Rankin & Bass probably didn’t realize the significance their twenty-four minute animated film, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, would have on a generation of children. It’s not hard to appreciate the charm of this classic, first released in 1974. Fast forward thirty-seven years, and ‘Twas is making its first (and probably only) splash on Blu-ray and DVD in the form of a Deluxe Edition.
Both discs are nearly identical in terms of content, with some minor differences, but the Blu-ray version was clearly remastered and cleaned up. It still shows some age, sure, but in comparison to the DVD in the same package, it’s a much better version, complete with more vibrant colors and an overall crisper, not-nearly-as-dull image. The DVD version is in a traditional full screen ratio too, while the Blu-ray opts for a slightly more widescreen presentation. On either disc, 1.0 audio is presented, although the Blu-ray has English and Spanish spoken languages, while the DVD has just English. Furthermore, the Blu-ray has subtitles for English, Spanish, and French, while the DVD has just English and French subs.
If you haven’t seen the movie, I’m happy to say it hasn’t lost much of its charm, although it’s not something I care to watch more than once every few years. The story is set in a small town of Junctionville, and is centered around a family of mice and a human clock builder named Trundle. One day, everyone’s letters to Santa get returned by the postman, and the town is unsure why. Turns out, Albert, a genius mouse, wrote a letter to the town newspaper that Santa discovered. It purported that Santa was not real. The town’s government sought a solution to how to convince Santa that they were mistaken, so that he would indeed stop by there that year.
Trundle decides to build a massive clock. At the stroke of midnight on Christmas morning, all of the people of the town would be outside and singing a song dedicated to Santa. Problems arise, but a good spirit and fellowship prevail and all ends well. And while not one of my favorite Christmas tales, ‘Twas is nonetheless a classic and one that seems to appeal to children readily due to its simple animations and short runtime, generation after generation.
As for extra features, there is one called “Christmas: A Global Holiday” that runs just shy of nine minutes. It’s presented in SD and starts off a little weird (the elf character and how he talked threw me off), but quickly gets more interesting. The elf talks about the Christmas holiday and explains to the viewer a variety of differences between the American Christmas and that of other nations, such as Brazil, France, Germany, England, Japan, and Mexico. The elf points out that, no matter what people call it, Christmas is really all about family and being together, a point I couldn’t argue.
At first glance, I didn’t think a Blu-ray version of a twenty-four minute, 1970s cartoon was really all that necessary. But, Warner did do a pretty good job cleaning up the image quality and making it worthwhile for someone who does not yet have this one in their collection.
To the summary…