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Oh, not this crap again.
It seems like every year someone has to post a video or an article or even shove lyrics into the Christmas classic Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer insisting our hero must tell the bullies what to do with themselves. Specifically, Callahan is focused on the classic Rankin-Bass version of the story, a Christmas special I have done my own review of here at BW Media Spotlight back when I still had time to make videos. It’s still one of my favorite Christmas specials. It’s not perfect. I even noted in my review that Santa’s grumpiness was out of character and young Rudolph seems to suffer from it among other things. Maybe this sets up The Year Without A Santa Claus or something?
I haven’t seen the Billy Joel documentary she talks about, but I was a bully victim myself, and psychological warfare was their tool at the time. For the record I actually get along with some of them now as they matured and became better people. Even Flash Thompson became Peter Parker’s friend eventually in the Spider-Man comics. Stephen King should have been so lucky given the bullies in his stories. I know in real life what Rudolph went through in fiction. I just hate the idea that Rudolph should have told them to fly off because he “suddenly became useful”. It’s a bad interpretation and once again I have to speak on it.
We are going to focus specifically on the 1964 television special, since that’s what Callahan called out. Like I said in my review, I don’t get why Santa was so grumpy throughout the special, and I called him out for how quickly he dismissed Rudolph earlier in the story simply because of his light-up nose. I didn’t even think about it until now, but the idea of a magical creature in Santa’s world shouldn’t be that big a surprise, but this is still early days in the Rankin-Bass Christmasverse. Living snowmen and animals with clocks in their bellies chasing the personification of the New Year to become immortal aren’t really ideas they had yet. Talking toys was probably the limit back then. I mean, Santa’s still a jerk in the story so the plot can happen, but he does show concern when Rudolph runs away and his parents can’t find him.
There is one big detail that she missed in her commentary, though. It wasn’t just “night” that was the problem. Santa’s had plenty of those…like since his mission to deliver toys to kids around the world began. It wasn’t even the “foggy Christmas eve” of the song and the storybook it’s based on. In the special, there’s a huge snowstorm that’s making it impossible to see. I’ve driven in snow before. It’s not fun. This was worse. Wind, visibility near zero, and probably the fog as well. There were reasons Santa was worried. He didn’t think he could safely see in all of that and would have to cancel his Christmas flight altogether. How you had a storm that big all over the world I don’t know, or maybe it was in an important part of his trip. It’s one of those things kids stories don’t think of because kids won’t care. “Storm bad enough to stop Christmas” is fine to minds who know little about the outside world because they’re kids and still learning. It fits kid logic.
So when Santa sees just how bright Rudolph’s nose can be, and it was bright enough to not only guide himself and his friends throughout their journey but attract the Bumble through most of it (dude’s got a one-track mind until his loses his teeth and realizes what a scumbag he had been), he realizes that it could break through the bad weather so he could see to make his rounds. By that point in the story everyone who had treated Rudolph badly apologized off-screen according to the narrator. We didn’t need the scene taking up the runtime of a special that already has deleted scenes. Reparations were made, Christmas forgiveness was achieved, and we moved on to solving how to deal with Santa’s possibly missing his first Christmas since he first put up with the Burgermeister Meisterburger. We see the events that led to Santa realizing that Rudolph actually had a superpower, maybe even a gift from God (we know God exists in this universe because it’s the reason Santa chose Christmas in the first place), that could help him through this and future Christmas days. Rudolph now leads the sleigh team, serving as navigator and the headlights.
However, someone always has to come along with their cynical “never forgive your bullies” or “they’re using Rudolph” takes on the story, whether it’s the song or the special. That’s not what we’re supposed to be about during Christmas time, right up to New Year and starting off fresh, free of past wrongs when repentance has come. Sorry, but you’re wrong. Rudolph’s response is the correct one. His journey gained him new friends in the form of the Island Of Misfit Toys and his traveling buddies Hermie the dentist elf and Yukon Cornelius. Nobody insists the Bumble, who TRIED TO EAT HIS FAMILY AND LOVE INTEREST AFTER CHASING HIM AROUND THE HOLIDAY WORLD AND THREATENING HIM AND HIS FRIENDS FOR NO GOOD REASON, should have been left at the bottom of the hill to die! He repents, makes friends with Yukon, and actually helps put the big star on the tall Christmas tree. Why are these people so willing to forgive the would-be murderer over a bunch of teasing kids who repent off-camera? Because we see the Bumble be nice? Nobody teases Rudolph the rest of the special, none of the other sleigh team, which includes Rudolph’s dad if you’ll recall, complains about the new kid at the lead of the pack. Everybody realised they went too far and said so and learn they misunderstood Rudolph’s nose was actually a gift. Do you want it in writing? Will that be ink or blood?
I’m just so tired of these cynical, un-Christmaslike takes on Rudolph’s story. It’s the story of a reindeer mocked for what they think is a deformity but learns is actually a superpower. The special has Rudolph grow into the reindeer version of a man through his travels after finding friends, confidence, and making a sacrifice to save the people he cares about, and is rewarded by everybody learning that he’s actually special, unlike so many modern day protagonists who are “already special” and just has to realize it. Rudolph has a character arc, becomes stronger in mind and body, while also having a good heart. I know that’s hard to believe in for some of the louder voices out there, but that’s the story, not the story of a victim who doesn’t get his revenge. He wins them over instead, and I know I would have been okay with that.
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