Santa's Ninth Reindeer

This one should start some arguments! We all know that the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer character is NOT PD, even though IA has a copy of the revised cartoon of that name, with the famous song added. Superman, the Shadow, Dick Tracy and the Lone Ranger are just a few other characters on here that are trademarked, but still appear in PD video. And we know that Rankin & Bass made a stop-motion animation of Rudolph in 1964, with an invalid copyright notice claiming copyright from the year 1164 that still appears on the DVD! The film itself was PD the day it was first shown. We also know that the soundtrack to this TV special is copyrighted six ways from Sunday, so the Rankin & Bass flick, as a whole, isn't in the Public Domain. In its original form, that is. The film itself is obviously PD, but the soundtrack was sold (and copyrighted) separately. The solution? Replace the music with tunes from the Internet Archive! Jack Hawke's "Chinese Breakdown" is from an undated '78, the Bearettes "Carol of the Bells" is labeled PD, and the US Marine Corps "Jingle Bells" is owned by we, the people. Music from the old cartoons "Snow Foolin,'" "Santa's Surprise," "Christmas Comes but Once a Year," and "Judge for a Day" is used as well. I had to leave the incidental music beneath the dialogue, but I say "Fair Use!" of the snippets of famous songs that remain. A little editing, some additional credits, a new title sequence to remove the trademarked name and we now have a 45 minute version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" called "Santa's Ninth Reindeer" that nobody can take down. Alas, without the song that started it all. :( Please excuse the low quality, but it's the only way I could get this thing under a gig so I could upload it. The advanced system always rejects my Nero videos. Yes, since I'm the one that assembled the disparate pieces of public domain film & music, I get to copyright it. So there. Enjoy!

Director

L. D. Moore