Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1944/1948) Christmas Cartoon Classic by Max Fleischer

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The last cartoon ever produced by Max Fleischer who produced the Popeye the Sailor man, Betty Boop and Koko the Clown cartoons from the 1910's to the 1940's. MORE: http://amzn.to/MaxFleischer

You know Dasher, Dancer, etc., as the song goes and for the past several decades, you've known Rudolph as well. He's become so familiar a part of the Christmas scene that, like his contemporaries, the gremlins, a lot of people aren't even aware that he only goes back to the early-to-middle 20th century. Rudolph began as an attempt to promote a chain of department stores.

It was in 1939 that Montgomery Ward, which had been giving away coloring books every Christmas for years, decided to produce its promotional give-away in-house. Robert L. May, who worked there as an advertising copywriter, was commissioned to write a story for young readers, and the result was Rudolph. May drew on some of his own childhood experiences as a puny kid that other kids sometimes picked on, to craft a story of a picked-on kid who made good, prospering as a result of the very attribute the others made fun of.

Though the story, written in the form of rhyming couplets, passed its first test with flying colors, Montgomery Ward's publicity department initially chose not to follow the judgment of May's 4-year-old daughter, to whom he'd read the story aloud as he wrote it. Red noses smacked of drunkenness, they said, which made them inappropriate for a sweet, gentle, parent-friendly Christmas story. But May enlisted illustrator Denver Gillen, a co-worker in the advertising department, to show just how parent-friendly Rudolph could be. With Gillen's artwork, they okayed it after all, and the department store chain gave away 2.4 million copies that year. Millions more were given away over the next several years.

Rudolph hit the big screen in 1944. Max Fleischer, in a rare commercial credit following the closure of his studio, produced an animated version of the Rudolph story for The Jam Handy Organization (a Detroit studio that isn't as well known as the ones in Hollywood). That cartoon was shown endlessly on TV during the 1950s and early '60s. Unlike most Rudolph products, it's fallen out of copyright, and is now available on many inexpensive videotapes and DVDs of public domain Christmas shorts.

In 1947, May negotiated ownership of the Rudolph property, which had hitherto been held solely by Montgomery Ward. It was shortly afterward that his brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, wrote Rudolph's famous song, first recorded by cowboy star Gene Autry in 1949. The recording not only sold two million copies that year. The most familiar of Rudolph's media adaptations.

Next came the comic book, which recounted Rudolph's subsequent adventures, after he'd become a part of Santa Claus's team. DC Comics published a new issue each December from 1950-62. Most were drawn by Rube Grossman (Peter Panda, Three Mouseketeers). The DC version was briefly revived in 1972 as a tabloid, written and drawn by Sheldon Mayer (Sugar & Spike, The Red Tornado). While the DC version was running, Little Golden Books produced its own version of the story, and followed it with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again.

Rankin/Bass Productions (Thundercats, Silverhawks) did the best-known animated version, the one narrated by Burl Ives as Sam the Snowman, which debuted on NBC December 6, 1964. Rather than traditional cel animation, they used a stop-motion technique with puppets, similar to George Pal's Puppetoons, but which they promoted under the trademarked name "Animagic". Rudolph's voice was done by Billie Mae Richards (Bobby in King Kong). Richards reprised her role in a couple of follow-ups, Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976) and Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July (1979).

Long surpassed by the 1964 Rankin / Bass version, this 1948 animated version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer directed by Max Fleischer is enjoyable in its own right. Narrated by Paul Wing, the story begins with the lead character already not allowed to skate on ice with the others (all of whom wear pillows on their backs to break their falls).

Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

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1. By: XmasFLIX
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4. Added :26-Nov-09
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