YMMV / Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July

• Anti-Climax Boss: To say the final "fight" against Winterbolt is anticlimatic is being generous. He's defeated in less than 30 seconds by Lilly, who simply chucks her guns at his fragile staff before he can even try to attack, breaking it and thus instantly reverting him back into being a tree. Justified in that Rankin/Bass was animating in stop motion on a dime store budget for a film that involved every one of their major characters.
• Funny Moments: Lanie goes out on the tightrope without her parasol. Lilly brings it to her and chastises her for not taking notes, without even wobbling and losing balance once she gives it to her.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Most Rudolph fans watch the special just for its memorable villain, Winterbolt.
• Love to Hate: Winterbolt is the vilest evildoer in the history of Rankin-Bass, yet he's well remembered for being a truly unambiguously evil antagonist in an R-B special who manages to provide a genuine threat while still managing to avoid drastically darkening the tone and keeping the overall spirit of R-B specials in place.
• Moral Event Horizon: Winterbolt either crosses this when he blackmails Rudolph by threatening to let Frosty and his whole family, children included, melt, or when he takes Frosty's hat and turns him into a normal lifeless snowman under the false promise he would restore Rudolph's nose, something he cannot do.
• Narm:
  • "I'M TWYING! I'M TWYING WEAL HAWD!"
  • "Santa has reindeer... I have... reinsnakes!"
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The Genie of the Ice Scepter is a creepiest creature ever in this special it's a large blue face with glowing green eyes, jagged teeth that opens and closes with a sound of the clock gong, and it speaks in a low creepy voice! Did we forget to mention that said voice is Tony the Tiger? While Winterbolt can be creepy at times at least he has a hammy voice of Paul Frees but the Genie has a creepy voice and looks like the Nome King from Return to Oz and he moves in the Uncanny way that would give kids nightmares every Christmas season after watching this special! Thank goodness he only appears in the few scenes.
  • The Ice Dragons, whose cold breath creates storms and fog that only the glow of Rudolph's nose can penetrate. It turns out that they created the horrible snowstorm in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964). And here, they create a powerful tornado that Santa and Mrs. Claus temporarily get trapped inside.
  • Winterbolt's attempt to magically extinguish Rudolph's nose at the beginning. It only works for a moment because Lady Boreal's magic is stronger than Winterbolt's, but very briefly, not only does the light go out, but Rudolph feels sick and weak, and collapses against Frosty, with neither he nor Frosty, Milly and Chilly knowing why.
  • Winterbolt's defeat. After his staff is broken, he slowly and painfully transforms into a tree while moaning in agony, complete with a brief moment of Blank White Eyes. It's one of the darkest scenes ever to appear in an R-B special.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Robert L. May made an official sequel to the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer story called Rudolph Shines Again in 1954, which involved Rudolph's red nose to briefly lose its ability to shine and glow after Santa's eight reindeer becoming jealous and unfriendly with him. 25 years later, Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July would involve Rudolph choosing to make his red nose stop glowing to prevent Frosty, Crystal, and their snow children from melting. The only difference is that in Rudolph Shines Again, his red nose stops glowing due to feeling put down by the other reindeer but apologize by the end of the story. Happily, Rudolph's red nose does return back to normal in both stories.
  • Issue #5 of the Rudolph comics by DC Comics, actually took place at a circus where Rudolph ends up rescuing Santa's eight reindeer from Mr. Bumble the Ringmaster. The idea of Rudolph at a circus would become a reality with this movie but with Rudolph having a better and friendlier relationship with the circus members. While Robert L. May's third Rudolph story titled Rudolph's Second Christmas (renamed to Rudolph to the Rescue to avoid confusion with Rudolph Shines Again) would later get published posthumously in 1992 ^note  Manuscripts of the story dates back to 1947. , where Rudolph has to help a badly performing circus become successful after reading a Christmas letter from two children named "Sonny and Sis". An early version of "Rudolph's Second Christmas" was released as a LP Record in 1951 with Paul Wing ^note  Paul Wing also narrated the 1948 animated short by Max Fleischer. narrating the story.
• The Scrappy: Scratcher is a pathetic letdown after the build-up of being Rudolph's exact opposite, doing little more than whining and hanging around Winterbolt like a disaffected groupie.
• Special Effects Failure: During the prologue, one shot of the two soldiers confronting the dragon is shot in live-action rather than stop-motion, and one of the soldiers falls over, as if hit by a blast of air. In fact, all shots of the dragon are live-action puppetry as opposed to stop-motion, and it produces an Unintentional Uncanny Valley effect.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Like its predecessor, there is no mention of Hermey or Yukon Cornelius, and Clarice only makes two non-speaking cameo appearances (even given a brand new model for this film). Likewise, the Winter Warlock would have been useful as a formerly evil ice wizard to serve as a Foil to Winterbolt and a wizard's duel between them could have been an interesting climax.

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