Does anyone remember Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July?

On November 25, 1979, children around the US were able to turn on ABC and watch the latest Rankin/Bass production. Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July was an American-Japanese television special that brought these two iconic characters on one whacky journey.

The film was able to secure most of the original voice actors, including Billie Mae Richards as Rudolph and Jackie Vernon as Frosty. Mickey Rooney also reprised his role as Santa Claus.

The premise of this film? It sounds like a fever dream.

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer realizes his famous red nose is getting dim. Santa Claus explains that the glow was provided years ago by Lady Borealis to make sure he could make it through a storm created by the evil Winterbolt (Paul Frees), ruler of the North Pole. Lady Borealis put a spell on Winterbolt that sent him into a deep sleep, but now the villain is awake and trying to draw Frosty the Snowman into a plot to extinguish Rudolph’s nose for good."

What was Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July about?

So let’s break it down a little bit. The aurora borealis turns human, calling herself Lady Borealis, and she puts the Sleeping Beauty spell on an evil snow wizard named Winterbolt. Are you already confused? So am I.

As Lady Borealis grows weaker, she gives Rudolph a way to help Santa Claus get through the storm with a glowing red nose. Yup, we’ve traveled into origin story territory. With the Lady gone, Winterbolt awakens and tries to remove the magic from Rudolph’s nose.

So my first question is: does anyone remember this movie?! Outside of the big-name stories, Rankin/Bass had a whole continuity of holiday figures and how they related to one another. This film is one of the concoctions.

It involves an ice cream man in a hot air balloon being madly in love with a tight-walk performer. What does that have to do with Christmas OR the Fourth of July is just beyond me. Yes, you read that right, this is a Christmas/Fourth of July crossover film. Unfortunately, this one just comes off as completely lazy.

For one thing, the character design for Winterbolt looks like a blender mix of Snow Miser (from The Year Without a Santa Claus) and the Winter Warlock (from Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town). In fact, the voice actor for the other antagonist in Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town, Paul Frees, didn’t even change his voice. He just sounded like Burgermeister Meisterburger.

It also comes across as a cash grab instead of a story they wanted to tell, which makes it even less enjoyable. Who wants to be cheerful when you know this was only made for money? You can really tell they didn’t care about this one because Jack Frost came out the same year. Their take on that story seemed fresh and exciting. They seemed to be trying new things with the animation – really having fun with it.

At best the film is a veiled lesson for children on not stealing. At its worst, it’s every Rankin/Bass trope thrown into a blender and spat back out. Though it’s easy to admit, Genie of the Ice Scepter is one of the coolest characters I’ve ever seen.

Do you remember this Rankin/Bass special? If you do, tell us what you thought about it in the comments below!