I think "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is classic television. This sequel made over a decade later is ... not classic. It's fine. I think my main issue with it is that while the original was grounded in shared Christmas mythology, this one is pretty much just a mish-mash of made up stuff. An evil buzzard steals Baby New Year, so Father Time sends Rudolph to the Archipelago of Last Year, which are ... time travel islands. Rudolph teams up with Benjamin Franklin, a caveman and a robot clock to ... really, who cares? Father Time is voiced by Red Skelton, and they made him look too much like him. I found it weird and disconcerting. Useless trivia moment:I saw this in 1976 when it first aired, and it was the first time I had ever heard the word "archipelago".

This review may displease fans of these specials, and to them I apologize in advance. I've been trying to get myself to like this Rankin/Bass production now for about four years since obtaining it on DVD and may officially be throwing in the towel here. To each his own, my sense of nostalgia forces me to sit through it even if the enjoyment factor is somewhat low. I adore R/B's classic animation approach -- which is certainly not "claymation", by the way. The models are all composed of cloth, wood and other solid non-clay like materials formed on wire armatures. "Stop motion animation" would be the proper term, not that it really matters. Just being a nerd by pointing it out.What does matter is that this time out the story is too oblique for its own good, a complex matter involving Rudolph brought in to find the infant New Year baby who decided it didn't like having its big ears made fun of and sports off in search of his own destiny. Rudolph, called in like an adjunct member of the Justice League, is quickly on the case. Along the way they encounter several barely memorable characters and a confusing string of events set to easily forgettable songs. Red Skelton's crooning of "Turn Back the Years" doesn't rate on the same scale as the accursed "Holly Jolly Christmas" or even "There's Always Tomorrow", my most hated of all the Rankin/Bass songs. Give me "Blue Christmas" any day over that please. At least those songs were worthy enough to inspire genuine disgust, the ones presented here are merely tedious or perfunctory.In the end what may be condemning the effort in my eyes may be a lack of recollection of seeing the special as a kid. There is a direct relation to one's repeated exposure to this kind of entertainment as a tot and appreciation for it as an adult. The other Rankin/Bass heavyweights were routinely screened on the big three networks during my coming of age years but this one seems to have slipped through the cracks. Or, more likely, was aired on non-television nights in our family household. Imagine that, nights when the kids aren't allowed to watch TV. Parents would find themselves in court these days.Then again my folks probably conceded that Rudolph, Burgermeister-Meisterburger and Heatmiser were too cool for them to deny us a look every year. Those specials resonated on a level that goes beyond nostalgia, where with this one the hook seems to be all about nostalgia for those prior efforts: Look! it's Rudolph! and we're in for another hour with his annoyingly whiny voice. Our devotion to that special was supposed to fuel by rote an equal devotion here but the effort falls flat with a complicated story (how again does the caveman end up in a snowball fight with Ben Franklin while the giant buzzard fights with the whale?), tepid songs and a general lack of inspiration. They gave it the college try with the usual stellar production design & threw in the kitchen sink with high profile guest roles, but to what avail? There isn't even a decent parody website sending the premise up, a key indication that it sort of flunked where general audiences were concerned.Hence the special doesn't get its own DVD but ends up as a bonus feature on the "Year Without a Santa Claus" disc where it probably belongs, with the dreadful "Nestor the Christmas Donkey" which is a downright depressing bit of holiday drivel. Devotees of the Rankin/Bass formula will certainly want to seek it out but the prospect of it becoming a tradition in its own right is fairly low even with a lack of holiday specials specific to the new year. Maybe some holidays just don't inspire the same kind of outrageous imagination which resulted in the Heatmiser or the Grinch.Though I will concede that lack of contact with the special as a kid likely played the determining factor here. Indeed if there is a new year holiday viewing tradition I do recall fondly it was the yearly screenings of "Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World". Looked forward to it even if I didn't understand a damn thing, which oddly is how I regard this special now: I don't get it, mysteries give me a bellyache and life is short. The forty five minutes up for grabs here can be more happily assigned to a 2nd viewing of one of the masterpieces. Why waste time on a second stringer? But to each his own and I admit to watching it every year as well. Part of the yearly program even if I just don't get it.4/10

Rudolph has to find the missing Happy, the big-eared Baby New Year, prior to the end of New Year's Eve or else the old year will go on indefinitely. Rudolph is assisted in his desperate mission by friendly whale Big Ben, cheery caveman One Million (O.M. for short), noble knight Sir Ten-To-Three, and the amiable Ben Franklynesque Seventeen Seventy Six. Meanwhile, evil monster bird Eon the Terrible wants to get his nasty claws on Happy so he can live forever. This really sweet and delightful holiday television special boasts the usual appealing attributes which make these shows by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr. so utterly charming and irresistible: a catchy and jaunty soundtrack of infectiously bouncy songs, a giddy, upbeat tone, cool stop-motion animation, likable and colorful characters, an amusing sense of gentle good-natured humor, and an engrossingly simple and straightforward story. Red Skelton makes for a warm and folksy narrator as Father Time. In addition, marvelous voice actor supreme Paul Frees lends his glorious golden throat to Eon, Seventeen Seventy Six, Santa Claus, and clockwork soldier General Ticker. The other cast members voice their roles with tremendous hearty aplomb: Billie Mae Richards as eternal optimist Rudolph, Frank Gorshin as Sir Ten-To-Three, Morey Amsterdam as One Million, Harold Peary as Big Ben, and Don Messick as the grumpy Papa Bear. A total treat.

This is one of the series of clay-animation movies starting with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. In this one, Rudolph agrees to help Santa Claus find the New Year Baby that ran away. Of course there is a villian, that tries to stop them. Clean, wholesome, family movie, all right for small children to watch.