# Rankin Bass - Why the Santa hate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867 "2014-12-10T18:37:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/21 "2014-12-11T18:49:56Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > I’m not too sure who produced the version I saw, but The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is bizarre, especially for something that’s supposed to be Christmas-themed. Exactly - the Great Ak? The trolls? All the other paganist spirits of the woods, it’s like a rejected chapter of The Hobbit. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/22 "2014-12-11T19:15:45Z")
> [@BurnMeUp](#): > > Exactly - the Great Ak? The trolls? All the other paganist spirits of the woods, it’s like a rejected chapter of The Hobbit. I can see how you could find it to be weird, ala **Jeep’s Phoenix** statement, but as far as I can tell, the two clauses your last sentence don’t go together. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/23 "2014-12-11T19:21:30Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > I can see how you could find it to be weird, ala **Jeep’s Phoenix** statement, but as far as I can tell, the two clauses your last sentence don’t go together. They go together in the sense that I find Tolkein’s writing to be weird, laborious, and convoluted. So that combined with the weird fantasy subjects I call it tolkeinesque. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![misling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@misling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misling)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/24 "2014-12-11T19:32:21Z")
I’m not sure how much it’s based on or borrow from, but “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” is a book by L. Frank Baum (the Wizard of Oz books guy). It’s pretty consistent with some of Baum’s other fairy tales. > **[The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Adventures_of_Santa_Claus)** > > The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is a 1902 children's book, written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Mary Cowles Clark. > As a baby, Santa Claus is found in the Forest of Burzee by Ak: Master Woodsman of the World (a supreme immortal) and placed in the care of the lioness Shiegra, but he thereupon is adopted by the Wood Nymph Necile. > Upon reaching young adulthood, Claus is introduced by Ak to human society, wherein he sees war, brutality, poverty, child neglect, and child abuse. Because ... ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/25 "2014-12-11T19:52:41Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > (Speaking of Frosty, did you ever hear the story of how CBS censored the last line one year? The last line of the TV show is Frosty saying, “I’ll be back on Christmas Day”; my guess is, CBS didn’t want kids thinking that the show would be repeated on 12/25 when it wouldn’t be.) So did they cut it to “I’ll be back”? ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/26 "2014-12-12T00:11:22Z")
> [@BurnMeUp](#): > > Exactly - the Great Ak? The trolls? All the other paganist spirits of the woods, it’s like a rejected chapter of The Hobbit. Yes! And to top it all off, in the one I saw, it ends with Santa on his freakin’ deathbed! Granted, he’s made immortal in the end and everything is fine, but geez! ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/27 "2014-12-12T16:33:49Z")
> [@misling](#): > > I’m not sure how much it’s based on or borrow from, but “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” is a book by L. Frank Baum (the Wizard of Oz books guy). It’s pretty consistent with some of Baum’s other fairy tales. > > [The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Adventures_of_Santa_Claus) It was indeed based on Baum’s book. I believe it premiered in 1985. I was in grad school, thrilled to see another Rankin Bass production & was appalled by it. When I mentioned it to a friend the next day, he said “Let me guess. It attempted to explain just about everything to do with Christmas & did it… badly” Yep! That was pretty much it! ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/28 "2014-12-13T11:35:01Z")
Author Francesco Marculiano has done a detailed analysis of the [different types of Rankin-Bass Santas](http://medium-large.com/). I’ve never seen “Year Without a Santa Claus.” Is this something I need to correct? ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/29 "2014-12-13T13:35:23Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > I’ve never seen “Year Without a Santa Claus.” Is this something I need to correct? There are two reasons why you need to see “The Year Without a Santa Clause”: [ul] [li]The Heat Miser Song[/li][li]The Cold Miser Song[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![CGav8r](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@CGav8r](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CGav8r)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/30 "2014-12-13T15:58:05Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > There are two reasons why you need to see “The Year Without a Santa Clause”: > [ul] > [li]The Heat Miser Song[/li][li]The Cold Miser Song[/li][/ul] And _sniff_ “I Believe in Santa Claus” ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/31 "2014-12-13T16:29:51Z")
I just stopped in to say that Mrs. Claus in SCICTT is bangin hot. Well…before she moved to the north pole and got big. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/32 "2014-12-13T18:04:12Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > There are two reasons why you need to see “The Year Without a Santa Clause”: > [ul] > [li]The Heat Miser Song[/li][li]The Cold Miser Song[/li][/ul] Nitpick: The “Snow” Miser. * * * But how can you run a dog pound and not be able to tell a sick reindeer from a puppy? ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/33 "2014-12-14T00:12:22Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > I just stopped in to say that Mrs. Claus in SCICTT is bangin hot. Well…before she moved to the north pole and got big. Hey, no fat-shaming! You have no idea how near-impossible it is for a woman to maintain a girlish figure for over 200 years. Anyway, the woman who voiced Mrs. Santa Claus, [Robie Lester](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robie_Lester), also narrated dozens of Disney storybook record albums of which I had many as a kid. In fact, when I first saw “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”, I remember being a little weirded-out hearing the character with her voice since I was so used to only hearing her on my story records. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/34 "2014-12-14T03:37:16Z")
I think the point is that, even if Santa is mad or whatever, having a bad year, etc, in the end he ALWAYS comes through. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/35 "2014-12-14T04:05:31Z")
Yeah, TTNBC Santa always seemed like he could be REALLY easily waylaid by a villain…or just a lunatic with a pen. "Dear Santa, We ALL hate you! Everyone in the world! Because you keep putting _robots_ in our _brains!_ Go DIE! Signed, All Humans Who Have Ever Lived P.S.: I am not a nut." That and the somewhat “confused” the special had towards the “faith vs rationality” angle. Albert (the letter-writing mouse) is the snotty intellectual nonbeliever who “thinks too much with his head, and not with his heart,” right? Well, in his world, Santa is provably real. He makes no effort to hide himself on his delivery runs, he regularly sends and receives mail, and has a telephone switchboard—a trans-species accessible one, at that—with operators waiting to take calls and give out information. In other words…virtually _everyone_ in that special was a rationalist, working from evidence. _Albert_ was a deluded fanatic acting on blind faith. I’m pretty sure that would have bugged me as a kid, even if I _hadn’t_ grown up in a non-religious household. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/36 "2014-12-15T16:47:05Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > But how can you run a dog pound and not be able to tell a sick reindeer from a puppy? Because it was masterfully disguised with socks on its ears. Which in retrospect may have been what caused the illness. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/37 "2014-12-15T18:21:25Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > I’m not too sure who produced the version I saw, but The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is bizarre, especially for something that’s supposed to be Christmas-themed. > [@misling](#): > > I’m not sure how much it’s based on or borrow from, but “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” is a book by L. Frank Baum (the Wizard of Oz books guy). It’s pretty consistent with some of Baum’s other fairy tales. > > [The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Adventures_of_Santa_Claus) Right. I believe it’s actually considered to _be_ an Oz book, in the sense of taking place in the same fictional universe and having a few crossovers in some of the later Oz books. So, essentially, the stop-motion Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is actually a parallel story to The Wizard of Oz and not really a traditional Christmas tale. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867/38 "2014-12-15T18:48:16Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Right. I believe it’s actually considered to _be_ an Oz book, in the sense of taking place in the same fictional universe and having a few crossovers in some of the later Oz books. I remember that Santa Claus showed up at Ozma’s birthday party in [The Road to Oz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Oz). He sent Dorothy back to Kansas for the last time before she decided to up stakes and move to Oz permanently. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rankin-bass-why-the-santa-hate/706867.md?page=1)