Rudolph's Quality Endures To This Day

Welcome to 25 Days Of Christmas Pop Culture! From now until Christmas Eve, I'll be tackling one piece of Christmas pop culture! It could be a book, movie, TV special, song....so long as it's festive for this time of the year, it'll be checked out in this daily column!

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer had existed since 1939 as a book, and then became a Christmas Carol in 1949, but it wasn't until 1964 arrived that this holiday critter achieved true fame. Ya see, that was the year the Rankin-Bass Christmas special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer arrived. The special started a tradition of massively successful specials for Rankin-Bass, as well as cementing a monumental part of any holiday season.

The success of Rudolph is actually really simple; the premise revolves around the universal emotion of rejection, and how to overcome it. Placing that sort of theme as the crux of any given story can have a wide variety of results, but the special manages to concoct endearing characters that help make that message of being different be extremely impactful. It helps that this one's more realistic take on the North Pole mythology was fresh then, and remains unique today.

Casting elves as wannabe dentists, Santa as skinny and abominable snow monsters as lovable giants is a clever way to subvert traditional folklore standards in a way that doesn't feel grating or snide. That kind of subverting is also present in the specials most inventive environment, The Island Of Misfit Toys. Here, toys moan about their poor lot in life, with them unable to fulfill their one purpose in life (to be played with) simply because of having an ostrich or the name Charlie.

The large presence of such morose elements might make the special sound like some sort of tragedy masquerading as holiday cheer, but the beauty of Rudolph is that in showing how universal the feelings of being different and rejected are, they do spread hope. Rudolph isn't alone in feeling like he doesn't belong, no one is alone in being different from the norm. Showing how common these kind emotions are gives Rudolph a kind of emotional resonance that can take the average viewer by surprise.

Even fifty years later, the clay-motion animation remains a great way to bring the world of Rudolph to life, especially since it reinforces a storybook feel that feels appropriate considering it's origins. While I'd say some of the songs (like Clarice's tune about there always being tomorrow, or Silver & Gold) feel extraneous, Rudolph otherwise remains a moving TV special that's full of thoughtful storytelling.