Product Details

• Actors: Peggy Cass, Bob McFadden, Ken Jennings, Gerry Matthews, Christine Mitchell
• Directors: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr.
• Format: Animated, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: December 21, 1993
• Run Time: 23 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302503817
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,933 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold Sent in search of a Christmas tree, cabin boy Dinty Doyl lands on a mysterious, uncharted Irish island where he accidentally releases a bad-tempered banshee from her pinetree prison. Leprechaun Blarney Kilakilarney knows that in order to survive, the banshee will try to swipe his clan's pot of Christmas gold. With some magical assistance from Lord Patrick, the king of the wee folk, Dinty and Blarney make a plan to outwit the gold-hungry hag before Christmas morning dawns. Art Carney and Peggy Cass supply voices for this delightful tall tale in the enchanting Animagic process.Year: 1981Director: Arthur Rankin, Jr., Jules BassStarring: Art Carney, Peggy Cass

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this holiday special, August 17, 2005

By 

microjoe - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This wonderful little film is a 30 minute "Rankin and Bass Productions Animagic" holiday special made for ABC television, first released on December 23, 1981. Rankin and Bass were the kings of the Holiday specials for TV for 3 decades with such incredible well-loved titles as Rudolph, the Drummer Boy, The Year Without a Santa Claus and many others. The story was written by Romeo Muller, with music by composer Maury Laws. The studio did a great job in creating a very charming leprechaun community filled with wonderful characters, that fits a little bit of Christmas in as well. The show is more about Ireland and leprechauns, so it may be easier to watch any time of year than most of their other holiday specials.

In the story there is an unknown island off the coast of Ireland, hidden from Man due to a magic fog. This magic place is the home of two clans of leprechauns, the gold mining clan led by Blarney Killakilarney (artfully voiced by Art Carney), and the Jiggers who are shoe cobblers. (Blarney's wife is voiced by Peggy Cass).

When a ship's cabin boy accidentally arrives on the island to cut a Christmas tree, he unwittingly releases an evil banshee who had been trapped in the tree by St. Patrick. This banshee wants the leprechaun's gold, but she must have it by Christmas Day or go back in the tree. The catch is can't take it by force, and this is where the element of trickery and beguile of many Irish folktales is revealed. She can only get the gold by tricking someone into giving it to her freely. But she can do it through trickery and impersonating others. In fact her deceit in the past has caused a rift between the two family clans, the gold miners and the shoe cobblers, despite the fact that the banshee was imprisoned again.

A big scene has the mining clan leprechauns are mining gold, hiding it underground, and using shamrocks to mark the spot, to the tune of a great song, "Golden Gold of Ireland". The scene really showcases the studio's ability to animate a large number of characters at one time in stop motion with many of the little people busy in motion everywhere and dancing. Another big scene shows the shoe cobbler clan at work along the same theme to the tune of another fun song "Killakilarney Shoes". They pulled all the stops out for these 2 difficult scenes and may have more simultaneous action than any Rankin Bass film that comes to mind. Oh, and you just have to see the leprechaun homes. The banshee makes a great villain. The characterization and warmth of the leprechaun characters really comes through in this special little show. Lots of magic, folk tale creatures and spirits, and an appearance by Saint Patrick make this a film not to miss.

You may remember the Rankin and Bass Studio as the folks that brought us such beautiful holiday classics such as Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Year without a Santa Claus, Nestor the Long Eared Donkey, Mad Monster Party, The Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is coming to Town, Mouse on the Mayflower, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town, Cricket on the Hearth, the Stingiest Man in Town, Jack Frost, Pinnochio's Christmas, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, the First Easter Bunny. They also made non-holiday films such as the Hobbit, Flight of Dragons, the Last Unicorn. It is incredible that one company is responsible for all those TV specials, 95% of the ones we see every year. Their work includes standard animation, stop-motion animagic, and live action. There is also a great book on the studio sold at Amazon called "The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass".

Fun at Christmas or any time of year. If you want to see a great film about leprechauns, in the animagic animation that is such a good way to view them, buy this today.

DVD: It is also sold on DVD as part of a box set titled, "Classic Christmas Favorites", released by Warner Brothers Studio. The set features 9 holiday shows from Rankin/Bass, plus "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", for a total of 10 specials. The other good news is it has two more rare previously unreleased to DVD specials, "The Stingiest Man in Town", and "Pinocchio's Christmas".

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bring on the DVD!!! Another Rankin/Bass Classic!!, December 19, 2007

By 

Captain "javaray" (Texas) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I will not go into detail on the show itself as others have already done so. I will say that this is a Rankin/Bass classic (with Art Carney from the Honeymooners!) that deserves to be given the DVD treatment. It's a holday show so profits for Classic Media should not be a problem. (There are a lot of Irish fans out there).

If you would like to see this put on DVD, click yes to the reveiw being "helpful" to send a message that we want this on DVD.

UPDATE: A new WB Box set is out: Classic Christmas Favorites (Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! / The Year Without a Santa Claus / Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July / Rudolph's Shiny New Year / and More) (2008).
It is the same as last year's except that Leprechaun's Christmas and Pinocchio's Christmas, along with a traditional animation of Stingest man in town has been added!! Also, Jack Frost just got released as a seperate DVD!

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another magical film by Romeo Muller!, December 4, 1999

By 

George Zadorozny (Oldsmar, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold" tells a delightful story of two clans of leprechauns, a witch who desperately wants their secret gold, and a lost ship's cabin boy who stumbles into their little, enchanted world. The great Art Carney provides the Irish-brogue voice of the chief leprechaun, Blarney Kilakilarney. It's another magical film by the incomparable Romeo Muller, who also wrote the classic Animagic, Rankin/Bass Christmas films "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" and "Frosty the Snowman," among many other fantastic films.