Рудольф, красный нос: История рождественского чуда

1964 Christmas TV special

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is a 1964 stop motion Christmas animated television special produced by Videocraft International, Ltd. and currently distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution (later known as NBCUniversal Syndication Studios). It first aired December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the United States and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour. The special was based on the 1949 Johnny Marks song "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" which was itself based on the poem of the same name written in 1939 by Marks's brother in law, Robert L. May. Since 1972, the special has aired on CBS. The network unveiled a high definition, digitally remastered version of the program in 2005, re scanned frame by frame from the original 35 mm film elements. As with A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer no longer airs merely once annually, but several times during the Christmas and holiday season. It has been telecast every year since 1964, making it the longest continuously running Christmas TV special in the United States. The 50th anniversary of the television special was marked in 2014, and a series of postage stamps featuring Rudolph was issued by the United States Postal Service on November 6, 2014. A special exhibit was also mounted at the Masterworks Museum in Bermuda, where the original puppets are held. In 2019, Freeform (formerly ABC Family) started airing the special as part of its 25 Days of Christmas/Rankin Bass Christmas holiday programming block. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was initially met with a positive reception among critics, who praised the voice acting, soundtrack, animation style, characters, and sets. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is often regarded as one of the best Christmas films ever made, being featured on numerous "top ten" lists. It has become widely popular among both young children and adults familiar with the Christmas season, and has garnered a large cult following since its initial debut.

Donner, Santa's lead reindeer, and his wife have a new fawn named Rudolph. They are surprised to find out he was born with a glowing red nose. Donner attempts to first cover Rudolph's nose with mud, and later uses a fake nose, so Rudolph will fit in with the other reindeer. The following spring, Rudolph goes out for the reindeer games, where the new fawns learn to fly and are scouted by Santa for future sleigh duty. Rudolph meets a doe named Clarice, who tells him he is cute, making Rudolph fly. While he celebrates with the other bucks, Rudolph's fake nose pops off, causing the other reindeer to mock him and Coach Comet to expel him. Rudolph meets and joins Hermey, a misfit elf who left Santa's workshop to follow his dream to become a dentist, and Yukon Cornelius, a prospector who has spent his life searching for silver and gold. After escaping the Abominable Snow Monster, all three land on the Island of Misfit Toys. It is a place where unloved or unwanted toys reside with their ruler, a winged lion named King Moonracer, who brings the toys to the island until he can find homes and children who will love them. The king allows them to stay one night on the island and asks them to ask Santa to find homes for them. Rudolph leaves on his own that night, worried that his nose will endanger his friends. Time passes and Rudolph, now a young stag, returns home to find that his parents and Clarice have been searching for him. He then travels to the Abominable's cave, where they are being held captive. Rudolph attempts to rescue Clarice until the monster knocks him down with a stalactite. Hermey and Yukon eventually show up with a plan to help out Rudolph. Hermey lures the monster out of the cave by imitating the sound of a pig and pulls out the Abominable's teeth after Yukon knocks him out. Yukon drives the toothless monster back over a cliff and falls with it. Rudolph, Hermey, Clarice, and the Donners return home where everyone apologizes to them. Yukon returns with a tamed Abominable, now trained to trim a Christmas tree, explaining that the monster's bouncing ability saved both of their lives. Christmas Eve comes and while everybody is celebrating, Santa announces that a big snowstorm is approaching, forcing him to cancel Christmas. Blinded by Rudolph's bright nose, he changes his mind and asks Rudolph to lead the sleigh. Rudolph accepts, and their first stop is the Island of Misfit Toys, where Santa delivers the toys to children.

The special, with the teleplay by Romeo Muller, introduced several new characters inspired by the song's lyrics. Muller told an interviewer shortly before his death that he would have preferred to base the teleplay on May's original book, but could not find a copy. Other than Burl Ives, all characters were portrayed by Canadian actors recorded at RCA studios in Toronto under the supervision of Bernard Cowan. Rankin and Bass chose Canadian voice actors for two reasons. First, while the last radio dramas in the U. S. had ended production a few years previously, many were still being produced in Canada, giving the producers a large talent pool to choose from. Second, Rankin and Bass, financially stretched while making Tales of the Wizard of Oz a few years earlier, had been able to complete that series only due to the lower labor costs in Canada. Ives' parts were recorded later. He and his character were added to the cast just before the end of production, after NBC and General Electric, the show's sponsor, asked Rankin and Bass to add a name familiar to audiences to the cast. After the script, concept designs and storyboards for Rudolph were done by Arthur Rankin Jr. and his staff of artists at Rankin/Bass in New York City. The company's trademark stop motion animation process, known as "Animagic", was filmed at MOM Productions in Tokyo with supervision by Tadahito Mochinaga and associate direction by Kizo Nagashima. potentially weakening the copyright. The dolls for Rudolph and Santa cost $5,000 to make.

Since those involved with the production had no idea of the future value of the stop motion puppet figures used in the production, many were not preserved. Rankin claimed in 2007 to be in possession of an original Rudolph figure. Nine other puppets—including Santa and young Rudolph—were given to a secretary, who gave them to family members, which were eventually damaged over time due to poor storage. Toy aficionado Kevin Kriess bought Santa and Rudolph in 2005; in 2007, he had both puppets restored by Screen Novelties, a Los Angeles based collective of film directors specializing in stop motion animation, with puppet fabricator Robin Walsh leading the project. The figures have been shown at conventions since then. They were sold at auction on November 13, 2020. netting a $368,000 sale price, doubling the expected return. On December 22, 2020, they were donated to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. In May 2023, it was revealed by Rankin Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt that the restored puppets of Santa and Rudolph were actually “publicity” copies, used for photography and other purposes rather than being screen used copies from Japan where the animation was done. These puppets were displayed at the NBC headquarters in New York before eventually given back to Rankin Bass, whose secretary Barbara Adams took them home for her children. Ives, and his estate since his 1995 death, received annual residuals from the show, the only actor in it to do so. "This business of residuals was new to our union, which was not quite as strong as SAG or others in the States", Soles recalled in 2014.

This version has the NBC "living color" peacock at the introduction. It includes the original end credits, in which an elf drops presents that list all the technical credits. It also includes commercials that were exclusively for GE small appliances, with some of the same animated elves from the main program introducing each of the products, and closing NBC network bumpers, including promos for the following week's episodes of GE College Bowl and Meet the Press, which were presumably preempted that Sunday for the inaugural 5:30 p. m. (EST) telecast. The College Bowl quiz show was also sponsored by GE. The original does not include Santa traveling to the Island of Misfit Toys, but does include a scene near the end of the special in which Yukon Cornelius discovers a peppermint mine near Santa's workshop. He can be seen throughout the special tossing his pickax into the air, sniffing, then licking the end that contacts the snow or ice. Deletion of the peppermint segment in 1965, to make room for Santa traveling to the Island of Misfit Toys, leaves the audience to assume that Cornelius was attempting to find either silver or gold by taste alone.

In May 2019, it was announced that Freeform would air the special as part of their annual 25 Days of Christmas line up for the first time, alongside Frosty the Snowman. The agreement was later revealed to be an exclusive rights agreement, as CBS continues to broadcast the special over the air each November and December, but on Paramount+ and, in an unusual case of not blackout, virtual mutichannel video program distributors such as Youtube TV and Hulu + Live TV, which have traditionally carried all network programming in the same fashion as cable and satellite providers; CBS parent company Paramount claimed, copyright ambiguity notwithstanding, that it did have streaming rights to the special. CBS still shows the version they have had since 2005, while Freeform's airings reinsert much of the material deleted or changed from CBS's broadcasts, such as the original version of "We're a Couple of Misfits" as well as the "Peppermint Mine" scene, making it the first time that the latter scene has been seen on television since the original broadcast. Freeform's print of the special also has the 2012 Universal Pictures logo preceding the special, due to their purchase of Classic Media's owner, DreamWorks Animation in 2016.

When Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was first released on VHS and LaserDisc by Family Home Entertainment and Broadway Video from 1989 to 1996 under the Christmas Classics Series label, the 1965 rebroadcast print described above was used. It got re released in 1997 by Family Home Entertainment and Golden Books Family Entertainment. It used the same print, but with the GBFE logo at the end instead of the Broadway Video logo. All current video prints of Rudolph by Classic Media are a compendium of the two previous telecast versions of the special. All the footage in the current versions follow the original 1964 NBC broadcast (without the original GE commercials) up until the "Peppermint Mine" scene, followed by the final act of the 1965 edit (with the Island of Misfit Toys finale and the 1965 alternate credits in place of the original end credit sequence). In 1998, the special was re released on VHS by Sony Wonder and Golden Books Family Entertainment. In 1999, the special was released for the first time on DVD by the two companies. In 2010, the special was released for the first time on Blu ray by Vivendi Entertainment. This edit has been made available in original color form by former rights holders Classic Media, (which in 2012 became the DreamWorks Classics division of DreamWorks Animation, and finally in 2016, part of Universal Pictures) As previously mentioned, this is also the version that had previously aired on CBS, albeit in edited form to accommodate more commercial time. On November 4, 2014, they re released the special on a 50th anniversary edition on Blu ray and DVD. The same 50th anniversary Blu ray edition was released with an exclusive storybook; this was only sold at Walmart. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment re released the special again on DVD and Blu ray in 2018. Universal re released the special on 4K UHD Blu ray as part of The Classic Christmas Specials Collection (with Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town) in 2022.

The songs were written by Johnny Marks, with musical director Maury Laws composing the incidental score. In addition to songs written specifically for the film, several of Marks' other holiday standards populate the instrumental score, among them "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day". Many of the songs are utilized in the score as musical themes for recurring characters and ideas, such as "Silver and Gold" (for Yukon Cornelius, sung by Burl Ives), "Jingle, Jingle, Jingle" (Santa, sung by Stan Francis) and "There's Always Tomorrow" (Clarice, sung by Janis Orenstein). Some of these themes are modified for dramatic purposes, particularly those of the Abominable Snow Monster, who has several interwoven themes; a primary motif, indicated by brass and an F minor key; a modulating chase theme led by tack piano; a tritonal attack theme combining the latter two; and finally the deleted song "The Abominable Snow Monster", which is alluded to melodically during a scene in the Abominable's cave. None of the film's original score has ever been released. In 1964, an LP record of the soundtrack was released on Decca Records. It contained different mixes of the original songs performed as they are in the special, with the exception of Burl Ives' material, which has been re recorded. MCA Special Products released the soundtrack on CD in June 1995. It is an exact duplication of the original LP released in 1964. Tracks 1 9 are the remixed soundtrack selections while tracks 10 19 are the same songs performed by the Decca Concert Orchestra. The song "Fame and Fortune" is not contained on either release. On November 30, 2004, the soundtrack was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over 500,000 copies. Ives re recorded "A Holly Jolly Christmas", with different arrangements, for the song's 1964 single release. This version, along with a similarly newly recorded version of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", was released the following year on his 1965 album Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.

Books and other items related to the show have in some cases misspelled "Hermey" as "Herbie". Rick Goldschmidt, who wrote Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: The Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic, says the scripts by Romeo Muller show the spelling to be "Hermey". A Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer video game was released on November 9, 2010. The adaptation was published by Red Wagon Games for the Wii and Nintendo DS, and was developed by High Voltage Software and Glyphic Entertainment respectively. The Wii version was received poorly, and garnered extremely negative reviews from sites such as IGN giving it a 1.5/10.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer received an approval rating of 95% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on thirteen reviews, with an average rating of 9.37/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is a yule tide gem that bursts with eye popping iconography, a spirited soundtrack, and a heart warming celebration of difference." In December 2018, a Hollywood Reporter/Morning Consult poll which surveyed 2,200 adults from Nov. 15–18, 2018, named Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer the most beloved holiday film, with 83 percent of respondents having a generally favorable response to the title.

The television special's familiarity to American audiences through its annual rebroadcasts, along with its stop motion animation that is easy to recreate with modern technology and the special's ambiguous copyright status, has lent itself to numerous parodies and homages over the years.

In 1964, Rankin & Bass produced several commercials for the General Electric sponsored broadcast. In 2009, Verizon began showing a commercial of the Misfit Toys with an AT&T phone. The characters wonder why it is there with all of its features but soon discover why, when the phone shows a map of where it has 3G coverage. (Verizon's ad campaign touts its much wider 3G coverage compared to AT&T's.) The toy airplane replies: "You're gonna fit right in here!" and falls on the ground laughing. Starting in 2011, there have been several Bing. com commercials, filmed to look like the same stop motion style as the special, which feature several characters including Rudolph, Yukon Cornelius, Hermey, the Bumble, and the Misfit Toys. A 2012 commercial for Windows phone features Bumble the Abominable Snowman (with his full set of teeth), speed dating and getting advice from friends through Live Tiles. A follow up features Bumble at Santa's North Pole pool party, and Santa using Live Tiles on his new Windows Phone to help him give his elves the holiday season toy production directives. A 2013 commercial for Nissan shows a woman in a dealership briefly entering a fantasy, wherein Santa's Elves, including Boss Elf and Hermey, have expanded their manufacturing line to include Nissan cars. Furthermore, the Bumble makes an appearance test driving one to his obvious approval. CBS celebrated the special's 50th anniversary in 2014 with Rudolph and Sam the Snowman celebrating with cast members from The Big Bang Theory and NCIS while passing by their studio lots. In 2014, the United States Postal Service used four characters (Rudolph, Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, and Bumble) for the year's "Contemporary Christmas" stamp issue. In 2015, the Rudolph characters began appearing in commercials for AT&T with a stop motion version of spokes character Lily Adams.

Dolly for Sue, a supporting character from the special, has sparked speculation since her debut. Being a seemingly normal looking rag doll, there is no clear reason for Dolly being on the Island of Misfit Toys. For some time, it was debated that it had to do with her physical appearance, particularly her missing a nose. Other speculations were raised, and many believed Dolly was only created because the rest of the toys on the island were "boys", so they created a "girl" toy to balance the cast. In the early 2000s, during an interview with Television Academy, Arthur Rankin Jr. revealed that the reason she stands out from all the other misfit toys is because she was a last minute addition to the cast, and hinted at the possibly of it being due to psychological reasons. On December 8, 2007, during a trivia game on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!, the mystery was seemingly put to rest as Rankin himself admitted in a recent interview: "she was cast off by her mistress and was clinically depressed." Mystery Science Theater 3000 made numerous references to the special in their movie hecklings, such as Rudolph's line "I'm cute!! I'm cuute!! She said I'm cuuuuuutte!!!!". In episode 321, which screened Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, the MST3K cast had their own ideas for potential residents on the Island of Misfit Toys including Toaster Dolls, Patrick Swayze's Roadhouse board game, the EZ Bake Foundry, and Mr. Mashed Potato Head. The 2003 live action Will Ferrell comedy Elf pays homage to the Rudolph special with similar stop motion animation characters interacting with live actors, with Leon (Leon Redbone) appearing in place of Sam the Snowman. The elves also wear the same distinctive red, blue, and green costume design with cone shaped hats. In 2010, the comedy website CollegeHumor made a short parody video called "Rudolph the Regular Reindeer", depicting what the special would've been like if Rudolph's nose had been surgically fixed as an infant.