Psycho Misfit Dolls Rock
18
I’ll tell you what I want for Christmas.
This doll.
For years I’ve wondered what the hell is wrong with the doll from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I mean, the train has a square wheel and the cowboy shoots jelly from his gun (I fail to see how this is a disadvantage…) and all. But what’s wrong with the cute little dolly?
Well, in an effort to bring news to the masses here at the venerable journalistic institution Pajamas and Coffee (snort), I Googled it. I checked out the RankinBass.com site, which isn’t so much about Rankin and Bass as it is about the guy who wrote a cool book about them (the book is out of print but the guy sells it on ebay and amazon for $75).
Rankin and Bass and their coolio ’animagic’ TV Christmas specials rocked my world when I was a kid. To this day they’re mandatory holiday viewing for my kids and I am ALL ABOUT Rudolph, Santa Claus is Comin to Town (love Mrs. Claus’ younger hippie days and the part where Winter Warlock melts) and my very fave, Year Without a Santa Claus.
The Miser brothers. ‘Nuff said.
And the MUSIC?! Know it all by heart. Maury Laws and his musical genius will live on forever in our little misfit hearts. Put One Foot In Front of the Other, Anyone Can Be Santa, Why Am I Such a Misfit, and to me the best of the best- Snow Miser and Heat Miser’s ragtime classic songs. The very opening trumpeted sounds make me want to get up and start doing the background dancer spinny routine (He’s Mister Heat Miser, He’s Mister Sun….)
But back to Rudolph’s challenged friends. So I found an article about the doll. $75 book author guy reveals in an article that (in his $75 book) you can discover (for $75) on page five that Arthur Rankin stated to him that the doll’s issue is ‘more psychological than physical.’
Also, Wikipedia reports: “Her misfit problem is never explained on the special, but was revealed on NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! news quiz show (broadcast December 8, 2007). The show revealed that Rudolph’s producer, Arthur Rankin Jr., says Dolly’s problem was psychological, caused from being abandoned by her mistress and suffering depression from feeling unloved.”
Exquizzle me?
She’s a PSYCHO and THAT is what is wrong with her? Just because she CRIES EASILY? I mean, the abandonment issues are totally sad and all, and people actually PAY MONEY for dolls that cry so I fail to see how her slight depression challenge makes her a MISFIT! So…what? Rankin and Bass are saying all females are hysterical??! Now, Mrs. Claus in her various iterations and the very-cool Mother Nature are great stop-motion-animated women and all but making ‘emotional’ a ‘misfit’ thing is wrong. So she’s emo. So what?
If I was a kid, I’d still want her for Christmas. Even as an adult I do.
So, JavaJammers, tell me your favorite Rankin and Bass TV moment!
And here I thought it was because the patterns of her dress weren’t exactly the same. LMAO! I never realized as a kid that she was a crazy chick.
Yeah I’m with Angela.. had no idea she was a fruit loop.
Favorite moment…hm haven’t watched any for awhile..
We watch it every year too!! I love it!
Okay, scaring childhood moment alert. The woman who gestated my mother (we don’t give her any endearing titles like Granny or Nana, she’s to EVIL).. actually told me if I wasn’t good all I’d get for Christmas was THAT DOLL.. and that I’d get laughed at because my dolly wouldn’t be able to smile and be pretty.. she’d be just like ME. That woman is PROOF that evil dies hard.. she’s still going at 78 years old!
I was TOTALLY into Yukon Jack myself.. something about a big burly guy with and axe and slight accent no one can place .. grrrr
I almost laughed enough to pee. The post and then a follow up with DiPaola Momma’s recount.
Priceless!
Also, that doll rocks. We didn’t have Christmas in my house when I was little so never expereinced Rankin & Bass but wish I had now!
correction: the cowboy rides an ostrich and the toy gun shoots jelly. My bad. Thanks, Wikipedia!
They should update it and make her a cutter, too. Might as well go whole-hog.
My fav? Freakin BUMBLE people! Scary and stupid… but bad ass. He never even BLED when his teeth were pulled out. He is all kinds of Chuck Norris.
My fav song? Of course… the Heat Miser! Once it is in your head it never ever ever ever goes away!
I thought it was because she couldn’t close her arms to hug. As a kid that was an important aspect of doll ownership. And a scary glimspe of how void of love my childhood actually was….thanks for bringing back those crushing memories. Merry Christmas. I need a drink already….
The complete diagnosis was Major Depression with Psychotic Features. She would have been too dangerous to be around children. One minute crying and inconsolable. The next minute she would be swinging a machete saying she was Katherine Hepburn in The African Queen. It was very sad really. If she only would have taken her meds…
Of course the music from A Year Without a Santa had the best music. Especially the son’s of Mother Nature. You know, Dean Martin and Paul Lynde.
I’d want to get her as an xmas pressie. Afterall she needs someone to love her and look after her, not psychoanalyze her.
It’s a little disturbing at the same time though! It has made me think twice about the gifts I am giving my son this christmas, incase they all have hidden meanings of manic depression too!
Yikes!
Take care
Kate Collings
xx
Seriously? She’s fucking depressed? That’s what her misfit is? That is just retarded. Ah…poor Dolly, welcome to the freakin’ real world darlin’. Don’t like it? You really need to find a couch somewhere, cry about it, get some fucking Zoloft and get over it.
Wow! I didn’t realize I had all the pent up aggression just lying right beneath the surface there Marymac. Thanks, I feel like I had my own session on the couch!
Love! Oh yeah, Merry Fucking Christmas!
Favorite moment in Rudolph — when the wannabe dentist elf says, “We can be independent together!” Too cute!
And a little Lexapro and dolly is fine . . . or maybe a glass of wine?
Andrea
I am so totally into the romance of Rudolf and Clarice. A real Rudolfio and Claricette romance if you know what I mean.
Ummm, do you think the Elf that wanted to be a dentist was really an animated symbol of the gay rights movement of the time? I do. He made me so proud as stood up and chose to fight the “Elf” establishment.
oh, I always thought that the problem with the doll was that the dollmaker had painted a frown instead of a smile, so she didn’t have any choice. But now I know better.
One day she will grow up and find wine and blogging and just like the rest of us misfit bloggers she will have a perfect home.
LOL on all these comments!
yeah, you guys are right- being a misfit is totally cool!
Yukon Cornelieus, Hermie, the Bergermeister, and the Miser’s were some of my favourite characters, but I was always more impressed with who the narrators were, Fred Astaire, Shirley Booth, Red Skelton, Burl Ives.
Definately a staple to my xmas viewing, still working on getting all the dvd’s (Frosty included) but have most of them already.