What's the Matter with Misfits? Society.
A Queer Approach to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) – Queer
I LOVED the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials when I was a kid. Absolutely ate them up with all their freaky little dolls despite the fact I find puppets and dolls terrifying. There’s a magic to these films that always sat just right with me, but interestingly, it had been years since I had seen any of them. So, you know I was eager to cue up Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) for this week’s review. And you KNOW I was so extremely pleased when the Review Roulette landed on Queer theory for this week’s lens because HOW PERFECT? Also, because it’s December and therefore Christmas and I am at my busiest, we’re going full relaxed mode with this review: casual, short, and sweet.
As a reminder, queer theory is not strictly about LGBTQ+ identities and experiences (although we could have a little gander at some things in this film and other Rankin/Bass productions that have become iconically queer in that sense *cough* Heat and Snow Misers respectively). Queer theory is more widely about looking at a film, a life, the world from a non-normative perspective, which can mean pretty much anything in the realm of acting or existing in a way that stands apart from the group, i.e. being a misfit. And what film does better at explaining that it’s society’s fault there are misfits at all by having such rigid definitions of how to be in this world than Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
If you don’t know the premise of Rudolph, it’s pretty much the same as the song but with extra characters with excellent motivations and identities including Hermey, the elf who doesn’t want to make toys (he wants to be a dentist), Yukon Cornelius, the prospector looking for silver and gold who befriends Hermey and Rudolph when they run away from their bullies, and the Bumble, the abominable snowman who is straight up tortured (Hermey pulls all of his teeth out so he can’t eat the reindeer and it’s like how does this creature eat? And then Yukon Cornelius is like “I reformed him, and he just wants a job now” and you’re like hmm, don’t really feel great about this ending?).
What the film does do an amazing job with though is gaslighting the hell out of Rudolph and Hermey and denying them the right to just live their lives. Rudolph’s dad (Donner) is so hellbent on hiding Rudolph’s nose (which is openly called his “non-conformity”) that he smears just mud on the kid’s face and then later puts a full-on cap on his nose that looks like it was purposefully made, like Donner put immense thought into finding a device to enclose Rudolph’s nose and then constructed a cover from what might be coal or metal. His only crime was being born and when he expresses to his dad that he does not want to wear the cap because it is uncomfortable, Donner says there are more important things than comfort including “self-respect.” Then at the end of the film when there is finally a utilitarian purpose for Rudolph, Donner says “I knew that nose would be useful.” SIR. Unbelievable torment in this film.
Anyway, Rudolph captures something very powerful and it’s striking that this was made specifically for children in 1964 after such a strict social conservatism in the 1950s. This TV special is openly saying that if there is something different about you physically like Rudolph, or if you think a little differently from those around you and want to pursue something personally meaningful like Hermey, or if you are just a guy with some dogs and no heteronormative relationship to mention at all like Yukon, or different in any of the ways that the toys on the Island of Misfit Toys are, then that’s just fine. It even has a banger of an anthem for misfits including the lyrics:
Seems I don't fit in
We may be different from the rest
Who decides the test
Of what is really best?
We're a couple of misfits
We're a couple of misfits
What's the matter with misfits
That's where we fit in!
Certifiable jam.
This film says you don’t deserve to be bullied for it – it doesn’t really have any consequences for those bullying you for those things, but I wouldn’t really expect that at this point yet (see my last review on Bond and the idea of pushing limits in Hollywood). That’s powerful stuff for kids to see and indicative of the immense social changes that were already starting to happen in the 1960s by this point on all matters of cultural expressions. It should not then be surprising that the children growing up with such inclusive messaging (for the time) started their own ripple effects of breaking down normative structures and trying to build a more inclusive world.
As a piece of cultural media specifically made for a child demographic, Rankin and Bass gave the world a gift with such an enduring and classic story for people to identify with and know that if they are ever shut down or out of society for differences in identity or abilities, it is the excluders who are wrong and there will always be others with whom to build reliable and loyal communities.
Rudolph says you should be who you want to be because there will be a place for you in society one day, whether it’s pulling teeth or lighting up the night all in service of protection and joy for others. That is a message we can all get behind, so long as you can also get behind some old school stop-motion puppetry.
Because I’m Never Done When I Say I Am
Feminist
Clarice is an absolute dame in this film. What a babe. She’s a little doe who meets Rudolph at the Reindeer Games prior to his nose shining. She tells him he’s cute and empowers that little man to outshine every other reindeer there, like completely shut down any chances of them making Santa’s team, he balls. He feels good for the first time in his entire life. Literally since the moment he was born and his dad saw his nose, Donner rejected his son and made him feel like an abomination, and Clarice comes in with sincerity and then genuineness when she sees his nose and is like “yea babes why do I care? You’re handsome as hell and unique too? A jackpot?” WHAT A BABE. And THEN as a literal child runs off with his mom to go looking for him for MONTHS. Like fully grows up having devoted herself to rescuing the kid everyone bullied. The heart. Women are amazing.