YMMV / Rudolph's Shiny New Year

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: The special is supposed to deliver a message about enjoying the things that make you unique, but it blurs into "if your physical deformity makes people laugh, let them. Be glad you're making them so happy."
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: Rudolph visits 1965 in his search for Happy, but he says the island "was too noisy". Among the events that defined 1965 were rock music from bands such as The Beatles (not to mention girls going crazy for those bands) and Vietnam War protests, so what Rudolph encountered there is widely left open for the viewer. Given that it's the most recent year mentioned, it could just be a joke on modernity.
• Awesome Music: While some of the songs in this special aren't as memorable as the original 1964 special, it does have some catchy songs that might leave you humming a bit. The most noteworthy are Father Time's song "The Moving Finger Writes" showing The Baby New Year growing up to become Father Time, "Turn Back The Years" showing Rudolph traveling through the Sea of Auld Lang Syne, "Have A Hap-Hap-Happy New Year", and Rudolph's song "Have A Little Faith in Me" to lift up the spirits of O.M., Sir 1023, and Sev as their entering the sea of despair.
• Contested Sequel: This special has gained mixed reception because it suddenly has a completely different Rudolph puppet, despite starring the same character and taking place immediately after the original, while also not featuring any other characters from that such as Hermie and Yukon Cornelius. Not to mention he's also young again in all the sequels.
• Heartwarming Moments: While the special has gained mixed reception with fans of the original 1964 special, Rudolph's Shiny New Year does have some notably sweet moments.:
  • Happy befriending The Three Bears from Goldilocks. While it's sadly short-lived due to Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Baby Bear laughing at Baby New Year's ears, the friendship Happy develops with Baby Bear is notably sweet. Mama Bear even starts shedding tears at the sight of her son making his very first friend.
  • Rudolph's cheering up O.M., Sir 1023, and Sev by singing "Have A Little Faith in Me" as their losing faith on saving Happy. While Billie Mae Richards doesn't sing often in future projects, this song alongside "No Bed of Roses" is one of her most beautifully sung performances.
  • After Rudolph finishes singing the aforementioned song, his red nose begins glowing which he aims above a rain cloud causing a rainbow to appear above the group. This immediately lefts their spirits up resulting in this exchange from O.M. (aka "One Million").
    O.M.: (happily) It.. it.. it really is raining sunshine.
  • Rudolph finally meeting Happy after his friends are stuck inside a giant block of snow. Rudolph talks to Happy about how his situation is similar to Rudolph's red nose. After telling Happy about how his red nose was actually very special, Rudolph convinces him to take off his hat and reveal his ears. While Rudolph starts laughing at him, he quickly clarifies that he laughed because it made him feel happy, which lets Happy feel better about his ears. Rudolph's kindness and clarification causes Happy to utter his first words in pure happiness.
    Happy: (overjoyed by Rudolph's words) Ha... ha... (yells) HAPPY! (starts giggling)
• Jerkass Woobie: Yes, Eon is absolutely in the wrong for kidnapping a baby and risking time stopping forever. But think about it: Eon isn't doing this out of malice, so much as he is simply afraid of his own mortality. He doesn't want to die, especially since that would entail becoming ice and snow. Not exactly the most pleasant way to go out. To the special's credit, it's implied as long as he keeps laughing, he'll be fine.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Eon. While his voice is a little ridiculous, he still tries to kidnap a baby whom he then threatens to enslave, all so he never has to die.
  • Papa Bear gets an intimidating introduction with a rapid zoom in on his very angry looking face as he approaches seemingly to harm Happy. Thankfully, he turns out to be just gruff, but not evil.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While the story keeps claiming that the characters who laugh at Happy's ears aren't trying to be mean, their reactions often come off as cruel which can make them hard to sympathize with.
• Unintentional Period Piece: While this special has the same timeless (no pun intended) aspect as the 1964 special, it was made during a period when American was going all out for the "United States Bicentennial" celebration (which lasted from April 1, 1975 – July 4, 1976) celebrating the 200th anniversary of The Deceleration of Independence, which explains the addition of The Island of 1776 and Sev who is designed after Benjamin Franklin.
  • Also, the use of '19-wonderful' as the new year, and the fact that 1965 is the most recent old year in the Archipelago of Last Years makes its origin in the mid-to-late 20th century very obvious (though calling it '19-wonderful' at least doesn't date the movie to a very, very specific year between 1967 and 1999).
• Vindicated by History: While the film might not be as popular as the original 1964 special, it does have many nostalgic fans who remember seeing it every Christmas, and it has enjoyed slightly warmer reception in recent times thanks to strong DVD sales and yearly holiday reruns. In addition, it lacks the Values Dissonance of the original, making it feel like less of a period piece, and overall has a more upbeat tone.

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