Who is rankin bass

A homebody hobbit in Middle Earth gets talked into joining a quest with a group of dwarves to recover their treasure from a dragon. Votes: 13, R 84 min Biography, Crime, Drama. Director: J. Unrated 94 min Animation, Comedy, Family. On the Isle of Evil, the head of the "World Organization of Monsters" reveals his imminent retirement and that he has refined a formula for total destruction, only to be upset when the monsters try to steal the formula and kill his nephew.

Votes: 3, G 92 min Animation, Adventure, Drama. A beautiful unicorn sets out to learn if she truly is the last of her kind in this sparkling animated musical. Votes: 17, A living snowman and a little girl struggle to elude a greedy magician who is after the snowman's magic hat. Votes: 16, Claus and his elves set out to change his mind. Votes: 8, Not Rated 98 min Animation, Action, Adventure. Two Hobbits struggle to destroy the Ring in Mount Doom while their friends desperately fight evil Lord Sauron's forces in a final battle.

Scientists investigating the briny deep are threatened by a giant turtle and the spirit of a young brunette swimmer in the Bermuda Triangle. Votes: G 96 min Action, Adventure, Family. Kong escapes and soon confronts his mechanical double. Votes: 2, Passed 95 min Animation, Adventure, Family. A young Boston writer goes back in time into an era where wizards and dragon reign and science is just barely known. Votes: 5, G 87 min Animation, Family, Fantasy.

Traveling to the exotic kingdom of Siam, English schoolteacher Anna Leonowens soon discovers that her most difficult challenge is the stubborn, imperious King himself.

When a town learns that Santa Claus has struck it off his delivery schedule due to an insulting letter, a way must be found to change his mind. Active talk pages.

Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Log in to edit. History Talk 1. Do you like this video? Play Sound. Arthur Rankin, Jr. Universal Conquest Wiki. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Burl Ives as Sam the Snowman. Cricket on the Hearth. Danny Thomas. The Little Drummer Boy. Frosty the Snowman.

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Fred Astaire as S. Joel Grey. The Year Without a Santa Claus. Shirley Booth as Mrs. There's a whole song here about how you should never laugh at someone, because you might make them cry, complete with giant puddles of tears.

There's this pitfall so many of these specials fall into, where the story basically amounts to a kid sitting down with you and saying, "And then this happened! And this happened! It earns points, though, for Jimmy Durante's performance of the title song and Jackie Vernon's hyper-earnest portrayal of the lead.

Here's a special to show your kids if you want to teach them life is full of crushing disappointments. The central conflict between Jack Frost and a robot army no, really doesn't really work, and the whole "here's a crazy mythology about how winter happens" feels especially superfluous.

But this is a love story that ends with the hero not winning the heart of the woman he loves, and that's rare for a kids story. That gives this Also, the climax of this story is built around Groundhog Day instead of Christmas, which is a weird holiday to build toward. This feels like cheating, since it's based on a superb musical version of A Christmas Carol from the early days of television. But it's still a superb version of a very good story, with some terrific songs. The special loses something by condensing the story as much as it does, but it's hard to go wrong with Dickens in song.

We're getting into the very small portion of the list that consists of genuine recommendations, beginning with this one. This doesn't get shown as much on TV anymore, probably due to some borderline racist caricatures on the film's sidelines, but there's something very moving about its climax, in which the drummer boy drums right in the baby Jesus' face and has his lamb healed as reward. Plus, before he meets the baby Jesus, the drummer boy is a misanthrope who hates all of humanity, which makes for a surprisingly entertaining character to follow around.

It shouldn't have been. This is, like, 15 different specials awkwardly stitched together. Claus's attempts to save the holiday, which dovetail perfectly with Santa's crisis of confidence. Sure, it doesn't make a lot of sense , but this is the studio at the peak of its imaginative powers. The overly redundant title is the worst thing about this one, which features Angela Lansbury as a nun who takes a young shepherd struck blind by lightning under her wing as Christmas rolls around.

What the special loses because of its melodramatic climax it gains from sheer simplicity. Instead of trying to graft a whole bunch of ideas together, this tells one small story, and it's all the better for it. I used to maintain this special was overrated as Christmas specials go. The guest voice Fred Astaire is dead on. The filling in of mythology around a holiday figure is just great. And even the song the special builds toward is one of the better Santa Claus songs out there.

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