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by Yonatan Klotz
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Ask people from a certain generation to name iconic Christmas movies. Most of them will remember the stop-motion classic from 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Santa Claus is coming to town. And yet, in the process These became famous with annual broadcasts (and yes, before streaming, we’d wait to see a show the one time a year it aired), there’s another stop-motion Christmas special that’s not as famous, but it’s still a classic. Claymation Christmas CelebrationAnother stop-motion TV special full of musical numbers, most notably The California Raisins, first aired in 1987 and became a favorite of the younger generation.
Claymation musical
Created by talented animator Will Winton, Claymation Christmas Celebration Begins with his dinosaur hosts, Rex and Herb, and prefaces the running joke of the two arguing over how to pronounce “assault.” They then perform various musical numbers, including anthropomorphic bells performing “Carol of the Bells”, a pair of walruses skating to “Angels We Have Heard On High”, and then two crowd pleasers, “We Three Kings” mixing the classic song With R&B Camels, then “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” as performed by the California Raisins.
The misplaced stop-motion shows are balanced by “O Christmas Tree,” where the camera pans into various decorations to show celebrations around the world, and “Joy to the World,” which isn’t stop-motion and is instead a series of moving and stunning paintings. Each sequence is someone’s favorite, and the banter between Rex and Herb that surrounds each segment pays off in the end. However, it is clear Claymation Christmas Celebration greater than the sum of its parts.
From a marketing campaign to a Christmas classic
The California Raisins were a marketing gimmick for Sun-Maid, who exploded 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 merchandise, albums and Raisins. Several TV specials. Will Winton, creator of the Raisins, will also go on to create the M&Ms mascots, The Noid, and The PJsamong dozens of others. Coming a year after the debut of The Raisins, Claymation Christmas Celebration earned Winton one of his multiple Primetime Emmy Awards for animation, a category he dominated for the next decade.
The great attraction to Claymation Christmas Celebration There was the California Raisin, and while they were created by an advertising agency for mass appeal, they fit right in with the rest of the stop-motion creatures. Theirs was always my favorite as a kid, but now, I can’t pick one favorite because they all have great stuff, even “Joy to the World,” which was my least favorite growing up because there wasn’t any clay.
Claymation Christmas Celebration Released on DVD back in 2003, it is, to this day, the last release of the TV special in physical format. regarding influxThe special has ceased to exist, and even YouTube uploads are ripped on a regular basis. It’s a shame that the special, one of the best examples of stop-motion from the 80s, became, like so many The Muppets projects, lost media that deserves to be watched every Christmas.
