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By Jonathan Klotz | Published
Ask people of a certain generation to name iconic Christmas movies.. Most will mention the 1964 stop-motion classic. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer either Santa Claus is coming to town. Still, while those that became famous with annual broadcasts (and yes, before broadcast, we would wait to watch a show the one time a year it aired), there is another stop-motion Christmas special that is not as famous, but is still a classic. . A Christmas celebration with plasticineanother stop-motion television special filled with musical numbers and, notably, The California Raisins, which first aired in 1987 and became a favorite of a younger generation.
A plasticine musical
Created by talented animator Will Vinton, A Christmas celebration with plasticine begins with their dinosaur hosts, Rex and Herb, and introducing the running joke of the two arguing over how to pronounce “wassailing.” They then introduce different musical numbers, including anthropomorphic bells performing “Carol of the Bells,” a couple of walruses ice skating to “Angels We Have Heard On High,” and then the two crowd-pleasers “We Three Kings,” mixing the classic song. with R&B camels, then “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” performed by the California Raisins.
The extravagant stop-motion performances are matched by “O Christmas Tree,” in which the camera flows into different decorations to show celebrations around the world, and “Joy to the World,” which is not stop-motion but a series of beautiful and moving paintings. Every sequence is someone’s favorite, and the banter between Rex and Herb that closes each segment ultimately pays off. However, it is clear that A Christmas celebration with plasticine It is greater than the sum of its parts.
From marketing campaign to Christmas classic
The California Raisins were a marketing gimmick for Sun-Maid, who burst into pop culture with a cover of “I Heard it Through the Grape-Vine,” but there was something about them that resonated with people, leading to Raisins products, albums and products. Multiple television specials. Will Vinton, the creator of Raisins, would also create the M&Ms mascots, The Noid and the pajamasamong dozens of others. Arriving a year after the Raisins’ debut, A Christmas celebration with plasticine It earned Vinton one of his many Primetime Emmy Awards for animation, a category he dominated for the next decade.
The great attraction for A Christmas celebration with plasticine They were California raisins, and while they were created by an advertising agency to appeal to the masses, they fit in perfectly with the rest of the stop-motion creatures. Their segment was always my favorite as a kid, but now I can’t pick a favorite, as each one has great things about them, even “Joy to the World,” which was my least favorite as a kid because not having any animation with plasticine.
A Christmas celebration with plasticine was released on DVD in 2003 and to date is the most recent physical release of the television special. As for streaming, the special ceased to exist, and even YouTube uploads are deleted on a regular basis. It’s a shame that the special, one of the best examples of ’80s stop-motion, has become, like so many of the Muppets projects, a lost medium because it deserves to be seen every Christmas.
