''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' is a 1974

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

Christmas television special produced by

Rankin/Bass Productions Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City. It was known for its seasonal television specials, ...

that features Clement Clarke Moore's famous 1823 poem '' A Visit from St. Nicholas'', the opening line of which is the source of the title of this animated special. The special first originally aired on CBS on December 8, 1974, and the network aired it annually until 1994, when The Family Channel (now Freeform) took over its syndication rights.

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 *** ...

took over syndication rights for the special in 2018. Although the opening credits mention "told and sung by

Joel Grey Joel Grey (born Joel David Katz; April 11, 1932) is an American actor, singer, dancer, photographer, and theatre director. He is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in the musical ''Cabaret (musical), Cabaret'' on Broadway theatre, ...

", it is really narrated by George Gobel, as there is more emphasis on the point of view of Father Mouse, with Moore's poem read by Grey as a secondary plot.

Plot

Santa Claus Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Chris ...

is offended by an

anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

letter printed in a Junctionville, USA newspaper claiming that he does not exist. In response, Santa returns all of the townspeople's letters unopened. Upon reading the letter, Father Mouse, an assistant to the clockmaker Joshua Trundle, suspects that his son Albert is the author, and Albert confirms this. To make amends with Santa, Father Mouse and the Trundle Family build a clock tower that will play a special song to convince Santa not to bypass Junctionville on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christma ...

. Unfortunately, Albert sneaks into the clock and inadvertently causes it to malfunction in front of the whole town. The Mayor, embarrassed by the clock's failure, denies Joshua access for repairs. After confessing his mistake, Albert decides to fix the clock himself and manages to get it to play its song within earshot of Santa, prompting Santa to visit the town after all.

Cast

* George Gobel as Father Mouse *

as Joshua Trundle * Tammy Grimes as Albert * John McGiver as the Mayor of Junctionville

Additional voices

* Robert McFadden as Substation Operator, Councilmen, Handyman * Allen Swift as Santa Claus * Pat Bright as Sarah Trundle/Mother Mouse * Christine Winter as Girl/Girl Mouse * Scott Firestone as Boy/Boy Mouse * The Wee Winter Singers as the Chorus

Songs

There are three musical numbers in the program: # "Give Your Heart a Try" - Father Mouse (George Gobel) # "Even a Miracle Needs a Hand" - Joshua Trundle (Joel Grey), Albert (Tammy Grimes) # "Christmas Chimes are Calling (Santa, Santa)" - Chorus

In popular culture

"Even a Miracle Needs a Hand" later appeared on ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

'' in the Season 4 episode " A Very Crappy Christmas". Similar to its use in the original special, the song is sung by Kyle to Stan and

Kenny Kenny is a surname, a given name, and a diminutive of several different given names. In Ireland, the surname is an Anglicisation of the Irish ''Ó Cionnaith'', also spelt ''Ó Cionnaoith'' and ''Ó Cionaodha'', meaning "descendant of Cionnaith". ...

during a seemingly hopeless situation. At one point, Joshua Trundle's face is even superimposed over Kyle's face.

Production

Like many of Rankin/Bass' other animated TV specials, this special was animated in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

by the animation studio

Topcraft Topcraft Co., Ltd. (株式会社トップクラフト ''Kabushiki-gaisha Toppukurafuto'', also written as "Top Craft") was an animation studio established in 1972, by former Toei Animation producer Toru Hara, and located in Tokyo, Japan. It was f ...

, which was rolled into

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It has a strong presence in the animation industry and has exp ...

in 1985.

Home media

The special was originally first issued on VHS by ABC Video Enterprises and Golden Book Video in 1987. After Lorimar was purchased by

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...

/ Warner Bros. Family Entertainment (owners of the post-1974 Rankin/Bass library), re-released the special on VHS in 1990, and 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 ki ...

in 2004, paired with the 1976 special '' Frosty's Winter Wonderland''. A

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

was released on October 5, 2011. It is also available on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

for purchase.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974 TV special) 1974 in American television 1974 television specials 1970s American television specials 1970s animated television specials CBS television specials CBS original programming Christmas television specials Television shows directed by Jules Bass Television shows directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. Santa Claus in television Television shows based on poems Topcraft Works based on A Visit from St. Nicholas Rankin/Bass Productions television specials Animated Christmas television specials