rudolph's shiny new year (b. 1975)

Rudolph's Shiny New Year, which debuted in 1975, bears an interesting, if not rather dark parallel, to the relationship between some Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, and thus, the perfect Saturday morning animation to share as we all begin 2010.

In the feature, Rudolph is tasked to find the next Baby New Year, which is an infant named Happy. But, everyone makes fun of Happy (theorhetically born in 1975), and so he runs away. Unless Happy is found, the old year won't end.

So, Rudolph and his friends search for Happy. During their journey, they continually run into the villian, Aeon, whose death is predestined to occur on January 1. The buzzard eventually captures Happy to prevent the new year beginning. He takes him to the island of (GET THIS!) No-Name. (Kind of like Generation X never really had a name and the only thing that stuck was the unknown factor of X.)

Finally, Rudolph and his friends rescue Happy, and the new year, nineteen-wonderful, begins. Even Aeon catches a lucky break by the very thing that caused Happy to runaway in the first place.

Here's to your twenty-wonderful, Generation X. I wonder if the generations who go before and come after us will one day find mercy in our greatest perceived weaknesses. You never know!

The following clip is of the song Father Time sings in Rudolph's Shiny New Year. According to the person who posted this clip on YouTube, the song is omitted from the annual TV special, so if you want to hear it, you'll have to buy the DVD.