“You know Rudolph who guided and pulled Santa’s sleigh
And who saved Christmas by lighting the way.
But there’s more to tell…
Rudolph saved the New Year as well.”—Father Time’s opening narration
Rudolph’s Shiny New Year is a 1976 stop-motion animation special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions and a standalone sequel to the 1964 special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, that is often aired during the Christmas season, despite technically being a New Year’s special.
Plot[]
The story begins precisely where the original special left off, following Santa Claus’s return trip home from his annual flight around the world. Just as he begins to settle in, he receives a letter from his old friend, Father Time, who is in serious trouble—Happy, the Baby New Year, has gone missing, and if he is not found before midnight (“the 12th bong”) on New Year’s Eve, the new year can’t commence and December 31st will continue on forever. Santa summons Rudolph, since he is the only one who can make it through the thick fog and snowstorm currently happening outside, to reach Father Time’s castle, receive his mission and find the missing baby. To get to the castle, he must first cross a vast desert known as the Sands of Time.
Rudolph soon meets up with two agents of Father Time—General Ticker, a military clockwork soldier, and The Great Quarter Past Five, or Quart for short, a camel with a large clock in his hump. On the trek across the desert, they escape the dastardly clutches of Aeon the Terrible, an evil giant vulture who is also looking for Happy. Rudolph’s companions explain to him that Aeon is supposed to live for exactly one eon, after which he will turn into ice and snow upon his death. Because his eon will be up that New Year’s Eve, he plans to kidnap Happy to stop the new year from coming, thus extending his own lifespan and preventing his predestined death.
Upon their arrival at Father Time’s castle, located beneath a large, bright star in the sky, Rudolph is given details about the passage of time, and how crucial it is that he finds Happy so that he can be given the Crown of Time at the stroke of midnight on December 31st. Father Time explains that Happy took off when no one, including his nurse, Nanny Nine O’Clock, could look at his oversized war without laughing. His feelings hurt, Happy set his sights on the Archipelago of Last Years—a group of islands where the individual who once represented years passed retires and rules over an island styled to resemble the year over which they ruled when their year came to an end.
As Rudolph sets out on a raft to find Happy, he is attacked by Aeon on the ocean while en route to the Archipelago. Luckily, Big Ben, a sperm whale with a clock attached to his tail, rescues the ocean-bound reindeer. With his new bodyguard, Rudolph is transported across the ocean to his first stop: an island belonging to one of the oldest years in the Archipelago; a caveman named O.M. (short for One Million B.C.), which is anachronistically inhabited by friendly dinosaurs. O.M. tells Rudolph that Happy had been there not long ago. Unfortunately, after saving a baby Pterodactyl, who accidentally knocks his hat off and reveals his big ears, the same misfortune with ears occurred, and the laughter of the prehistoric creatures scared him off to another island.
O.M. accompanies Rudolph for two days on Big Ben. After other off-screen visits to the islands of 1893, 1492, 1965, and 4000 B.C., in which they have no luck finding Happy, the next island they visit the island of 1023 (pronounced “ten to three,” as in the time 2:50), belonging to an armored Scottish knight with a long, overgrown beard named Sir 1023. Instilled with a sense of duty, he joins them on their quest to seek out Happy. On their journey, the ask the island’s inhabitants (who are all characters from fairy tales and nursery rhymes) about Happy’s whereabouts.
Meanwhile, Happy happens upon a house in the woods. Hungry from his travels, he samples the porridge left behind by its residents, the Three Bears. After eating Baby Bear’s porridge and breaking the smallest of the three chairs, he falls asleep in Baby Bear’s bed, which is where the bear family him upon their return. Baby Bear, identifying with Happy, befriends him and they play make-believe. As they play, when Happy is forced to remove his hat and exposes his big ears to them, the bears all laugh. His feelings hurt once more, he crawls away into the forest despite Baby Bear begging him not to go.
When Rudolph, 1023 and O.M. spot Happy being flown away by Aeon, they rush to Big Ben and chase after the buzzard. Big Ben is able to knock Happy free from Aeon’s grasp with a spray of water from his blowhole, but a gust of wind carries the baby far off course and out of reach again. He ends up on the island of 1776, which reflects Colonial America and is ruled over by “Sev” (a.k.a. 1776), a kindly old man resembling Benjamin Franklin, who is out flying a kite just before the holiday festivities. On this island, the Fourth of July is celebrated, completed with a parade and a drum and fife corps. However, when the inhabitants drive Happy away by laughing at his ears once again, Rudolph just misses his chance to catch up with him. That night, Sev vows to help track the baby down after Rudolph explains everything to him. However, they soon discover that Happy has been taken away by Aeon again.
Happy is taken to Aeon’s lair on the Island of No-Name, a mountain of snow and ice said to be located “due north of the North Pole,” where the evil bird is holding him captive in his nest. Rudolph, Sev, 1023 and O.M. leave the Archipelago in pursuit and manage to catch up to Aeon. They try to climb the mountain and attempt to rescue Happy. Unfortunately, Aeon (who was awakened by the sound of O.M. slipping on a snowball) is alerted to their infiltration and thwarts them by causing an avalanche that tumbles down onto the group and encases them in four perfect snowballs. Managing to melt his way free using his nose, Rudolph climbs up to Aeon’s nest.
Once at the top, while Aeon is asleep, Rudolph finds Happy, who refuses to leave. Rudolph shows Happy his nose and tells him his own misfit story (depicted in a traditionally-animated flashback) and encourages him to overcome his disfigurement by asking him to let him see his ears. Happy does so, and Rudolph, like everyone else before him, laughs at the sight. Happy once again gets upset, but Rudolph explains that the sight of Happy’s ears had made him feel so wonderful that he had to laugh out loud, just like it had done with everyone else. With this declaration, Happy shout out with joy, which causes Aeon to wake up. Rudolph quickly tells Happy to take off his hat and leave off for good. At the sight of Happy’s large ears, Aeon bursts into uncontrollable laughter (laughing for the first time in his life) which sends him tumbling down the side of the mountain and also freeing O.M. 1023 and Sev from their snowballs. Rudolph figures that he is cured forever, as he realizes that Aeon is now so presently full warmth and happiness that it would be impossible for him to turn into ice and snow.
Unfortunately, Big Ben’s tail clock begins to strike midnight. Luckily for the heroes, Santa arrives and the gang returns to Father Time’s castle with Happy, just in time for Father Time to place him at the beginning of the new year (which is designated “nineteen-wonderful”). After the celebration, everyone wishes the viewers a happy new year, with Rudolph adding, “And may it be shiny, too!”
Archipelago of Last Years[]
Map of the Archipelago of Last Years
When the old year has been retired, they settle on an island in the Archipelago of Last Years where time remains still on that island. Among the islands of the Archipelago of Last Years are:
- 1,000,000 B.C. Island: Represented as a prehistoric, anachronistic island that consists of friendly dinosaurs, other prehistoric creatures, and cavepeople living together. One Million, also known as “O.M.” lives here.
- 4,000 B.C. Island: Rudolph mentions that its inhabitants wanted to only build pyramids. (This would be, in real life, approximately one millennium before the first Nile River valley pyramid, Adjib’s Tomb, was built).
- 1023 Island: Represented as a medieval island inhabited by fairy tale characters. Father Time states that the year of 1023 was when all the well-known fairy tales and nursery rhymes actually happened. Sir 1023, also known as “Ten-to-Three,” lives here.
- 1492 Island: Rudolph mentions that the people on that island were “too busy discovering things” to talk to Rudolph and O.M. The first voyage of Christopher Colombus took place that year.
- 1776 Island: Represented as a Colonial America island that celebrates American Independence Day on a daily basis. 1776, also known as “Sev,” lives here.
- 1893 Island: Rudolph mentions that the inhabitants have never heard of Happy. 1893 marked the beginning of a major economic depression in the Western Hemisphere, the Panic of 1893.
- 1965 Island: Rudolph stated that island was “too noisy” to search for Happy; “noisy” world events of 1965 included Beatlemania (and other British Invasion-related hysteria) as well as the growing opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War.
Songs[]
- “The Moving Finger Writes”
- “Turn Back the Years”
- “It’s Raining Sunshine”
- “What a Wonderful World We Live In”
- “The Fourth of July Parade”
- “Have A Little Faith In Me”
- “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
- “Have a Happy New Year”
Voice cast[]
- Red Skelton as Father Time (narrator), Baby Bear
- Billie Mae Richards as Rudolph
- Morey Amsterdam as One Million B.C.
- Red Skelton as Sir 1023, The Great Quarter Past Five (a.k.a. “Quart”)
- Paul Frees as Santa Claus, Aeon the Terrible, General Ticker, 1776, Humpty Dumpty
- Don Messick as Papa Bear, Rumpelstiltskin, Prince Charming, the Seven Dwarfs
- Harold Peary as Big Ben
- Red Skelton as Mama Bear, Happy, Nanny Nine O’Clock
External links[]
Rudolph's Shiny New Year on Dailymotion