Product Details

• Actors: Shirley Booth, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, George S. Irving, Bob McFadden
• Directors: Arthur Rankin Jr., Jules Bass
• Writers: Phyllis McGinley, William J. Keenan
• Producers: Arthur Rankin Jr., Jules Bass
• Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 28, 1999
• Run Time: 51 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (210 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000JKO4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #257,162 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Even Santa can suffer a case of the holiday blues. In this 1974 stop-motion holiday family favorite, a sparkly eyed Mrs. Claus (voiced by Shirley Booth) sings and tells about the year her hubby felt too weary and too unappreciated to prepare for his annual Christmas rounds. Mickey Rooney stars as the voice of Santa, a rosy-nosed puppet who travels incognito to Southtown in search of his tiniest reindeer, Vixen, and two well-meaning elves. Seems Mrs. Santa sent them to find proof of Christmas spirit--but all they've discovered is ambivalence about Santa's year off. Luckily, when Santa arrives and befriends a buck-toothed lad named Ignatius Thistlewhite, spirits begin to lift rapidly. Adult fans of this cousin to the 1970 television special Santa Claus Is Coming to Town will remember it as the Heat and Snow Miser movie--their vaudevillian theme songs, complete with trombone and piano riffs, are hard to forget; but other treasured musical moments include "I Believe in Santa Claus," "I'll Have a Blue Christmas Without You," and "Here Comes Santa Claus." --Liane Thomas

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heat Miser & Nestor on DVD -- Amazing Picture Quality!, November 2, 2000

By 

D. Anderson (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Year Without a Santa Claus / Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey / Rudolph's Shiny New Year (DVD)

Plenty of other folks have gushed (properly so) about the nostalgic content of "The Year Without a Santa Claus" (hereinafter "TYWSC") so I'll concentrate on the technical quality of the DVD release:

The picture on this disc is unbelievably bright and sharp -- undoubtedly worlds better than it looked when we all watched the original CBS transmission in 1974. It makes me wonder if they did any digital processing and cleaning up of the original print. I really enjoyed the "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" DVD release earlier this year, but the picture quality on TYWSC is far superior both in terms of clarity and vividness, and the animation and set design are also more detailed and elaborate than in "Rudolph." While not of Nick Park caliber, perhaps, the stop-motion animation is more than adequate: Both our 7- and 3-year old were transfixed throughout the whole show. You will be surprised by how great the picture looks. The original mono soundtrack is well balanced, with no audible hiss; both the characters' speech and the (many) musical numbers come through very clearly.

The "extras" include two additional Rankin-Bass holiday specials, making this disc a triple feature and a great value. They include "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" and "Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey." Both are of similarly high technical quality. Notwithstanding its goofy name and lower profile in the Rankin-Bass pantheon, "Nestor" is a half hour, animal-based gem that gives a welcome nod to the religious underpinnings of the Christmas holiday.

Whether for nostalgia value or your own youngsters, this DVD is a fine purchase.

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Deluxe Edition" ("remastered"?) No Improvement In Either Picture Or Sound, December 12, 2007

By 

R. Spreitzer "Spence" (West Palm Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Year Without a Santa Claus (Deluxe Edition) (DVD)

First, let me say that I own this movie because it still retains it's charm more than three decades later, and still get a kick out of it. I can recall watching it on TV when I was a kid, and would sing the catchy Miser's songs. So having it on hand to watch it every year at Christmastime is a pleasure.

I was looking forward to upgrade from my older DVD of YWASC to this "Deluxe Edition" since I was keen on seeing a couple of documentaries and noted the product being advertised as "Newly Remastered". Well, in looking at the ORIGINAL 2000 DVD release, I realized that it is quite sharp in picture, as well as having a decent mono audio track. I noticed there were scarcely any grain or dirt on this print. So maybe I could not see a need to upgrade after all, and, as it turns out, I was correct in my assumption. I rather like to make picture comparisons with different DVD releases of a favorite movie, and I did the same with YWASC. Much to my surprise, the image is not only NOT an improvement, but to my eyes, in some instances has less sharpness and is duller in the colors! Again, in the first DVD release, one can see the finest details in say the puppet's hairs. Great clarity. With this new edition, there are periodic (though admittedly minor) inconsistancies in image. It is indeed puzzling that such a reduction in clarity (and I do know that the overwhelming majority of folks wouldn't know of them--and further, would not detract from their viewing enjoyment).

Sorry, I know I could get flack for what might be considered a minor quibble, but I feel that, apart from two (fairly interesting) documentaries, one could just as well not bother to invest in this repackaging of what was an already very adequate DVD release.

But either way, by all means enjoy and share with the family. Along with Rankin and Bass' other, earlier classic, Rudolph, The Red-nosed Reindeer, Year Without A Santa Claus is a gem that will charm for generations. So let me make very clear that the two-star rating is for this DVD release, of which the content is a decent four star.

57 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heat Miser, Snow Miser, and more!, July 2, 2001

By 

Michael J. Mazza - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Year Without a Santa Claus [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"The Year Without a Santa Claus" is one of the classic Rankin-Bass stop-motion animated holiday specials. In this installment, Santa Claus (voiced by Mickey Rooney), feeling poorly and convinced that people don't care about Christmas anymore, decides to cancel his annual sleigh ride around the world. Fortunately, Mrs. Claus (Shirley Booth) sets in motion a chain of events that restores Santa to his jolly self.

"Year" is great fun from start to finish. The producers achieve a nearly perfect balance of musical numbers, fantasy, sentiment, and humor. Booth is outstanding as Mrs. Claus (who also narrates the tale). She gives a particularly spirited rendition of the fun song "I Could Be Santa Claus" (in which Mrs. C contemplates taking the reigns of Santa's sleigh on Christmas night). The vocal performances are excellently complemented by the whimsical stop-motion puppets and other superbly realized visual elements.

This film also introduces two of the most unforgettable characters of the Rankin-Bass mythos: Heat Miser and Snow Miser, the respective overseers of hot and cold weather phenomena. Each one is accompanied by his own chorus line of look-alike mini-Misers, and each gets his own outrageous theme song.

"Year" has a subtle feminist twist, since Mrs. C is such a pivotal character, and also because Mother Nature emerges as perhaps the most powerful figure in the story. Religious fundamentalists will probably dislike the fact that this special seems to distance the Christmas holiday from its traditional religious implications (some may even see a touch of goddess-worshiping neo-Paganism in the character of Mother Nature). But for most audiences, I believe that this holiday special will be an entertaining delight.