Customer Reviews

Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

If you are a Rankin-Bass fanatic like me, you will want to add this video to your holiday viewing schedule. While it's not perfect, the enjoyable parts outweigh the flaws. It's wonderful to see old friends like Rudolph, Frosty, Crystal (along with their two snow children), Big Ben, Jack Frost, and others all reunited. Winterbolt and his crew are without a doub the most scary of all Christmas villains and lend a chilling element to the story that adults will love, but which may be a bit too much for children. Though I do agree that it would have been even better to see Clarice, Hermie, and Yukon again too, the characters who DO appear are wonderful. I think you'll enjoy this one.

I have more to say about it at DVDtoons.com, but here's the short of it: It does run a little long, and could have certainly used some editing, but this movie is fun and rates well against the R-B TV specials. Anyone who thinks this movie is too confusing could not have been paying much attention, and I also would not say it's scary--- my 3-year old loved it (of course, it will depend on your own child's "scare threshhold"). Personally, I enjoyed the "origin" of Rudolph, found the new mythology of the characters charming, and thought Winterbolt to be a great villain. The movie gets a 7/10 from me, although the video quality could have been a little better on the disc. The lack of extras was disappointing too.

I just purchased this DVD and I must say I am greatly disappointed!
The audio is not in sync!!!
The audio is ahead of the video by 1 to 2 seconds.
I just can't imagine how this could happen with a Warner Brothers release.
Being a huge Rankin and Bass fan this was an utter let down.

I hope this error is corrected and Warner Brothers offers some sort of exchange.

I have always wanted to find this item on DVD... and this past x-mas I did! As a prior review stated, the sound is a bit out of sync, but... I am a fan of Ethel Merman, and it is a kick to hear her sing about 4 to 5 songs... the price was nice, and it brings back good memories. It's just fun stuff, and new kids should be introduced to items which are truly classics, without all the high tech stuff!!

A fan of the Christmas classics as well, I feel that this sequel works quite well with the other films. Is it long? Perhaps. Is it scary? Not really. It does get dramatic just as much as it is cheerful. We get to see the Origin of Rudolph's Nose as well as Frosty's Hat.

In the spirit of Christmas, this film is well worth it. In July? Absolutely, especially when the winter temperatures seem to be gone forever and you begin to reminisce about winter and such.

Overall, this film grows on you, just because if you saw it as a child, you have a personal bond with it.

I guess the highlight of this feature film is that we finally get to see Frosty the Snowman in Rankin/Bass's trademark stop-motion puppet-animation process, Animagic! Now, don't get me wrong, the original TV specials "Frosty the Snowman" and the sequel "Frosty's Winter Wonderland" were great but I think we all wish that they were done in puppet-animation like Rudolph, Jack Frost and Santa Claus. Unfortunately, that may be one of the only highlights of this film.

At a running time of over 95 minutes, there is very little to keep the story rolling. There is also an over abundance of non-sensical plot twists and flashbacks that even I found confusing, let alone the children this movie was targeted for. And unless your child is a fan of showtunes (and c'mon what child isn't?), then the songs which appear every few minutes will most likely bore them.

The plot concerns the evil King Winterbolt who was put into a long deep sleep by the magical Lady Boreal. Upon awakening, he finds there is a new king of the North Pole named Santa Claus, and decides to make him get lost in a blizzard courtesy of his snow-breathing dragons so that he may once again rule the North Pole with his evil ways. The only problem is Rudolph's nose, which he decides must be extinguished for his plans to be carried out. In one of the many flashback sequences we learn that Rudolph's shiny red nose which came from the magic of Lady Boreal, will go out if it is ever used for bad purposes, even once.

King Winterbolt decides to offer Frosty and his family magic emulets that will allow them to visit the great 4th of July Circus by the Sea without melting, but only until the "Final Fireworks Fade on the Fourth". Santa Claus agrees to pick them all up when the fireworks end and whisk them back to the North Pole before Frosty and his wife and two children are turned into puddles of water.

But, Winterbolt's snow breathing dragons whisk up a storm to keep Santa and Mrs. Claus from reaching the circus in time. Meanwhile, Winterbolt gets some help from a mean-spirited reindeer named Scratcher, and the two decide to use their sneaky ways to blackmail Rudolph into using his nose for bad.

If this seems confusing, imagine actually watching this film or better yet, imagine a child watching this film! Like many of R/B's later efforts, this one is rooted more in the magic and mystical style of "Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" than the fairytale-ish style of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

There are some crazy songs which I found very amusing, like "Don't Let The Parade Pass You By" which is sung by Ethel Merman in her crazy style. There are also some special guest stars including Jack Frost from "Jack Frost" and Big Ben the whale from "Rudolph's Shiny New Year". In fact, there are a lot of nice touches and this film with the three biggest stars of Christmas could have been really good, if only the writing were better, some of the songs were scrapped and the running time was shortened.

If you are a fan of Rankin/Bass's work, you will not want to miss this one although you most likely will have trouble getting your kids to sit through the whole thing with you.

**Warning!!** The DVD release of this film has the sound very badly out-of-sync which annoys one throughout the movie! Because of this I lowered my rating for this film to 2 stars. I'm surprised that Warner Bros would allow a DVD to be released like this, and what's worse is that the former VHS release did not have this problem!! Shame on you, Warner Brothers!

There must be some movie making law that sequels HAVE to murder their proceders. Maybe that's why I was afraid to watch "Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas In July", one of the most confusing and overly-written sequels on the planet. It's also too long, (almost two hours) meaning that the film makers have to find places to kill time. As a result, we have a countless number of songs and an overblown vilian. Darn!

As sequels are one to do, "Rudolph And Frosty's Christmas In July" answers all the questions that have been keeping you awake at night. One of them of course being, "How The Heck Did Rudolph Get That Nose?" Turns out Rudolph's nose was actully given to him by a goddess. She gave it to him as a gift to Santa, the kindest guy in the world. Rudolph can use his nose whenever he wants, unless he uses it for an evil deed. If Rudolph shines it for a bad thing, his blinker goes out. Forever.

This thrils Winterbolt, a big, bad, scary vilian who's responible for that big snow storm that almost canceled Christmas. He figures that if he can get rid of the nose, then there will be nothing that can save Santa from his next snow storm, and then he can take over the world.

Well, as it turns out, Milton, a man who delivers ice cream to the North Pole, has fallen in love with a tightrope walker at a circus far away. But the circus is losing money, and if it doesn't show better profits soon, it will be taken over by a con man. Milton tells Rudolph that the only way to save the circus would be to send Rudolph and over seas to perform. People would pay anything to see a world famous reindeer like him.

Winterbolt takes advantage of all this, and gives Frosty and his Family special crystals, so that they can go too. These crystals will keep Frosty and his family safe from all melting harm. That is, until the last firework goes off at the Forth of July celebration. Once Rudolph and company are there, Winterbolt gets himslef a sneaky reindeer called Scratcher. Scratcher somehow tricks Rudolph into stealing money from the circus. That's evil. Oops.

If all this sounds confusing to you, it's even more confusing in the film. The film fails to capture the same charm that made the originals so appealing, although it does have some nice elements. It's nice to see Frosty in the married life, and the references to "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" are also nice. But there too many things happening to notice such things. It seems that the filmmakers were determend to make this their longest film yet, and they kill time whenever possible. Their are too many songs and Winterbolt keeps getting more & more ideas on all to kill Rudolph and his snowball freinds.

Speaking of Winterbolt, this film may not be good for little kids. Winterbolt lives in a mean looking ice cave, and his two ice dragons and evil genie may also make the young ones scream! And Winterbolt's mode of tranportation is riding on a sleigh pulled by flying snakes! And this comes from the people who gave us the perfectly safe & wonderful "Rudolph" and "Frosty" specials? And with all the time they have, you think they could find room to reuntite us with our some of our old freinds, like Yukon and Hermie. Even Sam The Snowman's missing.

With too many plot elements, "Rudolph And Frosty's Christmas In July" won't ruin it's preceedors for you, but it will answer all the questions you didn't need to know the answers too.

I was rather surprised to learn that this was the only feature length Christmas special Rankin Bass ever released, primarily because I didn't remember it being so long. True, I didn't remember it as well as other specials, but it turns out I remembered it being shorter because there's only enough plot to last a regular-length (~40 minutes or so special). There is a ton of forgettable filler in the movie, both musical and plot-related. It's not that the movie is confusing like other reviewers have stated, it's just not that interesting or entertaining. I WISH it was a lot better than it was; the Rankin Bass guys were masters of their storytelling and craft, and I'm sure they could have pulled off a great feature-length film.

This movie could and should have been a culmination of all that was great about the Rankin Bass Christmas specials, and in some ways it is a culmination of sorts; I love how they included characters from different specials (Rudolph, Frosty and Santa Claus, of course, but also more minor characters like Big Ben from "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" and Jack Frost, who in this film is sort of a merging of the characterizations in "Frosty's Winter Wonderland" and "Jack Frost"), and provided new origins/mythology for some of the characters, particularly Rudolph. The story itself, while not strong enough to last a full 95 minutes, is still good enough.

What's missing from this movie is the warmth and Christmas feeling that permeated all the rest of the Rankin Bass specials, even the lesser ones. The whole thing is sort of lifeless. Despite all the filler and sub-par songs, what really kills this movie is this lack of substance, of yuletide cheer and a festive atmosphere that "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," "The Year Without a Santa Claus," "Rudolph," "Frosty," and all the rest of them excelled at. Maybe this is all BECAUSE of the filler and excess running time; I really don't know. All I know is that "Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July" is arguably the biggest disappointment in the entire Rankin Bass Christmas output.

I love claymation, and we have quite a collection. But I just didn't like this one as well, and I thought it was too scary for little ones. Check out these instead: "The Year Without a Santa Claus" (this one has the Heat Miser song that another reviewer referred too) and "Jack Frost". They're very enjoyable.

I am certain that someone thought this was a great idea. Let's take two classic holiday cartoons and make a long, tedious, poorly written musical cartoon out of them. There are more plot twists than a soap opera, and they are written about as convincingly. The only high point here is the appearance of Ethel Merman, doing a take-off of her famous Annie Oakley characterization. It is obvious that this project had been re-tooled over many years, as Merman's voice sounds younger, stronger and in complete control through most of the film. In the last part, you hear the age and wobble evidenced in Ethel's voice in her later years. Merman fans will love this; everyone else will snooze.