Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Good idea for a story and some fun elements
Cons: Stretched too thin to fill time
The Bottom Line:
Finding the New Year
Could have been a lot more fun
With a shorter length
Potential for a Shiny New Year Doesn’t Quite Happen
Apparently, I am trying to catch up on a couple more of the
Claymation holiday specials I missed as a kid this year. When I
found Rudolph's Shiny New Year on TV
the other night, I had to give it a try. It had some great elements
to it, but it doesn’t quite hold together.
Rudolph (voiced by Billie Mae Richards) and Santa (Paul
Frees) are just back from that famous foggy Christmas Eve when Santa gets a
message from Father Time (Red Skelton). It seems Happy, the New
Year’s Baby, has run away. He has incredibly large ears, and people
can’t help but laugh at them when they see them, and he has taken offense at
that. If he isn’t back by the stroke of twelve, the world will be
stuck in a time loop on December 31st.
There is one creature who is happy about this possibility –
Eon (Paul Frees again), a vulture who is set to be replaced in the new
year. So while Rudolph conducts a search of some magically time
frozen islands, Eon is right there hoping to snatch baby Happy first. Who
will win? Will they even find Happy or just keep missing him?
There is the potential for a good story in here, but I think
the desire to stretch it out to an hour (less commercials) is what did them
in. These islands that Rudolph searches are where each year goes to
retire, and their island is frozen in their year. That was lots of
fun, and I had a blast visiting those different islands. Yet, can
you tell me why we redid the Three Bears with Happy as Goldilocks? Yep,
makes no sense. There were another couple of twists along the way
there also felt like they were just there to expand the running time of the
story.
Not to mention, why couldn’t Rudolph fly? He had
to get help from other animals along the way. Mind you, they had
punny names, and I liked them, but I never did understand why Rudolph couldn’t
just fly where he needed to go by himself. Again, I think it had to
do with expanding the story.
None of this is the fault of the voice cast. While
a bit childish sounding, they certainly fit the parts well, and I liked how the
brought the characters to life. And considering the audience is
kids, the childish part is about right.
I’m not the biggest fan of stop motion animation, but it
works here. (Although I do have to wonder why we got a flashback to
Rudolph’s story as hand drawn animation. Why not just reuse the
stuff from the Rudolph special?) It feels a bit dated and low
budget, but I did enjoy it.
Speaking of dated, they make a point of welcoming in year
19Happy at the end. I had to laugh as we are currently waiting for
2015 to come in. Yes, the special is 40 years old, but that
definitely dates it.
While little kids might enjoy Rudolph's Shiny New Year, older kids and adults definitely will
find it dated and slow. That’s too bad because some elements work,
but they are just stretched too thin.
I'm adult and me and the wife love to watch it every year. We have it on DVD so we don't have to find it on TV, it's a good movie!
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