This movie was released by Goodtimes in 1998 in… October. It was a complete box office disaster but got new life on home media. It is from very late in the Renaissance age (probably the very beginning of the Pixar age actually), and it really screams that style.
This film has a big rivalry with The Rankin/Bass special (“the original” even though there are at least three older versions), and I have praised their work highly in the past. If you think I am going to constantly say how much better their work is than this you are wrong. Honestly I do not think either are good, and they are both greatly inferior to the Fleischer short. This one has better unity of plot (but still not good), and inferior world building. Both have bad animation. Granted I think this is based more off their special than the book or song.
It starts with the sprites of Northern Lights singing the famous song, and they most just show up every now and then as a Deus ex machina. Do they know the future? They are singing about Rudolph being famous when he is just a baby. One detail I like is everybody gives the reindeer different homes. Fleischer and the book gave them human houses and beds. Rankin/Bass gave them caves. This gives them stables. Rudolph is born with a red nose that glows, which moderately worries his parents. More notable that his baby design is just his older design but smaller. I really do not like these designs. Blitzen has a fur patch that is just a lightning bolt, and another deer has one that is just a heart on his forehead. It looks weird and too cartoony for the tone. In addition the animation is way stiffer than I remember. Shots like the close up of his eyes really look off.
Most of the songs in this movie are very generic, but I really like “What about his nose.” It is a crowd song about how evil everybody else is simply because Rudolph is different. Normally these are way more upbeat, so this actually sticks out. I think these North Polities come off as far worse than in Rankin/Bass where Rudolph’s nose at least blinds them, here they are just malicious. As weird as this is to say I want a PG-13 version of this story, a man vs society plot where Rudolph is really struggling with saving these jerks.
A little later we are given an introduction to Santa Claus that is done much better later, but also the villain, Stormella. Due to some political/social things she said I have come to really dislike Woopi Goldberg, but her acting is good… normally. Here her comedic scenes are good, and her dramatic and scary scenes are bad. She is clearly based off The Snow Queen, and I like the fan theory she is Elsa after she turned evil. Earlier in the film some elves (they have minor roles that are not worth discussing) accidently destroyed her ice statues. Her plan is hard to follow.
Whoever wrote the TV Tropes page on this film is really off. The writer kept calling Stormella and other villains complex with good and sympathetic motivations. Whoever did that did not watch the film in recent memory and I presume is writing nostalgically with no viewings in years. Stormella is not out to right them making a mistake. She is clearly trying to pick a fight with Santa Claus, which is later clearly established as for the evulz. This is just her excuse.
Based on a handful of pieces of dialogue later (Stormella saying she needed an excuse) and all the dialogue here there is a higher unnamed authority of justice in The North Pole. So her plan is to demand the two elves for torture knowing Santa Claus will not do it. This gives her an excuse for a giant storm to knock him out of business. No wait, she can now close her bridge so if anybody crosses it she can then throw the storm. Apparently she then just waits for 2 years and until then vanishes from the story and passing mention.
As shown later she can makes dresses out of ice, so why not just remake her statues? Because she’s evil. There is no complexity. This is the typical renaissance age black vs white morality.
By next Christmas a few scenes happen that as an adult are just a slog to get through. One key problem is the score. It is way too dramatic and constantly plays loud when no music would be better. Arrow the bully becomes the main villain, and he sucks. TV Tropes says he has issues with Rudolph flirting with his “doe friend” and his blinding nose. They are wrong. He is just a blood thirsty pure evil plot device that was like that before Rudolph did anything involving him.
Say what you will about Bumble (villain from Rankin/Bass), but he is the villain the entire time. Here storm Ella is the villain, then she vanishes and Arrow takes over, then Arrow vanishes and Storm Ella takes over again. The scenes with Arrow and brief showings off everybody else joining in just make this whole place so unlikable. The only one who does not is Zoey, the love interest, and she sucks. For one her only real role is being the damsel in distress. Rudolph running away has nothing to do with her either. There needed to be something like she is banned from being with him or she turns on him, but no. He leaves in spite of a potential Doe friend. Their romance is very dull and generic, but this should be expected for a movie written for 4 year olds. The real problem is she is actually very cruel just different from Arrow. For some reason she is dating this psychopath, yet she is constantly flirting with Rudolph when he is not around. Let the guy off the hook already and just leave him. I am kind of rooting for Storm Ella. The reason I am not is Santa Clause.
If there is only one thing this blows Rankin/Bass out of the water in it is Santa Claus. Not that it is saying much with how bad their version is (ironic since they later made many great versions), but this version is great. He is so loving, supportive, helpful, hard working, humble, and I really wish John Goodman got to be him in a better movie. Based on how bad the animation is most of the budget went to actors, and almost all of them are wasted and give no impact. Goodman is the exception. His performance is so full of life and care. His role and song “Santa’s Family” is great for keeping the film somewhat light and making me want The North Pole to succeed.
After Christmas another year is skipped to near Christmastime when they do the Reindeer games. Arrow decides to just try to kill the competition resulting in everybody being carted out, and what are the judges doing? What they are doing is kicking Rudolph out (but cruelly waiting until he is declared the winner before disqualifying him) due to one of the only times so far his nose has glowed it blinded Arrow. They instead make Arrow the winner after he nearly killed everybody.
Why did Stormella not just use this as an excuse? For one a disqualification does not mean make another guy the winner, it means redoing it. Where were you in all those injuries? TV Tropes said he was just at the back and did not see it. Everybody in the audience sure reacted, and how do you not see everybody being carted out? The best explanation I have is this guy is on a power craze and enjoying making weird moves.
Slightly before the halfway mark Rudolph runs away, and then the film really picks up due to much better side characters and villains. Okay it picks up after award bait song “Show me the Light” finishes. It is very generic, and the singing voices sound nothing like their talking counterparts.
First he meets Slyly the fox who is the jerk with a heart of gold. Their opening is too dramatic, but I grow to like him. He gives the basic lesson it could always be worst, which really does help him with realizing stuff like he at least has loving parents and Zoey. He even gets Rudolph to laugh uncontrollably at his own nose showing the value of being able to laugh at yourself (handled way better than in “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year”). After that they also gain Leonard. He is useless to the plot and has a distractingly long neck, but he adds a simple kind soul who helps the now happier tone.
Worried about Rudolph Zoey runs away looking for him and… Apparently she is stupid since she decides to cross Stormella’s bridge to look for him. If he did that he is long gone so what is crossing going to do? Predictably she gets captured and thrown in jail. Here comes the giant storm, and Stormella… Why is she taking a nap? You have waited two years for this, go make that storm and preferably start with burying the judge. This is why I do not like her as a villain, she is lazy.
Sprite ex machina tells Rudolph Zoey is captured and to control his nose by funneling his positive emotions and… Is The Ultra-Humanite a fan of this, because he basically gave the same advice? Rudolph goes to save her, and the light from his nose blinds Stormella’s whole security system making it useful. She still finds him, and it turns out a glowing nose is no substitute for weaponry (if only his head was made of weapons). Thankfully for him Slyly did not get captured and retrieves the key. Surely he lives up to his name to trick Stormella…
No he just says what he is doing and that works in the short term. Then she wakes up in the long term and corners them all again. At least it is funny. I know he and Leonard really do nothing important, but Slyly adds quite a bit of needed comedy to this film.
Thankfully for them Stormella is a big klutz and just falls off a cliff, and the heroes rescue her. By some unexplained rules of The North Pole most likely set up by nameless higher power she owes Rudolph a wish as a result.
He then wishes to remove her free will and make her a good guy. “The North Pole’s about to get awfully dull.” Unfortunately she cannot remove the storm, and that is something else this has over Rankin/Bass. Both have the flaw of two distinct climaxes, but here they actually connect.
Rudolph goes back home and from there Santa quotes the song, and they in a lackluster climax get through the storm.
This special is pretty good for young children and gets more and more flawed the older I get. I give it 2 Tree Stars. It has a very boring first half and then a pretty good second half, and it has terrible unity of plot and time. On the other hand this is very memorable. It was a very easy write up.
The Animation Historian 