beatlemania (and other

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...

-related hysteria) and growing

opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War (before) or anti-Vietnam War movement (present) began with demonstrations in 1965 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social move ...

Cast

Red Skelton Richard Red Skelton (July 18, 1913September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program '' The Red Skelton Show''. He has stars ...

(Narrator), Baby Bear * Billie Richards as Rudolph *

Morey Amsterdam Moritz "Morey" Amsterdam (December 14, 1908 – October 28, 1996) was an American actor, comedian, writer and producer. He played Buddy Sorrell on CBS's ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' from 1961 to 1966. Early life Amsterdam was born in Chicago ...

as One Million BC * Frank Gorshin as Sir 1023 *

Paul Frees Solomon Hersh "Paul" Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986) was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass, and Walt Disney theatrical cartoons during ...

as 1776, Santa Claus, General Ticker, Eon the Terrible,

Humpty Dumpty Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. ...

and Quarter Past Five * Don Messick as Papa Bear,

Rumpelstiltskin "Rumpelstiltskin" ( ; german: Rumpelstilzchen) is a German fairy tale. It was collected by the Brothers Grimm in the 1812 edition of '' Children's and Household Tales''. The story is about a little imp who spins straw into gold in exchange for a ...

Prince Charming Prince Charming is a fairy tale stock character who comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress and must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell. This classification suits most heroes of a number of traditional folk tales, includi ...

, Seven Dwarfs *

Harold Peary Harold "Hal" Peary (July 25, 1908 – March 30, 1985) was an American actor, comedian and singer in radio, films, television, and animation. His most memorable role is as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, which began as a supporting character on r ...

as Big Ben the Whale * Iris Rainer as Mama Bear, Nanny Nine O'Clock, Happy the

Crew

* Producers/Directors: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin, Jr. * Writer:

Romeo Muller Romeo Earl Muller, Jr. (August 7, 1928 – December 30, 1992) was an American screenwriter and actor most remembered for his screenplays for the Rankin/Bass holiday specials including ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Little Drummer Boy ...

* Music/Lyrics:

Johnny Marks John David Marks (November 10, 1909 – September 3, 1985) was an American songwriter. He specialized in Christmas songs (although he himself was Jewish and did not celebrate Christmas) and wrote many holiday standards, including "Rudolph the Red- ...

* Design: Paul Coker, Jr. * Sound Recording: William Bell, John Curcio, Don Hahn * Sound Effects: Tom Clack * "Animagic" Production Supervisors: Ichiro Komuro, Akikazu Kono * Post Production Supervisor: Irwin Goldress * Music Arranger/Conductor:

Maury Laws Maury Laws (December 6, 1923 – March 28, 2019) was an American television and film composer from Burlington, North Carolina. Biography In his teens, Laws performed in local country, jazz and dance bands as a singer and guitarist in his home st ...

Songs

* The Moving Finger Writes * Turn Back The Years * It's Raining Sunshine * What A Wonderful World We Live In * Fourth Of July Parade * Have A Little Faith In Me *

* Have a Happy New Year

Production

The special was filmed in 1975 (according to the copyright), but it was shown on

on December 10, 1976. For the special, Rudolph was given a redesign by Paul Coker, Jr.

Television rights

The rights to this special are held by

Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

, which used to license the show to

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

; Disney carried the special Freeform annually on its

25 Days of Christmas Freeform's 25 Days of Christmas is an American annual seasonal event of Christmas programming broadcast during the month of December by the U.S. cable network Freeform. The event was first held in 1996, and has been an annual fixture of the chann ...

marathon (and occasionally aired it over-the-air on

). Since 2018, Warner Bros. has licensed the special to

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...

and its sister channels for the Best Christmas Ever block.

Home media release

''Rudolph's Shiny New Year'' was first released on VHS by

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Vide ...

in 1992. It was also re-released on VHS in 1999, and for the first time on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

alongside ''

The Year Without a Santa Claus ''The Year Without a Santa Claus'' is a 1974 stop motion animated Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. The story is based on Phyllis McGinley's 1956 book of the same name. It is narrated by Shirley Booth (her final ...

'', on October 31, 2000. The special, along with other Rankin/Bass Christmas specials and Chuck Jones's animated TV adaptation of '' Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'', was bundled in Warner's ''Christmas Television Favorites'' DVD box set, released on October 2, 2007. On October 7, 2008, these same titles were released in another holiday-themed DVD set, ''Classic Christmas Favorites''. Warner Home Video released seven different original Rankin/Bass holiday classics along with ''Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' on the third DVD box set, ''Santa's Magical Stories'', released on October 4, 2011. ''

A Miser Brothers' Christmas ''A Miser Brothers’ Christmas'' is a stop motion spin-off special based on some of the characters from the 1974 Rankin-Bass special ''The Year Without a Santa Claus''. Distributed by Warner Bros. Animation under their Warner Premiere label (the ...

'', a sequel to the 1974 special, ''

'', is also included.

DVD details

Released with ''

'' * Release date: October 31, 2000 * Full Screen * Region: 1 * Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 * Audio tracks: English * Second extra: Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

References

External links

*
ABC Feature Page for ''Rudolph's Shiny New Year''

Archived ABC Feature Page for ''Rudolph's Shiny New Year''
{{New Year 1976 animated films 1976 films 1976 in American television 1976 television specials 1970s American animated films 1970s American television specials 1970s animated short films American Broadcasting Company television specials American musical fantasy films 1970s animated television specials Christmas television specials Films scored by Johnny Marks Films scored by Maury Laws Television shows directed by Jules Bass Television shows directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. Films set in the Arctic Films set on islands Musical television specials New Year's television specials Rankin/Bass Productions television specials Stop-motion animated television shows Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Santa Claus in film Santa Claus in television Stop-motion animated short films Animated films about time travel Time travel in television Television shows written by Romeo Muller American Christmas television specials Fiction set in prehistory Fiction set in the 4th millennium BC Works set in the 11th century Works set in the 15th century Fiction set in 1776 Works set in the 1770s Fiction set in 1893 Fiction set in 1965 Animated Christmas television specials