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The Year Without a Santa Claus/Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey/Rudolph's Shiny New Year
List Price: $14.98 Our Price: $11.98
DVD - 19 August, 2003
Warner Studios
Unrated
Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours
Director: Jules Bass
Cast: Shirley Booth, Mickey Rooney
Number of Media: 1
Features: |
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| DVD Description This DVD contains three holiday titles from Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass.
The Year Without a Santa Claus
Even Santa can suffer a case of the holiday blues. In this 1974 stop-motion holiday family favorite, a sparkly eyed Mrs. Claus (voiced by Shirley Booth) sings and tells about the year her hubby felt too weary and too unappreciated to prepare for his annual Christmas rounds. Mickey Rooney stars as the voice of Santa, a rosy-nosed puppet who travels incognito to Southtown in search of his tiniest reindeer, Vixen, and two well-meaning elves. Seems Mrs. Santa sent them to find proof of Christmas spirit--but all they've discovered is ambivalence about Santa's year off. Luckily, when Santa arrives and befriends a buck-toothed lad named Ignatius Thistlewhite, spirits begin to lift rapidly. Adult fans of this cousin to the 1970 television special Santa Claus Is Coming to Town will remember it as the Heat and Snow Miser movie. Their vaudevillian theme songs, complete with trombone and piano riffs, are hard to forget, but other treasured musical moments include "I Believe in Santa Claus," "I'll Have a Blue Christmas Without You," and "Here Comes Santa Claus." --Liane Thomas Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
The wondrous story of Christ's birth is told by an unlikely source: Nestor, a gentle donkey with incredibly long ears and a first-hand knowledge of life in a stable. This simple tale, which takes place in the days of the Roman Empire, is about a humble couple about to take a long journey to Bethlehem and a small, insignificant donkey that is destined to help them along. By all outward appearances, Nestor does not deserve such a privilege. Stable animals tease him incessantly for his long appendages until, finally, he is cast out of the barn into the winter cold. Snow and ice bring about even greater calamity for Nestor until he receives a dose of divine goodness. Nestor meets Tilly, a heavenly cherub (voiced by Brenda Vaccaro) who imparts guidance to the despairing burro and tells him that soon he will be chosen to participate in a miracle involving a star, a baby, a lowly stable, and some travelers named Mary and Joseph. Short and sweet, this stop-motion Christmas gem from Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass is narrated by Roger Miller. Get out the hanky for an understated holiday classic that will appeal to families of all ages. --Lynn Gibson Rudolph's Shiny New Year
Rudolph is legendary for saving Christmas, but did you know he saved the New Year as well? While Santa Claus is recuperating from his December sleigh ride, he receives a letter from an old friend, Father Time. Seems that Baby New Year is missing, and if the little tyke isn't found, Old Year will continue forever--a catastrophe for Father Time, whose job it is to keep things moving forward. A search party is essential, yet with such thick fog, there's only one reindeer fit for the job. "Rudolph with your nose so bright, you've six days left to set things right," says Santa. Trouble hits immediately when Rudolph discovers that Aeon the Terrible, a big-beaked monster bird, is also searching for the missing baby. Rudolph gets help from a giant whale and a good-natured caveman, who dish up plenty of song and dance in between narrow escapes in their race against the end of the calendar year. Sound far-fetched? Perhaps, but it contains as much magic as its predecessors, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, all produced and directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr., and written by the esteemed Romeo Muller. The same stop-motion animation we've grown to love is here as well, and narrator Red Skelton has as trusted a voice as Burl Ives and Fred Astaire. While the New Year holiday will never be as celebrated as Christmas, this title is a welcome addition to any Rankin and Bass collection of holiday films. --Lynn Gibson |
| Reviews from Customers
DESERVES MORE THAN 5 STARS!! This DVD is magnificent, all three of the featured Rankin Bass Christmas Specials are gems! The Year Without A Santa Claus is my favorite. Santa Claus gets a bad cold and gets a case of the blues when he is convinced that no one really cares about him or Christmas anymore and there is no good will so Mrs. Santa Claus with the help of two elves Jingle and Jangle goe off to try and find some good will and Christmas spirit to cheer him up. Mickey Rooney and Shirley Booth provide the voices of Santa Claus and Mrs. Santa Claus and are wonderful, also like so many other reviewers I like Snow Miser and Heat Miser and their songs, everyone seems to like the Heat Miser more than Snow Miser but my favorite is the Snow Miser. Rudolph's Shiny New Year is not as great as Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer but it is good and has Rudolph searching for Happy the Baby New Year who ran away because people laughed at his big ears and if Happy isn't there to ring in the new year December 31st will go on forever. Nestor The Long Eared Christmas Donkey is a wonderful story about the true meaning of Chrstmas and like Happy in Rudolph's Shiny New Year, Nestor is teased about his ears which are very long, several scenes might have you reaching for the tissues to wipe your eyes! I recommend this DVD set very highly to anyone who loves Rankin Bass Christmas specials, I even bought this set before I bought my DVD Player.
Heat Miser, Snow Miser, and more! "The Year Without a Santa Claus" is one of the classic Rankin-Bass stop-motion animated holiday specials. In this installment, Santa Claus (voiced by Mickey Rooney), feeling poorly and convinced that people don't care about Christmas anymore, decides to cancel his annual sleigh ride around the world. Fortunately, Mrs. Claus (Shirley Booth) sets in motion a chain of events that restores Santa to his jolly self. "Year" is great fun from start to finish. The producers achieve a nearly perfect balance of musical numbers, fantasy, sentiment, and humor. Booth is outstanding as Mrs. Claus (who also narrates the tale). She gives a particularly spirited rendition of the fun song "I Could Be Santa Claus" (in which Mrs. C contemplates taking the reigns of Santa's sleigh on Christmas night). The vocal performances are excellently complemented by the whimsical stop-motion puppets and other superbly realized visual elements. This film also introduces two of the most unforgettable characters of the Rankin-Bass mythos: Heat Miser and Snow Miser, the respective overseers of hot and cold weather phenomena. Each one is accompanied by his own chorus line of look-alike mini-Misers, and each gets his own outrageous theme song. "Year" has a subtle feminist twist, since Mrs. C is such a pivotal character, and also because Mother Nature emerges as perhaps the most powerful figure in the story. Religious fundamentalists will probably dislike the fact that this special seems to distance the Christmas holiday from its traditional religious implications (some may even see a touch of goddess-worshiping neo-Paganism in the character of Mother Nature). But for most audiences, I believe that this holiday special will be an entertaining delight.
3 Wonderful Reasons to buy this DVD Wow, 3 Rankin/Bass specials on 1 DVD, and they are such great stories individually. The First is "The Year Without a Santa Claus", when Santa gets the blues over humans attitudes towards Christmas. Narrated by Mrs Claus, it includes as usual a great soundtrack and excellent characters. Most fans loving the best, Heat Miser and Snow Miser. Jingle and Jangle, two of Santa's elves are pretty cute also. The Second is "Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey", which I think is the most touching movie of the R/B collection. It is a re-telling of the birth of Christ with a sweet twist. It brings tears every watching. If you haven't seen this, it is a must. Wonderful inclusion on this DVD, especially if you want a break from the commercialism of Christmas. And Thirdly "Rudolph's Shiny New Year", which tells the story of time, our calender year. Rudolph is asked to help Father time, when Baby New Year Dissapears. This is a must have to keep your R/B appetite filled. When Christmas is over, and you have watched all your favourite R/B Christmas specials......oh no.......but wait, there's one more to keep you entertained! This DVD is definitely coming out at my house this Season, and everyone there-after. |
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