Rankin/Bass Animation

Whether its their Stop motion specials or cel animated movies, Rankin/Bass has had quite an impact on a lot of people’s childhood. I personally think the best of their work is The Last Unicorn.

I like them. I havent really seen anything outside their holiday specials, but I enjoy several of them. I know it wasnt the greatest animation and for some of them the story was hit or miss, but there must be a reason why things like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman are still shown 40-50 years later. :slight_smile: I think Year Without a Santa Claus is my favorite.

I have a lot of fondness for R/B! Both the more well-known Christmas specials like Rudolph, Frosty etc. and some of the lesser known work they’ve done. I’ve yet to see The Last Unicorn but I intend to soon. I used to badly wish I could make stop motion puppets like the ones they did, they’re so charming :smiley:

You know, the stories they have for the stop motion shorts are pretty simple and sometimes don’t make any sense, but I think that’s what gives them their charm; they’re kinda like stories a little kid would come up with.

I love the ones I’ve seen! I personally think that The Year Without a Santa Claus might possibly be their most underrated work yet.

Have you seen the semi-sequel The Miser Brothers?

Oh I greatly dislike the Miser Brothers sequel. Lame! I saw The Last Unicorn a couple of years ago, and I thought it was good mostly, but with some bad writing and very annoying songs. I really love The Year Without a Santa Claus and Santa Claus is comin’ To Town.

I only saw Year Without a Santa, Santa’s Comin’ to Town, the original Rudolph, and the first Frosty. Those ones were all my Christmas childhood. We had the video tapes, cassette and everything. I didn’t see any of the sequels from the same company though. I think The Little Drummer Boy might have been one of the good ones but I only saw it once so I don’t remember. I also saw this Easter Bunny one that has delivery guy from Santa’s Comin’ to Town! Cute but not as good as the rest.

Wow, I never knew they made an Easter one. Weird.

I remember now, it’s called “The Easter Bunny is Comin’ to Town”. From what I remember, it’s a cute story and all, but seeing the delivery guy again was pretty cool.

I’ve probably seen less than ten of the specials but I do like most of the ones I’ve seen. I don’t remember Rudolph’s Shiny New Year being quite as good as the others, and then I didn’t care for Frosty Returns but I think that was a different studio.

Overall, when they’re sequels or spin offs, they’re less good. But that’s usually true of anything.

Oh that’s right. I remember seeing the Easter one. I only saw it once so I dont remember what happened in it. Was it similar to the Santa Claus one where the delivery guy explained the Easter Bunny’s ‘origins’?