“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”

Tonight, Saturday, 6 December, 2014, marks exactly two quarters of a century (or 18,262 days, or 50 years), that the National Broadcasting Company (abbreviated as NBC), an American commercial broadcast television network, aired a Christmas telly special that would later become one of the best Christmas classics, or perhaps the best Christmas classic of all Christmas classics, which also would later lead many telly broadcasts from around the world (mostly broadcasts from the Western World) to air this Christmas classic once or several times during the Christmas and holiday season. This 50-year-old Christmas telly special is “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, a stop-motion animation where the crew of this 50-year-old Christmas classic photographed still figures, or puppets, with slight variations in each successive photograph to simulate movement, hence the stop-motion animation.

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” DVD (sometimes explained as digital video disc or digital versatile disc) Poster.

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” aired on the aforementioned date on the aforementioned American commercial broadcast television network by the then American production Videocraft (then officially known as Videocraft International, Limited, sometimes known as Videocraft International, Ltd.), now known today as Rankin/Bass (officially known as Rankin/Bass Productions, Incorporation, sometimes known as Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.), and was sponsored by General Electric, or General Electric Company, (abbreviated as GE). Albeit “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is an American stop-motion animation and production and sponsor, it is actually more of a Japanese-Canadian stop-motion animation than an American one; it was entirely filmed in Japan with all sound recordings done inside the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (abbreviated as CBC) studio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, due to Toronto had one of, if not, the best English-speaking radio actors and voice actors at that time, which this meant that several Canadians provided voices. In fact, most of the provided voices were Canadian.

Also, albeit tonight marks exactly 50 years that “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” aired on NBC, most of the news media (mostly American and Canadian) claim that the previous night marked 50 years. Be it tonight, or the previous night, this Christmas telly special has become a Christmas classic; it has become a Christmas classic that it has gone down in history as one of the best Christmas classics, or perhaps the best Christmas classic of all Christmas classics, where many telly broadcasts air “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” either once or several times during the Christmas and holiday season, due to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” looks more three-dimensional, which makes it unique, and also due to the character Rudolph offers up some child psychology, as the stop-motion animation Christmas telly special shows him deciding to run away from home after going though social rejection among his peers.

Unknown and also forgotten by many, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” had a sequel titled “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” that aired on Friday, 10 December, 1976, on the American Broadcasting Company (abbreviated as ABC, stylised in the logo as abc, in lower-case letters, since 1962), an American commercial broadcast television network.

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was both created and written by Robert May (born as Robert Lewis May, commonly known as Robert L. May; born on Thursday, 27 July, 1905; died on Tuesday, 10 August, 1976); his story first appeared sometime in 1939 as a booklet for an assignment for the now defunct Montgomery Ward, an American mail-order business, before his story was later owned by The Rudolph Company, L.P. (officially known as The Rudolph Company, Limited Partnership) and is managed and licenced by Character Arts, LLC (officially known as Character Arts, Limited Liability Company, which the LLC is a business structure allowed by state statute). Robert May’s story is about a fictional male reindeer named Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (commonly known as Rudolph and popularly known as “Santa’s 9th Reindeer”, and nicknamed as Red, Rudy, and Rudy the Red nosed Reject) who has an unusual luminous red nose and who gets harassed mercilessly and excluded by his peers because of this luminous red nose; his peers end up liking him and considering him a hero for saving Christmas or Christmas Day (Old English for Crīstesmæsse, meaning “Christ’s Mass”) after he led Santa Claus’ sleigh for the evening of Christmas Eve during a snowstorm after Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle and simply “Santa”) caught sight of his luminous red nose and had asked him to lead his sleigh for the evening to help guide him and his 8 follow reindeers through the snowstorm. Rudolph agrees, of course, and is finally treated better by his fellow reindeer for his heroism.

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” Book Cover

As Rudolph leads Santa’s sleigh, Dasher is right behind Rudolph on the right-hand side of Santa’s sleigh; he was the first and leader of Santa’s sleigh before Rudolph was included, but is now the second reindeer; he is the speediest reindeer. Then there is Dancer who is also right behind Rudolph, but on the left-hand side of Santa’s sleigh; she was the second and left leader of Santa’s sleigh before Rudolph was included, but is now the third reindeer; she is the graceful reindeer.

Behind both Dasher and Dancer is Prancer and Vixen. Both reindeers are in the second row of Santa’s sleigh, with the former being the fourth reindeer on the right-hand side of Santa’s sleigh and the latter being the fifth reindeer on the left-hand side of Santa’s sleigh. Both reindeers are the most powerful reindeer, with the latter being the most beautiful of all the reindeers. Before Rudolph was included, the former was the third reindeer and the former was the fourth.

Behind both Dasher and Dancer is Comet and Cupid. Both reindeers are in the third row of Santa’s sleigh, with the former being the sixth reindeer on the right-hand side of Santa’s sleigh and the latter being the seventh reindeer on the left-hand side of Santa’s sleigh. Both reindeers bring something special to children when Santa flies over to their houses, with the former bringing wonder and happiness and the latter bringing love and joy. Before Rudolph was included, the former was the fifth reindeer and the former was the sixth.

Behind both Comet and Cupid is Dunder (also known as Donder, often misspoken as Donner) and Blixem. Both reindeers are in the fourth row of Santa’s sleigh, with the former being the eighth reindeer on the right-hand side of Santa’s sleigh and the latter being the ninth reindeer on the left-hand side of Santa’s sleigh. The former produces something special to the latter, which is brining lighting, due to the former being thunder, hence why the latter being lighting. The latter reindeer is actually a female, despite being frequently portrayed as a male, most notably being portrayed as one in the stop-motion animation of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” where he is the coach of the reindeer games. Before Rudolph was included, the former was the seventh reindeer and the former was the eighth.

Robert May’s story was made into a song that would quickly become a big hit and that would also become, but much later on, a classic song after the song was released on Thursday, 1 September, 1949, after it was recorded on Monday, 27 June, 1949; it was not until the week of Christmas of 1949 that the song reached number 1 at the Billboard pop singles chart and that sold 2.5 million copies in its first year of the song’s release, which would later eventually sell a total of 25 million copies, and had remained the second best-selling record of all time until the 1980s. The song was titled by the same name of Robert May’s story and was written by Johnny Marks (born on Wednesday, 10 November, 1909; died on Tuesday, 3 September, 1985), who was the brother-in-law of Robert May and who was also a radio producer that wrote several other popular Christmas songs; he decided to adapt his brother-in-laws story into a song, which the song was performed by Gene Autry (born as Orvon Grover Autry; born on Sunday, 29 September, 1907; died on Friday, 2 October, 1998), who was a singing cowboy on the radio, in movies, and on television, that had performed the song together with The Pinafores.

After the release of both the Christmas telly special and the song, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” turned into a theatrical cartoon short, before turning into comic books and a children’s book, and also before making it into a stop-motion animation Christmas telly special, and then finally before making it as animated feature-length films, and even launching a video game with the same name to as the stop-motion animation Christmas telly special, but with a totally different plot.

The “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” video game was launched on Tuesday, 9 November, 2010, by Red Wagon Games for Nintendo (officially known as Nintendo Company, Limited, commonly known as Nintendo Co., Ltd.) for the home video game console (or simply home console) under Wii and also for the handheld console under Nintendo DS (officially known as Nintendo Developer’s Screen, also known as Nintendo Dual Screen). Albeit the video game was released by Red Wagon Games, both versions of the game came from three different developers: The home console version was developed by High Voltage Software (abbreviated as HVS, also known as High Voltage), whilst the handheld console version was developed by Glyphic Entertainment, and whilst DreamWorks Classics, formerly known as Classic Media, developed both video games as it currently holds video prints of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.

 “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” Wii Cover

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” Nintendo DS Cover

The plot of the “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” video game was for the player(s), to compete in four different mini-games (also spelled minigame or mini game and sometimes called a subgame): Holiday Helper, Toy Maker, Cookie Cooking, and Saving Christmas. Each mini-game lasts approximately a minute and a half, brining the total to completing the game to eight minutes (the completion of the game can take approximately ten minutes, as it can take a bit more than a minute and a half to complete each mini-game), making it one of the shortest games in gaming history and quite possibly the shortest game in Nintendo’s history.

The “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” video game received generally negative reviews, especially highly negative reviews by video game critic Kristine Steimer of Imagine Game’s Network (abbreviated as IGN), who had written her review on Monday, 15 December, 2010, where she gave the presentation of the game a 6, the graphics a 4, the gameplay a 1, and the lasting appeal a 0.50, which brings the total rating to a 1.50 out of 10. Kristine Steimer even went on to write in her review about the video game by advising both gamers and parents to “Just avoid it and save yourself the trouble.”, despite the video game had come from a stop-motion animation Christmas classic telly special.

Websites and Sources

This content of this blogspot post, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, is taken from websites that I consider both informative and reliable. The objective of this blogspot post is not to provide information, but to help those informative and reliable websites to be noticed. Some, if not all, of those informative and reliable websites are already noticed, but I still find it best to post their content due to both copyright and educational purposes.

Christmas
Christmas Eve
Father Christmas
Gene Autry (The Official Website for Gene Autry America’s Favorite Singing Cowboy)
Gene Autry
Johnny Marks
Nintendo
Robert L. May
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Review
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (song)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special)
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (video game)
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (video game): Official Site of the DS Version
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (video game): Official Site of the Wii Version
Saint Nicholas
Santa Claus
Santa Claus’s Reindeer
“Shiny New Year”
The History of Santa Claus and Father Christmas
The surprising 50-year legacy of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Who is St. Nicholas?