Classic film stars have been caricatured in many animated cartoons, even Christmas cartoons as noted in this previous post of Toyland Premiere (1934). But the made-for-television holiday cartoons of Rankin/Bass utilized caricatures of stars of Hollywood’s heyday not for satire or even humor, but to lend cachet to their well-scrubbed retellings of pop Christmas folklore.
While not all classic film stars who voiced animated characters had their likenesses caricatured in the cartoon – Mickey Rooney, for instance, in the several times he voiced Santa Claus (The Year Without a Santa Claus – 1974, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town – 1970, and Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July – 1979) Santa never looked like Mickey Rooney. I suppose Santa Claus is too well-known (or perhaps, trademarked?) to look like Mickey Rooney.
But Fred Astaire, playing a generic mailman character in Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town is okay to look like a caricature of Fred Astaire, likewise Red Buttons as the ice cream man in Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July – which also gave us a stupendously (or perhaps stupefying is the word) over-the-top Ethel Merman who runs a carnival show. It’s a lumbering feature cartoon with no discernable point, but Hal Peary has his last role as a whale, with a Great Gildersleeve giggle. I find that endearing.
These cartoons were all animated with the mesmerizing
stop-motion photography of jerky movements and stiff portrayals, literally.
There were two Christmas cartoons of my childhood which were
especially profound for me, first Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962), which
I’ve mentioned before
in this previous post. Definitely NOT stop-motion photography here. Jim Backus owned the role of Mr. Magoo so thoroughly
and was my introduction to Dickens at the tender age of probably three.
The second cartoon that was really meaningful to me was The Little Drummer Boy (1968). Like the other Rankin/Bass cartoons mentioned above, this also featured stop-motion photography (and all the cartoons are musicals) and told the story of an orphaned boy during the time of the Nativity who hates people because his parents were killed by bandits, and finds healing with the power of love. I was fascinated by the scenes of ancient Judea, of narrow streets, endless desert dunes, and the people who came to their ancestral cities to be taxed by the Roman emperor. Even as a six or seven-year-old, stories about real people interested me more than fairy tales about snowmen or Heat Miser (though I still know the words to that song).
Jose Ferrer (not caricatured) plays a rogue, a carnival showman who enslaves the orphan boy when he discovers the boy can sing and play a drum and charm animals into dancing. The showman thinks he can make a bundle off the kid. (Painting a phony smile on the kid's face horrified me as a child.) He even sells the boy’s cherished camel to one of the Wise Men, and the boy is even more furious and heartbroken.
The boy follows the Star as the Three Kings are doing so that he can catch up to them and get his camel. But then a Roman centurion charges by on his chariot like an ICE thug and runs over the boy’s other little friend, a lamb. We suspect if he’d had a Taser, he’d have used it just for the thrill of cruelty. Authoritarian governments haven’t changed in thousands of years. This boy has suffered so much in this cartoon, we can barely take any more at this point.
One of the Three Kings tells the boy to appeal to the Baby
Jesus for help, and here we have our opening to the song (cue Vienna Boys Choir) “The Little Drummer Boy” and “I
have to no gift to bring…shall I play for him?”
Though the stop-motion photography is just as jerky and crude as in the
other cartoons, the story here is deeper, and the thoughtful, contemplative telling of it
leaves a greater impression. This cartoon, for me, was also notable for introducing me to Greer Garson.
Miss Garson is an unseen narrator and is credited as “Our Storyteller.”
Her rich, cultured voice is soothing and enchanting, and we are carried
through time and space in her opening, “And it came to pass that there went out
a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed…”
When the boy’s heart is touched by the pure love of the Infant, and his lamb is healed, Greer tells us, “He realized the hate he carried there was wrong, as all hatred will ever be wrong.”
It would be many years before I discovered Mrs. Miniver
or Pride and Prejudice, so The Little Drummer Boy was my
introduction to Greer Garson, or at least her beautiful speaking voice.
Perhaps a cartoon Greer in caricature would have lessened
the gravitas of the story, but I think I would have liked to have seen Our Storyteller. A woman in such a serious, venerable
role would have been inspiring.
But to depict her in caricature or not? Hmm.
Wishing a peaceful and happy Christmas to all who celebrate.
GIFTS FOR THE CLASSIC FILM FAN!!!!!!!
Christmas in Classic Films provides a roster of old movies with scenes to conjure Christmas of days gone by. Makes a nice gift, if you know an old movie buff, or if you just like to give presents to yourself.
The paperback is available at Amazon, but also here at Barnes & Noble.
The hardcover, so far, is available only at Amazon.
Here are a few other classic movie books I've written for your gift-giving pleasure:
Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. - for sale in paperback and hardcover at Amazon,
And in paperback and hardcover here at Ingram,
And in paperback and hardcover here at Barnes & Noble.
And in paperback here at Walmart.
Hollywood Fights Fascism - here in paperback at Amazon.
Movies in Our Time - here in paperback at Amazon.
And all of these books are available as well at my page on Bookshop.org, which helps support independent bookstores.
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