Rankin/Bass
From Muppet Wiki
Rankin/Bass was an animation studio founded by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, best known for a series of seasonal holiday-themed specials. Many of these productions used a form of stop-motion animation called "Animagic," and used celebrities as narrators. Their best known specials, often based on popular songs, include Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Frosty the Snowman, and Here Comes Peter Cottontail. They also produced series starring King Kong and Smokey Bear. Later productions, with much of the animation outsourced to Japan, included the series The Thundercats, the feature The Last Unicorn, and adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Return of the King.
References
- A wind-up toy of Pinocchio, from the Rankin-Bass series The New Adventures of Pinocchio, is seen in the 10 Baker Film.
- Joe Snow from It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie is a spoof of Burl Ives' Sam the Snowman character from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
- In Elmo's Christmas Countdown Stiller the Elf says he wants to be a dentist, an allusion to Hermey the elf's misfit desire in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Connections
- Cynthia Adler played Rudolph's Mother in Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979) and Cheryl Paisner in The Conheads (1983)
- Alan Arkin played Schmendrick in The Last Unicorn (1983)
- Fred Astaire played S. D. Kluger in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1972) and The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town (1977)
- Carl Banas played countless voice roles between 1961 and 1972, including Dandy Lion & the Wizard in The Tales of the Wizard of Oz and its spin-off special, The Return to Oz, the foreman elf in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Professor Bond in King Kong, and various literary roles in Festival of Family Classics.
- Camille Banora played all the female voices on Tigersharks (1987)
- Art Carney played Barney Killikilarney in The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold (1981)
- Judy Collins sang the title song in The Wind in the Willows (1987)
- Phyllis Diller played the Monster's Mate in Mad Monster Party? (1963)
- Mia Farrow played the unicorn/Lady Almathea in The Last Unicorn (1982)
- Paul Frees played many roles, including Santa Claus in multiple specials, Burgermesiter Meisterburger in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970), Kubla Krause and Father Winter in Jack Frost (1978), and others.
- Seth Green was a regular on The Mini-Monsters (1987)
- Joel Grey played Joshua Trundel in Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)
- Buddy Hackett played Pardon-Me-Pete in Jack Frost (1979)
- Margaret Hamilton played Mrs. Kloppelbobbler in The Daydreamer (1966)
- Peter Hawkins played various characters in Tomfoolery (1970)
- Gregory Hines played Noel in Santa Baby! (2001)
- Skip Hinnant of The Electric Company played Sunny the Easter Bunny in The Easter Bunny Is Coming to Town (1977)
- James Earl Jones played Ommadon in The Flight of Dragons (1986)
- Danny Kaye played Seymour S. Sassafrass, Antonie, and Col. Bunny in Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971) and Marmaduke in The Emperor's New Clothes (1972)
- Patti Labelle played Melody Songbird in Santa Baby! (2001)
- Christopher Lee played King Haggard in The Last Unicorn (1982)
- Ethel Merman played Lilly Lorraine in Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979)
- Roger Miller played Speiltoe the Donkey in Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977)
- Zero Mostel played Brutus in The Little Drummer Boy, Book II (1980)
- Laraine Newman played Connie in The Coneheads (1983)
- Vincent Price played Irontail in Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971)
- Claude Rae played Mr. Toad in The Reluctant Dragon and Mr. Toad and various voices in Willie McBean and His Flying Machine, The New Adventures of Pinocchio, and others.
- Miranda Richardson played Anna Leanowens in The King and I (1998)
- John Ritter played Peter Dickenson in The Flight of Dragons (1986)
- John Stephenson voiced various goblins and orcs in The Hobbit (1977) and Return of the king (1980)
- Marlo Thomas played Bertha in The Cricket on the Hearth (1967)
- Alice Tweedie played a washer woman in The Wind in the Willows (1987)
