Story of the First Christmas S

You really have to hand it to Warner Brothers for the sheer audacity they have with these Rankin/Bass titles. It's been about 2 decades since the incarnation of the DVD. By now, you would think that all of the titles from this well-known and much-loved company would be readily available for the public to purchase. But they aren't. Instead Warner trickles out a title every year or so, first releasing them in so-called "Deluxe Editions" before adding them into yet another slightly revamped "Christmas Classics" boxed set.

Now, the only thing which makes these releases "deluxe" is they have that emblazoned across the top of the cover. There are absolutely NO special features here, save for a "Holiday Cards That Kids Can Make" thing?! You've got to be kidding me!! I find it very hard to believe that Warner Brothers doesn't know that most of the sales of these shows are by ADULTS who grew up on them! But maybe they don't - so that means they are either really really stupid or just plain rude! - I wouldn't be complaining if this were being sold for somewhere around $7.99 - but they are actually trying to shovel this one onto us for a whopping 20 bucks!! For a 22-minute special!! With no extras!!

This should have been released together with "Life And Adventures Of Santa Claus" and "Little Drummer Boy Book II" (the final two holiday specials owned by WB that haven't been officially released) in one DVD which altogether would have a running time about the same as a standard movie. But instead those two titles are each being offered separately as made-on-demand DVD-R's in grainy non-remastered prints for the same price as this one. Smell a rip-off?! I do. Warner makes a BUNDLE off these shows which are repeated EVERY year on TV several times, and sold at most popular stores throughout the country. But their shady dealings suck cash from both ends - ripping off the original creators by not paying them their due royalties and then bleeding fans dry with their expensive drip-drops from the vault.

Look these Rankin/Bass shows are all great! And as time goes on they are permanently woven into the fabric of our holiday celebrations. But the handling of them by Warner is nothing less than raking customers over the coals in order to get them.

I'd guess we'd all have to say "It's about time". Finally getting around to releasing some of the last remnants of the Rankin/Bass animations, but the ridiculously odd thing of them releasing this exceptionally short work ALONE? It's only getting a 3 star rating because of this (not to mention that it's under a Warner Bros. label), it actually deserves a 5 for the production itself.

You can't honestly expect me to even think about purchasing this at a $14.95, let alone a suggested retail price of $19.95? I think you'd be hard pressed to even have a standard SRP of $9.95, at least then you can have the typical store mark down a few bucks to a more proper price point.

Anyway, at least there's been an effort to at least put one of my most favorite pieces (in the top 3) of Rankin/Bass out for the general public to own on DVD. Only being a ridiculoulsy old copy that was briefly released on VHS oh so long ago, and probably hardly anyone even knew about.

It's kind of odd though that there is some goofy DVD-R version that Amazon produces of "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus", which is one of the few Rankin/Bass pieces that were tucked away and never released. You'd think maybe they would have gotten around to producing it properly and would have slipped in the First Christmas along with it, like they have done in the past with other short films. Go figure, it's just another oddball Warner Bros. move.

The good news to hear in the rumor mill is that Warner Bros. is hopefully releasing their strangle hold on the Rankin/Bass products they've hoarded for so many years. Apparently Dreamworks is acquiring some of the older works, and with some tremendous luck in the coming years they may get a hold of the rest. Cross your fingers folks...and your arms, legs, toes, eyes, and anything else you can cross and pray and hope it all finally gets away from Warner Bros.

Many of us did not like the way Warner Bros. has been treating these works, let alone their horrid treatment of the Rankin/Bass people. For those of you that did not know, the Warner Bros. company is actually a thief in the past when it came to paying Rankin/Bass their due monies. There was apparently an accounting error/discrepency that Warner Bros. never disclosed many, many years ago. Time passed, and some how or another Rankin/Bass or someone discovered the issue, and then Warner Bros. refused to pay declaring a Statue of Limitation had expired. Basically Warner Bros. has no morals and refused to pay money they rightfully owed to Rankin/Bass and played the legal shuffle game on something they screwed up on. This caused a major rift between the two, and I don't blame Rankin/Bass in the least.

Here's hoping every single piece of Rankin/Bass work slips away from Warner Bros. and maybe we'll see a company treat every single piece of Rankin/Bass work with the care they deserve. Who knows, we might even be lucky enough to see a company try and cram together every single piece of work into some ultimate Blue-Ray set, perhaps even work with the Rankin/Bass people for interviews and commentaries and whatnot.

Here we go, another year and another so called " deluxe edition " from Warner bros. The only good thing about this dvd is that this is the first time this Rankin Bass classic has been on dvd. Deluxe normally means great extras, here we have none. Deluxe edition means a great remastered picture, bearing in mind the other deluxe editions had no noticeable visual improvements over their regular dvd counterparts, one best be going in with low expectations. Here is what Warner Bros should have done, released " The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus " in a deluxe edition with " The First Christmas " as an extra, this special it's only about 23 mins long so no need charging this high price when it's nothing added with any value. I guess as Rankin Bass fans we should be some what happy that Wb even bothered to release this long lost Christmas special however.

I give this Rankin Bass special 5 stars, it's adorable and heart warming. The cover art and the nerve to be charging this price without any extras gets one star! WB never listens to fans on Rankin Bass shows and even on Hanna Barbera shows, they just release it the way they want it, it's too bad big non-nostalgic corps own these properties where as some of the smaller studios would release these with love and care with extras like interviews with the people who made these shows possible like Arthur Rankin Jr, Jules Bass, Romeo Muller for example, these people are still around and paying them a little for their time to participate in extras only seems fair for all the money WB has made over the years with these shows on home video and on broadcasting on television every year.

A side note: Drummer Boy Book II is also finally available on dvd for this first time. It's paired with 3 other Rankin Bass specials on one dvd (Leprechauns Christmas Gold, The Stingiest man in town & Pinocchio's Christmas) put out by Warner Archive, doing an amazon search should make it come up, it's already for sale. Also all pre-74 Rankin Bass shows have now transferred ownership to Dreamworks a few weeks ago, WB owns all post-74 Rankin Bass specials, here's hoping Dreamworks start doing a good job with the other Rankin Bass specials WB doesn't own though I don't have high hopes.

About the story (wikipedia)

" A young shepherd, Lucas, is blinded by lightning, and some kindly nuns at a nearby abbey take him in. Sister Catherine describes snow to Lucas, who has never seen it. Lucas gets chosen to play an angel in the abbey's Christmas pageant, and the Christmas snow that falls during the pageant works a small miracle."

It is narrated by Angela Lansbury