The Year Without a Santa Claus / Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey / Rudolph's Shiny New Year

The Year Without a Santa Claus / Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey / Rudolph's Shiny New Year
by Arthur Rankin Jr., Jules Bass

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DVD Cover Information

• At the North Pole, the Christmas rush is on. Everyone from elves to reindeer are merrily preparing for Santa Claus's yearly sleigh ride. Everyone except Santa! Feeling forgotten by the children of the world, old St. Nick decides to skip his gift-giving journey and take a vacation. Eager to help, Mrs. Claus and two spunky little elves set out to see to where all the season's cheer has disappeared.

Movie Reviews of The Year Without a Santa Claus / Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey / Rudolph's Shiny New Year

Movie Review: Comest thou with me - We searcheth! Clang, Clang, Clang!
Summary: 5 Stars

The Year Without a Santa Claus is the "main" feature of the DVD. If you've never seen it, you really owe it to yourself to check it out. As others have stated, Heat Miser and Snow Miser have to be the highlight of this special. Their songs are hilarious little vaudeville-type tunes, made all the more catchy by each brother's little army of "Mini-Me"-like clones that perform the back-up vocals. I think these bits are also the best of R-B's stop-motion, from a technical point of view. The part where Snow Miser is spinning around in a blur, then suddenly you see his head stop and he sings out "that's right!", is VERY well done. Of course, Snow Miser and Heat Miser are not the focus of the special, though they steal the show. The basic plot is this - Santa has a cold, and he's tired and feelng worn out. So, he decides to take a year off. Well, Mrs. Claus won't have this, so she sends out the bumbling elves Jingle and Jangle, plus the reindeer Vixen, to find some Christmas spirit. Naturally, they immediately get themselves in trouble, so first Mrs. Claus, then Santa himself, have to get involved in order to straighten the whole mess out. While he's traveling incognito out in the world, Santa finds out that he IS appreciated after all. Besides the Heat Miser and Snow Miser tunes, this special contains more great music, including the classic "I'll have a blue Christmas Without You."

Also here is Rudolph's Shiny New Year, another fond favorite of all of us who were kids in the '70s. It's a little bit short in the music department, but overall very enjoyable. Happy, the Baby New Year, is missing, and Father Time sends for help to his old buddy Santa Claus. SC decides to send a search party, and who else is better equipped for a nighttime search that a flying red-nosed reindeer? Rudolph joins forces with a large bunch of characters as he combs the Archipelago of Last Years to find the missing kid. Complicating matters, the evil buzzard Eon is also trying to find Happy for reasons for his own, and he does NOT want Happy to make it home.

Finally, this DVD includes Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey. This tale, set in Roman Empire-dominated Palestine, chronicles the adventures of Nestor of the long ears as he is thrown out of his home, loses his mother, and generally suffers through life until he meets his destiny helping a certain young couple on their way to Bethlehem. A very moving and touching story, but I highly suggest you keep the supply of tissues handy, as this one is a real tear-jerker.

A great DVD with three holiday classics. It's fun for both the thirty-somethings and today's kids. Don't miss it!

Summary of The Year Without a Santa Claus / Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey / Rudolph's Shiny New Year