Simply A Masterpiece

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I think "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is classic television. This sequel made over a decade later is ... not classic. It's fine. I think my main issue with it is that while the original was grounded in shared Christmas mythology, this one is pretty much just a mish-mash of made up stuff. An evil buzzard steals Baby New Year, so Father Time sends Rudolph to the Archipelago of Last Year, which are ... time travel islands. Rudolph teams up with Benjamin Franklin, a caveman and a robot clock to ... really, who cares? Father Time is voiced by Red Skelton, and they made him look too much like him. I found it weird and disconcerting. Useless trivia moment:I saw this in 1976 when it first aired, and it was the first time I had ever heard the word "archipelago".

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.

Rudolph has to find the missing Happy, the big-eared Baby New Year, prior to the end of New Year's Eve or else the old year will go on indefinitely. Rudolph is assisted in his desperate mission by friendly whale Big Ben, cheery caveman One Million (O.M. for short), noble knight Sir Ten-To-Three, and the amiable Ben Franklynesque Seventeen Seventy Six. Meanwhile, evil monster bird Eon the Terrible wants to get his nasty claws on Happy so he can live forever. This really sweet and delightful holiday television special boasts the usual appealing attributes which make these shows by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr. so utterly charming and irresistible: a catchy and jaunty soundtrack of infectiously bouncy songs, a giddy, upbeat tone, cool stop-motion animation, likable and colorful characters, an amusing sense of gentle good-natured humor, and an engrossingly simple and straightforward story. Red Skelton makes for a warm and folksy narrator as Father Time. In addition, marvelous voice actor supreme Paul Frees lends his glorious golden throat to Eon, Seventeen Seventy Six, Santa Claus, and clockwork soldier General Ticker. The other cast members voice their roles with tremendous hearty aplomb: Billie Mae Richards as eternal optimist Rudolph, Frank Gorshin as Sir Ten-To-Three, Morey Amsterdam as One Million, Harold Peary as Big Ben, and Don Messick as the grumpy Papa Bear. A total treat.

Rudolph's Shiny New Year can be striking, and entertaining, if you're watching it when you're little - little enough that by the time you're my age you have no clear memory of the first time you watched it, just that you did over and over. As a kid you get introduced to claymation someway or another (even those of today who don't have Gumby get Wallace and Gromit), and this plays for a fine hour for the little ones, but can perhaps be of worth for the parents here and there. The story of Rudolph saving the "baby new-year" from the clutches of Eon, a vulture looking to keep December 31st on a loop, is pretty simple, with conflicts and characters that are typical and funny enough to take. But what can be memorable for a child is how some of this special is dark (with Eon) when it's not cute (most scenes with the baby). It's also interesting as a kind of sequel-cum-remake of the original Rudolph story, as the baby has to contend with having big ears- something that a child might find more relatable than a shiny nose. The songs are also a bit of a treat, if dated, and Red Skeleton does a fine double-job with the voicing of Father time and the little Bear on the island. Basically, it's the kind of special that is worth checking out with the kids for a few minutes, and if they get into it, it may prove a treat, and if not, there's still Nickelodeon.