Rankin/Bass Classic Christmas-a-thon!

This box set includes the four original classic Christmas specials from Rankin/Bass: RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER, SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN, THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY & FROSTY THE SNOWMAN. These are all without question excellent holiday productions that have not only stood the test of time, but, if anything, become more popular as the years go by and have been permanently woven into the perennial fabric of Christmas. There are also 3 extra specials on this box-set, the recently unearthed and long forgotten about Rankin/Bass special CRICKET ON THE HEARTH and two non-Rankin/Bass specials MR MAGOO'S CHRISTMAS CAROL and the horrendous sequel FROSTY RETURNS. MR MAGOO seems out-of-place on this box set but it is a nice special while FROSTY RETURNS is out-of-place and terrible and really should have been left off. But I'm not going to subtract any stars for additional material, as it is just that, and you can choose if you want to watch it or not. All of the specials look and sound great except for THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY which for some reason has a very grainy look to it and some audio issues as well. RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER was released in a single-disc DVD several years ago with lost footage added back in and a nice introduction from Arthur Rankin (he also provided an intro on the single disc FROSTY THE SNOWMAN that was released at the same time). But some of the missing footage has been snipped out once again for this presentation as has Arthur Rankin's intros. There is another box set available from Warner Home Video entitled "CHRISTMAS TELEVISION CLASSICS" which includes some other popular Rankin/Bass specials such as "Year Without A Santa Claus", "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" and "Frosty's Winter Wonderland". It would be nice if there could be a complete Rankin/Bass box set but seeing as how their catalog is owned by two seperate companies (the older ones by Classic Media and the newer ones by Warner) unfortunately, this will not be happening any time soon. Until then we will have Classic Media releasing these four classic with whatever add-on specials they can find, and Warner releasing their specials and trying hard to make the cover art look like they are actually these four specials.

Grew up watching these on TV

These are the old favorites kids watched years ago. I'm thrilled that someone finally put these on DVD so my kids can enjoy them.

The Classics...

I love this series! I'm 32 years old and it takes me back to being a kid when they played the cartoons on tv on Sunday nights. My son (he's 3) absolutely adores Rudolph.

This is great collection because it has the classic songs and cartoons. The Cricket on the Hearth is included in this set and it's a little bizzare, but all in all this is the greatest set I've seen yet.

There is also a music CD included. It's awesome.