I love the holiday season, especially all the best Christmas movies that I sit around and watch with my family. Among the ones I love are the Rankin and Bass claymation movies that are so delightfully singular.
Now that I have nieces, I like watching them light up when these cheesy-yet-classic films air shamelessly with unstoppable force on cable each year.
In honor of the art of animated clay, I wanted to make a list of 11 I think are the best ever.
Check them out below.
Who Are Rankin and Bass?
Rankin/Bass Productions was an American animation studio founded by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass in 1960.
They were prolific creators of holiday specials, primarily using stop-motion animation (which they called “Animagic”) and traditional animation.
They became most famous for their claymation Christmas specials.
Rankin/Bass ceased production in the late 1980s, but by then, they had impacted an entire generation, and their films have lived on.
1. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
2. Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970)
3. The Little Drummer Boy (1968)
4. The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)
5. Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July (1979)
6. Jack Frost (1979)
7. The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold (1981)
8. Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977)
9. The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow (1975)
10. Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (1976)
11. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985)
These are the ones I go back to time and time again when I want to get into the claymation Christmas spirit.
Let me know your favorites in the comments.
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
