Everything about Rankin Bass totally explained
Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. (formerly
Videocraft International, Ltd.) is an
American production company, known for its
seasonal television specials.
The company origins
The company was founded by
Arthur Rankin, Jr. and
Jules Bass in the early-
1960s as
Videocraft International. One of Videocraft's first projects was an independently produced series based on the character
Pinocchio. It was done using "Animagic", a
stop motion animation process using figurines (a process already pioneered by
George Pal's "Puppetoons" and
Art Clokey's
Gumby and
Davey and Goliath). This was followed by another independently produced series using more traditional cel animation and based on already established characters,
Tales of the Wizard of Oz in
1961.
In
1964, the company produced a special for
NBC and sponsor (and later owner of NBC)
General Electric. It was a stop-motion animated adaptation of the
Johnny Marks song
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (which had been made into a
Max Fleischer traditional animated short almost two decades before). With narrator
Burl Ives in the role of Sam the Snowman, along with an original orchestral score composed by Marks himself,
Rudolph became one of the most popular and longest-running
Christmas specials in television history: it remained with
NBC until around
1972, and currently runs annually on
CBS. The special contained seven original songs, however Genaral Electric had one additional song, "Fame And Fortune" added in
1965.
More holiday tales
Rudolph was followed by two
Thanksgiving specials,
The Cricket on the Hearth (narrated by
Danny Thomas), and
Mouse on the Mayflower (told by
Tennessee Ernie Ford). Videocraft also tackled
Halloween with the cult favorite
Mad Monster Party, (
1969) featuring one of the last performances of
Boris Karloff.
Videocraft also continued to produce programs themed for the Christmas holidays. Many of their specials, like
Rudolph, were based on popular Christmas songs. In
1968,
Greer Garson's dramatic narration carried through
The Little Drummer Boy, set against the birth of the baby
Jesus. Also in 1968, Videocraft, which carried Rankin and Bass's production credits as part of its closing logo until then (see "The company origins" section above), became Rankin/Bass Productions and adopted a new logo, although they retained a Videocraft byline in the new closing logo credit until 1971.
The following year (
1969),
Jimmy Durante sung and told the story of
Frosty the Snowman, with
Jackie Vernon voicing the title character of a snowman magically brought to life.
1970 brought another famous Christmas special,
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town. Rankin/Bass was able to enlist
Fred Astaire as narrator S.D. (Special Delivery) Kruger, a mailman answering the many questions about
Santa Claus (and in turn, telling his origin). The story revolved around a young
Kris Kringle (voiced by
Mickey Rooney) and the
Burgermeister Meisterburger (voiced by
Paul Frees). Kringle later marries the town's schoolteacher, Miss Jessica (voiced by
Robie Lester).
In
1971 Rankin/Bass produced the
Easter special
Here Comes Peter Cottontail, with the voices of narrator
Danny Kaye,
Vincent Price, and
Casey Kasem (as the title character). It was based not on the title song, but on a 1957 novel by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich entitled
The Easter Bunny That Overslept. In 1977
Fred Astaire returned as mailman narrator Kruger in
The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town and tells the tale of the Easter Bunny's origins.
In 1974, Rankin/Bass produced still another popular Christmas special,
The Year Without a Santa Claus, which featured
Shirley Booth (voicing narrator Mrs. Claus),
Mickey Rooney (returning as the voice of Santa Claus, which he'd performed previously in
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, of which this special is a semi-sequel), and supporting characters
Snow Miser and
Heat Miser. The Miser Brothers are unusual fictional characters in the annals of television; several of their fans have devoted entire websites to them. It was
remade as a
live action TV movie shown on
NBC in
2006 starring
Delta Burke and
John Goodman as Mrs. Claus and Santa.
Throughout the 1970s, Rankin/Bass continued to produce animated sequels to its classic specials, including the teaming of Rudolph and Frosty in
1979's
Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, with the voice of
Ethel Merman as the ringmistress of a seaside circus, and Rooney again returning as Santa. The special features cameos by characters from several other Rankin-Bass holiday specials, including Big Ben from
Rudolph's Shiny New Year and
Jack Frost. Jack appeared in
his own special later that year;
Jack Frost, narrated by
Buddy Hackett, tells the story of the
winter sprite's love for a mortal woman menaced by an evil
Cossack.
Among Rankin/Bass's original specials was
1975's, featuring the voice of
Angela Lansbury as the narrating and singing nun, and the Irving Berlin Christmas classic
White Christmas. Though only a half-hour long (as opposed to the standard hour time slot), it was critically acclaimed, telling the story of a blind shepherd boy who longs to experience Christmas.
Their final stop-motion style Christmas story was "
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus", taken from the
L. Frank Baum story of the same name and released in 1985. In this story, the Great Ak summons a council of the Immortals to bestow upon a dying Claus the Mantle of Immortality. To make his case, the Great Ak tells Claus's life story, from his discovery as a foundling in the magical forest and his raising by Immortals, through his education by the Great Ak in the harsh realities of the human world and his acceptance of his destiny to struggle to bring joy to children. To date, this special hasn't been released on
DVD, but is shown every December on
ABC Family (formerly Fox Family Channel) as part of the channel's "25 Days of Christmas," in which they feature various Christmas themed shows.
Many of these specials are still shown seasonally on American TV, and some have been released to video and DVD. Rankin/Bass stop-motion features are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts, and ubiquitous powdery snow. Often, traditional
cel animation scenes of falling snow would be projected over top of the action to create the effect of a snowfall.
Rankin/Bass's non-holiday output
Throughout the decade of the
1960s, Videocraft produced other
stop motion and
traditional animation specials and films, some of which were non-holiday stories. For example,
1965 produced Rankin/Bass's first theatrical film,
Willy McBean and his Magic Machine, the first of four films produced in association with Joseph E. Levine's
Embassy Pictures.
1966 brought to life
The Ballad of Smokey the Bear (narrated by
James Cagney), the story of the famous forest fire-fighting animal seen in numerous public service announcements.
In
1972 and
1973, Rankin/Bass produced four animated TV-movies for
The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie:
The Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters,
Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid,
The Red Baron, and
That Girl in Wonderland.
In
1977, Rankin/Bass produced
an animated version of
J. R. R. Tolkien's
The Hobbit. It was followed in
1980 by an
animated version of
The Return of the King, the final volume of Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings. (The animation rights to the first two volumes were held by
Saul Zaentz, producer of
Ralph Bakshi's animated adaptation
The Lord of the Rings.) Other books adapted include
The Last Unicorn by
Peter S. Beagle and Peter Dickens' "
The Flight of Dragons".
In the 1970s, Rankin-Bass' Saturday-morning output included animated adventures of
The Jackson 5ive (TV series)(Co-Produced with Motown Productions) and
The Osmonds).
Rankin/Bass also produced the popular
cartoon series,
ThunderCats (
1985), a cartoon and related toy-line about battling cat-like people in a post-apocalyptic future. It was followed by two similar cartoons about animal-like people,
Silverhawks (
1986), and
Tigersharks (as part of the series
The Comic Strip in
1987) which never enjoyed the same commercial success.
Rankin/Bass also attempted live-action productions, such as
1967's sequel
King Kong Escapes, the
1976 telefilm
The Last Dinosaur, and the
1978 made-for-TV movie
The Bermuda Depths.
Rankin/Bass's talent
In addition to the 'name' talent that provided the narration for the specials, Rankin/Bass had its own company of voice actors. For the studio's early work, this group was based in
Toronto, Ontario, where recording was supervised by veteran
CBC announcer
Bernard Cowan. This group included actors such as
Paul Soles,
Larry D. Mann, and
Paul Kligman.
Later, the most notable voice was
Paul Frees, who provided the voices for, among many others, the three wise men (
The Little Drummer Boy), Burgermeister Meisterburger (
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town), the traffic cop (
Frosty The Snowman), Jack Frost (
Frosty's Winter Wonderland), and even Santa Claus himself (
Frosty The Snowman). Other Rankin/Bass voice actors have included
Robie Lester,
Linda Gary,
Mickey Rooney,
Morey Amsterdam,
Marlo Thomas,
Angela Lansbury,
June Foray,
Don Messick and
Shelley Winters. Outside of the holiday specials,
Larry Kenney had been with Rankin/Bass for years, doing characters on
ThunderCats (notably as
Lion-O) and SilverHawks.
Maury Laws has served as musical director for almost all of the animated films.
Romeo Muller was another consistent contributor, serving as screenwriter for many of Rankin/Bass's best-known productions including
Rudolph,
The Little Drummer Boy, and
Frosty the Snowman.
Rankin/Bass' "
Animagic" stop-motion productions, as well as many of their animated productions, were animated in
Japan. Throughout the
1960s, the Animagic productions were headed by Japanese stop-motion animator
Tadahito Mochinaga.
Many of Rankin/Bass' traditionally cel-animated works were animated by the Japanese studio
Top Craft, which was formed in
1972 as an offshoot of the legendary studio
Toei Animation. Many Top Craft staffers, including the studio's founder
Toru Hara (who was credited in some of Rankin/Bass' specials), would go on to join
Studio Ghibli and work on
Hayao Miyazaki's feature films, including
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and
My Neighbor Totoro.
Rankin/Bass's library
The Rankin/Bass library is now in the hands of other companies. General Electric's
Tomorrow Entertainment acquired the original Videocraft International in 1971. The pre-1974 library (including the "classic four" Christmas specials) remained under the ownership of GE. In 1988,
Lorne Michaels' production company
Broadway Video acquired the rights to the pre-1974 Rankin/Bass television material from GE. In 1995, Broadway Video's children's division became
Golden Books Family Entertainment, and in turn became
Classic Media (which is where the rights stand today).
The Rankin/Bass feature film library (with the exception of
Rudolph and Frosty and
The Last Unicorn) is now owned by French production company
StudioCanal.
In 1978,
Telepictures Corporation acquired all of the post-1974 Rankin/Bass library. All Rankin/Bass material from 1974-1989 (except
The Last Unicorn) are now owned by
Warner Bros. (through the studio's 1988 acquisition of
Lorimar-Telepictures). In terms of DVD releases, however, only
Jack Frost (1979) is in the
public domain.
The Last Unicorn is owned by
Carlton/ITC.
Television rights to most of the Rankin/Bass library are held in the United States by
ABC and
ABC Family, with the exceptions of the original
Rudolph and
Frosty specials, which are held by
CBS.
Rankin/Bass today
After its last output in 1987 the Rankin/Bass production company became dormant, and for many years to come, no new holiday or non-holiday specials or theatrical films were produced. Arthur Rankin Jr. split his time between New York City, where the company still has its offices, and his summer retreat in Bermuda; similarly, Jules Bass commuted between New York and Paris.
In
1999, Rankin/Bass joined forces with James G. Robinson's
Morgan Creek Productions and
Nest Entertainment, creators of the animated trilogy
The Swan Princess, for the first (and only) animated adaptation of
Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical
The King and I, based on a treatment conceived by Rankin. Distributed by Warner Bros., the film flopped at the U.S. boxoffice; and many U.S. film critics took it to task for its depictions of "offensive ethnic stereotyping."
After amicably dissolving the Rankin/Bass partnership, Jules Bass became a
vegetarian; a decade later, he created Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon, the first children's book character developed specifically to explore moral issues related to vegetarianism. Herb's original story, along with a follow-up cookbook, became bestsellers for independent publishing house
Barefoot Books.
In
2001, the
Fox network aired Rankin/Bass's first new, original Christmas special in sixteen years,
Santa Baby! (like many past specials, based on a popular Christmas song), featuring voices by
Eartha Kitt and
Gregory Hines and featuring primarily
African-American characters, a change from its previous specials.
Many of Rankin/Bass' films are shown on
ABC Family during their December
25 Days of Christmas themed broadcast, though several are heavily edited with scenes shortened and entire songs removed.
Filmography
Feature films
Animated TV specials
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964, Burl Ives)
Return to Oz (1964)
The Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Show (1965)
The Ballad of Smokey the Bear (1966)
The Cricket on the Hearth (1967, Danny Thomas)
The Mouse on the Mayflower (1968, Tennessee Ernie Ford)
The Little Drummer Boy (1968, Greer Garson)
Frosty the Snowman (1969, Jimmy Durante)
The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians (1970)
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (1970, Fred Astaire)
Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971, Danny Kaye)
(1972)
Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (1972)
Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid (1972)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1972)
Red Baron (1972)
That Girl in Wonderland (1974)
'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974, Joel Grey)
The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974, Shirley Booth)
The First Christmas (1975, Angela Lansbury)
The First Easter Rabbit (1976, Burl Ives)
Frosty's Winter Wonderland (1976, Andy Griffith)
Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976, Red Skelton)
The Little Drummer Boy, Book II (1976, Greer Garson)
The Easter Bunny is Comin' To Town (1977, Fred Astaire)
The Hobbit (1977)
Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977, Roger Miller)
The Stingiest Man in Town (1978, Tom Bosley) - Animated by Top Craft, this special was also broadcast in Japan in 1978 under the title Machi Ichiban no Kechinbo (The Number One Miser of the City), directed by Katsuhisa Yamada. Because of this, some sources consider The Stingiest Man in Town to be anime (by the American definition of the word which refers exclusively to Japanese animation).
Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979, Ethel Merman)
Jack Frost (TV special) (1979, Buddy Hackett)
The Return of the King (1980)
Pinocchio's Christmas (1980)
The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold (1981, Art Carney)
The Coneheads (1983)
Wind in the Willows (1985)
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985)
The Flight of Dragons (1986)
Santa Baby! (2001, Patti LaBelle)
Animated series
The New Adventures of Pinocchio (1960)
Tales of the Wizard of Oz (1961)
The King Kong Show (1966)
The Smokey Bear Show (1969)
Tomfoolery (1970)
The Reluctant Dragon and Mr. Toad Show (1970)
The Jackson 5ive (1971)
The Osmonds (1972)
Kid Power (1972)
Festival of Family Classics (1972)
ThunderCats (1985)
SilverHawks (1986)
The Comic Strip (featuring TigerSharks, Street Frogs, Mini Monsters and Karate Kat) (1987)Further Information
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