My thoughts...


Being as "The Year Without a Santa Claus" is my favorite Christmas Special/Rankin Bass film, I'll share my thoughts.

I was set to be disappointed and with that mentality, it was mildly okay.

Designs:

I don't know why they chose to make the designs so different than the originals - I mean, this WAS advertised as a sequel, but nonetheless some designs were good and some were bad:

The elves - I liked the old design better. These were too cute, too modern. The older elves had more variation and their hairstyles were comb-overs and such. They gave them a timeless look. Here, I saw a fro and lots of straight hair. Too 2008ish.

Santa - I liked the old design better. New ones beard was too curly Q.

Mrs. Claus - I liked the old design better. She looked more kind. The new one looks like a skeleton - an evil grandma.

Mother Nature - I like the new design better. The old was ugly, the new makes her look pretty as nature should be.

Miser Bros. - very similar in both. Can't complain. Only characters they got on model.

Mother Nature's Children - I love these kind of manifestation characters. Old Man River, etc. are from folklore and are different parts of nature in a physical existence. I enjoy these types of characters so it was fun to see that Mother Nature had a whole family of them comprising all aspects of weather. Except, North Wind looked too much like Lord Barkis of "Corpse Bride".

Songs:

Wow, these were terrible! They weren't songs so much as words painfully strung together. I don't know how they could be so dull, below average, and forgettable. Reprising The Snow/Heat Miser Songs just showed how bad it was. Here's a catchy, fun song, with production value bookended by crap.

Story:

Well, many people are bashing on it for being a sequel I guess I'm not opposed to it because Rankin/Bass themselves made sequels. This isn't like Disney sequels where Walt Disney once said he didn't see the need for sequels when there were new characters to explore. Is 'North Wind jealously injures Santa to claim Christmas for himself' (this movie) any stranger than 'Rudolph must set off on an adventure traversing various time periods to find the baby new year' (Rudolph's Shiny New Year)? Rankin/Bass had some questionable sequels themselves. So was it a lame story? Hm, maybe no worse than the originals - but was it necessary? No. Then again, sequels usually aren't.

It worked fine for what it was meant to do.

Some dialogue actually managed to be entertaining. I thought the remarks on Greenland/Iceland were particularly witty. As was the comments about global warming/a new ice age - although they immediately dated the film.

Overall feeling:

Why the Miser Brothers? The Miser Bros. were supporting cast in the original. Jingle and Jangle had bigger parts. The original was about believing in Santa and Christmas Spirit. How is it everyone forgets that and only remember two characters? The song is catchy but is it that catchy?

Like a Disney sequel. Weak songs, off-model characters, some decent bits of dialogue that are lost within a recycled story. If you go in expecting nothing, you'll find something to like. But if you go in expecting anything like the original, you'll hate it.

Certainly won't last like the original has, but kids should like it. I just hope they don't open up the Rankin/Bass library to do this again!






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I <3 Animation! The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,Nocturna,The Illusionist,Ponyo, Disney & Pixar

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