The craziest thing about the entertainment world is while one celebrity’s status fades; another celebrity connected to them directly or indirectly rises. Maybe that’s why A Star is Born has been made so many times. It’s that see-saw balance that makes it all so fascinating.
From the 1960s through the 1970s, the production dynamic duo of Arthur Ranking Jr. and Jules Bass held the reigns of stop-motion animation referred to “claymation.” Ray Harryhausen may have commanded the big screen. But it was the holiday specials that that made Rankin/Bass so popular.
And because they were so popular, they began to make more and more of them which meant a drop in quality. By 1979’s Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July, the cracks were showing everywhere. The voice actors had returned but the inconsistency in the animation was hard to overlook.
Most of the human characters looked somewhat disturbing with a deer-in-headlights gaze and permanent smiles. Also, it seems they had run out of good stories to tell as the whole plot just seems hokey and stretched out. Their 1979 production of Jack Frost is a far better execution.
As the 1980s came on, there was a new animator making the rounds. If Don Bluth and his crew were giving Disney a wake-up call on the big screen with two-dimensional animation, then Will Vinton did the same thing with claymation. His animation style was more alive and vibrant. You felt every character on screen even if they were in the background was given careful attention to detail.
In 1985, Vinton and his studio did the animation on Return to Oz. While the movie had a mixed reaction both with critics and audiences, it was nominated for an Academy Award. The studio later hit paydirt doing animation featuring The California Raisins and Domino’s TV commercials by introducing the world to the Noid. The Raisins and the Noid became popular with audiences. The California Raisins were meant to be a representation of Motown groups such as The Temptations but as raisins that sing and dance. There has been some criticism in recent decades they were seen as racial stereotypes even though they were popular.
The Noid was a little devilish imp who wore a goofy red suit with rabbit-like ears and laugh a goofy cackle. The Noid was a character who would destroy pizzas. And the tag line was to “Stop the Noid!” from destroying pizzas. (Ok. I know many people don’t like Domino’s. But it worked for a while.)
So while Vinton was hot, his studio made Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration broadcast on this date, Dec. 21, 1987. Yes, the Raisins do appear performing a rendition of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Among the other musical performances:
- The Biblical Magi (Dan Sachs, Jim Steinberger, Pat Harryman) sing the verses of “We Three Kings” traditionally, while their camels (Ron Tinsley, Patric J. Miller) sing the chorus.
The Paris Bell-Harmonic, a group of anthropomorphic church bells who strike their own heads with chime hammers to achieve their respective notes, performs “Carol of the Bells.” The low C bell (Tim Conner) constantly dawdles, chimes out of tune and loses his mallet, enraging the maestro
- A children’s choir sings “O Christmas Tree” with the video depicting various scenes taking place in ornaments.
- “Angels We Have Heard on High” is set to a walrus couple doing an interpretive ice ballet while several luckless penguins watch.
- At a black church in the countryside, a soul/jazz hybrid rendition of “Joy to the World” plays out in colorful scenes. (This segment, using stylized, flat animation resembling paintings and stained glass windows, is the only segment not rendered in Vinton’s trademark Claymation.) Featured vocals: Ron Tonsley, Backing vocals: Patric J. Miller
The show is also hosted by Rex (voiced by Johnny Counterfit), a high society T-rex and Herb (voiced by Conner) a styracosaurus who is dimwitted. There’s a running gag of other characters confusing the line what “Here we come a-wassailing” with “a-waddling” and “a-waffling” which irritates Rex.
It’s charming and cute. But what is amazing is how the studio makes each segment different. Some are funny. Some you just watch because of the impressive style and creativity.
You can watch the entire program online here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9mg7yo
Needless to say, it won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 1988. Yet, it remains mostly forgotten. This is probably because of a change in leadership as Vinton allowed outside investors, Nike founder Phil Knight and his son, Travis, who took over his own studio in the early 2000s and fired him.
This was after they had worked with Eddie Murphy on The PJs, a show Murphy co-created with Larry Wilmore and lasted for three seasons. You can clearly see his style on the show. Yet, I feel by the rise of CGI in the 1990s, stop-motion animation fell out of popularity with other filmmakers and especially Hollywood executives.
But by 2008, Vinton had retired as he had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2006. He passed away in 2018.
Zane Says 