Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July
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Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July is a 1979 Rankin-Bass sequel filmed in stop-motion animation in the style of their 1964 Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It was 97 minutes long. Paul Frees, Jackie Vernon and Shelly Winters reprised their roles and Billie Mae Richards again provided the voice of Rudolph. Mickey Rooney provides the voice of Santa Claus. Red Buttons and Ethel Merman also provide voices.
[edit] Plot
In this special, evil wizard Winterbolt wakes from a magic sleep cast upon him by Lady Boreal. In her final act of magic, Boreal transfers the last of his power into Rudolph's red nose, which will stop glowing if it is ever used for evil. Winterbolt learns of this and plans not only dispose of Rudolph, the only power capable of stopping him, but also to reclaim his territory from Santa Claus. To achieve this, Winterbolt plans to take advantage of Frosty and his family.
Winterbolt offers Frosty magic amulets that will keep his family from melting and enable them to attend a Fourth of July Circus in which Rudolph is to star, but they will only be protected until the end of the event. Santa agree to pick up Frosty and his wife Crystal before the magic wears off, but Winterbolt has his dragons blow up a blizzard to prevent Santa from arriving on time. Winterbolt also recruits an evil reindeer named Scratcher (voiced by Alan Sues) to try to get Rudolph to turn, or at least appeared evil in the eyes of his friends. With the blizzard keeping Santa from getting to them, time was not on the side of Frosty and family.
Scratcher, taking advantage of Rudolph's kindness, steals money from the circus and sets up Rudolph to take the blame. Rudolph agrees to appear guilty after making a deal with Winterbolt, to extend the powers of the amulets Frosty's family wears for an infinite time in exchange. Frosty's family are outraged at Rudolph and his nose stops glowing. Only Frosty knows the truth and wants to restore Rudolph's glowing nose. Winterbolt takes advantage of Frosty as well by lying and agreeing to do it in exchange for Frosty's hat, with intention to use the magic powers of Frosty's hat to create an army of snowmen. Rudolph manages to steal back the hat, and his nose regains its glow. Once Winterbolt is vanquished, all the spells he has cast are negated and Frosty and his family are in danger of melting once again. However, Jack Frost, the villain from the previous Frosty's Winter Wonderland (but in the "animagic" form from another Rankin/Bass special called Jack Frost), arrives to rescue his former nemesis and family as they are whisked back to the North Pole by Santa.
