Last week I saw that an old Christmas show from when I was growing up was going to be on. I can't remember the name of it...it's the one with Rudolf running off, finding a couple misfit friends, and eventually saving the day by driving Santa's sleigh in the end. The animation is nothing compared to today's standards..but it was cute and rather innocent. Even the abominable snow monster turned out to be not so scary after all.
After this program came another. Well, O.K. we don't generally watch much TV, we can watch another Christmas special. Well, we did watch it, I didn't see the need to turn it off. Mainly it was just dumb....but some bits of information became filled in near the end. My youngest kids were watching it with me and this went over their heads this time. Basically the storyline went something like this...
*Rudolf can't fly, he keeps trying and failing.
*Rudolf is shamed and runs away with his friend a flying squirrel in search of his real dad - one of Santa's elite flying forces.
*They are joined by some singing and dancing white female something ferrety thing.
*Meanwhile a very scary pack of male wolves captures a female pink poodle and uses her to find the reindeer for dinner (I missed how/why this happened).
*Rudolf and his friends eventually find the Flying Forces and we find out he doesn't know which one is his dad, he doesn't even know his dad's name.
*Rudolf asks the male reindeer if any of them remember a Christmas eve spent last year with a doe -ahem....proud puffed up reindeer - they all do. Does anyone know (whatever his mom's name was) and no one knows names.
*O.K. you think it can't get worse? Wrong. To prove he's actually the son of one of them he needs to prove he can fly. They take him to the edge of the runway/cliff and he jumps. He can't fly (apparently fear will prevent a reindeer from flying). Big pause as he sinks to the abyss and the lead reindeer finally saves him.
*The wolves bust in, the reindeer are too afraid to fly, Rudolf overcomes his fear and flies, saving the group.
*At that point his father pulls him aside, confesses he was afraid to admit he's his dad (ahem...and let him jump off a cliff...some dad).
*Rudolf is allowed to fly with the Flying Forces and they invite him to stay.
*He asks his dad why he doesn't come live with him and his mom.
*Sorry kid, I gotta practice flying all over the world all year long.
*Rudolf decides to go back home and be with his "real" dad, the flying squirrel who was his constant companion. No mention of going home to his mom and family, although he did.
*The end.
I did discuss this afterwards with Anna. Her response? If they are going to make a kids show where the animals are sort of like people then they should be virtuous. This was just bad.
Why would someone even make a show like this? O.K. Not really looking for an answer. Just sad. And a warning.....don't bother with one.
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3 comments:
Wow. Just wow.
The shows we grew up with are the best. There is a newer Frosty the Snowman which is dumb but not bad as this Rudolph is.
Good to know about Frosty. I did let Anna and Terese watch it with everyone while Nathan and I moved around some furniture in the other room to make room for our Christmas tree. They were told to make sure it was acceptable. They agreed too, that it was dumb, but not as bad as the other one.
We'll stick with the oldies....
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