Review of Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976) by Bryan G — 01 Jan 2010

Wow, I can't believe it's already 2010. To celebrate the final day of 2009, as well as the close of the holiday season, I decided to finally get around to seeing one of the Rankin and Bass specials I'd never seen before. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is one of two of my most favored of all of the Rankin and Bass films, so I had always had an interest in seeing Rudolph's Shiny New Year but was a little wary about it since it was a Christmas character in a non-Christmas setting.

While Rudolph's Shiny New Year pales in comparison to the original film featuring this character I rather enjoyed this film for what it had to offer. The animation in this one was a little more refined, and there were some beautiful looking set designs as well. Plus the film has a nice level of weirdness to it that I found most amusing. I mean, where else are you going to see a reindeer, a knight, a caveman and Benjamin Franklin team up together to save the fabric of time?

The movie is about the events that lead up to New Year's Day. The current Father Time of the year must step down, and Baby New Year must take his place before midnight in order for things to continue on, otherwise it will stay December 31st forever. Next year's Baby New Year has run away because he is constantly laughed at for having extremely huge ears. So who else could convince him that an odd body attribute isn't necessarily a bad thing other than Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

The villain of the film is a giant buzzard named Aeon, who is slated to turn to ice and snow when the new year rolls in. Realizing that Baby New Year has run off, he tries to track him down and capture him in order to prevent the new year from happening, and thus preventing his eventual demise. Aeon turned out to be one of my favorite villains of the Rankin and Bass films, right along side the Miser Brothers from The Year Without a Santa Claus.

There are a bunch of other things I could ramble on about; like the dinosaurs, the talking camel and a whale named Big Ben. But that would spoil the fun of this film. Rudolph's Shiny New Year isn't as great as most of Rankin and Bass' Christmas specials, but the film still puts to good use the character of Rudolph. The music in this one isn't as memorable, but this didn't distract from the film too much.