The Everly brothers Christmas

Chris Colt

Season's Greetings!

Stink! Stank! Stunk! My thoughts on the new Christmas Rankin/Bass releases

     I have been the official Rankin/Bass Productions Historian/Biographer now for Thirty three years.  I have written six books on Rankin/Bass Productions and I am planning my 7th.  Producer Arthur Rankin, jr. was my biggest supporter and closest friend from the Rankin/Bass crew, but I worked with all of them including Jules Bass, Maury Laws, Paul Coker, Jr., Don Duga, Antony Peters, Gene Muller, etc.  They all shared their wonderful history and archives with me and left it in my care.  Those that know me, know that I like to focus on positive things and the good things in life, so I have avoided talking about these DVD and Blu Ray releases, since they began coming out in 2018.  Many people are now asking me what I think of the blu ray box set release that came out on Halloween 2023 (Appropriate day!  The Horror of it all!), so here goes!

     If you want my advice, I would say, save your money and wait until they release this material the correct way.  In fact, I suspect at some point these releases will be pulled from release (I will explain later).   There are so many things wrong with these releases, that I don't know where to begin.  In the past, Universal put out the syndicated, edited version of Here Comes Peter Cottontail on blu ray.  It was missing about eight minutes of the special and had edits all over the place.   I don't think they ever fixed it.  Then I picked up The Little Drummer Boy on blu ray to see if they ever found the 35mm negative.   Not only did they not find the 35mm negative, but there were fades to black right in the middle of scenes.   Strike two.

    This past September I decided to pick up the 4k Blu Ray set of Rankin/Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus Is Comin' to town.  The first thing I noticed, was that it looked like they didn't go back to the negatives on these.   I think they call this upscaling to a new format.   Maybe I am missing something, but I did not see an improvement.  Nor did I hear an improvement, as Rudolph and Frosty and even Santa, still have sound warbles in the music.  There are also sound effects missing (ala Rankin/Bass' The Hobbit), most notably Topper's sigh after Kris names the penguin Topper (He was changed to Waddles from 1979-1981).  Aaron's drum sound effects are still missing in The Little Drummer Boy too.  In fact, there are many sound effects missing from all of the specials.  Years ago I interviewed Rankin/Bass' sound guy, Phil Kaye about these effects.   Phil and Jim Harris handled most of the sound effects, which were recorded on a separate track.

    I looked for value in the extras and I found none at all.  In 2008 WARNER BROS and Sparkhill asked me to round up people who worked for or with Arthur and Jules for the documentary "We are Santa's Elves."  I rounded up Seven people including Producer Arthur Rankin, Jr. and myself.   It was used on the blu ray of The Year Without a Santa Claus and the DVD set of their Christmas classics.   For the documentary used on all of these blu ray and dvd releases, they got a total of zero people that worked for or with Rankin/Bass Productions (Or that really even knew them).  As the Rankin/Bass Productions historian/biographer, I really couldn't identify most of the people in it!  But the biggest shock of all, was seeing several of my copyrighted photographs (right out of my first four books) used without my knowledge or permission, along with a video clip that was transferred and paid for by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and myself, from the Rankin/Bass archives.  I have worked with many companies over the years including Weigel Broadcasting (Collector's Call), Warner Bros, Studio Canal, Anchor Bay, Lionsgate and most recently Umbrella Entertainment on the finest Rankin/Bass Productions blu ray to date, Mad Monster Party.  None of these companies would use any of my copyrighted photographs, without a signed release. In Fact, Dreamworks licensed three of my behind-the-scenes Rankin/Bass photographs for Rudolph's 50th in 2014! This was not "Fair use" and I just pulled the receipt for Universal Pictures, of a purchase by the party behind this, who bought my first four books from our website www.miserbros.com.  I believe these products will be pulled.

    The documentary I believe called Restoring the puppets Santa and Rudolph, did not age well.  It is on the Rudolph disc and features my good friends from Screen-Novelties, Seamus and Robin Walsh and Mark Caballero.  When I connected them with my friend Kevin Kriess (Who bought the Rudolph and Santa Animagic figures) in 2006, we all thought these were the "Screen used" puppets.   In fact, we thought this for several years after.  It wasn't until I wrote my book in 2018 called The Making of Santa Claus Is Comin' to town and The Daydreamer (Miser Bros Press), that I discovered otherwise.  If you study the Tad Mochinaga exhibit photos in my book of Santa Claus, you will see his beard was shaped differently and has the lines for movement, that the Santa in the Animagic has.  The Santa and Rudolph Animagic figures that were brought to New York were used for the Publicity photographs and then later put in a display cabinet at NBC in the Rockefeller Plaza.   Many people saw this display on school field trips, but I have yet to find a photograph.  For more on this topic, read my article on the ReMind Magazine website titled, "Is the mystery of Rankin/Bass Rudolph puppets solved?"  

    There is another doc on the Rudolph disc titled Reimagining Rudolph in 4D?   My question is why?  Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass Produced the perfect holiday special in Animagic.  Writer Romeo Muller and Designer Antony Peters created all of the wonderful characters that surrounded Rudolph.  It doesn't get any better than this, even with new technology.   I hate to say it, but this new stuff looked so bad, I had to fast forward through the whole thing.  It made me ill.  I know new animators want to work on things that inspired them to become animators, but reimagining a classic is the wrong way to go!   Create something new and original!  I will take Rankin/Bass' Animagic over 4D any day!

     The BEST releases to date of the Rankin/Bass Christmas classics still remains the Golden Books dvds from 2000.   The ones that have the CBS logo and ABC Family logo on the front covers.   I supplied the copyrighted image of Rudolph on the Rudolph cover, and Producer Arthur Rankin, Jr. did introductions for the Rudolph and Frosty dvds as a favor to me.   The introductions feature my first book on the table next to him, and include my copyrighted photographs during the introductions.  The Rudolph dvd even has the "Fame and Fortune" segment (Which was broadcast on NBC and CBS from 1965-1998) and a vintage Rudolph NBC Promo/commercial.   When the name Rankin/Bass was removed from the dvd front covers in 2003, Arthur made a phone call (When I was there in his New York Penthouse) and said take my introductions off the dvds.  It was contractual.  Since that time, it has been all downhill for Rankin/Bass Christmas blu rays and dvds.  Arthur would be very angry about these new releases too!   I am hopeful that one day the Rankin/Bass Christmas classics will get the treatment they deserve.  As I have mentioned before, I have the 1964 original ending to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in color, among many other things.   These TV Specials are part of Americana and deserve The Wizard of Oz Treatment, not the same cheap cash grab that we keep getting.  Elon Musk said it better than I could.

 

 

Coming in May, 2023 from Umbrella!

Here is a comparison between the old and new master for the blu ray release of Rankin/Bass' Mad Monster Party!  You can watch the film in it's original 1.85:1 format or 1.33:1 previously released version. We also fixed the missing Francesca's "yeah!" at the end of the film.  All previous dvd and blu ray releases were missing the "Yeah!" The new blu ray comes out in May 2023, but you can Pre-Order the full package now! #Rankinbassproductions #Madmonsterparty

 

Season's Greetings

 I am getting calls from old friends about my article on The Little Drummer boy in RetroFan Magazine!   I appreciate your kind words.  I have also received calls from friends I haven't heard from in the while saying "What the F!?" about the new dvds and blu rays.   Apparently the extra content had very little value whatsoever.   I am told there are many talking heads, that had no connection to Rankin/Bass what-so-ever, offering nothing about the history of Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass.  That is very sad to me.  I worked with both over thirty years and have a deep archives that would have been a far greater value than the sub-standard stuff that is out there.  Maury Laws always said to me, "Onward and Upward!"  Sales have been tremendous this holiday season, even in this deep recession.   People want to escape to when times were good!  I am so glad to be a part of the Rankin/Bass History!  I am glad I can make people's lives a little brighter.

Great cast with George!

Watching Lawman..

Wow, 65 years ago now! I always remember September 30th and the great weekend Josh and I spent on the Winslow farm with our friend Marky. #Jamesdean #remembered

from my pal Mark!

I picked up the blu ray for this and watched this past week....

I have been watching a ton of A & C lately!   They just announced that SHOUT FACTORY is re-releasing the box set on Blu Ray this year.  I really wanted to watch this again (Although the Laser Disc release from years ago was better and included the Promotional ads and record in the bonus features).  It was still great to see again.   I always liked the songs and the way they portrayed the giant.  I recently learned they used sets from the Joan of Arc film.

I have the one-sheet and one of the best lobby cards with Lou and the Giant!

Edd 2018

 

Edd was huge as Kookie, but he almost landed the job that Pat S. has had all of these years on WHEEL OF FORTUNE! 

Rankin/Bass' The Flight of Dragons hits Blu Ray!

http://www.wbshop.The Flight of Dragons Blu Ray available here!

Abeaabea That's all folks!

Hanna-Barbera's The Atom Ant Show is coming to dvd soon!

This cover art is Absolutely PUTRID!

Great Animation should be represented with great art that represents the cartoons that are in the set. This is Absolutely awful art and packaging! Who is minding the store?
Reminds me of the awful art they use at SIX FLAGS GREAT AMERICA!

Around town Burbank, CA

NEW series in 2011....

I have heard talk of a new series or movie of the classic RANKIN/BASS series THUNDERCATS for a very long time. I guess this is what WARNER BROS came up with and it will air on CARTOON NETWORK in 2011. I am not going to comment on the series. All I have to say is, I hope WB pays Arthur Rankin, Jr. what they owe him and the rest of the creators in the original series.

SUPER FRIENDS

They finally came out with the only season of SUPER FRIENDS I even care about...the first season (1973) BUT WB issued it as a volume 1 (half set) to get more money for the complete season with a vol. 2 at a later date. Full series seasons don't typically cost $50. The packaging looks like it was designed and approved by people that have never even seen the series or are familiar with it at all. While I am glad they have finally released this version, you have to scratch your head and think why they did not use the group shot that Alex Toth (Designer of the series) did (Below)???? If they were not going to use that, they could have used my friend Alex Ross' recreation he did a few years back. Toth's art does include all of the cast members including Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog. Also, TRIVIA CHALLENGE is NOT a BONUS FEATURE :)

Posted by Thomas Frederick

THUNDERCATS the movie press information!

NO "MERRY" FOR THIS CHRISTMAS ICON



Arthur Rankin, Jr., creator of such holiday TV classics as RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, FROSTY THE SNOWMAN, THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS, THUNDERCATS and THE HOBBIT is dealing with a BURGERMEISTER MEISTERBURGER in the form of WARNER BROS. It seems that WARNER BROS. had underpaid RANKIN/BASS in various ways, including 19 years of impermissible $200,000 annual deductions from the pool of revenues from which Rankin's profit participation is paid.


"It was an accounting mistake on WARNER BROS., part, a mistake that the company's accountants readily admit, right down to the penny," said Rankin. "However, WARNER BROS. is now claiming I caught their error too late. So instead of doing the right thing and fairly compensating RANKIN/BASS for helping generate years of viewer enjoyment, not to mention an awful lot of revenue,WARNER BROS.is hiding behind the statute of limitations."



The dispute dates back to the 1980's, when WARNER BROS. acquired from RANKIN/BASS, the rights to several of the RANKIN/BASS Christmas classics and other animated properties, including the enormously popular 1980's animated television series THUNDERCATS and SILVERHAWKS. The recent WARNER BROS. home video DVD box set releases of THUNDERCATS sold over a million DVDs and they are getting ready to release SILVERHAWKS. Mr. Rankin even graciously appeared on Set #2 of THUNDERCATS in a documentary and did the same for the WARNER BROS. Deluxe DVD release of THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS (Which is also available in a new box set).



"This is obviously not the right thing to do to a creator of such wonderful programming and the rest of his staff," says Rick Goldschmidt RANKIN/BASS Historian/Biographer. "As in all RANKIN/BASS specials, writer Romeo Muller would reform the villains. This villain needs to be reformed."



"As far as I am concerned," continues Rankin, "There is no question as to what is right and what is wrong. If you take something by mistake, you put it back. You don't get to keep it. We put those kinds of ethics into our shows for children. Maybe the folks at WARNER BROS. should watch a few of them."
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When the feature film gets released...you can bet this will be part of the press/promotion!