The Complete Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Complete Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Silver, gold, and a few misfits.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III December 6, 2023

In a rare display of peace on Earth and good will to all, Universal and Warner Bros. have teamed up for The Complete Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection, yet another set with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, and a bunch of other movies. It's essentially an A/V upgrade for last year's DVD collection and marks the first time that more than half of these holiday shorts have been issued on Blu-ray. A well-intentioned effort in thankfully compact packaging, The Complete Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection has a few not-quites and nitpicks but is currently as close as we've ever gotten to a definitive all-in-one home video effort... for now, at least.

The Complete Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection presents all 18 holiday shorts on five dual-layered discs... and stays true to its title, skipping non-December fare like The First Easter Rabbit. They're presented chronologically from 1964-1985, with the only notable omission being the 2001 special Santa, Baby!, which doubled as Rankin/Bass' final TV production after their animation department was liquidated in 2000 and is the only one not owned by either Universal or Warners. Below is a list of all 18 included specials in chronological order, along with short synopses for each one. Please note that the first seven have already been released on Blu-ray, so they point to earlier reviews.

DISC ONE (Universal)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - The one that started it all, this beloved 1964 Christmas staple was previously reviewed by Kenneth Brown as part of Classic Media's The Original Christmas Classics Blu-ray gift set.

Cricket on the Hearth - Perhaps a bit of a sophomore slump, this hand-drawn 1967 special was covered in Jeffrey Kauffman's review of Classic Media's The Original Christmas Classics Anniversary Collector's Edition boxed set.

The Little Drummer Boy - An underrated 1968 stop-motion effort with several memorable songs, this one might be most famous for its questionable video quality (which sadly still hasn't been rectified, but more on that later) and was also included on Classic Media's The Original Christmas Classics Anniversary Collector's Edition.

DISC TWO (Universal)

Frosty the Snowman - A solid A-lister with colorful hand-drawn animation, this short but fun 1969 animated special was another one included on Classic Media's The Original Christmas Classics Blu-ray gift set.

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town - An underdog among "the big three" and one I somehow never saw as a kid, this charming 1970 production was likewise part of Classic Media's The Original Christmas Classics.

DISC THREE (Warner Bros.)

'Twas the Night Before Christmas - This hand-drawn 1974 special is deceptively deep, despite its shorter running time, and was covered previously by Marty Liebman in his recent review of WB's 2011 Blu-ray.

The Year Without a Santa Claus - A well-regarded entry despite not being in "the big three", this 1974 production was unfortunately kinda roasted by Kenneth Brown in his review of WB's 2010 Blu-ray. Maybe he saw it on a bad day -- it's full of the same R/B charm as other stop-motion specials and features some of their best animation.

The First Christmas* - Subtitled "The Story of the First Christmas Snow", this is the first of The Complete Rankin/ Bass Christmas Collection's semi-deep cuts and, in my opinion, it's mostly overlooked for very good reason. Despite capable narration from Angela Lansbury and a few cute critters, this 1975 special -- which depicts the fictional origins of the first "white Christmas" -- is much heavier on sentiment than plot and for die-hard fans only.

Frosty's Winter Wonderland* - A minor entry, but a decently fun sequel nonetheless -- and leagues better than 1993's Frosty Returns, which was not a Rankin/Bass production -- this hand-drawn 1976 special features many of the same creative talents as the original and concerns Frosty's upcoming wedding officiated by Parson Brown.

Rudolph's Shiny New Year* - Another one that hit "the sequel button", this 1976 follow-up details an important mission from Father Time that requires Rudolph and a few friends to travel through history and find Happy, the New Year's Baby before midnight... or it'll be December 31st forever. The ham industry would be devastated.

* - Indicates a title new to Blu-ray

DISC FOUR (Warner Bros.)

The Little Drummer Boy: Book II* - Geez, another sequel? This little-seen 1976 production is a much bigger step down from its predecessor than the other two. It reunites Aaron with his animal friends and new teammate Melchior, one of the Magi, to protect silver bells from Roman soldiers... but a dull plot and bad animation kill this one.

Nestor, The Long-Earned Christmas Donkey* - Essentially a spiritual take on Rudolph, this depressing 1977 special depicts its title character as a perpetually abused victim who finally finds acceptance in Bethlehem. Pass.

The Stingiest Man in Town* - A 1978 animated quasi-remake of the live-action musical starring Basil Rathbone, Martyn Green, and Vic Damone, this take on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol follows the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge via the cute li'l insect B.A.H. Humbug, Esq. and features voice acting by the likes of Tom Bosley, Walther Matthau, his son Charles, and Rankin/Bass mainstay Paul Frees. Fun fact: this was just one of several R/B productions animated by Topcraft, a Japanese studio with several artists that would later form the core of Studio Ghlibli.

Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July* - The only film-length special in the bunch (and the final Rankin/Bass project to feature Rudolph and Frosty), this 1979 made-for-TV movie features a slew of familiar R/B characters, many voiced by the original actors. Most of them team up to battle Winterbolt, a re-awakened snow wizard who hopes the take over the North Pole. The plot is full of oddball detours, the atmosphere is occasionally creepy as hell, and it's waaay more complicated than it needs to be, but you should watch this unofficial send-off at least once.

DISC FIVE (Warner Bros.)

Jack Frost* - Perhaps the best of the studio's late-period output, this underrated 1979 special -- which, for some reason, is given a barely-solid Groundhog Day theme -- concerns the title character, who falls in love with a human girl named Elisa and, with the help of Father Winter, gives up his powers to be with her. The catch? He has to get a horse, a bag of gold, and a wife by the first sign of Spring, all while keeping Elsa safe from the evil Cossack king, Kubla Kraus. Fun fact: this is one of two Rankin/Bass specials with voice work by the late Robert Morse of Mad Men fame.

Pinocchio's Christmas* - An animated adaptation of Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, this 1980 special begins with a "Gift of the Magi" plot and kinda-sorta expands on the studio's pre-Rudolph 1961 TV series The New Adventures of Pinocchio, which was based on the same book. Despite good intentions, the end product is kind of underwhelming with less charm than expected, and the holiday connection is actually pretty minimal.

The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold* - Narrated and sung by Art Carney, this lesser-known 1981 short follows cabin boy Dinty Doyle, who's tasked by his captain to retrieve a pine tree from an uncharted island. Turns out the island is full of Leprechauns, so he helps them protect their gold from greedy Mag the Hag. It's a fairly light-hearted tale of loyalty and friendship; nothing ground-breaking, but accessible enough with a few enjoyable sea shanties.

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus* - Based on the 1902 children's book by L. Frank Baum, this 1985 special was the last stop-motion production by Rankin/Bass and it has the look and a feel of a studio hanging on for dear life. It's more than a little clunky and overcomplicated, and doesn't hold a candle to Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Fun fact: several writers and voice actors were borrowed from ThunderCats, which was a Rankin/Bass production along with more obscure Saturday morning fare like Silverhawks and The Comic Strip. Shout out to the Street Frogs!

* - Indicates a title new to Blu-ray

The Complete Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Surprise, surprise: what could have been a mish-mash of older masters and maybe even a few SD upscales turns out to be a fairly consistent A/V presentation across the board. The long and short of it is that all the included specials are presented in their original 1.33:1/1.37:1 aspect ratios and, for the most part, represent either a sidestep from previous Blu-ray editions or an upgrade of even older DVD releases. For obvious reasons, below are short, separate summaries for the combined Universal titles (Discs #1 and 2) and those owned by Warner Bros. (Discs 3-5).

All five Universal titles run the gamut for picture quality. "The big three" -- i.e. Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town -- look more or less identical to their Blu-ray counterparts from Universal's 2022 Classic Christmas Specials Collection, which were sourced from new 4K restorations. Cricket on the Hearth is sourced from a decent but somewhat scrubbed master created for the studio's 2019 Blu-ray. The lone outlier is The Little Drummer Boy, which looks as awful as ever and, like previous Blu-ray appearances, is reportedly sourced from extremely rough 16mm elements; reports vary on if a better source exists, but this is probably the best we'll get for awhile.

On the other hand, the WB-owned titles are quite a bit more consistent, neither reaching quite as high as Universal's three 4K masters nor as low as Drummer Boy. Firstly, both 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and The Year Without a Santa Claus appear to be the same as their Blu-ray counterparts, with overall good to very good image quality and a bit of visible but not distracting print damage. The remaining 11 -- from The First Christmas all the way to The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus -- look to be taken from recent scans of first-gen elements, all boasting fairly impressive textures and fine detail while retaining plenty of original grain. The trade-off is that minimal damage cleanup was done, so portions of these specials show a few more nicks and scratches than a more finely-tuned remaster. But I very much enjoyed how most of these looked overall -- certainly quite a bit better than the ancient DVD masters, and certainly preferable to an overly scrubbed image that might rob them of their unique hand-crafted appearance.

Disc encoding is generally good in both camps, with the WB discs showing perhaps a few more stray compression artifacts... which isn't all that surprising, given both their track record and the larger number of titles on each of those three discs. But overall, this is a decently satisfying set and certainly a few steps above "acceptable" under the circumstances. Perhaps more than usual, these 40 screenshots -- three apiece for "the big three" and two for each of the others -- should offer a pretty accurate representation of what these 18 specials look like.

The Complete Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio lineup is similarly straightforward, and again for sanity's sake I'm going to just provide short, separate summaries for the Universal titles (Discs #1 and 2) and those owned by Warner Bros. (Discs 3-5).

All five titles in the Universal group sound more or less identical to their previous Blu-ray/4K editions, with multiple audio options in some cases that also include a few foreign dubs. Both Rudolph and Frosty feature lossless 5.1 remixes as well as the original mono presented as a lossless 2.0 track, while Cricket on the Hearth and The Little Drummer Boy include lossless 2.0 only. The only outlier -- and if I'm being honest, the only sonic oversight in this collection -- is the lack of a 2.0 track for Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, which unfortunately only offers the kinda wonky 5.1 upmix as heard on previous Blu-ray/4K editions. In any case, they all sound consistently good with no major damage or sync issues, at least within the limitations of the source material's not-always-convincing mouth movements.

Warner Bros.' 13 titles are perhaps even more straightforward on the sonic front, with only the original broadcast mono mixes again presented in lossless 2.0. (The studio has long been on the wrong side of the audio fence in Blu-ray and 4K world, often including odd duplicate tracks, lossy audio formats, and surround mix-downs hastily passed off as "original audio", so it's good to see them making progress.) Again, these simple and era-specific tracks all sound uniformly good within the limitations of their source material with no major damage, drop-outs, or sync issues.

Optional subtitles (including English SDH) are included during all 18 specials and the extras listed below.

The Complete Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This five-disc release is snugly packed in a slightly wider-than-normal keepcase with multiple hinges that makes it a real space-saver. The cover art is attractive and character-driven (obviously focusing on the more popular titles) and duplicated on the matching embossed slipcase, while the interior design is a two-panel spread of titles, runtimes, and other technical details. Each disc also has a list of specials on it. Also tucked inside separately is a slightly oversized booklet with an intro essay by animation historian Jerry Beck, artwork, one-page summaries for each title, and a list of corresponding extras. A nice little touch, and something we sadly don't get very often any more.

As for the bonus features, they're limited to those found on Universal's 2022 Classic Christmas Specials Collection unless otherwise noted. Please note that the mostly kid-centric extras from Classic Media's The Original Christmas Classics are not included. Again for sanity's sake, I'll list each included extra and where they can be found.

DISC ONE

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

• Restoring the Puppets of Rudolph (3:40)

• Reimagining Rudolph in 4D (10:54)

• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Attraction Film (10:51)

• T.E.A.M. Rudolph and the Reindeer Games (13:45)

DISC TWO

Frosty the Snowman

• Audio Commentary with animation historian Mark Evanier

• The Animagic World of Rankin/Bass (47:00)

• Original Pencil Test (1:04)

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

• Audio Commentary with animation historian Greg Ehrbar

DISC THREE

Frosty's Winter Wonderland

• Frosty and the Story of the Snowman (9:24) - Featurette from WB's 2011 DVD

The Year Without a Santa Claus

• Stop Motion 101 (9:36) - from WB's 2010 Blu-ray

• We Are Santa's Elves (16:33) - from WB's 2010 Blu-ray

The Complete Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rankin/Bass Productions churned out non-stop TV specials during three decades and almost all of them can be found on The Complete Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection, a joint venture by Warner Bros. and Universal. It's a compact but fairly definitive HD release that sees strong A/V upgrades for 13 new-to-Blu titles -- many of them deep cuts -- and straight ports for others, including "the big three". Though not quite perfect for sometimes unavoidable reasons, this solid package will appeal to fans of this era of holiday entertainment. (Now, if WB would extend the same level of attention to their floundering Peanuts catalog, we'd really be getting somewhere.) Highly Recommended.