MAX FLEISCHER'S RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER
When I was a kid, the first time I ever saw of the cartoon's existence was on the "Disney Sing Along Song" video "A Very Merry Christmas" that showed the highlights of the cartoon as the famous Gene Autry version of the song played in the background. In fact, the segment on the video itself was actually my first exposure to both the character and the song (Yeah, it’s pretty shocking that I didn't see the Rankin/Bass stop motion Special first), and as you probably may have guessed, I fell under the cuteness and charm of both the character and the song. Eventually my Dad would later on bought me and my brothers a VHS tape containing classic Holiday shorts that were public domain, and the first short to be featured on the tape would be the 40s cartoon of Rudolph. As a kid I really enjoyed it, and as the years went by, my brothers, my Farther, and I would always watch this Christmas short along with many other Christmas shorts that were public domain during this time of year when I was a kid. In recent years, I haven't actually sat down and watched the short in awhile, and since the short is featured on "The March Of The Wooden Soldiers" DVD, I figured now would be the perfect time for me to watch it again and see how it holds up after all these years of not seeing it.
Before I start talking about what holds-up and what doesn't, I must address two important things about the cartoon. The short not only pr-dates the classic Rankin/Bass Special, but it's also the first time that the song has ever been made into a movie of some kind. The short is also one of the last assignments that Max Fleischer (Who he and his Brother Dave have brought you famous cartoon characters like "Popeye" and Betty Boop"; the famous and influential Superman cartoons in the 40s, and Christmas short classics like "Christmas Comes But Once A Year" and "Somewhere In Dreamland") ever did in his career. As you can tell those two elements are one of the things that make the cartoon stand-out as something important, but with that said, that doesn't mean the cartoon itself is going to be great, because lets be honest, we've seen plenty of first adaptations to something popular, and last film projects that someone famous has done that weren't good.
So aside from being the first cartoon adaptation of Rudolph that's created by a legendary animator, is the cartoon itself good and still holds up just as well as when I saw it when I was a kid? Well starting off with the story, if you know the song of Rudolph, you’re pretty much going to get what the song tells you with no supporting characters, subplots, or twists what-so-ever. It's just the story about a misfit reindeer with a shiny red glowing nose who later on gets to help guide Santa's Sleigh on the foggiest Christmas ever (Yeah, it doesn’t make a whole a lot of sense that most of the world is covered in fog, but neither does Santa or a Reindeer with a glowing red nose). The only few things that the short has to offer that's new are the visuals and a few jokes, that’s pretty much it. Still this cartoon is a short cartoon that's less than 10 minutes, so it shouldn’t at all be surprising that it decides to be completely faithful to the source material, instead of taking liberties to make this classic Christmas story longer.
So with the short's story just being a complete accurate and straight forward animated telling of this traditional Christmas story; how's the animation, voice acting, and tiny gags that are thrown in? Well being animated by legendary animator Max Fleischer, it does seem like the animation is going to be promising and for the most part it is. Ok it’s not pitch perfect animation. I mean there are times when the movement from the characters looks odd or silly like how Rudolph and the reindeer's keep opening and clothing their mouths as they pull Santa’s Sleigh, or the scene when Santa pulls the covers up on sleeping reindeer (That kind of looked a little pedophile for a second) for example. There are even times when the characters would freeze in a few shots which make them seem unnatural instead of blending into the environment, especially when we see half of the reindeer's cheering at the stadium for Rudolph, while the other half of reindeer seem to be dead (The old and frail reindeer that's cheering for Rudolph, looks more alive than the rest of the young reindeer that are just blankly watching the ceremony). Also if you look carefully in the scene when Santa is calling out each of his reindeer, you can briefly see another Reindeer appear from the door after Blitzen comes out, which makes it obvious that the animators lapped the animation for that scene and didn't time it perfectly after when Blitzen came rushing out. Still as clunky as the animation can be at times (And lets be honest, the Stop-Motion in the Rankin/Bass Special can be clunky on many occasions as well), it for the most part still looks really nice. The colors are warm and Christmassy; the animated background designs for places such as Santa's Workshop, the frozen pond where the Reindeer go ice skating, and the dark and dimly lit houses that Santa visit's and passes are creative and beautiful to look at; and the designs for the characters are very cute, especially Rudolph's design, who has only two lines of dialogue but yet you can feel and sense every single bit of emotion he has from the way he's animated (Almost like Dumbo who shares a similar story to Rudolph’s). As for the little gags that this short film has to offer, while none of them are laugh out loud funny, they still are cute little gags that flow with the story fine.
I have to admit, a problem about this short that I've noticed ever since when I was a kid is the voice acting. Now I'm not saying that the actors voicing their characters are bad because they're not, actually they give their characters a lot of charm. The narrator brings that by the burning Yule log feel as he narrates this timeless Christmas tale; the guy voicing Santa has a great masculine voice that captures the charm of this popular Christmas icon; and two lines that the person voicing Rudolph delivers are so adorably cute that you just love the character even more, especially when he wishes everyone a Merry Christmas at the end. With that being said, the voice acting has so much echo in it that it not only gives you the sense and feel that there's someone in a booth voicing these characters, but it sounds like they weren't even voicing the characters in a studio, but more in a cheap shack or a basement with an echo chamber, which does get pretty distracting at times, especially when you hear the voices of the reindeer who bully poor Rudolph. The background music for this cartoon is just as Christmassy as the story and animation, which really does create a really nice and laid back Christmas atmosphere. One thing that really disappointed me when I watched this cartoon on "The March Of The Wooden Soldiers" DVD is the fact that the song about Rudolph is cut out of both the opening credits and the last scene since they couldn't get the rights to the song, where we instead get Christmas DVD menu music that doesn't at all sound like it was composed the same year that this cartoon was made. The good news however is you can still download the cartoon anywhere online with the original song being played in the cartoon since it is a public domain cartoon (Though it is kind of weird that the people who hold the rights to the song aren't taking any legal action on the cartoon itself.) and believe me when I say that the cartoon's rendition of this classic Christmas song does a nice job with pulling you in and out of the cartoon.
After all these years of not seeing this short, it still holds up. Ok, it's not perfect, the animation is very clunky on many occasions and the echo that we hear when most of the character's speak does get a little distracting, but on the whole it's still a cute little short cartoon of a classic Christmas tale with it's cute characters; lovely Christmas animation; relaxing Christmas music; and a few cute little jokes. However if you're looking for a re-telling of this classic story with a few new twists, the Rankin/Bass version (Though not all that perfect either) is the best version to see; but if you're looking for a faithful adaptation of the story that's short, sweet, and to the point then look no further.
RATING 4/5
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