From 1985 this is the last Rankin-Bass Christmas special. It is adapted from the book of the same name by L. Frank Baum. Now that they are at the peak of their craft they get to to the beginning with Santa Claus.
It begins with The Great Ak saying “In all this world there is nothing so beautiful as a happy child.” A great way to estblish why Claus will gain immortality (Spelling “Claus” without the letter E will be very hard for me thanks to Tim Allen). Then it goes to The Forest of Burzee “an age ago.” Decent way to establish not to take the small details too seriously.
The immortals are meeting over discussing if they should give Santa Claus immortality (it can be inferred from context, but they skip the part in the book where they say they only have one veil of immortality, so they can never give it to anybody else.
The immortals come to the meeting as the song “Ora e Sempre” plays. The rhythm shows how otherworldly they are. They lyrics state they are always were and always will be in their present shape until the world ends (it does seem obvious they are both powered by nature and forces of nature). The one who gets immediate focus is The King of the Wind demons. With a name like that you would think he would be hostile, but it is the opposite. The other immortals are disgusted with the idea of giving away the veil, but he insists he will listen and is clearly very sympathetic to the mortal children of the world. The great Ak tells them that after Claus’s sleigh ride that night he will die unless they give him the veil, so he starts the frame story.
60 years ago The Great Ak found an abandoned baby and left him the care of the lioness Shiegra. The nympth Necile sees it, and wants to raise him resulting in both of them raising him. He is named Claus meaning little one. (In the book alone that is short for Ne-Claus which is how we get Nicholas). It appropriately means this story about gifts to children starts with them giving a child the gift of living and a home.
To what I can tell there is a make believe vs reality theme. By being a mortal who later reenters their world raised with immortal nature spirits who can communicate with any plant or animal Claus is a product of both worlds. One interesting adaptation change they made is the animals do not talk. In the book they all talk with Claus and the immortals. It might be to show off the impressive set of roars they have for Shiegra or give more reality to the land of make believe.
One interesting scene about how being from both worlds is not fun and games is his goodbye with his adopted mother, Necile. In the book they say that due to only Claus aging he goes from seeing her as a mother to a sister and eventually a daughter and granddaughter. Here they get a goodbye scene where them looking the same age highlights how odd her being his mother is.
Then back to a magical scene where he goes flying with The Great Ak to see the land of mortals. Part of how it feels magical is the way The Great Ak talks. He is a blunt guy who accepts the ways of the world, which includes that it changes and can be for the better. It really makes him sound wiser than anyone else. Part of it is the exciting music, and then how it gets darker when they quit flying in space and literally come down to Earth for the darker scenes.
Next few scenes The Great Ak shows Claus the world of mortals with its wars, starvation, death, and selfishness. I think Claus’s dialogue could have been better, but that might have ruined the TV Y-7 rating. Throughout this Claus’s conclusion is that with how hard life is childhood should be spent having fun before it is too late, and they have to go through with all this.
When he shows Claus war The Great Ak says sometimes they are for good causes but normally not. That will be important later. I did look into L. Frank Baum’s life, and I saw he was a frontierman, and they were known for a martial culture.
Klaus with Jingler the Sound Nymph and Shiegra moves to the land of mortals and grows into a man who is a friend to all children. Sometimes montages really are effective ways to tell years of stories in only a few seconds. Necile sends him a cat named Blinkie, whom Shiegra dislikes. Claus makes a wooden carving of him, which becomes the first toy. It becomes a huge hit with all the children, and he makes more and expands on it with many other toys.
One part of the book removed is Shiagra convinced him to make one of her too. It terrifies everybody but Claus, so nobody wants it, but it made Shiagra happy.
This really shows how far Rankin-Bass came. The stop-motion (animagic as they called it) is so much better than it was in Rudolph, so is the flying, and of course Santa Claus. Will I ever go through a December without criticizing their Rudolph? Probably not.
Claus giving presents to the rich is heavily trimmed down. In the book he initially does not want to do that, but he realizes they should not be punished for their family, and they also need happiness, as he saw they were no happier than the poor children. In the special it is a few seconds where he says “children are children.” I prefer the book version, but stuff needs to be cut for time, and it keeps the message about not taking out anger at the rich elite on their children.
They are attacked by the Awgwas. They can turn invisible, so Claus says they must be on their guard.
Literally the next scene. In the books it is said the Awgwas elect their king based purely on his evilness. They gain joy from children being evil, and Claus’s toys stop that, so they try to capture him, but some immortals save him. Why not just cut his throat in his bed or kill him in other ways? They save that idea for later.
They repeatedly capture all his toys and hide them in a cavern. I do not know why they do not mash them. Maybe they like playing with them.
The Great Ak summons The Awgwas and threatens them for threatening to kill his friend, and I really like this scene. It is full of lightning and later dialogue makes it clear they are both summoning it as a show of power. Remember earlier when The Great Ak said sometimes the cause for war is just. This is one of them, when an evil people continue to make problems and then welcome war (they are the ones who actually declare it). A key detail is The Awgwas are confuses he has the power to make them stop being invisible and do not realize that means he will beat them in battle.
The lead up to the battle has a very somber tone letting Rankin and Bass show off their tears they mastered so well for their Pinocchio special. Then it is fittingly broken by King Awgwa laughing, until the immortals use their natural elements to turn attacks back on them and turn them into flowers. Another key detail is the Awgwas first instead of fighting send their monsters and then seemingly wet themselves as they run away. The war ends with The Great Ak sadly telling Claus they are now all dead, and they both look sad at the news, granted the music seems happy.
Got to give it props for making war look both cool and glorious and sad and painful at the same time.
After that he cannot pull the sleigh, so Peter the Knook gets reindeer to pull the sleigh. They adapted out Will the Knook who tried to sabotage him by only allowing it one night a year and inflicting the deer with horrible stinging gnats (The Great Ak removed them when Claus asked).
I really like how when he brings joy to children he brings his adopted mother to ride along.
Near death Santa Claus tells his immortal friends he is about to die, as is natural while decorating a tree. They promise to decorate it every year in his memory. It might just be that I am my family’s tree man, but I really love this description of my favorite Christmas decoration.
Back at the meeting of the immortals The King of the Wind Demons says it touches even his “cold and windy heart.” Based on how incredibly compassionate he is I think he only calls himself a demon and heartless is to put more weight on when he is so kind. I guess sometimes a name is just a name. He leads the immortals in accepting the pleas to make Claus an immortal, as the tune to “Ora E Sempre” plays.
And that is my favorite of the Rankin-Bass specials. I love it, and it reminds me of how good they can be. Next time is “The Legend of Frosty The Snowman.”
The Animation Historian 