Red Caps (TV series)

Last updated
Red Caps
Genre Fantasy, animation
Country of origin Italy, Finland
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes26
Production
Production companyCartoon-One
Original release
Network Rai Gulp
Release11 December 2011 (2011-12-11)

Red Caps is an Italian-Finnish animated television series produced by Cartoon-One in 2011. The series focuses on the adventures of a group of elves, and it is characterized by educational and moral purposes which gained to it the support of a number of institutions, including UNICEF and the Finnish Ministry of Environment. [1] [2]

A film based on the series, titled Santa's Magic Crystal , was distributed in 2011 in 3D. [1] [3] In the English-language version, Joe Carey played Santa Claus, Kyle E. Christensen as Yotan and David Dreisen as Grouch. [4]

Plot

It has become impossible for Santa Claus to personally answer all the children's cries for help from all over the world. So Santa has gathered all his best tomties around him and founded the RED CAPS Task Force, versus Santa's evil brother Basil with his assistants Grouch and robotics.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animation</span> Method of creating moving pictures

Animation is a filmmaking technique by which still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets (cels) to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognized as an artistic medium, specifically within the entertainment industry. Many animations are either tradtional animations or computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation, in particular claymation, has continued to exist alongside these other forms.

Sniffles (<i>Merrie Melodies</i>) Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Sniffles is an animated cartoon and comic-book mouse character in the Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes series of cartoons and comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Frees</span> American actor (1920–1986)

Solomon Hersh Frees, better known as Paul Frees, was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass and Walt Disney theatrical cartoons during the Golden Age of Animation, and for providing the voice of Boris Badenov in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Frees was known as "The Man of a Thousand Voices", though the appellation was more commonly bestowed on Mel Blanc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment</span> American production company

Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment was an American production company located in New York City. It was known for its seasonal television specials, usually done in stop motion animation. Rankin/Bass's stop-motion productions are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts and ubiquitous powdery snow using an animation technique called Animagic.

<i>Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer</i> (TV special) 1964 Christmas TV special

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a 1964 stop motion Christmas animated television special produced by Videocraft International, Ltd. It first aired December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the United States and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour. The special was based on the 1949 Johnny Marks song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which was itself based on the poem of the same name written in 1939 by Marks's brother-in-law, Robert L. May. NBC will air the special annually starting in 2024, having previously done so until 1971. From 1972 to 2023, the special aired on CBS, which unveiled a high-definition, digitally remastered version of the program in 2005, re-scanned frame-by-frame from the original 35 mm film elements.

<i>The Legend of Frosty the Snowman</i> 2005 direct-to-video Christmas film

The Legend of Frosty the Snowman is a 2005 Christmas animated television special film that was simultaneously released direct-to-video, and produced by Classic Media, Studio B Productions and Top Draw Animation.

<i>Here Comes the Grump</i> 1969 American TV series or program

Here Comes the Grump is an animated cartoon series produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises and aired on NBC from 1969 to 1970. It was later shown in reruns on Sci-Fi Channel's Cartoon Quest.

Julius Caesar Bass was an American director, producer, lyricist, composer and author. Until 1960, he worked at a New York advertising agency, and then co-founded the film production company Videocraft International, later named Rankin/Bass Productions, with his friend, Arthur Rankin Jr. He joined ASCAP in 1963 and collaborated with Edward Thomas and James Polack at their music firm and as a songwriting team primarily with Maury Laws at Rankin/Bass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Claus in film</span>

Motion pictures featuring Santa Claus constitute their own subgenre of the Christmas film genre. Early films of Santa revolve around similar simple plots of Santa's Christmas Eve visit to children. In 1897, in a short film called Santa Claus Filling Stockings, Santa Claus is simply filling stockings from his pack of toys. Another film called Santa Claus and the Children was made in 1898. A year later, a film directed by George Albert Smith titled Santa Claus was created. In this picture, Santa Claus enters the room from the fireplace and proceeds to trim the tree. He then fills the stockings that were previously hung on the mantle by the children. After walking backward and surveying his work, he suddenly darts at the fireplace and disappears up the chimney.

Arthur Gardner Rankin Jr. was an American director, producer and screenwriter, who mostly worked in animation. Co-creator of Rankin/Bass Productions with his friend Jules Bass, he created stop-motion and traditional animation features such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, and the 1977 cartoon special of The Hobbit. He is credited on over 1,000 television programs.

<i>Santa Claus Is Comin to Town</i> (TV special) 1970 Christmas TV special

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a 1970 American stop-motion Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions in New York, New York. The film is narrated by Fred Astaire and stars the voices of Mickey Rooney, Keenan Wynn, Robie Lester, Joan Gardner, and Paul Frees, as well as an assistant song performance by the Westminster Children's Choir. The film tells the story of how Santa Claus and several Claus-related Christmas traditions came to be. It is based on the hit Christmas song, "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town", which was written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie for Leo Feist, Inc. and introduced on radio by Eddie Cantor in 1934; and the story of Saint Nicholas.

<i>Rudolph and Frostys Christmas in July</i> 1979 American-Japanese feature film/television special

Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July is an American-Japanese Christmas/Independence Day film produced by Rankin/Bass Productions, featuring characters from the company's holiday specials Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and Frosty the Snowman (1969), among others. It was filmed in Japan using the company's trademark "Animagic" stop-motion animation style. The film was originally a theatrical film released through Avco Embassy Pictures, where it ran for only 2–3 weeks and was considered a box-office flop. Later that year, on November 25, 1979, the film premiered on television in the US on ABC.

<i>Santas Workshop</i> (film) 1932 Disney short film

Santa's Workshop is a Disney short film directed by Wilfred Jackson, first released on December 10, 1932 in the Silly Symphonies series. The film features Santa Claus and his elves preparing for Christmas in Santa's workshop. A sequel, The Night Before Christmas, partially based on the 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", was made the year after, portraying Santa leaving the toys in a house with nine children.

<i>Christmas Comes But Once a Year</i> 1936 cartoon

Christmas Comes But Once a Year is a 1936 animated short produced by Fleischer Studios and released on December 4, 1936 by Paramount Pictures. It is part of the Color Classics series. The cartoon features Professor Grampy, a character from the Betty Boop series; this is the character's only appearance without Betty. An edited version was featured during the Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special in 1988, as the featured short shown by the King of Cartoons.

The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives is a 1933 Christmas-themed Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film directed by Rudolf Ising. The short was released on January 7, 1933.

<i>Uncle Grandpa</i> American animated television series

Uncle Grandpa is an American animated television series created by Peter Browngardt for Cartoon Network that ran from September 2, 2013, to June 30, 2017. It is based on Browngardt's animated short of the same name from The Cartoonstitute. Uncle Grandpa is also a spin-off of Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, which was in turn a spin-off of The Cartoonstitute short. It was produced by Cartoon Network Studios.

<i>Elf: Buddys Musical Christmas</i> 2014 American TV series or program

Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas is a 2014 American stop-motion animated Christmas musical television special produced by Warner Bros. Animation, directed by Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh and written by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Bob Martin and Thomas Meehan. It is based on the 2003 film Elf and the Broadway theatre musical Elf: The Musical. While Ed Asner reprises his role of Santa Claus from the film, the rest of the cast consists of Jim Parsons, Mark Hamill, Kate Micucci, Max Charles, and Rachael MacFarlane. The special premiered on December 16, 2014, on NBC.

<i>Santas Apprentice</i> 2010 French film

Santa's Apprentice is a 2010 French-Australian animated Christmas film produced by Gaumont-Alphanim and Flying Bark Productions in association with Avrill Stark Entertainment and Cartoon Saloon. It is based on the animated TV series SantApprentice.

<i>Santa Claus and the Magic Drum</i> 1996 multi-national TV series or program

Santa Claus and the Magic Drum is a 51 minute long Finnish-Hungarian animation released in 1996. The story is based on a 1995 children's book of the same name by Mauri Kunnas. The film has been recorded in Finnish, English (British) and Swedish. It was made for TV broadcasting and was first shown on Christmas Eve 1996, and has been broadcast on YLE TV2 nearly every Christmas Eve since. Santa Claus and the Magic Drum has been sold to over 40 countries.

<i>The Magic Crystal</i> (2011 film) 2011 animated Christmas film

The Magic Crystal, also released as Santa's Magic Crystal and The Elf that Rescued Christmas in the UK, is a 2011 Finnish-Belgian computer-animated Christmas film directed by Antti Haikala from a screenplay by Haikala, Bob Swain, Dan Wicksman, Nuria Wicksman and Alessandro Liggieri. The film is part of a unified multimedia concept developed by Mikael Wahlfors, which also includes Andrew Bernhardt's Special Patrol children's books, the Italian-produced animated series Red Caps, and the mobile app World Polar Heroes. The Magic Crystal was produced by the Epidem ZOT, Aranéo and Skyline Animation.

References

  1. 1 2 Pietari Kääpä (24 April 2014). Ecology and Contemporary Nordic Cinemas: From Nation-building to Ecocosmopolitanism. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. pp. 101–3. ISBN   978-1-4411-4321-1.
  2. Ryan Ball (August 22, 2008). "Cartoon One's Vampires, Buttercup, Caps Headed to MIP Jr". Animation Magazine. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  3. Hopewell, John; Keslassy, Elsa (February 11, 2011). "TF1 takes a shine to 'Santa's Magic Crystal'". Variety . Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  4. Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. pp. 272–273. ISBN   978-1-4766-7293-9.