Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has been a household staple of Christmas pop culture ever since the original 1939 poem by Robert L. May spawned timeless classics such as the 1949 Gene Autry song and the 1964 stop-motion special. That being said, the first time audiences ever got to see Rudolph in motion was in the 1948 animated short film by Max Fleischer. Although the short has remained fairly obscure for years, it has garnered somewhat of a cult following thanks to Rifftrax and animation enthusiasts. Looking back on the short now, it is a charming albeit routine adaptation of the original story.
As the short focuses on the main poem at heart, the plot is fairly straightforward in establishing Rudolph as an outcast from the other reindeer due to his red nose. Outside of the underlying subtext of May's Jewish background, little is done to make Rudolph interesting as a character, which would make sense as the short is intended to get its story across in a concise manner. The stakes do get more intense once Santa comes into the picture, although the ending is fairly easy to figure out as soon as the climax enters. Maybe some added tension to show Rudolh struggling to keep up with the face would have made the plot more intriguing, but it is cute to see the lonesome reindeer go from a laughing stock into a respected hero. Since this film was made to promote local retail stores, it would make sense that the advertising gimmick of the poem would take center stage over story and character. The irony behind this is that since the film came out a year before the Gene Autry song, it originally started with Silent Night, Holy Night, thus making the reissued prints with the famous song in it that much funnier.
With this project being supervised by an animation veteran like Max Fleischer, the film looks gorgeous from a visual standpoint. Although most of the character designs look more grotesque than cute, their movements are lush and fluid enough despite some corners cut here and there. The highlights in the animation come more from the backgrounds and effects work as they take full advantage of the scope and scale of a glorious winterland from the North Pole all the way up to the land where Rudolph and other critters come from. The world building is admittedly a little confusing due to there not being much emphasis on where Santa is dropping gifts off beyond animals alone, which makes it even weirder that Santa is the only human being in the entire cartoon. Speaking of which, the narration by Paul Wing has some charming rhyming throughout the runtime, although a lot of the voices sound like they were done in a containment unit they're so vibrated and echoey. In making the most out of smaller resources, Fleischer and crew did a decent job turning the story from words to pictures.
So while the 1948 Rudolph cartoon might not leave much impact beyond its source material, it's a charming enough short in its own right that did justice to May's poem and brought it into a new art medium. Unless you're jaded with anything Rudolph related, this short is a decent recommendation for the holiday season as far as obscure Christmas animation goes. While we as audiences may remember the song and stop-motion special a lot more for good reason, this short should still be seen as somewhat of a remarkable effort in kickstarting the red nosed reindeer into the popular icon he is today.
As the short focuses on the main poem at heart, the plot is fairly straightforward in establishing Rudolph as an outcast from the other reindeer due to his red nose. Outside of the underlying subtext of May's Jewish background, little is done to make Rudolph interesting as a character, which would make sense as the short is intended to get its story across in a concise manner. The stakes do get more intense once Santa comes into the picture, although the ending is fairly easy to figure out as soon as the climax enters. Maybe some added tension to show Rudolh struggling to keep up with the face would have made the plot more intriguing, but it is cute to see the lonesome reindeer go from a laughing stock into a respected hero. Since this film was made to promote local retail stores, it would make sense that the advertising gimmick of the poem would take center stage over story and character. The irony behind this is that since the film came out a year before the Gene Autry song, it originally started with Silent Night, Holy Night, thus making the reissued prints with the famous song in it that much funnier.
With this project being supervised by an animation veteran like Max Fleischer, the film looks gorgeous from a visual standpoint. Although most of the character designs look more grotesque than cute, their movements are lush and fluid enough despite some corners cut here and there. The highlights in the animation come more from the backgrounds and effects work as they take full advantage of the scope and scale of a glorious winterland from the North Pole all the way up to the land where Rudolph and other critters come from. The world building is admittedly a little confusing due to there not being much emphasis on where Santa is dropping gifts off beyond animals alone, which makes it even weirder that Santa is the only human being in the entire cartoon. Speaking of which, the narration by Paul Wing has some charming rhyming throughout the runtime, although a lot of the voices sound like they were done in a containment unit they're so vibrated and echoey. In making the most out of smaller resources, Fleischer and crew did a decent job turning the story from words to pictures.
So while the 1948 Rudolph cartoon might not leave much impact beyond its source material, it's a charming enough short in its own right that did justice to May's poem and brought it into a new art medium. Unless you're jaded with anything Rudolph related, this short is a decent recommendation for the holiday season as far as obscure Christmas animation goes. While we as audiences may remember the song and stop-motion special a lot more for good reason, this short should still be seen as somewhat of a remarkable effort in kickstarting the red nosed reindeer into the popular icon he is today.