Rankin/Bass

Rankin/Bass was an animation studio founded by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, best known for a series of seasonal holiday-themed specials. Many ofthese productions used a form of stop-motion animation called "Animagic." Their best known specials, often based on popular songs, include Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Frosty the Snowman, and Here Comes Peter Cottontail. Later productions, with much of the animation outsourced to Japan, included the series The Thundercats, the feature The Last Unicorn, and adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Return of the King.

Connections

 * Cynthia Adler played Rudolph's Mother in Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979) and Cheryl Paisner in The Conheads (1983)
 * Alan Arkin played Schmendrick in The Last Unicorn (1983)
 * Camille Banora played all the female voices on Tigersharks (1987)
 * Art Carney played Barney Killikilarney in The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold (1981)
 * Phyllis Diller played the Monster's Mate in Mad Monsetr Party? (1963)
 * Seth Green was a regular on The Mini-Monsters (1987)
 * Buddy Hackett as Pardon-Me-Pete in Jack Frost (1979)
 * Skip Hinnant of The Electric Company played Sunny the Easter Bunny in The Easter Bunny Is Coming to Town (1977)
 * James Earl Jones as Ommadon in The Flight of Dragons (1986)
 * Casey Kasem played Peter Cottontail in Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971)
 * Danny Kaye played Seymour S. Sassafrass, Antonie, and Col. Bunny in Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971) and Marmaduke in The Emperor's New Clothes (1972)
 * Ethel Merman played Lilly Lorraine in Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979)
 * Zero Mostel played Brutus in The Little Drummer Boy, Book II (1980)
 * Laraine Newman played Connie in The Coneheads (1983)
 * Vincent Price played Irontail in Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971)
 * Claude Rae as Mr. Toad in The Reluctant Dragon and Mr. Toad and voices in Willie McBean and His Flying Machine, The New Adventures of Pinocchio, and others.
 * John Ritter as Peter Dickenson in The Flight of Dragons (1986)
 * Alice Tweedie as a washerwoman in The Wind in the Willows (1986)