[HN Gopher] The complicated man who made 'Rudolph'
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       The complicated man who made 'Rudolph'
        
       Author : zdw
       Score  : 62 points
       Date   : 2022-12-12 13:52 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (animationobsessive.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (animationobsessive.substack.com)
        
       | pugworthy wrote:
       | All jokes aside, I have to wonder if Tadahito Mochinaga pondered
       | at all the story and characters through the lens of his own
       | political beliefs.
       | 
       | First, there's the obvious "Red" part of the film's title
       | character, which one might see as amusing or ironic given the
       | term was used in the west for communists.
       | 
       | Or in any way did he look at the story line of Santa's whole
       | socioeconomic model centering around both pseudo (slave?) labor
       | of the elves, combined with the socialist "toys for all" message
       | of Santa. Should the workers rise up, or accept that their labor
       | allows for socialism (of toys to children) to flourish?
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | drewcoo wrote:
       | Bah! Gene Autry made Rudolph [1]. He was a singing cowboy who
       | also made science fiction crossover serials [2], so I suppose
       | that's complicated.
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_the_Red-
       | Nosed_Reindeer...
       | 
       | [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_Empire
        
         | dartmoose wrote:
         | Who knows how far back the chain of inspiration and influence
         | goes, but Robert Lewis May's book predates Gene Autry [1]. The
         | wiki link you shared actually mentions the inspiration for Gene
         | was a children's book.
         | 
         | [1] https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2011/12/rudolph-red-nosed-
         | re...
        
           | jjulius wrote:
           | >The wiki link you shared actually mentions the inspiration
           | for Gene was a children's book.
           | 
           | And even mentions May, specifically:
           | 
           | >In 1939, Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May, created the
           | character Rudolph as an assignment for Montgomery Ward, and
           | Marks decided to adapt the story of Rudolph into a song.
        
         | aidenn0 wrote:
         | Johnny Marks (who worked on the stop-motion show) was credited
         | with writing the Autry song (and his brother-in-law created the
         | character itself).
        
         | vanderZwan wrote:
         | It's an animation blog. With context it's obvious the blog is
         | going to discuss the "Rudolph" animation, not the song, since
         | the latter has no place on such a blog.
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | snickerbockers wrote:
       | Does this mean it qualifies as anime?
        
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       (page generated 2022-12-12 23:00 UTC)