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Summary: To Set the Christmas Mood
Review: Ba bum bum bum - baaaa bum... Ah, the Heat-Miser/Cold-Miser song. If there was ever a show that put me in the Christmas mood, this was it. I remember seeing this around the time it first came out on TV and I've never stopped loving the music, the character and the stop-motion animation. For pure nostalgia, this is a hard film to beat for those of us that grew up in the 70's. The added bonus is that you get "Nester the Long Eared Donkey" and "Rudolp's Shiny New Year". If you were to buy these individually on VHS, you'd spend well over the discount price offered here. If not for yourself, get this for the kids. It's full of memorable characters, songs and the holiday spirit. I'm in my 30's and I've never stopped enjoying these films.
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Summary: worth every penny
Review: Three! Yes 3 favorites on one DVD... Now why couldn't Sony Wonder/Golden Books do this with Rudolph, Frosty and Santa Claus is Coming to Town??
Well anyway Nestor (The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey) Is one of my all-time favorites it gives a little more meaning to the Holiday Season when you see that even a donkey can give back during this over commercialized season...
'Rudolph's Shiny New Year' is a good one and the Heat Miser and Cold Miser(in 'The Year Without Santa Claus') always brings a smile to my face during the rush rush rush of the season.
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Summary: Heat Miser, Snow Miser, and more!
Review: "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.
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Summary: An American Holiday Tradition
Review: What do you do when Santa Claus decides to take the year off because the North Pole is too cold? You sell your soul, if you have to, to get some warm weather Santa's way. How do you do that? Get this video and find out! This is the best of many, many claymation Christmas specials. Why? I have two words for you: Heat Miser. Forget his chilly brother, Heat Miser steals this entire program. I defy anyone- child or adult- to watch this without rewinding to see his song and dance number again. A must-have.
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Summary: You Can't Survive A Year Without This Movie!
Review: Three of Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass' beloved stop-motion animated Christmas specials. The Year Without A Santa Claus (1974, 51 minutes) Santa is too sick to fly on Christmas Eve! Now it's up to two resourceful elves to get past the Heat Miser and the Snow Miser and rally support for Christmas. Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1975, 47 minutes) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer searches for Happy, the missing baby New Year! Nestor The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977, 22 minutes) A young donkey with very long ears is lead by his guardian angel to Bethlehem.
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Summary: Easily the best since "Rudolph"
Review: Funny, when I was in my teens and really becoming an animation "connisseur" (I'm a cartoonist and amateur animation historian) I thought very little of the Rankin-Bass product. The characters, at least in cel-animated work like "Frosty", tended to look bizarre (red circles on each cheek, which gave them a doll-like quality). Once the Fox Family Channel began re-running some of these old specials, though, I began to see them with new eyes. That's especially true of "Year Without a Santa Claus". Mickey Rooney does a first rate job in his SECOND Rankin/Bass outing as Santa (for a while there, it seemed like he had a second career going as St. Nick) and like most people, I cannot miss the Heat Miser/Snow Miser production numbers. When my brothers were kids, they used to sing both those songs in an attempt to drive me crazy, but I'm the one who's singing along now. This is a must-see, and it's a definite improvement over the current crop of specials which seem determined to insert some PC message or other. Rankin/Bass' moralizing was mild at most--their main purpose was to tell a great story, and they succeeded beautifully here.
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Summary: A triple feature...
Review: I bought this DVD mainly for "The Year Without A Santa Claus". I just fell in love with the TV classic. I had never seen this until 6 years ago and I just loved it. And who can resist the antics of the brothers Snow Miser and Heat Miser. They are hilarious. Plus with the other 2 features (though they never were quite as popular), this is a great family DVD. Now you can watch it anytime you want. Worth the money.
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Summary: Oh, some like it hot, but I like it REALLY hot! Hee hee!
Review: I grew up on the Rankin-Bass specials such as The Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph and The Year Without a Santa Claus. When I got to be in the 6th grade or so I thought I was too 'mature'(yeah, right) for them, but I still secretly watched TYWASC just to see the Snow Miser and the Heat Miser do their thing. One night when I was a teenager a bunch of us were sitting around flipping channels and landed on the Snow Miser about to start. You can imagine how it went after that, since we were all trying to act nonchalant and cool: "oh MAN, this dumb special." "You want me to change it?" "I don't care if you don't" "OK, whatever, I guess we'll leave it." By the time Heat Miser was halfway through his big number we all had big grins on our faces. The next time it was on I taped it and we watched it every year. At some point, the tape broke (probably from overuse), but a few years ago I finally tracked down a copy of the video. Now it's back in print! The whole special is cool (can't beat that RB stop-motion) but we bought it just to see the Miser brothers do their thing. It's worth the price of admission even though they only have about 10 minutes of screen time. This year we actually were going to give the whole movie a try, but lost patience after about 10 minutes (though kids might enjoy this more) and just cut to the chase and fast-forwarded to the Snow Miser. Usually when we dust off the copy every Christmas, my husband is the one hitting the rewind button after the big finish, "TOO MUCH!"and sheepishly saying " OK, uh, just one more time..." Warning: you will NOT be able to get the song out of your head. Those are catchy-a$$ songs! You will walk around for days with, "They call me Heat Miser, what ever I touch, starts to melt in my clutch..." running through your head. To this day I have yet to meet one person who hasn't seen the special, loved the song, and in fact most of them know all the lyrics. You'll start singing it to yourself at work- "he's Mr. White Christmas he's Mr. Snow"...and without fail you'll hear someone else, "I'm Mr. Icicle, I'm MIS-ter Ten below..." I agree with the other reviewers-they are crazy not to repackage the special prominently featuring the Miser bros, because it would fly off the shelves. At least put a little sticker with a picture of Heat Miser on the box or something, people will get the idea. I'm also glad I'm not the only adult who has thought about who they would cast in a live-action version...we were thinking James Woods (who unfortunately looks more like Snow Miser every year) and--hey, as long as we're dreaming here anyway--Chris Farley. Anyway, if you watched the special as a kid, and are holding off on purchasing a copy because you think it won't stand the test of time, trust me on this- IT WILL! It's...too much (BA-da-da-da!).
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Summary: What is Christmas television without Rankin and Bass?
Review: Growing up in the '70s, I was enthralled by the Christmas specials of Rankin and Bass (Rudolph, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, Drummer Boy, Twas the Night Before Christmas ['80s]). But "The Year Without a Santa Claus" was my favorite stop-motion show. I LOVED the Snow Meiser and I still sing both the Snow Meiser and the Heat Meiser's songs each year. Thanks to the reviewer who recommened the CD of music that has the Snow Meiser and Heat Meiser songs on it.
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Summary: Heat Miser & Nestor on DVD -- Amazing Picture Quality!
Review: 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.
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