Welcome back, Nippy Noses! The days are getting colder, the weather is brisk and it gets darker earlier and earlier ... boy, I could sure use a flashlight right about now, how about you? A red one, you say? Sure, even a red light would work. Attached to a REINDEER, you say?
It's his NOSE ??? What, is he radioactive?
It's his NOSE ??? What, is he radioactive?
No, just everybody's favorite Rangifer tarandus (see, you learn things here, too!), Rudolph! There are few, if any, children who don't know the story of Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer, mainly thanks to the one-two punch of the Gene Autry song played ad nauseum this time of year and the famous Rankin-Bass holiday special. My own initiation into the Cult of the Red-Nosed One came from a different path ... from a Little Golden Book (see left) when I was very young.
As a child, I HATED all the other reindeer, who "used to laugh and call him names" - they always struck me as bullies --- even after the wrap-up, where Santa picks Rudolph, etc., and now they're all his 'friends', I thought they were a-holes of the first order. Upon looking again at the book recently, I had to chuckle - with all the teasing going on, it looks like Rudolph is about to CUT a deer! :)
Which brings us to today's film. Long before the Rankin-Bass special, in 1948 the Fleischer Studios (creators of Betty Boop) made a lush Technicolor cartoon of Big Red, and while it's beautiful to look at and lovely to behold, it still leaves one with many unsettling questions after viewing, not the least of which being, "Why does a reindeer need a bed?" Take a look!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzfJdSmTNdk
By the way, if you want to know more about Rudolph, read the magnificently thorough breakdown of both the character and the cartoon in the description box beneath the video. Nice job, XmasFLIX!
Tomorrow: More holiday weirdness abounds, including the question: would you buy a used car from a GIANT Santa Claus? See you then!
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