Why not? The other icon for the same major Christian holiday had a Jewish mother (and was, of course, Jewish himself).
Time to bump this one up, I think…
“The doll’s problem is psychological” sounds like a cop-out to me. Sounds like they forgot what her problem was, so they decided it must be something invisible. Hah! It’s those freakish pigtails, I’m tellin’ ya! :eek:
But doesn’t the whole idea of the Rudolph story seem offensive? I mean, let’s look at the facts, here:
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Rudy is a bit different than the others in his peer group…
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Rudy is taunted by his peers (with at least tacit approval from the adults)
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Even Santa gets in a jab at poor ol’ Rudy.
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His only friend is a girl whom no one pays much attention to because she’s a girl.
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Suddenly, Santa and Co. develop an unexpected need for Rudy’s gifts – the very trait that made him so offensive to everyone.
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Since Rudy can now do something FOR the other reindeer that NO ONE ELSE can do, everyone wants to be his friend. No one would give him the time o’ day earlier, but now that they WANT something, everyone has to act nice.
Were I Rudolph, I would be sorely tempted to tell Santa what he could do with his sled. Let’s just say it would be dark there, too.
It has always seemed to me that this story is about selfishness and ass-kissing. The head elf is careful to kiss-up whenever Santa is around, that acts like a tyrant when he leaves. Hermey is made to feel worthless because his interests and talents lie in dentistry rather than carpentry. Rudolph is similarly ostracized because he is a bit different. This treatment is even condoned by those in authority.
Suddenly everything changes when the authorities WANT something from these “misfits”. When Hermey is needed to cure the snow montster of his dental problems, everyone loves him. When Rudolph’s “nose so bright” is needed to guide the sleigh, everyone shouts with glee.
What a load of hooey.
If you look closely at the frame-by-frame, you can see the elf in question sporting an unmistakeable “what was that smell” look throughout the scene. Which leads me to my theory…
The second elf was behind the gassy gnoll.
Hasn’t anyone else felt that the kids may not be happy with “misfit” toys? I keep picturing a kid ripping open a present and saying “Sweet Holy Crap! This train has square wheels! Santa must hate me, what have I done wrong?!”
Ah, it’s that time of year again.
But now, we have a better forum for this one. Off to Cafe Society.
Bumping up for discussion in 2002.
I just have to raise one point which hasn’t been discussed yet. Even as a child watching it for the first time, I was disturbed by the fate of the Abominable Snowman.
What sort of message is this sending to our children? “Hey, kids, if there’s a big, scary bully at your school, just push him off a cliff and then yank all of his teeth out with a pair of pliers! Then he will be nice to you and put the star on your Christmas tree.”
Good Lord, what sort of conflict resolution is this? Why couldn’t Abominable have simply had an impacted wisdom tooth which was making him cranky? Then Herb/mie could have done an exam while he was unconscious and extracted it. This would have demonstrated the elf’s skill as a dentist and given us an ‘Androcles and the Lion’ subplot. Instead, the elf just goes nuts with the pliers and maims Abominable for life; something any sociopathic auto mechanic could have done.
I’ll just stick with A Charlie Brown Christmas, thank you. Plus, the music’s a lot better.
Looking at a comment I made a couple years ago, I actually made an error in pinpointing when this special first aired.
The opening credits of the program read, in part, “©Videocraft Int’l Inc. MCLXIV.”
I am unsure of the major importance of this, but it obviously means, among other things, that B. Icle Ivanhoe was semi-immortal (it also explains his birth name), and that the Santa Claus legend has existed longer than we ever expected to.
Or it could be a typo. I’m not sure.
It could just be me, but I think it’d be cool to have a Cowboy Riding an Ostrich toy.
I always thought that the dolls problem was something uder her dress. Perhaps she only wishes she was a doll and was really g.I joe.
In addition to its other problems, I’ve always had trouble reconciling the Santa and Mrs. Claus characters as depicted here with the backstory we have on them from Rankin/Bass’ Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I mean, is it the same Universe, or not? Mrs. Claus isn’t Jewish in that one, and Santa isn’t a jerk, although he is Mickey Rooney.
By the way, I think the extra UV light allowed in by the thinning ozone layer over the North Pole casued both Rudolph’s (nose) and Fireball’s (hair) mutations.
Wasn’t Frauline Klaus a dead ringer for Mrs. “Blame Canada” Cartman? Perhaps the unhappy marriage in this 938 year old children’s classic gave her an anti-cold-weather-northen-nation bias.
“Should we blame the images on TV…”
I think you are onto something here.
I have watched this tape about 20 times in the last two weeks (the Little Lagomorph is at that age). I have found at least three instances of other characters crying: Rudolph outside his cave when he is a young one, Charlie-in-the-Box when they first get to the Island, and Rudolph’s girlfriend in the Bumble’s cave. Notwithstanding mobo85’s penetrating analysis of the usual laws of cartoon physics, there are no ice cubes visible in any of the other three cases, but the doll definitely cries ice cubes. The caveat is it might have been colder then…she was crying at night. It might have been considerably warmer in the Bumble’s cave, for instance, although it didn’t look that cozy.
I specifically watched this year to confirm this…it’s true!! To be fair, the elf hesitates, apparently thinking the bird must be able to fly (or at least glide?). Maybe he wasn’t briefed on the toy’s special needs…?
James Lileks’s Bleat for Dec. 17th discusses the show and the Misfit Toys. Either he’s lurking or “great minds think alike.”
“Let’s be independent, together!”
(Does anybody know what he’s hinting at at the end of the column?)
I have to say that the fact that a horrifying incident of teeth being yanked out by plyers in a short space of time was handled in such a lighthearted manner.
What kind of Dentist was Hermie going to be.
Hermie: “Is it Safe?”
BUMBLE: AAAIIGH!!!
Hermie: Is it Safe?
Or a squirt gun that squirted jelly! Hells bells, man, that’s an improvement! Sure, you can torture your little sister by squirting her with water, but that cleans up pretty easily. But to squirt her with jelly – have it seriously fuck up her hair, make it all sticky and hard to brush – well, that would be perfect. The ultimate torture.
I would have loved a jelly gun when I was a little kid.
Bumping this thread is the Great Straight Dope Holiday Tradition.
When is it going to be broadcast this year? Believe it or not, I haven’t seen any ads for it.