Rudolph is the titular character in the classic Rankin/Bass Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, from 1964. While Rudolph existed in other media before, this is his magnum opus and really the only one that matters, in my opinion.
It kind of sucks for Rudolph because he is just born, barely knows the world or his parents, and then Santa walks in and sings about how he is a deformed freak. The only babies that probably have it worse are hamsters with bad moms and male chicks in commercial farming.
But Rudolph’s story definitely tries to teach kids that just because you are different does not mean you are a freak. Living with ARFID, my condition was not as obvious as Rudolph and his red nose, but I definitely felt like one of the misfits. Most kids never really took that lesson to heart, because I was constantly bullied, even by the adults, about it. Unfortunately, my ARFID would never save Christmas.
But at least I never tried to run away from home and live a life of homelessness in a barren wasteland and frozen desert. Nor would I have probably befriended an elf and a crazy, gold loving frontiersman.
Despite the special being only about 30 minutes long, Rudolph’s adventure always felt really epic to me as a child. We would often watch it on Christmas Eve evening, and by the time it was over, I was already sleepy and ready for bed.
The time skip always gets me when I watch the movie. I always imagine Rudolph in his baby form, so it takes me a while to really get used to him with the bigger body and the long antlers. Interestingly enough, real reindeer do not have antlers during Christmas unless they are female. But it is backwards logic for the North Pole and Santa Claus’s reindeer flock.
Just remember, kids, no matter how much somebody hates you, as soon as you become beneficial to them, they will pretend like nothing ever happened. I guess Rudolph should have still done it for the sake of the children at Christmas, but he could have at least demanded an apology from Santa Claus and the rest of the reindeer.
But as a kid, when I still believed in Santa Claus and the magic of Christmas, I always hoped to see Rudolph leading the Christmas sleigh in the night’s sky. Oh, how naive we are as children.