Plot
In this television special, Rudolph has just come back from delivering Christmas presents with Santa Claus when he is asked by Father Time to find the next Baby New Year before midnight on New Year's Eve. The baby, named Happy, was humiliated and laughed at constantly by everyone he met because of his large ears and thus ran away. However, no one who had laughed at Happy had ever meant to be cruel to him, thus causing the constant string of misunderstandings that caused him to keep running away. Unless Happy is returned before December 31 to take his position as the new year, the current year will not end, the date will perpetually remain December 31 forever and Aeon the evil buzzard will rule the world forever.
Father Time speculates that Happy is hiding out in the Archipelago of Last Years, where the Old Years retire and rule over an island styled to resemble the year over which they ruled. Sent to assist in this journey are some agents of Father Time: General Ticker (a military clock) and The Great Quarter-Past-Five (a camel with a large timepiece in his hump) and several others. When it comes to the waters leading to the Archipelago of Last Years, Rudolph ends up riding on Big Ben (a whale with a clock attached to his tail).
Upon arrival in the Archipelagoes, Rudolph first travels to the island belonging to One Million B.C. or "O.M." for short. O.M. is a caveman whose island is anachronistically inhabited with friendly dinosaurs and other prehistoric and long-extict creatures such as the Dodo Bird and the Saber-Tooth Tiger. After other offscreen visits to the islands of 1492, 1893, 1965 and 4000 B.C. have been completed without success, Rudolph and O.M. head for the island of Sir 1023, a knight whose island is filled with medieval trappings along with several fairy tale and Mother Goose characters. They then travel to the island of 1776, which reflects Colonial America and is ruled over by "Sev" (AKA 1776), who resembles Benjamin Franklin, who then joins Sir 1023, O.M. and Rudolph on their quest.
As Rudolph and his friends search for the baby, they repeatedly encounter the villain of the special, a giant buzzard named Aeon. Aeon is destined to live for exactly one aeon after which he will turn into ice and snow and disintegrate. As his particular aeon will end at the turn of January 1 of the New Year, he plans to kidnap Happy to prevent the year from ending and thus prevent his predestined death on January 1.
Eventually, Aeon captures Happy and takes him to his lair on the Island of No-Name, which is said to be located "due north of the North Pole". Rudolph and his friends subsequently catch up to the buzzard and attempt to rescue the baby, however Aeon thwarts them by sending an avalanche down on the group and trapping them all inside of giant snowballs.
Rudolph manages to melt his way free using his nose and climbs up to the nest, where he finds Happy, who refuses to leave. Rudolph shows Happy his nose and tells him his story (in a short song sequence) and asks Happy to let him see his ears. Happy does so and Rudolph, like everyone else before him, laughs at the sight. Happy is upset at first, but Rudolph explains that the sight of Happy's ears had made him feel so wonderful that he had to laugh out loud, just like it had done with everyone else.
Just as Happy shouts out with joy at this declaration, the noise awakens the buzzard, whereupon Rudolph quickly instructs Happy to take off his hat for good and let the sight of his large ears cause Aeon to laugh, sending him tumbling down the side of the mountain, where he lands on top of Sev, O.M. and Sir 1023, freeing them.
Rudolph realizes that Aeon is now cured forever, since he is presently so full of warmth and happiness that it would be impossible for him to turn to ice and snow. With Santa's help, Happy is returned to the castle just in time for Father Time to place him at the beginning of the new year, which is designated "nineteen-wonderful". After the celebration, everyone wishes the viewers a happy new year and Rudolph adds, "And may it be a shiny one, too!"
Read more about this topic: Rudolph's Shiny New Year
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