As a kid, I loved them. As an adult, I still do. Christmas specials, people. Christmas specials. A Charlie Brown Christmas, with the little tree and Linus’s speech. An animated Fred Astaire dancing around with a bunch of forest critters. Scrooge McDuck holding onto Jiminy Cricket for dear life as they fly through the air. I can’t get enough of them and have a steadily growing collection of these classic Christmas specials on DVD.
One of my very favorite specials is Will Vinton’s A Claymation Christmas Celebration. For those of you who aren’t in the know, this special is from 1987. It’s about an hour long and features two bickering dinosaurs as masters of ceremony for a variety show of Christmas carols. Think Fantasia. With clay and Christmas. The California Raisins perform “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” Quasimodo directs an orchestra of bells in “The Carol of the Bells,” and three camels steal the show in “We Three Kings.” Each segment is animated using stop-motion animation and clay figures, sets, and props. Everything is made of clay.
Screencap from “Joy to the World” Animated by Joan Gratz
For years, one segment of A Claymation Christmas Celebration has confused me. “Joy to the World” always looked hand-drawn or painted to me. What was it doing in a claymation movie, anyway? This year, I finally learned Will Vinton’s secret. Her name is Joan Gratz, and she animated “Joy to the World” using clay painting. That’s right. It’s still clay. Watch the segment for yourself on YouTube. As a child, I loved the music and the colors of this segment. As an adult, I am blown away by the amount of time, energy, and talent that went into this two and a half minute song. It’s some of the most beautiful art that I’ve ever seen, and this year I got to see it with new eyes.
This Christmas, I hope you get to look at your own traditions with new eyes and see the time, energy, and talents that go into making Christmas the best time of the year.
Merry Christmas!
Liz
Teen Librarian