Rudolph's Shiny New Year

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Rudolph's Shiny New Year is the 1976 stop-motion animated sequel to the popular 1964 television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, produced by Rankin/Bass.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In this television special, Rudolph is asked by Father Time (voiced by narrator Red Skelton) to find the next Baby New Year before midnight on New Year's Eve. The baby, named Happy, was laughed at constantly by everyone he met because of his large ears, and thus ran away; unless Happy is returned in time to take his position as the New Year, the date will perpetually be December 31st. Rudolph searches for the baby in the Archipelago of Last Years, a mystical group of islands; Father Time reveals that when a year ends, the old year retires to the archipelago, and selects an island for himself, after which time on that island remains frozen for eternity as the year in which the old year ruled. Rudolph subsequently visits the islands belonging to One Million B.C. (a caveman, whose island was filled with dinosaurs; nicknamed "O.M." for short), Sir 1023 (a knight, whose island was filled with medieval trappings and fairy tale characters), and 1776 (who resembled Benjamin Franklin, and whose island reflected colonial-era United States). All of these former years join Rudolph on his quest.

As Rudolph and his friends search for the baby, they also repeatedly deal with the villain of the story, a buzzard named Aeon. Aeon is destined to only live until he is one aeon old, after which he turns into ice and snow; however, his aeon is finally up on December 31st. Aeon thus is also looking for Happy, so he can prevent his predestined death on December 31st and live forever.

Rudolph and his friends succeed in rescuing Happy from Aeon (as well as preventing Aeon's death in the process), and return Happy to Father Time's castle in time to begin the new year.