Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

◄ Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

Anachronisms

Although the film was copyrighted and released in 1964, the Roman-numerals copyright date in the main titles is shown as "MCLXIV", which would be the year 1164.
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Audio/visual unsynchronised

When Mrs. Claus goes out the door after Santa, the sound of the door slamming occurs before the door is shut.
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During one of the songs, Sam the Snowman is handed a banjo and begins plucking it. However, no banjo is used in the song he's performing.
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As Sam introduces the Christmas seals, clapping is heard in the soundtrack, but none of the seals is clapping.
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During several frames of the "We Are Santa's Elves" song, the elves' mouths aren't moving.
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The head elf's voice is clearly a different actor when he's conducting the choir.
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Character error

According to Sam the Snowman's narration, it was the day before Christmas Eve when Santa Claus initially decided to cancel Christmas due to the bad weather. That same day, however, Santa asks Rudolph to guide his sleigh "tonight" (that is, Christmas Eve).
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When Rudolph leaves Cornelius and Hermie in the cabin to set out on his own, the narrator says that Rudolph does this as to not "endanger his friends lives any more." Yet, when he exits the cabin, he leaves the door wide open in supposedly frigid North Pole temperatures.
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Mrs. Claus keeps prompting Santa to 'Eat, Papa, eat.' But in the final scene, the elf is throwing toys from the sleigh while flying through the night. What difference does it make if Santa is skinny if he never stops to deliver toys?
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The Snowman's pocket watch never changes time throughout the show.
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When Rudolph is in front of King Moonracer he states "When and if we ever get back [to Christmas town] we'll tell Santa". This is in response to Moonracer asking them to get Santa to distribute all the misfit toys. "Dolly for Sue" in response to Charlie's comment about having to wait another year says "But Rudolph promised we'd go this time." Rudolph never made such a promise.
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The reindeer females are referred to as does, males are referred to as bucks, and babies are referred to as fawns. They should be referred to as cows, bulls, and calves.
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The elf "Hermey" is called "Herbie" by some characters.
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Continuity

During the scene leading up to Santa's plea to Rudolph to guide the sleigh, Rudolph's nose keeps changing its size and shape.
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When Rudolph, Hermey, and Cornelius are floating on the ice, you can see the dogs laying on the sled. When it hits the Island of Misfit Toys the dogs are not there. Obviously they reappear later in the movie.
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Rudolph's throat and chest markings change drastically in the last 1/3 of the film.
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Crew or equipment visible

The Abominable Snowmonster's legs are longer when they first appear than they are on the actual doll; these legs are actually those of an animator.
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Errors in geography

When Rudolph, Hermie, and Yukon Cornelius are inside their cabin on the Island of Misfit Toys, in spite of the Arctic deep freeze, flowers can be seen blooming in all the window boxes.
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Factual errors

The female reindeer have no antlers. These are the only deer where the females also have antlers.
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The opening credits are in all capital letters. At one point Burl Ives' name is spelled BURL IVES but later it's BURI IVES.
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Plot holes

When the Bumble & Cornelius go over the cliff the reindeer look down sadly. If "Bumbles bounce" as Cornelius says later, they would have bounced back up quickly and the reindeer would have seen this.
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When Santa leaves at the end, with Rudolph at the head of the team, there are only 7 reindeer altogether (including Rudolph himself). There should be 9. The reindeer were divided in a subplot which was cut from the final film.
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Revealing mistakes

When Clarisse and Mrs. Donner leave the cave to search for Rudolph, their shadows disappear as soon as they are out of the cave, indicating that they were removed as soon as they were out of range.
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As Rudolph and Santa are about to land on the Island of Misfit Toys, the fire that the toys are sitting around is gone even though the glow surrounding the firewood can still be seen.
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In the beginning where Rudolph is born, Donner says "How can you overlook that?". His antlers bend dramatically, but raise back up when he looks at Santa arriving.
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During "We are Santa's Elves", the tall elf wearing glasses appears out of nowhere the first time he sings "We don't like to brag".
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