rankin/bass Archives - Ian Thomas Malone

Monday

4

December 2023

0

COMMENTS

Holiday Podcast Coverage featuring Rankin/Bass and the Muppets

Written by Ian Thomas Malone, Posted in Blog, Podcast, Pop Culture

What’s Christmas without a bunch of cringe stop-motion specials from the 70s? We at Estradiol Illusions love to spend too much time over-analyzing popular culture. The holiday season is one of our favorite times to take a pause and unpack this bizarre genre of filmmaking.

We’ve organized a collection of our holiday episodes for your easy listening pleasure. Estradiol Illusions is available wherever you get your podcasts including Apple, Spotify, and Google. The Sptotfy collection has been neatly organized into a playlist. The external links are for Apple. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Rankin/Bass

The Year Without a Santa Claus

Rudolph: A Transgender Perspective

Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town

Rudolph’s Shiny New Year

Pinocchio’s Christmas

The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow

Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

Jack Frost

The Lift and Adventures of Santa Claus

The Little Drummer Boy

A Miser Brother’s Christmas (technically just inspired by Rankin/Bass as a sequel to The Year Without a Santa Claus)

The Muppets

The Muppet Christmas Carol

It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie

A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa

The Rest

A Charlie Brown Christmas (mostly about Ian’s breakup)

Thomas’ Snowy Surprise

Archie Kao – Christmas at the Ranch

Tuesday

14

December 2021

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COMMENTS

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

Written by Ian Thomas Malone, Posted in Blog, Podcast

Our journey into the Rankin/Bass cinematic universe continues with the 1985 special The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus their final production to use traditional stop-motion animation. Based on L. Frank Baum’s 1902 novel of the same name, the film is a pretty bizarre Santa origin story that often feels more like a riff on The Lord of the Rings than holiday entertainment. Despite it’s weirdly complex narrative and confusing characters, the special is a ton of fun to watch, even if it delivers a much weirder brand of festive cheer.

This is almost certainly our final holiday episode of the season. Be sure to check out all of our Christmas coverage from 2020 & 2021. From all of us at Estradiol Illusions, we wish you a very pleasant holiday season and thank you for spending a bit of it with us.

Monday

13

December 2021

0

COMMENTS

A Miser Brothers‘ Christmas

Written by Ian Thomas Malone, Posted in Blog, Podcast

Our holiday coverage continues with A Mister Brothers’ Christmas, the 2008 follow-up to the 1974 gem The Year Without a Santa Claus. Featuring returning voices Mickey Rooney and George S. Irving as Santa Claus and Heat Miser, the film aims to recapture the magic of the Rankin/Bass stop-motion classics. Unfortunately, the film never quite comes together as anything more than a nostalgia production with some truly horrendous music. Ian does her best to unpack what went wrong and why she’s still happy that it exists.

Friday

10

December 2021

0

COMMENTS

Pinocchio‘s Christmas

Written by Ian Thomas Malone, Posted in Blog, Podcast

Into the weeds of the Rankin/Bass holiday catalog! Pinocchio’s Christmas is a bizarre special, serving as both an adaption of the 1883 novel and a more traditional Santa-infused holiday narrative. There is a lot going on, with multiple villains and plotlines converging on the poor wooden boy. Ian does her best to unpack it all.

Be sure to check out all of our holiday-themed episodes!

Friday

10

December 2021

0

COMMENTS

The Little Drummer Boy

Written by Ian Thomas Malone, Posted in Blog, Podcast

We are continuing our Bass/Rankin coverage with the 1968 classic The Little Drummer Boy. Aaron starts off our story as a misanthropic troubadour performing for an audience of none, only to be changed by the healing power of laughter after pounding his drum until a newborn baby saved his lamb. Ian isn’t sure what to make of her affection for Ben Haramad, the closest thing the special has to a villain who isn’t driving a chariot in the middle of the night.

Be sure to check out all of our holiday-themed episodes!

Thursday

9

December 2021

0

COMMENTS

Rudolph‘s Shiny New Year

Written by Ian Thomas Malone, Posted in Blog, Podcast

Holiday coverage continues! Join Ian as she unpacks the trainwreck known as Rudolph’s Shiny New Year, where everyone’s favorite bullied reindeer is tasked with saving time itself. From the Archipelago of Last Years to Eon the Terrible, nothing here makes any sense. The people in power continue to pick on young children, presenting the sensible question of whether time should be saved.

Be sure to check out our episode from last year covering the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special: https://ianthomasmalone.podbean.com/e/rudolph-a-transgender-perspective/