Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976)

Rudolph must find Happy, the baby New Year, before midnight on New Year's Eve.

Directors:

Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr.

Writer:

Romeo Muller

Stars:

Red Skelton, Frank Gorshin, Morey Amsterdam

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Red Skelton	...	Father Time / Baby Bear (voice)
Frank Gorshin	...	Sir 1023 (voice)
Morey Amsterdam	...	One Million (O.M) (voice)
Harold Peary	...	Big Ben (voice)
Paul Frees	...	Santa Claus / Eon / General Ticker / Seventeen Seventy Six 'Sev' (voice)
Billie Mae Richards	...	Rudolph (voice) (as Billie Richards)
Don Messick	...	Papa Bear / Rumpelstiltskin / Prince Charming / The Seven Dwarfs (voice)

Storyline

Father Time sends Santa a message telling him that the baby new year, Happy, is missing! And without the baby new year, it'll remain the old year forever. But it's foggy and snowing, so Rudolph's the only reindeer for the job. Rudolph learns that Eon (ugly buzzard) is also searching for Happy, so that eon life will never end. With the help of 1 Million B.C. and Sir 1023, and 1776, Rudolph searches through the islands of the Archipelago of Last Year and races against eon to ensure a Happy New Year.

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Plot Keywords:

1970s | 20th century | 1000000 b.c. | prehistory | stone age | 

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Musical

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Certificate:

TV-G

Did You Know?

Trivia

1776 or Sev is modeled on Benjamin Franklin.

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Goofs

Father Time mispronounced the "arch" in "archipelago" several times as "ARCH", before switching over to the correct pronunciation "ARK" later on in the story.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Father Time: [singing to the tune of Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer] You know Rudolph who guided and pulled Santa's sleigh / and who saved Christmas by lighting the way. But there's more to tell / Rudolph saved the New Year as well.
[shifting to spoken dialog]
Father Time: And it all began that same foggy night.

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Connections

Follows The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)

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Soundtracks

Fourth of July Parade Song
Performed by Chorus

User Reviews

"Rudolph's Shiny New Year" was a nice sequel to the previous Rankin/Bass claymation special

Just finished this, the sequel to Rankin/Bass' "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". With Red Skelton as narrator Father Time as well as the Baby Bear, Frank Gorshin as the knight Sir Ten-To-Three, Morey Amsterdam as the caveman-O.M. (One Million), Hal "Great Gildersleeve" Peary as the whale Big Ben, Paul Frees as various voices, Don Messick as Papa Bear, Iris Rainer as Mama Bear, and, returning as Rudolph, Billie Mae Richards. Written once again by Romeo Muller, "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" is a wonderful Tall Tale about how the reindeer with the shiny nose managed to make sure that it didn't become December 31st forever. Even as an adult, I was enthralled by the way Muller kept making things up as the story went along and didn't care a lick about logic or stuff like that as long as it was still believable. Although when Red said this story took place just after the events in the previous special, I did question why Rudolph's antlers had shrunk to when he was a kid. Other than that, I still highly enjoyed "Rudolph's Shiny New Year". P.S. I just found out Frees and Amsterdam were born in the same city as I, Chicago, Ill.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 December 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ano Novo Brilhante de Rudolph

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rankin/Bass Productions

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color