December 26, 2023 • 56 mins
Picture a Christmas where jingle bells don't ring and Santa's sleigh remains parked in the North Pole. That's the curious premise of the 1974 classic, "The Year Without a Santa Claus," which my brother Tyler and I explore in our latest podcast episode. Join us as we stroll down memory lane, revisiting the whimsical world of Rankin/Bass animations where Mrs. Claus takes center stage and the Miser Brothers' sibling rivalry heats up the holidays. We'll share how voice actors from yesteryears lent their unique flair to these enduring characters, and you'll discover the surprising ways these festive figures have mirrored their real-life counterparts.
As the sleigh bells continue to echo, we unwrap the tale of Iggy's quest and the heart-tugging tune "I Believe in Santa Claus" that reminds us of the magic nested in belief. We also chuckle over the less-than-sanitary barbershop antics and marvel at how a cameo by Charlie Chaplin sneaks into this holiday tapestry. The Miser Brothers steal the show with their iconic songs, adding a dash of mischief to the Christmas cheer. And if you ever wondered how Batman ties into all this, we've got a story that'll sprinkle a little extra joy into your listening experience.
Our festive journey culminates with musings on how a single heartfelt letter can rekindle the Christmas spirit across the globe. We chat about how the Rankin/Bass specials have shaped our own holiday traditions and speculate on the mysteries of Santa's many on-screen personas. So, pour yourself a mug of hot cocoa and cozy up for a holiday podcast episode that's more stuffed with joy and nostalgia than a Christmas stocking. Tyler and I can't wait to share our family's holiday favorites and the timeless impact of "The Year Without a Santa Claus" on us all.
If you'd like to own your own copy for when this film isn't streaming, look no further!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thank you for listening! Hope you enjoy!
Website: https://moviestheyreprettygood.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/moviestheyreprettygood
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087938154530
Twitter: https://twitter.com/moviesgoodpod
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8iGT7riyJ_K2DFLwfbTemg
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Movies, colin
.
They're pretty good.
I'm your host, travis Dutting,and I'm once again joined by
Movies.
They're Pretty Good, all Starmy brother, tyler Dutting.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey everybody.
So everyone knows about thesespecials and you've heard one
episode last year and it's theone that started out in 1964,
(00:38):
but this time we're jumpingahead ten years.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
That's right.
This time we're talking aboutthe 1974 Rankin' Bass Christmas
Special the Year Without a SantaClause my personal favorite.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
And it's basically considered to be one of the
greatest because of twocharacters that are in this
movie Yep and we'll get to thatlater, but, all right, should we
get right into it?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Absolutely All right, let's do it.
So, starting out, we're open onthe North Pole.
We get a little cold openbecause this is a made for TV
special.
So before the credits evenstart or before you get any
music, we just get an openingshot on the North Pole and we
get Mrs Claus voiced by ShirleyBooth, correct?
(01:28):
Yes, yeah, voiced by ShirleyBooth, and she's getting us a
little narration telling usabout the North Pole, right?
And then we see that she's kindof just like introducing the
story, correct?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Correct and, oddly enough, this is the last acting
that they and Shirley Booth didbefore she retired.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yep.
So there you go, and then.
So, yeah, then we find out thatSanta Claus is feeling under
the weather.
We get to see his doctor visit.
He is voiced by Mickey Rooney,luckily not doing his accent
from Breakfast at Tiffany's, butyeah, legendary Ricky Mooney,
(02:20):
Mickey Rooney.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, aka, yeah yeah.
Also known, as he was in theCare Bears movie as Mr
Cherrywood, the grown up of Rickand Virgin of Nicholas, the
victim of the evil spirit andthe villain of that movie.
And this little anime moviethat this anime guy by the name
(02:42):
of Hayao Miyazaki works on toldLittle Nemo.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, but that's not Studio Ghibli, right?
That's before that.
No, that's Tokyo movie Shinshayeah okay, but Hayao Miyazaki
legend, yeah, yeah, yeah, mickeyRooney's been in a lot of stuff
Like he's, he's, he's, he's,he's.
He was a big character actor.
He started out as a child actor, like forced into a, like a
(03:08):
fake four camera relationshipwith Judy Garland and everything
like that.
Yeah, just crazy stuff.
But yeah, this is one of threetimes he voiced Santa for a rank
and best special, correct?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, one of three.
The first was Santa Claus' timein the town and the third one
was Rudolf of Frosty's Christmasin July.
Yeah, and that one is a legitmovie.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, that's like a full 90 minutes correct.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And probably with commercials.
It was about two hours.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, and only enough it.
It did come out in theaters in1979.
Really yeah, in selectcountries oh okay, yeah, I had
no idea.
But it didn't do well, but itdid end up on television and
(04:04):
that one, this, this special andsome of the, I think this
special, oh wait, wait, a minute.
I just realized something whatthis special came out days after
the, a previous special in thesame year, mm hmm, twice the
(04:25):
night before Christmas and thatwas 2D.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, that's, that's traditional hand drawn 2D
animation, but also produced byRankin Bass, correct?
And this was is the only 2Danimation, one that they did.
No cause, frosty.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, frosty the snowman, correct on the hearth.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
And Frosty's Wonder Wonderland and Stingiest man in
town.
Okay, with a twice the nightbefore Christmas and Frosty the
snowman.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, now you're reading off of the, you want to
show the camera?
Yeah, so that's the completecollection of all the Rankin
Bass specials.
You got the DVD one.
They just released the theBlu-ray one, but neither of us
have got that yet.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
But yeah, yeah, that's how many specials?
18.
But there is one special thatwas released in 2001, which was
hand drawn, called Santa Baby.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Mm, but do you know anything about that other than
that?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Uh well, eartha Kitt is in Santa.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Baby, yeah, cause she's the original singer of
that song.
Yeah, and this is probablycoming off of her.
Uh, little little bit comingoff the hype of uh Emperor's New
Groove, probably correct.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah and uh.
Believe it or not, I knoweveryone will agree on this.
That movie is amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Oh yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a great one
right there.
Um so, uh, like I said, uh,santa's sick.
Um, doc Dr Elf comes in, uh,checks up on him and he's
totally, totally cynical aboutChristmas and everything like
that, which I mean like, if youknow, feel like he'd be out of a
(06:13):
job if Christmas ended.
So I don't know what he's soworked up about, but he's just
like a total jerk.
He's saying, like nobody caresabout Christmas anymore.
I'd be surprised if anyone evenbelieves in you anymore.
And this is just likediscouraging Santa.
He's like, okay, like I'm sick,like I don't want to do this,
and if no one believes in me,then I just don't have the the
(06:34):
heart to do this anymore.
And uh makes the decision thatthey're going to cancel
Christmas, basically, and uh,just for this year, cause he's
sick.
Basically, right, yeah, not alltogether.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, not all together because, well, uh, I
think uh, twice a night beforeChristmas has the same kind of
thing, but that was in the formof a newspaper article in the
adjunction bill inquirer in theprevious special.
It was sort of the whole uh,whether or not believing in, uh,
(07:13):
the existence of Santa, andthere was this, uh, the uh, the
mouse family and this, the, theoldest son, the brain one is the
one that uh doesn't believe.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So it was.
They definitely had like atheme going on for this year, uh
, multiple things about notbelieving in Santa, and they you
know, it's just I, theyprobably just had the idea, and
then they had two different waysto tell it, and you know, so
they just made two differentspecials, right.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah, and also coming off of the, uh, I think, uh,
it's nearing the anniversary ofa miracle on 34th street.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Mm, hmm, Okay, Um, so , uh.
After we find out thatChristmas is getting canceled,
we get the title song uh, sungby.
Well, initially by Mrs Clausand then just a chorus of
children.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, the uh the.
Let me pull up on it.
I'm in DB pretty, really quick.
Okay, it is the uh the.
We winter singers.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Oh, got it, Got it.
Um, so it's an establishedchildren's choir, obviously, but
this is just kind of thetitular song saying like it'll
be a year without a Santa Claus,Christmas will be so sad and
everything like that.
Um kind of just establishingthe story.
Um, just a clever way to getthe opening credits in there,
(08:46):
tell you what's going on, uh,establish the premise and get us
rolling right.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, and also the uh , how they establish the actors
and what characters they play,which is foreshadowing.
You see, ditch Sean's name andit's covered in snow, and then
you see the sun and then thecredit for George S Irving
appears yes, and what'ssignificant about that?
(09:16):
It's because it symbolizestheir respective characters that
were going to be later.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yes, so and we'll get to them in a little bit.
But those are the Basically themain reason that this is my
favorite.
The Miser Brothers.
You got the Snow Miser that isin control of the Northern
Heavisphere pretty much.
But that kind of gets a littlemuddied because technically the
(09:52):
entire United States is in theNorthern Hemisphere but South
Town, usa, is controlled byHeatmiser.
Yes, so it's not really adirect.
I don't know, maybe they onlycontrol the United States.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
But we do.
But it is a nice introductionto the nature realm.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, so after the opening song we get the clever
storytelling technique ofshowing us newspapers that are
announcing that Santa's sick andthat Christmas is canceled.
Let me just move this blanketout of the way.
And then we see Santa puttingout a PA to all of the elves and
(10:42):
everyone that Christmas iscanceled.
Go ahead and take the time offbecause there's no point.
And then this is where we getintroduced to kind of more of
the main characters, jingle andJingle, two elves.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, Jingle is voiced by Bonman Finn, who is
somewhat of a regular of RankinBass.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
What other roles has he done?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh, he was in.
He was snarf and thunder cats.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
He was in.
He was Tindler in the Laugh andthe Ventures of Santa Claus,
the last stop-motion one.
Yeah, he was the Lord of theLeprechauns in Leprechauns
Christmas Gold.
He was the Tricket inPinocchio's Christmas.
And he was Brutus, the RomanTash to Letters' lackey playtoe
(11:53):
in the Little Drummer Boy Book.
Ii Got it.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So Jingle and Jingle.
It's, you know classic pairingof two disparate personalities,
one's kind of the goofy one andone's the serious one.
They, oh yeah.
After they're introduced, mrsClaus is saying like, oh, like,
(12:23):
well, if anyone could be Santa,like why can't I be Santa?
And then we get the next song,if anyone could be Santa.
And she's just basicallytalking about like hey, like I
can disguise myself as Santa,you know, and we can still have
Christmas, correct?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Correct, and I like the little gag at the end where
it's just the tiny sleigh.
And then we pointed that outwhen we were younger, when we
first got it on VHS.
The that had the mid-90s, no,the early 90s a Warner Bros Home
video intro.
(13:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, at the end of the song we get a shot of her
like imagining this, and she'sin a sleigh that's like half her
size and there's no reindeerand she's just like floating
through the sky on this tinysleigh and it just looks insane.
So, oh, yes.
(13:25):
So then the elves go to see MrsClaus and they see her dressed
up as Santa and they're like, ohmy gosh, like what's going on,
right?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, they first they .
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I feel like there's a gag that I'm forgetting.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, they think it's , they think it's Santa, but
then she turns around and thenthey're all like and they're all
surprised, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Mrs C, that's right, because she doesn't have, like,
the beard or anything.
So they just see her frombehind and think it's Santa.
And then she turns around.
Yeah, so because of Santa'slike being disheartened about
Christmas and everything, mrsClaus is like hey, why don't you
(14:18):
guys go down to you know thereal world and see, you know,
does anyone believe in Santa?
Just kind of test the waters,find out what's going on, like
you know, do some boots onground, reconnaissance basically
and so they take Vixen, thesmallest reindeer, and you know,
(14:44):
they climb on Vixen, they'regoing, and then, after they're
gone, santa wakes up from hisnap and is like, hey, like how
do they even get on the subject?
Does she just say like hey, Idid this.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Or I think, I'm not sure probably basically she
doesn't see through it.
But then until she, she tellsthem no, it's not your concern.
And then she looks down andsays, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
So, yeah, she just like looks out the window and
out loud like poor jingle, poorjingle, like just think that,
unless you, or just tell themone one or the other.
And then he's like, all right,what's going on, what did you do
?
And she's like, okay, like Isent jingle and jingle out with
Vixen and they're going to gofind out if anyone believes in
(15:42):
you still.
And then he's like, oh, like Ihope they're careful, especially
with the Miser brothers.
And then, Mrs Claus, like oh,no, I forgot about them.
And this is where we get ourfirst introduction of them and
we see them like on clouds, likejust shooting elements at each
(16:02):
other.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, I guess, oh and uh.
Oddly enough, according to IMDB, the appearances of Snow Miser
and Heat Miser were based onthose of their voice actors.
So the Snow Miser was based offof Ditch Sean and Heat Miser
(16:25):
was based on Georgia Serving.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, so they made them look like and that's like a
common thing that happens tothis day with animation.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I feel like yeah, they did it with, uh, with, the
Yago and Aladdin made them looklike Gilbert Gottfried.
Yeah, and the Genie in the samemovie, definitely with Robin
Williams in mind, and you didtell us the way Zazu acts.
That's Rowan Actonson, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Um, a little harder to tell what the animal
characters, in my opinion, but Iknow what you're talking about.
But for sure, like uh, you candefinitely see uh the actors in
and some of those uh like intheir faces and everything.
And sometimes that doesn't gowell, especially with uh, when
(17:15):
you have to practically create alookalike, case in point being
Jack Frost, where they built thesnowman to look like George
Clooney, who pulled out and itwas Michael Keaton.
So it's just this GeorgeClooney snowman voiced by
Michael Keaton.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, it's insane.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yep.
So yeah, mizer Brothers,there's Snow Mizer and Heat
Mizer.
Snow Mizer obviously Big fan ofsnow, heat Mizer Big fan of
heat.
Um, they're just like havingthis eternal war, pretty much
about temperature.
And uh, yeah, then Jingle,jingle and Vixen are just flying
(18:03):
right in the middle of theirbattle.
They get like spotlighted outof the sky, like shot with, like
light by Heat Mizer, and thenfall.
Yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, this is coming from, uh, people who, the two
who watched this since the earlydays of Fox Family, before
Freeform, and that was back inthe infancy of the 25 days of
Christmas, when oh, we werewatching this before.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
It was even Fox Family, when it was just regular
family channel.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Oh yeah, that far back.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, yeah, um, so yeah, he miser controls the
south, snow miser controls thenorth.
They get shot down, they getticketed for some reason while
they're in this town, they're inSouth Town, usa Cop comes up,
(19:10):
gives them a ticket for riding aVixen the wrong way down the
one way street, right?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, and if you look at the fashion and architecture
it's supposed to be in between1890 and 1915.
So basically, turn of thecentury.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, yeah, it is turn of the century.
Which is weird that they singblue Christmas, which is a 50s
office song later on.
But don't worry about that,don't think too much about it.
Also, then the the miserbrothers technology, their
FaceTime technology that theyuse later, is pretty impressive
(19:51):
for for back then.
But all right, moving on.
So, yeah, they get ticketed andthen they decide like, okay,
like you know, it's not normalto have a reindeer down here.
Let's disguise Vixen as a dog,so they put some brown socks on
her.
Honor little antlers, to makeit look like droopy dog years.
(20:13):
But with the hot weather thatis affecting all of them because
they're from the North Pole,and especially Vixen, who is an
animal that's not meant to be inlike hot in the South,
basically humidity, heat, allthat stuff which in a way is a
(20:33):
contradiction in Rudolph andFrosty's Christmas in July, that
Rudolph is perfectly fine.
Yeah, well, he's Rudolph.
He's special.
His red nose gives some specialpowers, I guess.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
And also the fact that in that the that Jingle
Jingle's Decise on Vixen latergets recycled in National the
Lawn, your Christmas donkey yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
And then also just there's a lot of contradictions
within.
Like I think you would hurtyour brain trying to make a rank
and best cinematic universewhere they're all connected,
don't know.
Because there's so manycontradictions.
There's literally like at leasttwo different, completely
different Santa origin stories.
(21:20):
Because you got Santa Claus iscoming to town and life and
adventures to Santa Claus.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, don't try to wrap your brain around it,
because if you it's, it's likewatching the Wienerville
Hanukkah story as your firstepisode of Wienerville.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I don't even know what that is.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
It's a Nickelodeon show that aired in the 90s and
their Hanukkah special is insane.
I saw a review of it on YouTubeand by the clips from that,
it's really wild.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, well, I've, I've not seen that, and I was a
big Nickelodeon head back in theday Then that one just
completely missed me because itgot overshadowed by the more
popular shows at that time.
Yeah, I mean, I know all aboutthe, the Rugrats, hanukkah
special.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, and that was their first foray into making
new episodes after the originalwriters left.
Okay, because one of the guyswho made Rugrats, paul Jermaine,
left to do to be the creator ofRecess, got it.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Okay, okay.
So the hot weather, none ofthem are doing good.
But then they see this group ofkids and they decided to go
talk to them.
They ask them like hey, likewhat are you guys doing?
Like you guys look like a bunchof Christmas elves.
Like, don't you know, christmasis canceled.
By the way, we're kids and butbelieving in Santa is for kids
(22:56):
and even though we are kids, wedon't want to do that.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
No, it's the whole.
That's kids stuff.
I think it's believing in theSanta Claus is for little kids.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
But don't.
But they say that's kids stuff.
Yeah, yeah, that.
But that's also common withkids.
It's like well, yeah, you arekids like, but I remember being
a kid thinking like well, I'mtoo big for this.
Like you know, I'm a big kidnow.
Is that pull ups?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Nothing pampers Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
But yeah, so the main kid is Ignatius thistle white
Iggy for short and he's talkingto them, but then he's like hey,
you know.
By the way, like you know, Iwas looking up who did the voice
.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, it is a voice by Colin Duffy.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Any significant other roles.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Oh, he was in the only I think that's the only
well known one.
He you know that he did.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Because I see that other one doesn't even have a
poster.
So, yeah, this is definitelythe only well known thing he did
.
Oh yeah, so while they'retalking to these, this group of
kids, he's like hey, like youmight want to turn around
because the dog catcher istaking your pooch and Vixen's
being taken away by the dogcatcher.
(24:31):
They run after him, but to noavail.
He gets gets away because he'sin a car.
Then, oh yeah, they leavechasing after Iggy goes home.
And who's waiting for him?
Oh yeah, I guess we must departwhere Santa, like, after he
(24:53):
finds out that they went to godown to South Town USA, decides
that he's going to go down andsave them.
You know, basically, like, allright, before they get in any
trouble, let me just gointervene and bring them back.
What train did he take?
He takes Dasher.
Okay, so he takes Dasher.
He flies down there.
(25:14):
He's just hanging out in frontof Iggy's house like being just
hanging out behind a tree.
He's like a kid.
See any elves?
What does he?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
ask him If you've seen, I wonder for tiny little
fellas in red suits.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah.
And he's like, oh, yeah, they,they.
The dog catcher took their dogsso they ran away.
And he's like, oh, no, likeokay.
But then he starts sneezing orcoffin, yes, sneezing, yeah,
he's sneezing.
Iggy's mom pokes her head outthe window and it's like hey,
who's this very old man that'shanging out with you?
(25:53):
Do you want to invite him in soI could give him some medicine
for his cold?
And he comes in.
Iggy's parents are there.
They sit around the table.
What is it they?
And how do they get on?
the subject of Santa, oh yeahbecause he's like, oh yeah, what
were they?
What did they talk to you about?
(26:15):
Oh, they wanted to know if webelieve in Santa, and we all
would you tell them.
They said, oh, that's kid stuff.
And he's like Well, do youbelieve in Santa, dad?
And he's like, Well, yeah, I doRight.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, and then, and then.
You heard before that you heardSanta Just as I feared in his
thoughts.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Oh yeah, because he's just like confirmation bias,
like he already thinks that noone believes in him.
So all that takes is one kid tosay, well, I don't believe.
And he's like oh, that's it,I'm done.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
But then we get the song.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I believe in Santa Claus, yes because he, after he
asks his dad, he asks Santa orMr Claus, is what he's saying?
That his name is right, yeah.
And then we get the song Ibelieve in Santa Claus and it's
like we get flashbacks to Iggy'sdad when he's a kid and stuff
(27:15):
like that.
It ends with you know, iggylike has a tear in his eye and
everything right.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, basically realizes you can't be too old to
believe.
And then he just rememberedthat they were chasing, chasing
after the dog catcher's truck,and then Santa decides to go to
the dog pound on Dasher andDasher flies off with Santa in
(27:48):
tow to the dog pound and then herealized that he and his dad
then realize, mr Claus.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, they're like, yeah, they put two and two
together.
Yeah, they jump over that verytiny leap to bridge the gap and
realize like, oh, okay, likeClaus, claus, claus.
And then, oh, I bet those guyswere Christmas elves and I bet
their dog was a reindeer andthat's why I was like sick or
(28:23):
whatever.
So like, then what's funny islike, oh, like we need to help
them and it's like, well, if youwant something done, you got to
go talk, go to the top, like goto the mare, and Iggy goes to
the mare, but that's, you know,he finds jingle and jingle
(28:44):
because they're there with himand you don't see them.
Like, meet back up, right.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, so they go to talk to the mare and he's just
like laughing in their face likethere's no, you know, let me
get this straight.
You guys are a bunch of elvesand you brought a reindeer down
here and all this stuff and likewhat is it?
(29:12):
Like you got a snowball'schance in Southtown of me
believing you.
Is that what it is?
Yeah, Is that like basicallythe whole deal that they're
about to make?
That?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah, if they can make it snow, then he'll believe
them.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
But what's the point of them him believing?
But I guess it does make sensebecause that's kind of the whole
point of their mission is toget people to believe in Santa.
So yeah, I guess getting themayor it's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yeah, and then we did our next song.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yep, and that's, is it snow?
And Dixie, what's it called?
Let me look, it goes, it'sgonna snow.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Right here in Dixie.
Yeah, I think that's it.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, but yeah, it's just the mayor Dancing around
singing.
He goes into a barbershop andunsanitarily takes the shaving
brush and brushes it on thewindow.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I think it's supposed to simulate a frost?
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Oh yeah, it is.
But it's just kind of funny tolike think practically about it,
like with within, like reality,if some, if, if you're getting
shaved at the barbershop andsomeone came and took the shave
brush and just like wiped it allover the window, you'd be like
OK, like I was kind of in themiddle of something.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Oh, and we did a surprise cameo appearance, since
this is supposed to be turnedto the century like the dawn of
cinema, like the silent era.
You see Charlie Chaplin.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Oh yeah, that's super random and I never noticed that
until you pointed it out whenwe were watching it.
Yeah, there's just.
Charlie Chaplin is just in onthe street during this, during
this musical sequence.
It's just there, doesn't doanything, doesn't do any like
signature moves, he's juststanding there.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Then we see a Santa pick up Vixen and removes the
sauce, and then the dog catcheris surprised that it's a
reindeer.
Mm, hmm, mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
A real life reindeer, and this guy's mustache is so
big that you don't even see hismouth.
It's just kind of his mustachekind of wiggles when he talks.
Yeah right, the characterdesign on him.
So yeah then.
So Santa gets Vixen.
He flies back just completely,leaves a jingle and jingle.
(31:44):
So Mrs Claus comes and getsthem.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
And we get wish leads to arguably the best chunk of
the special.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Which is.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Meaning the Miser Brothers.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Yeah, so they're.
So the deal that they make withthe mayor is like if if you get
it to snow in in the South Town, then I'll believe your story.
How do we get it to snow in theSouth?
We got to go talk to Snowmizer,correct?
Yeah, so Mrs Claus picks themup with Blitzen.
(32:25):
With Blitzen, they fly toSnowmizer's lair.
We get the best two songs inthe whole thing are the Miser
Brothers song you know theirpersonal songs and we get
Snowmizer first.
He's singing like I'm Mr WhiteChristmas, I'm Mr Snow.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Oh, and the Snowmizer song ended up in the Joel
Schumacher movie Batman andRobin.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yes, with Mr, the one , with Mr Freeze.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Yeah, and it's that clip, or I think it's supposed
to be like a single on versionof it.
Uh-huh On the TV screen and theborders of the screen are
surrounded by ice and hishenchmen are supposed to be
singing it, got it?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, but speaking of henchmen, uh, each Miser
Brother has their own henchmenthat are just tiny versions of
them and they're already so tallbut like so all the average
sized people are just somewherein the middle and you got these
like little versions of themdancing around, singing and and
everything, and then he's liketwice as tall as Mrs Claus,
(33:37):
who's probably about averageheight, right, yeah, yeah, it's,
and he's voiced by Dick Sean,who was in.
We didn't do an up, I didn't doan episode on it, but in the
Mel Brooks episode that wetalked about, he was in the
producers.
Oh, that's right, yeah, he'sthe, uh, the director that they
(33:57):
hire.
No, wait, no, no, no, no, no,no, no, he's not the director,
he's the actor To play Hitler,correct?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, yes.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
And but because he's like uh, uh, is like always on
drugs or something like that,then he like ended up making it
funny and that's what made theplay a hit.
Yeah, yes.
Um, so yeah get great song, uh,once he's done and they just
(34:29):
stand there watching them thewhole time, then they're like oh
okay, like, what can I do foryou?
Um, like, how's your husband?
He's the best uh advertisementthat in snow beds ever had,
right.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Yeah, and then uh oh, when he says little chili humor
there.
I always remember it was aroundthe 2000, 2003, uh, season
version of 25 days of Christmaswhen it was in its ABC family
form, and then back when theyhad the rank and bass specials
(35:07):
with little drummer boy and SanThomas is time in the town with
all the post 1974 specials,since snowmizer says little
chili humor in there.
And then it just shows an imageof him cropped from the movie
and then a caption appears andit says party icebreaker.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Hmm, so they did like a weird pop up video thing.
Yeah, 10 years too late.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
And it was uh promoting the marathon of these
specials, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Cause they would usually do like one day out of
the 25 days of Christmas wouldbe a marathon of most of them,
and I think the more competitivestudios got with rights and
stuff like that.
Then that kind of went away,unfortunately, and now this is
the the stuff we're dealing within the streaming era is, you
(36:01):
know, studios pulling theirstuff from platforms and
everything like that, and thennow you gotta you have to
subscribe to everything to seesee what you want, right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:12):
And sometimes uh visible media.
Does uh be digital media in away?
Speaker 1 (36:20):
It does because we're now finding out the truth
behind owning digital copies,that they can just pull it from
you, you know, for rights issues.
I think an email got sent outto uh um PlayStation store users
that their discovery mediastuff was getting pulled, Even
if they bought it.
(36:41):
Well, unless you have aphysical copy, you don't know
anything.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, which is why a physical copy wins yeah, copy
wins, and also the bonusfeatures.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
And I've known that because I had bought iTunes
stuff way back.
That is just gone, you know.
So it just it sucks, but youknow that's we'll learn at some
point, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Oh and uh.
Speaking of, uh, these specials, again, there's the rule of uh,
if Santa's the main character,it's Mickey Rooney.
If Santa is Deus Ex Machina,paul freeze, which ones is he
Deus Ex Machina?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Rise of the Snowman.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
And Rudolph shiny new year and Pinocchio's Christmas.
Okay, yeah, I never put thattogether.
Who voices him?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
and Rudolph, oh, let me look it up, you don't have to
look it up.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I think it's, oh, the voice of, uh, it's a Stan
Francis.
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
He didn't get invited back because he made Santa mean
and unlockable in that one.
Yeah, they but uh.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
so basically, uh, they tried uh so basically, okay
, back to the back to the mainstory.
So they, uh, mrs Slan'ssuggested South Town, USA, but
(38:42):
Snowmizer went.
Hold it All right.
So you may have a question.
Hold that All right.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
So you missed a, missed a part.
He says, um like, hey, likewhat, like, why'd you come here?
Like what, what, what can I dofor you?
Oh, we just need you to make itsnow.
And he's like, oh easy, likeI'm Snowmizer, obviously you
could do that.
Where do you want me to make itsnow?
And then she says South Town,usa, and then he's like, hold it
, hold it, hold it, no can do,mrs See and basically tells them
(39:15):
that the South is under thecontrol of heat.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Miser his step brother.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Yeah, and which I'm confused how that works, because
both of them call mother naturemother so then again, it's the
nature realm.
Yeah, maybe step half and allthose siblings work differently
there.
I feel like that, that they'resupposed to be half brothers.
(39:45):
You know, same mom, differentdads or something like that, but
I don't know.
It just seems weird that it'sstep brother but then they share
the same mom, unless one ofthem's adopted, right, okay,
don't worry about it, that's.
That's for the year without a.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
That's for my brother's Christmas.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
My brother's custody battle Christmas.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
No, no, there's a special called my brother's
Christmas, which is a sequel tothis, and it's the last time
Mickey Rooney voiced Santa.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
When was that one?
2008?
.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yeah, I remember seeing that and not enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
It's.
It's okay your, but the worstthing about it is the worst
thing relates to Eurobile, sanFloss, the live action remake,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
You have more in frame here.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
So they, he's like, all right, like if you want, if
you want that you got to go talkto my brother, my stepbrother,
he miser, he controls the south.
Go talk to him.
So they get in there, they headover to the volcano that he
lives in and we get the the heatmiser song.
The heat miser song, which is aslightly slower tempo, a little
(41:11):
more like drawn out, but that'skind of like, if you think
about it, like the heat willmake you slow down a little bit,
you know.
So we get his song same type ofthing.
I'm Mr Green Christmas, you know, because there's no snow, it's
all you know.
Foliage and stuff.
All his little minions arewearing these like pork pie hats
(41:38):
, which is pretty funny, andthey just look like little
cherubs for some reason, like Imean.
But so because he's like he's athick fella and so so are they.
So they just look like littlebaby, little chubby babies with
pork pie hats.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah, and the fact that they all don't like Georgia
serving yes.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, well, obviously .
So then they get to him andhe's like all right, like what?
Like, like what are you doinghere?
Like what's your husband up toout making another commercial
for my brother, you know?
So he's he's like a little moreantagonistic towards them
because Santa has a very well inthe Northern Hemisphere, very
(42:30):
winter, like heavy, you know,very pro winter.
Yeah, this is another flawbecause you know, during,
because Christmas in Australiais summer, santa, Ah no, but so
(42:51):
they're like all right, like wejust need to make it snow in the
south.
Then he's like what snow in thesouth ever?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Right, yeah, it was, but it was just for one day.
And then then he might realizeis, unless you try to give me a
chance to make a sunny somewhere.
Then he suggested the NorthPole.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Yeah, so the compromise is that if snow miser
can make it snow in SouthtownUSA, then the heat miser gets a
summer day in the North Pole,and so they're like all right,
well, we got to go, we got totalk to him now again.
And so this they decide to callupon the hotline you know.
(43:47):
So yeah, nice pun there, andit's like an old timey telephone
.
But then they pick it up andcall and he appears on a screen.
So it's like it's very magic.
Yeah, turn of the century,FaceTime, magic based FaceTime.
And they talk to snow miserlike all right he agreed to.
(44:07):
He agreed to let it snow in thesouth if you give him one one
day to make it sunny, right.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
And he's like, oh, what are the little hotheads say
, like the North Pole?
And they're like, well, yeah.
He's like, oh, nope, not doingit.
And so they like argue over thethe phone.
Our Mrs Claus is like, well, ifyou guys can't settle down and
(44:37):
come to an agreement, then I'mgoing to have to go over your
head and go talk to your mother.
And then I like, oh, no, likedon't do that.
And I'm like, well, you leaveme no choice.
And then their mother is mothernature.
Hence the, the introduction ofthe nature realm is the nature
(44:58):
realm in any other one it doesdimension in one of the Easter
ones, in a sequel called a.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Here comes Peter Continental, the movie which is
the sequel to the 1971 Easterspecial.
Here comes Peter Continental.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Okay, I haven't seen any of the other non Christmas
rank and bass things.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Yeah, there's three Easter ones and then mad monster
party.
Right yeah, that's their onlyHalloween one, yep.
And there's a 2d one forThanksgiving called the mouse on
the Mayflower.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Okay, so they go talk to mother nature.
She finally gets them tocompromise and everything like
that.
She just lives on like afloating island in the middle of
the sky, right, yeah.
And so once they get, get themto compromise, we see Santa
(45:53):
getting back to the North Poleafter getting Vixen out of the
pound and everything.
So all the reindeer well,except for the one that's with
Mrs Claus not that that one's indanger, but the other two are
safe back in the North Pole.
He's just kind of likewandering around, goes into the
(46:14):
bedroom, sees a note from MrsClaus and like hey, I went to go
, go rescue Jingle and Jingle.
And he's like, oh, okay, that'sgood, that's good, like she'll
be fine, everyone's going to befine.
Now I can rest, right.
Then he just goes to sleep,yeah, yep.
And then so we now we see thesequence where it is snowing in
(46:43):
the South, right.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
So it's snowing, the mayor gets a phone call from his
wife saying like don't forgetto wear your glosses.
And then he looks out.
He's like what, what are youtalking about?
He looks outside, he sees itsnowing and like oh my gosh,
it's like actually happening.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Then, um, what happens after that?
Okay, mrs Claus and Jingle andJingle return to the North Pole
with newspapers saying thatthey're giving the Santa the day
off.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
That's right, so uh, because this, uh, you know,
miracle happened.
The mayor is like, okay, Ibelieve now.
And he calls in all hisconnections and then, yeah, but
the whole world gives Santa aday off.
And then we get this like smallworld sequence of these kids
(47:45):
like from all over the worldrunning around, uh, like holding
hands together and they'remaking and sending off presents
to Santa for Christmas.
So they're everyone like is inagreement, like, hey, like
Santa's done so much for us,let's give him the day off, and
this time we're going to givehim presents, you know.
(48:05):
And then, um, but then he getsthe one note right and it's a
letter from a little girl sayingthat she's going to have a blue
Christmas without him.
And very selfish of her, by theway, everyone else is on board,
but she's like, well, if I'mnot getting presents, then I'm
(48:25):
going to guilt trip Santa andnot taking the day off.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
And it's.
But the song itself is prettynice, but not as good as the
more famous version somebody,Elvis Presley, the king of rock.
Oh yeah, it's, it's, it's a,it's a decent version.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
I've heard some pretty bad versions of blue
Christmas, but the one by thislittle girl is not too bad.
But you can't like top theElvis, just just the opening
line.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Yeah that you can't talk about the blues.
Speaker 1 (49:08):
Yeah, um.
So yeah, uh, santa gets thisletter.
Uh, blue Christmas.
Musical sequence ensues.
He's like oh okay, I made a bigmistake, and decides to
uncancel Christmas.
Right yeah so um, yeah,uncancels Christmas.
(49:34):
And then we get uh, thesequence like he tells everybody
like all right, you know, getback to work.
I'm not taking the day off,that was like I should.
That was a big mistake.
We're doing Christmas, get myslay ready, Get the toys ready,
Get the reindeer ready, likelet's do it.
(49:56):
And now we get the here comeSanta Claus sequence.
And this is the clip that wealways saw on TV when we caught
it, before watching the fullthing, yeah, and I also think
that this is where they kind ofhave uh ran out of steam, uh
(50:18):
doing stop motion animation,because there is a lot of no
movement, like it's just a stilluh, santa and sleigh, like
going down the street and he'slike not moving at all and then
all of a sudden all the reindeerwill like feet out, feet in,
(50:40):
feet out, but it's a verydelayed and there's like, and
even like the town people aren'tlike really moving, it's just
like the slag going like this.
So I think that I personallythink that they were kind of
running out of budget on thatone, but yeah, they're doing.
Here come Santa Claus.
We see him like deliveringpresents to South town the only
(51:04):
town that matters in thisspecial, apparently and then at
the very end it ends with areprise of the title song.
And there will be no yearwithout a Santa Claus Right.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
Yeah, yeah, and that's year without a Santa
Claus, arguably one of thegreats.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
Yeah, I, it's my personal favorite of these rank
and best specials, like andthat's just including those
specials like once you throw inCharlie Brown Christmas, then
it's a little harder to pick afavorite, but but I do love
these.
I love the aesthetic of thestop motion animation.
I love how like rigid it issometimes and it's just you know
(51:56):
, I think I've talked about thishow it was a big influence on
the style of Fantastic, mr Foxand other things like that, and
it's just very charming and thatyeah, that's that's the word
for it Very charming.
That like I wouldn't say thisis an emotional one.
(52:17):
I know, like the Nestor, theLong Year Christmas, donkey and
the first Christmas snow, those,those get a little tear jercury
, but it was a little drummerboy, yeah, even a little drummer
boy, but this one's just likeso fun and always been my
favorite.
Just, I never not enjoy watchingthis one.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
Yeah, do you have any final thoughts on it or
memories of watching it, oranything like that?
Speaker 2 (52:50):
Yeah, this is basically a I remember taping
this one off of a of the Foxfamily airing from 98 and 99.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
And that was back when Fox family was actually
good.
Speaker 1 (53:10):
Yeah, and so that that was our copy of it until
the DVD came out and this is the.
Then we got the.
But these are the DVDs thatwere in the cardboard where
there's like the little plasticclip and it would unfold.
Yeah, the old style DVD cases.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
Yeah, but even before that, not only did we have the
taped version from a from theFox family airing, we even had
an official VHS version.
Speaker 1 (53:43):
Now that I don't remember really, but I believe
you, I think you would rememberbetter than me, but I don't
remember having the VHS of it.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
I do because it had the.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
Oh, I remember our VHS is the core, for which are.
Speaker 2 (54:03):
I think our Nana had it oh maybe but, rudolph, you
got the family homeentertainment silver copy.
Bought silver sleeve copies,yeah, yeah, those were.
Yet it was a Broadway videothat somehow did the before 1974
(54:29):
specials, but the ones after1974 were the Warner Bros ones.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
All right, any any other final thoughts or?
Yeah you good.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
Okay, give this one a watch.
Give my brothers Christmas oncea watch, and don't watch the
live action remake.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
Yeah, gotta agree with that, all right.
So, thank you guys forlistening.
Remember to like and subscribeif you liked it.
Like, just don't dislike it,okay, but that's a free country,
free world, whatever it is.
But, yeah, do whatever you want, but please subscribe.
(55:18):
I do appreciate it.
Please continue to stay tuned.
Hopefully guys are.
Oh, my gosh, I need to figureout how to just disarm that on
the Mac, the thumbs up thing,because apparently I do it too
much.
Thank you guys for watching Ifyou're on the YouTube.
(55:41):
Thank you for listening Ifyou're just listening to the
podcast.
Either way, I appreciate it.
I appreciate you guys.
I hope everyone's had a MerryChristmas.
I hope you, if you're watchingthis or watching or listening
the day it comes out and you'refrom Canada, happy Boxing Day
and stick around for next weekand hopefully you got some big
(56:05):
things coming up this year.
I just want to do nothing butimprove this.
So thank you guys for stickingaround since the beginning when
it wasn't so good, and stickaround till it does get good.
Thanks, bye.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
See ya.
Hello and welcome to another episode of Movies, colin
.
They're pretty good.
I'm your host, travis Dutting,and I'm once again joined by
Movies.
They're Pretty Good, all Starmy brother, tyler Dutting.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey everybody.
So everyone knows about thesespecials and you've heard one
episode last year and it's theone that started out in 1964,
(00:38):
but this time we're jumpingahead ten years.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
That's right.
This time we're talking aboutthe 1974 Rankin' Bass Christmas
Special the Year Without a SantaClause my personal favorite.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
And it's basically considered to be one of the
greatest because of twocharacters that are in this
movie Yep and we'll get to thatlater, but, all right, should we
get right into it?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Absolutely All right, let's do it.
So, starting out, we're open onthe North Pole.
We get a little cold openbecause this is a made for TV
special.
So before the credits evenstart or before you get any
music, we just get an openingshot on the North Pole and we
get Mrs Claus voiced by ShirleyBooth, correct?
(01:28):
Yes, yeah, voiced by ShirleyBooth, and she's getting us a
little narration telling usabout the North Pole, right?
And then we see that she's kindof just like introducing the
story, correct?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Correct and, oddly enough, this is the last acting
that they and Shirley Booth didbefore she retired.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yep.
So there you go, and then.
So, yeah, then we find out thatSanta Claus is feeling under
the weather.
We get to see his doctor visit.
He is voiced by Mickey Rooney,luckily not doing his accent
from Breakfast at Tiffany's, butyeah, legendary Ricky Mooney,
(02:20):
Mickey Rooney.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, aka, yeah yeah.
Also known, as he was in theCare Bears movie as Mr
Cherrywood, the grown up of Rickand Virgin of Nicholas, the
victim of the evil spirit andthe villain of that movie.
And this little anime moviethat this anime guy by the name
(02:42):
of Hayao Miyazaki works on toldLittle Nemo.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, but that's not Studio Ghibli, right?
That's before that.
No, that's Tokyo movie Shinshayeah okay, but Hayao Miyazaki
legend, yeah, yeah, yeah, mickeyRooney's been in a lot of stuff
Like he's, he's, he's, he's,he's.
He was a big character actor.
He started out as a child actor, like forced into a, like a
(03:08):
fake four camera relationshipwith Judy Garland and everything
like that.
Yeah, just crazy stuff.
But yeah, this is one of threetimes he voiced Santa for a rank
and best special, correct?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, one of three.
The first was Santa Claus' timein the town and the third one
was Rudolf of Frosty's Christmasin July.
Yeah, and that one is a legitmovie.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, that's like a full 90 minutes correct.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And probably with commercials.
It was about two hours.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, and only enough it.
It did come out in theaters in1979.
Really yeah, in selectcountries oh okay, yeah, I had
no idea.
But it didn't do well, but itdid end up on television and
(04:04):
that one, this, this special andsome of the, I think this
special, oh wait, wait, a minute.
I just realized something whatthis special came out days after
the, a previous special in thesame year, mm hmm, twice the
(04:25):
night before Christmas and thatwas 2D.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, that's, that's traditional hand drawn 2D
animation, but also produced byRankin Bass, correct?
And this was is the only 2Danimation, one that they did.
No cause, frosty.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, frosty the snowman, correct on the hearth.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
And Frosty's Wonder Wonderland and Stingiest man in
town.
Okay, with a twice the nightbefore Christmas and Frosty the
snowman.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, now you're reading off of the, you want to
show the camera?
Yeah, so that's the completecollection of all the Rankin
Bass specials.
You got the DVD one.
They just released the theBlu-ray one, but neither of us
have got that yet.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
But yeah, yeah, that's how many specials?
18.
But there is one special thatwas released in 2001, which was
hand drawn, called Santa Baby.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Mm, but do you know anything about that other than
that?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Uh well, eartha Kitt is in Santa.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Baby, yeah, cause she's the original singer of
that song.
Yeah, and this is probablycoming off of her.
Uh, little little bit comingoff the hype of uh Emperor's New
Groove, probably correct.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah and uh.
Believe it or not, I knoweveryone will agree on this.
That movie is amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Oh yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a great one
right there.
Um so, uh, like I said, uh,santa's sick.
Um, doc Dr Elf comes in, uh,checks up on him and he's
totally, totally cynical aboutChristmas and everything like
that, which I mean like, if youknow, feel like he'd be out of a
(06:13):
job if Christmas ended.
So I don't know what he's soworked up about, but he's just
like a total jerk.
He's saying, like nobody caresabout Christmas anymore.
I'd be surprised if anyone evenbelieves in you anymore.
And this is just likediscouraging Santa.
He's like, okay, like I'm sick,like I don't want to do this,
and if no one believes in me,then I just don't have the the
(06:34):
heart to do this anymore.
And uh makes the decision thatthey're going to cancel
Christmas, basically, and uh,just for this year, cause he's
sick.
Basically, right, yeah, not alltogether.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, not all together because, well, uh, I
think uh, twice a night beforeChristmas has the same kind of
thing, but that was in the formof a newspaper article in the
adjunction bill inquirer in theprevious special.
It was sort of the whole uh,whether or not believing in, uh,
(07:13):
the existence of Santa, andthere was this, uh, the uh, the
mouse family and this, the, theoldest son, the brain one is the
one that uh doesn't believe.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So it was.
They definitely had like atheme going on for this year, uh
, multiple things about notbelieving in Santa, and they you
know, it's just I, theyprobably just had the idea, and
then they had two different waysto tell it, and you know, so
they just made two differentspecials, right.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah, and also coming off of the, uh, I think, uh,
it's nearing the anniversary ofa miracle on 34th street.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Mm, hmm, Okay, Um, so , uh.
After we find out thatChristmas is getting canceled,
we get the title song uh, sungby.
Well, initially by Mrs Clausand then just a chorus of
children.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, the uh the.
Let me pull up on it.
I'm in DB pretty, really quick.
Okay, it is the uh the.
We winter singers.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Oh, got it, Got it.
Um, so it's an establishedchildren's choir, obviously, but
this is just kind of thetitular song saying like it'll
be a year without a Santa Claus,Christmas will be so sad and
everything like that.
Um kind of just establishingthe story.
Um, just a clever way to getthe opening credits in there,
(08:46):
tell you what's going on, uh,establish the premise and get us
rolling right.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, and also the uh , how they establish the actors
and what characters they play,which is foreshadowing.
You see, ditch Sean's name andit's covered in snow, and then
you see the sun and then thecredit for George S Irving
appears yes, and what'ssignificant about that?
(09:16):
It's because it symbolizestheir respective characters that
were going to be later.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yes, so and we'll get to them in a little bit.
But those are the Basically themain reason that this is my
favorite.
The Miser Brothers.
You got the Snow Miser that isin control of the Northern
Heavisphere pretty much.
But that kind of gets a littlemuddied because technically the
(09:52):
entire United States is in theNorthern Hemisphere but South
Town, usa, is controlled byHeatmiser.
Yes, so it's not really adirect.
I don't know, maybe they onlycontrol the United States.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
But we do.
But it is a nice introductionto the nature realm.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, so after the opening song we get the clever
storytelling technique ofshowing us newspapers that are
announcing that Santa's sick andthat Christmas is canceled.
Let me just move this blanketout of the way.
And then we see Santa puttingout a PA to all of the elves and
(10:42):
everyone that Christmas iscanceled.
Go ahead and take the time offbecause there's no point.
And then this is where we getintroduced to kind of more of
the main characters, jingle andJingle, two elves.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, Jingle is voiced by Bonman Finn, who is
somewhat of a regular of RankinBass.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
What other roles has he done?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh, he was in.
He was snarf and thunder cats.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
He was in.
He was Tindler in the Laugh andthe Ventures of Santa Claus,
the last stop-motion one.
Yeah, he was the Lord of theLeprechauns in Leprechauns
Christmas Gold.
He was the Tricket inPinocchio's Christmas.
And he was Brutus, the RomanTash to Letters' lackey playtoe
(11:53):
in the Little Drummer Boy Book.
Ii Got it.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So Jingle and Jingle.
It's, you know classic pairingof two disparate personalities,
one's kind of the goofy one andone's the serious one.
They, oh yeah.
After they're introduced, mrsClaus is saying like, oh, like,
(12:23):
well, if anyone could be Santa,like why can't I be Santa?
And then we get the next song,if anyone could be Santa.
And she's just basicallytalking about like hey, like I
can disguise myself as Santa,you know, and we can still have
Christmas, correct?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Correct, and I like the little gag at the end where
it's just the tiny sleigh.
And then we pointed that outwhen we were younger, when we
first got it on VHS.
The that had the mid-90s, no,the early 90s a Warner Bros Home
video intro.
(13:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, at the end of the song we get a shot of her
like imagining this, and she'sin a sleigh that's like half her
size and there's no reindeerand she's just like floating
through the sky on this tinysleigh and it just looks insane.
So, oh, yes.
(13:25):
So then the elves go to see MrsClaus and they see her dressed
up as Santa and they're like, ohmy gosh, like what's going on,
right?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, they first they .
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I feel like there's a gag that I'm forgetting.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, they think it's , they think it's Santa, but
then she turns around and thenthey're all like and they're all
surprised, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Mrs C, that's right, because she doesn't have, like,
the beard or anything.
So they just see her frombehind and think it's Santa.
And then she turns around.
Yeah, so because of Santa'slike being disheartened about
Christmas and everything, mrsClaus is like hey, why don't you
(14:18):
guys go down to you know thereal world and see, you know,
does anyone believe in Santa?
Just kind of test the waters,find out what's going on, like
you know, do some boots onground, reconnaissance basically
and so they take Vixen, thesmallest reindeer, and you know,
(14:44):
they climb on Vixen, they'regoing, and then, after they're
gone, santa wakes up from hisnap and is like, hey, like how
do they even get on the subject?
Does she just say like hey, Idid this.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Or I think, I'm not sure probably basically she
doesn't see through it.
But then until she, she tellsthem no, it's not your concern.
And then she looks down andsays, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
So, yeah, she just like looks out the window and
out loud like poor jingle, poorjingle, like just think that,
unless you, or just tell themone one or the other.
And then he's like, all right,what's going on, what did you do
?
And she's like, okay, like Isent jingle and jingle out with
Vixen and they're going to gofind out if anyone believes in
(15:42):
you still.
And then he's like, oh, like Ihope they're careful, especially
with the Miser brothers.
And then, Mrs Claus, like oh,no, I forgot about them.
And this is where we get ourfirst introduction of them and
we see them like on clouds, likejust shooting elements at each
(16:02):
other.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, I guess, oh and uh.
Oddly enough, according to IMDB, the appearances of Snow Miser
and Heat Miser were based onthose of their voice actors.
So the Snow Miser was based offof Ditch Sean and Heat Miser
(16:25):
was based on Georgia Serving.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, so they made them look like and that's like a
common thing that happens tothis day with animation.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I feel like yeah, they did it with, uh, with, the
Yago and Aladdin made them looklike Gilbert Gottfried.
Yeah, and the Genie in the samemovie, definitely with Robin
Williams in mind, and you didtell us the way Zazu acts.
That's Rowan Actonson, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Um, a little harder to tell what the animal
characters, in my opinion, but Iknow what you're talking about.
But for sure, like uh, you candefinitely see uh the actors in
and some of those uh like intheir faces and everything.
And sometimes that doesn't gowell, especially with uh, when
(17:15):
you have to practically create alookalike, case in point being
Jack Frost, where they built thesnowman to look like George
Clooney, who pulled out and itwas Michael Keaton.
So it's just this GeorgeClooney snowman voiced by
Michael Keaton.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, it's insane.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yep.
So yeah, mizer Brothers,there's Snow Mizer and Heat
Mizer.
Snow Mizer obviously Big fan ofsnow, heat Mizer Big fan of
heat.
Um, they're just like havingthis eternal war, pretty much
about temperature.
And uh, yeah, then Jingle,jingle and Vixen are just flying
(18:03):
right in the middle of theirbattle.
They get like spotlighted outof the sky, like shot with, like
light by Heat Mizer, and thenfall.
Yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, this is coming from, uh, people who, the two
who watched this since the earlydays of Fox Family, before
Freeform, and that was back inthe infancy of the 25 days of
Christmas, when oh, we werewatching this before.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
It was even Fox Family, when it was just regular
family channel.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Oh yeah, that far back.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, yeah, um, so yeah, he miser controls the
south, snow miser controls thenorth.
They get shot down, they getticketed for some reason while
they're in this town, they're inSouth Town, usa Cop comes up,
(19:10):
gives them a ticket for riding aVixen the wrong way down the
one way street, right?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, and if you look at the fashion and architecture
it's supposed to be in between1890 and 1915.
So basically, turn of thecentury.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, yeah, it is turn of the century.
Which is weird that they singblue Christmas, which is a 50s
office song later on.
But don't worry about that,don't think too much about it.
Also, then the the miserbrothers technology, their
FaceTime technology that theyuse later, is pretty impressive
(19:51):
for for back then.
But all right, moving on.
So, yeah, they get ticketed andthen they decide like, okay,
like you know, it's not normalto have a reindeer down here.
Let's disguise Vixen as a dog,so they put some brown socks on
her.
Honor little antlers, to makeit look like droopy dog years.
(20:13):
But with the hot weather thatis affecting all of them because
they're from the North Pole,and especially Vixen, who is an
animal that's not meant to be inlike hot in the South,
basically humidity, heat, allthat stuff which in a way is a
(20:33):
contradiction in Rudolph andFrosty's Christmas in July, that
Rudolph is perfectly fine.
Yeah, well, he's Rudolph.
He's special.
His red nose gives some specialpowers, I guess.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
And also the fact that in that the that Jingle
Jingle's Decise on Vixen latergets recycled in National the
Lawn, your Christmas donkey yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
And then also just there's a lot of contradictions
within.
Like I think you would hurtyour brain trying to make a rank
and best cinematic universewhere they're all connected,
don't know.
Because there's so manycontradictions.
There's literally like at leasttwo different, completely
different Santa origin stories.
(21:20):
Because you got Santa Claus iscoming to town and life and
adventures to Santa Claus.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, don't try to wrap your brain around it,
because if you it's, it's likewatching the Wienerville
Hanukkah story as your firstepisode of Wienerville.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I don't even know what that is.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
It's a Nickelodeon show that aired in the 90s and
their Hanukkah special is insane.
I saw a review of it on YouTubeand by the clips from that,
it's really wild.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, well, I've, I've not seen that, and I was a
big Nickelodeon head back in theday Then that one just
completely missed me because itgot overshadowed by the more
popular shows at that time.
Yeah, I mean, I know all aboutthe, the Rugrats, hanukkah
special.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, and that was their first foray into making
new episodes after the originalwriters left.
Okay, because one of the guyswho made Rugrats, paul Jermaine,
left to do to be the creator ofRecess, got it.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Okay, okay.
So the hot weather, none ofthem are doing good.
But then they see this group ofkids and they decided to go
talk to them.
They ask them like hey, likewhat are you guys doing?
Like you guys look like a bunchof Christmas elves.
Like, don't you know, christmasis canceled.
By the way, we're kids and butbelieving in Santa is for kids
(22:56):
and even though we are kids, wedon't want to do that.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
No, it's the whole.
That's kids stuff.
I think it's believing in theSanta Claus is for little kids.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
But don't.
But they say that's kids stuff.
Yeah, yeah, that.
But that's also common withkids.
It's like well, yeah, you arekids like, but I remember being
a kid thinking like well, I'mtoo big for this.
Like you know, I'm a big kidnow.
Is that pull ups?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Nothing pampers Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
But yeah, so the main kid is Ignatius thistle white
Iggy for short and he's talkingto them, but then he's like hey,
you know.
By the way, like you know, Iwas looking up who did the voice
.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, it is a voice by Colin Duffy.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Any significant other roles.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Oh, he was in the only I think that's the only
well known one.
He you know that he did.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Because I see that other one doesn't even have a
poster.
So, yeah, this is definitelythe only well known thing he did
.
Oh yeah, so while they'retalking to these, this group of
kids, he's like hey, like youmight want to turn around
because the dog catcher istaking your pooch and Vixen's
being taken away by the dogcatcher.
(24:31):
They run after him, but to noavail.
He gets gets away because he'sin a car.
Then, oh yeah, they leavechasing after Iggy goes home.
And who's waiting for him?
Oh yeah, I guess we must departwhere Santa, like, after he
(24:53):
finds out that they went to godown to South Town USA, decides
that he's going to go down andsave them.
You know, basically, like, allright, before they get in any
trouble, let me just gointervene and bring them back.
What train did he take?
He takes Dasher.
Okay, so he takes Dasher.
He flies down there.
(25:14):
He's just hanging out in frontof Iggy's house like being just
hanging out behind a tree.
He's like a kid.
See any elves?
What does he?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
ask him If you've seen, I wonder for tiny little
fellas in red suits.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah.
And he's like, oh, yeah, they,they.
The dog catcher took their dogsso they ran away.
And he's like, oh, no, likeokay.
But then he starts sneezing orcoffin, yes, sneezing, yeah,
he's sneezing.
Iggy's mom pokes her head outthe window and it's like hey,
who's this very old man that'shanging out with you?
(25:53):
Do you want to invite him in soI could give him some medicine
for his cold?
And he comes in.
Iggy's parents are there.
They sit around the table.
What is it they?
And how do they get on?
the subject of Santa, oh yeahbecause he's like, oh yeah, what
were they?
What did they talk to you about?
(26:15):
Oh, they wanted to know if webelieve in Santa, and we all
would you tell them.
They said, oh, that's kid stuff.
And he's like Well, do youbelieve in Santa, dad?
And he's like, Well, yeah, I doRight.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, and then, and then.
You heard before that you heardSanta Just as I feared in his
thoughts.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Oh yeah, because he's just like confirmation bias,
like he already thinks that noone believes in him.
So all that takes is one kid tosay, well, I don't believe.
And he's like oh, that's it,I'm done.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
But then we get the song.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I believe in Santa Claus, yes because he, after he
asks his dad, he asks Santa orMr Claus, is what he's saying?
That his name is right, yeah.
And then we get the song Ibelieve in Santa Claus and it's
like we get flashbacks to Iggy'sdad when he's a kid and stuff
(27:15):
like that.
It ends with you know, iggylike has a tear in his eye and
everything right.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, basically realizes you can't be too old to
believe.
And then he just rememberedthat they were chasing, chasing
after the dog catcher's truck,and then Santa decides to go to
the dog pound on Dasher andDasher flies off with Santa in
(27:48):
tow to the dog pound and then herealized that he and his dad
then realize, mr Claus.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, they're like, yeah, they put two and two
together.
Yeah, they jump over that verytiny leap to bridge the gap and
realize like, oh, okay, likeClaus, claus, claus.
And then, oh, I bet those guyswere Christmas elves and I bet
their dog was a reindeer andthat's why I was like sick or
(28:23):
whatever.
So like, then what's funny islike, oh, like we need to help
them and it's like, well, if youwant something done, you got to
go talk, go to the top, like goto the mare, and Iggy goes to
the mare, but that's, you know,he finds jingle and jingle
(28:44):
because they're there with himand you don't see them.
Like, meet back up, right.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, so they go to talk to the mare and he's just
like laughing in their face likethere's no, you know, let me
get this straight.
You guys are a bunch of elvesand you brought a reindeer down
here and all this stuff and likewhat is it?
(29:12):
Like you got a snowball'schance in Southtown of me
believing you.
Is that what it is?
Yeah, Is that like basicallythe whole deal that they're
about to make?
That?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah, if they can make it snow, then he'll believe
them.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
But what's the point of them him believing?
But I guess it does make sensebecause that's kind of the whole
point of their mission is toget people to believe in Santa.
So yeah, I guess getting themayor it's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yeah, and then we did our next song.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yep, and that's, is it snow?
And Dixie, what's it called?
Let me look, it goes, it'sgonna snow.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Right here in Dixie.
Yeah, I think that's it.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, but yeah, it's just the mayor Dancing around
singing.
He goes into a barbershop andunsanitarily takes the shaving
brush and brushes it on thewindow.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I think it's supposed to simulate a frost?
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Oh yeah, it is.
But it's just kind of funny tolike think practically about it,
like with within, like reality,if some, if, if you're getting
shaved at the barbershop andsomeone came and took the shave
brush and just like wiped it allover the window, you'd be like
OK, like I was kind of in themiddle of something.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Oh, and we did a surprise cameo appearance, since
this is supposed to be turnedto the century like the dawn of
cinema, like the silent era.
You see Charlie Chaplin.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Oh yeah, that's super random and I never noticed that
until you pointed it out whenwe were watching it.
Yeah, there's just.
Charlie Chaplin is just in onthe street during this, during
this musical sequence.
It's just there, doesn't doanything, doesn't do any like
signature moves, he's juststanding there.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Then we see a Santa pick up Vixen and removes the
sauce, and then the dog catcheris surprised that it's a
reindeer.
Mm, hmm, mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
A real life reindeer, and this guy's mustache is so
big that you don't even see hismouth.
It's just kind of his mustachekind of wiggles when he talks.
Yeah right, the characterdesign on him.
So yeah then.
So Santa gets Vixen.
He flies back just completely,leaves a jingle and jingle.
(31:44):
So Mrs Claus comes and getsthem.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
And we get wish leads to arguably the best chunk of
the special.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Which is.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Meaning the Miser Brothers.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Yeah, so they're.
So the deal that they make withthe mayor is like if if you get
it to snow in in the South Town, then I'll believe your story.
How do we get it to snow in theSouth?
We got to go talk to Snowmizer,correct?
Yeah, so Mrs Claus picks themup with Blitzen.
(32:25):
With Blitzen, they fly toSnowmizer's lair.
We get the best two songs inthe whole thing are the Miser
Brothers song you know theirpersonal songs and we get
Snowmizer first.
He's singing like I'm Mr WhiteChristmas, I'm Mr Snow.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Oh, and the Snowmizer song ended up in the Joel
Schumacher movie Batman andRobin.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yes, with Mr, the one , with Mr Freeze.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Yeah, and it's that clip, or I think it's supposed
to be like a single on versionof it.
Uh-huh On the TV screen and theborders of the screen are
surrounded by ice and hishenchmen are supposed to be
singing it, got it?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, but speaking of henchmen, uh, each Miser
Brother has their own henchmenthat are just tiny versions of
them and they're already so tallbut like so all the average
sized people are just somewherein the middle and you got these
like little versions of themdancing around, singing and and
everything, and then he's liketwice as tall as Mrs Claus,
(33:37):
who's probably about averageheight, right, yeah, yeah, it's,
and he's voiced by Dick Sean,who was in.
We didn't do an up, I didn't doan episode on it, but in the
Mel Brooks episode that wetalked about, he was in the
producers.
Oh, that's right, yeah, he'sthe, uh, the director that they
(33:57):
hire.
No, wait, no, no, no, no, no,no, no, he's not the director,
he's the actor To play Hitler,correct?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, yes.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
And but because he's like uh, uh, is like always on
drugs or something like that,then he like ended up making it
funny and that's what made theplay a hit.
Yeah, yes.
Um, so yeah get great song, uh,once he's done and they just
(34:29):
stand there watching them thewhole time, then they're like oh
okay, like, what can I do foryou?
Um, like, how's your husband?
He's the best uh advertisementthat in snow beds ever had,
right.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Yeah, and then uh oh, when he says little chili humor
there.
I always remember it was aroundthe 2000, 2003, uh, season
version of 25 days of Christmaswhen it was in its ABC family
form, and then back when theyhad the rank and bass specials
(35:07):
with little drummer boy and SanThomas is time in the town with
all the post 1974 specials,since snowmizer says little
chili humor in there.
And then it just shows an imageof him cropped from the movie
and then a caption appears andit says party icebreaker.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Hmm, so they did like a weird pop up video thing.
Yeah, 10 years too late.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
And it was uh promoting the marathon of these
specials, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Cause they would usually do like one day out of
the 25 days of Christmas wouldbe a marathon of most of them,
and I think the more competitivestudios got with rights and
stuff like that.
Then that kind of went away,unfortunately, and now this is
the the stuff we're dealing within the streaming era is, you
(36:01):
know, studios pulling theirstuff from platforms and
everything like that, and thennow you gotta you have to
subscribe to everything to seesee what you want, right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:12):
And sometimes uh visible media.
Does uh be digital media in away?
Speaker 1 (36:20):
It does because we're now finding out the truth
behind owning digital copies,that they can just pull it from
you, you know, for rights issues.
I think an email got sent outto uh um PlayStation store users
that their discovery mediastuff was getting pulled, Even
if they bought it.
(36:41):
Well, unless you have aphysical copy, you don't know
anything.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, which is why a physical copy wins yeah, copy
wins, and also the bonusfeatures.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
And I've known that because I had bought iTunes
stuff way back.
That is just gone, you know.
So it just it sucks, but youknow that's we'll learn at some
point, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Oh and uh.
Speaking of, uh, these specials, again, there's the rule of uh,
if Santa's the main character,it's Mickey Rooney.
If Santa is Deus Ex Machina,paul freeze, which ones is he
Deus Ex Machina?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Rise of the Snowman.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
And Rudolph shiny new year and Pinocchio's Christmas.
Okay, yeah, I never put thattogether.
Who voices him?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
and Rudolph, oh, let me look it up, you don't have to
look it up.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I think it's, oh, the voice of, uh, it's a Stan
Francis.
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
He didn't get invited back because he made Santa mean
and unlockable in that one.
Yeah, they but uh.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
so basically, uh, they tried uh so basically, okay
, back to the back to the mainstory.
So they, uh, mrs Slan'ssuggested South Town, USA, but
(38:42):
Snowmizer went.
Hold it All right.
So you may have a question.
Hold that All right.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
So you missed a, missed a part.
He says, um like, hey, likewhat, like, why'd you come here?
Like what, what, what can I dofor you?
Oh, we just need you to make itsnow.
And he's like, oh easy, likeI'm Snowmizer, obviously you
could do that.
Where do you want me to make itsnow?
And then she says South Town,usa, and then he's like, hold it
, hold it, hold it, no can do,mrs See and basically tells them
(39:15):
that the South is under thecontrol of heat.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Miser his step brother.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Yeah, and which I'm confused how that works, because
both of them call mother naturemother so then again, it's the
nature realm.
Yeah, maybe step half and allthose siblings work differently
there.
I feel like that, that they'resupposed to be half brothers.
(39:45):
You know, same mom, differentdads or something like that, but
I don't know.
It just seems weird that it'sstep brother but then they share
the same mom, unless one ofthem's adopted, right, okay,
don't worry about it, that's.
That's for the year without a.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
That's for my brother's Christmas.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
My brother's custody battle Christmas.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
No, no, there's a special called my brother's
Christmas, which is a sequel tothis, and it's the last time
Mickey Rooney voiced Santa.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
When was that one?
2008?
.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yeah, I remember seeing that and not enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
It's.
It's okay your, but the worstthing about it is the worst
thing relates to Eurobile, sanFloss, the live action remake,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
You have more in frame here.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
So they, he's like, all right, like if you want, if
you want that you got to go talkto my brother, my stepbrother,
he miser, he controls the south.
Go talk to him.
So they get in there, they headover to the volcano that he
lives in and we get the the heatmiser song.
The heat miser song, which is aslightly slower tempo, a little
(41:11):
more like drawn out, but that'skind of like, if you think
about it, like the heat willmake you slow down a little bit,
you know.
So we get his song same type ofthing.
I'm Mr Green Christmas, you know, because there's no snow, it's
all you know.
Foliage and stuff.
All his little minions arewearing these like pork pie hats
(41:38):
, which is pretty funny, andthey just look like little
cherubs for some reason, like Imean.
But so because he's like he's athick fella and so so are they.
So they just look like littlebaby, little chubby babies with
pork pie hats.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah, and the fact that they all don't like Georgia
serving yes.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, well, obviously .
So then they get to him andhe's like all right, like what?
Like, like what are you doinghere?
Like what's your husband up toout making another commercial
for my brother, you know?
So he's he's like a little moreantagonistic towards them
because Santa has a very well inthe Northern Hemisphere, very
(42:30):
winter, like heavy, you know,very pro winter.
Yeah, this is another flawbecause you know, during,
because Christmas in Australiais summer, santa, Ah no, but so
(42:51):
they're like all right, like wejust need to make it snow in the
south.
Then he's like what snow in thesouth ever?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Right, yeah, it was, but it was just for one day.
And then then he might realizeis, unless you try to give me a
chance to make a sunny somewhere.
Then he suggested the NorthPole.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Yeah, so the compromise is that if snow miser
can make it snow in SouthtownUSA, then the heat miser gets a
summer day in the North Pole,and so they're like all right,
well, we got to go, we got totalk to him now again.
And so this they decide to callupon the hotline you know.
(43:47):
So yeah, nice pun there, andit's like an old timey telephone
.
But then they pick it up andcall and he appears on a screen.
So it's like it's very magic.
Yeah, turn of the century,FaceTime, magic based FaceTime.
And they talk to snow miserlike all right he agreed to.
(44:07):
He agreed to let it snow in thesouth if you give him one one
day to make it sunny, right.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
And he's like, oh, what are the little hotheads say
, like the North Pole?
And they're like, well, yeah.
He's like, oh, nope, not doingit.
And so they like argue over thethe phone.
Our Mrs Claus is like, well, ifyou guys can't settle down and
(44:37):
come to an agreement, then I'mgoing to have to go over your
head and go talk to your mother.
And then I like, oh, no, likedon't do that.
And I'm like, well, you leaveme no choice.
And then their mother is mothernature.
Hence the, the introduction ofthe nature realm is the nature
(44:58):
realm in any other one it doesdimension in one of the Easter
ones, in a sequel called a.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Here comes Peter Continental, the movie which is
the sequel to the 1971 Easterspecial.
Here comes Peter Continental.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Okay, I haven't seen any of the other non Christmas
rank and bass things.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Yeah, there's three Easter ones and then mad monster
party.
Right yeah, that's their onlyHalloween one, yep.
And there's a 2d one forThanksgiving called the mouse on
the Mayflower.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Okay, so they go talk to mother nature.
She finally gets them tocompromise and everything like
that.
She just lives on like afloating island in the middle of
the sky, right, yeah.
And so once they get, get themto compromise, we see Santa
(45:53):
getting back to the North Poleafter getting Vixen out of the
pound and everything.
So all the reindeer well,except for the one that's with
Mrs Claus not that that one's indanger, but the other two are
safe back in the North Pole.
He's just kind of likewandering around, goes into the
(46:14):
bedroom, sees a note from MrsClaus and like hey, I went to go
, go rescue Jingle and Jingle.
And he's like, oh, okay, that'sgood, that's good, like she'll
be fine, everyone's going to befine.
Now I can rest, right.
Then he just goes to sleep,yeah, yep.
And then so we now we see thesequence where it is snowing in
(46:43):
the South, right.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
So it's snowing, the mayor gets a phone call from his
wife saying like don't forgetto wear your glosses.
And then he looks out.
He's like what, what are youtalking about?
He looks outside, he sees itsnowing and like oh my gosh,
it's like actually happening.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Then, um, what happens after that?
Okay, mrs Claus and Jingle andJingle return to the North Pole
with newspapers saying thatthey're giving the Santa the day
off.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
That's right, so uh, because this, uh, you know,
miracle happened.
The mayor is like, okay, Ibelieve now.
And he calls in all hisconnections and then, yeah, but
the whole world gives Santa aday off.
And then we get this like smallworld sequence of these kids
(47:45):
like from all over the worldrunning around, uh, like holding
hands together and they'remaking and sending off presents
to Santa for Christmas.
So they're everyone like is inagreement, like, hey, like
Santa's done so much for us,let's give him the day off, and
this time we're going to givehim presents, you know.
(48:05):
And then, um, but then he getsthe one note right and it's a
letter from a little girl sayingthat she's going to have a blue
Christmas without him.
And very selfish of her, by theway, everyone else is on board,
but she's like, well, if I'mnot getting presents, then I'm
(48:25):
going to guilt trip Santa andnot taking the day off.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
And it's.
But the song itself is prettynice, but not as good as the
more famous version somebody,Elvis Presley, the king of rock.
Oh yeah, it's, it's, it's a,it's a decent version.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
I've heard some pretty bad versions of blue
Christmas, but the one by thislittle girl is not too bad.
But you can't like top theElvis, just just the opening
line.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Yeah that you can't talk about the blues.
Speaker 1 (49:08):
Yeah, um.
So yeah, uh, santa gets thisletter.
Uh, blue Christmas.
Musical sequence ensues.
He's like oh okay, I made a bigmistake, and decides to
uncancel Christmas.
Right yeah so um, yeah,uncancels Christmas.
(49:34):
And then we get uh, thesequence like he tells everybody
like all right, you know, getback to work.
I'm not taking the day off,that was like I should.
That was a big mistake.
We're doing Christmas, get myslay ready, Get the toys ready,
Get the reindeer ready, likelet's do it.
(49:56):
And now we get the here comeSanta Claus sequence.
And this is the clip that wealways saw on TV when we caught
it, before watching the fullthing, yeah, and I also think
that this is where they kind ofhave uh ran out of steam, uh
(50:18):
doing stop motion animation,because there is a lot of no
movement, like it's just a stilluh, santa and sleigh, like
going down the street and he'slike not moving at all and then
all of a sudden all the reindeerwill like feet out, feet in,
(50:40):
feet out, but it's a verydelayed and there's like, and
even like the town people aren'tlike really moving, it's just
like the slag going like this.
So I think that I personallythink that they were kind of
running out of budget on thatone, but yeah, they're doing.
Here come Santa Claus.
We see him like deliveringpresents to South town the only
(51:04):
town that matters in thisspecial, apparently and then at
the very end it ends with areprise of the title song.
And there will be no yearwithout a Santa Claus Right.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
Yeah, yeah, and that's year without a Santa
Claus, arguably one of thegreats.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
Yeah, I, it's my personal favorite of these rank
and best specials, like andthat's just including those
specials like once you throw inCharlie Brown Christmas, then
it's a little harder to pick afavorite, but but I do love
these.
I love the aesthetic of thestop motion animation.
I love how like rigid it issometimes and it's just you know
(51:56):
, I think I've talked about thishow it was a big influence on
the style of Fantastic, mr Foxand other things like that, and
it's just very charming and thatyeah, that's that's the word
for it Very charming.
That like I wouldn't say thisis an emotional one.
(52:17):
I know, like the Nestor, theLong Year Christmas, donkey and
the first Christmas snow, those,those get a little tear jercury
, but it was a little drummerboy, yeah, even a little drummer
boy, but this one's just likeso fun and always been my
favorite.
Just, I never not enjoy watchingthis one.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
Yeah, do you have any final thoughts on it or
memories of watching it, oranything like that?
Speaker 2 (52:50):
Yeah, this is basically a I remember taping
this one off of a of the Foxfamily airing from 98 and 99.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
And that was back when Fox family was actually
good.
Speaker 1 (53:10):
Yeah, and so that that was our copy of it until
the DVD came out and this is the.
Then we got the.
But these are the DVDs thatwere in the cardboard where
there's like the little plasticclip and it would unfold.
Yeah, the old style DVD cases.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
Yeah, but even before that, not only did we have the
taped version from a from theFox family airing, we even had
an official VHS version.
Speaker 1 (53:43):
Now that I don't remember really, but I believe
you, I think you would rememberbetter than me, but I don't
remember having the VHS of it.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
I do because it had the.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
Oh, I remember our VHS is the core, for which are.
Speaker 2 (54:03):
I think our Nana had it oh maybe but, rudolph, you
got the family homeentertainment silver copy.
Bought silver sleeve copies,yeah, yeah, those were.
Yet it was a Broadway videothat somehow did the before 1974
(54:29):
specials, but the ones after1974 were the Warner Bros ones.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
All right, any any other final thoughts or?
Yeah you good.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
Okay, give this one a watch.
Give my brothers Christmas oncea watch, and don't watch the
live action remake.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
Yeah, gotta agree with that, all right.
So, thank you guys forlistening.
Remember to like and subscribeif you liked it.
Like, just don't dislike it,okay, but that's a free country,
free world, whatever it is.
But, yeah, do whatever you want, but please subscribe.
(55:18):
I do appreciate it.
Please continue to stay tuned.
Hopefully guys are.
Oh, my gosh, I need to figureout how to just disarm that on
the Mac, the thumbs up thing,because apparently I do it too
much.
Thank you guys for watching Ifyou're on the YouTube.
(55:41):
Thank you for listening Ifyou're just listening to the
podcast.
Either way, I appreciate it.
I appreciate you guys.
I hope everyone's had a MerryChristmas.
I hope you, if you're watchingthis or watching or listening
the day it comes out and you'refrom Canada, happy Boxing Day
and stick around for next weekand hopefully you got some big
(56:05):
things coming up this year.
I just want to do nothing butimprove this.
So thank you guys for stickingaround since the beginning when
it wasn't so good, and stickaround till it does get good.
Thanks, bye.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
See ya.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!