From the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel.
The Night the Animals Talked is a 1970 animated musical special
that aired on ABC TV from 1970 to 1973. Based on a Norwegian folk tale, the
premise involves the stable in Bethlehem where Christ was born. The light
of the star that leads the Magi to the Christ-child shines upon the animals and
gives them the gift of human speech. However, in gaining the ability to talk
like humans, they also begin to show very human foibles, such as racism, segregation,
pride, and vanity, among other sins. As the animals begin to act more like
human, the story takes on a certain Animal
Farmesque quality. The film is available above from the
Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel.
The music by the famed duo of lyricist
Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne includes the songs "A Parable,"
"It's Great to Communicate," "The Greatest Miracle of All,"
"Let's Not Behave Like People," and "A Place Like This” is
typical of other children’s specials of the era such as the Rankin/Bass Productions
classics like Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer and The Little Drummer Boy.
As notable as Cahn and Styne are, the songs are serviceable but otherwise
forgettable.
The Ox
reminds the animals that although they may talk like humans, |
The Italian animation companies
Gamma Film and Erredia 70 provided the artistic talent and technical direction and
supervision. There are no “big names” providing the voice talent, but
nonetheless includes a number of little-known, but accomplished voice and character
actors including Frank Poretta, Joe Silver, Patricia Bright, Len Maxwell, and
Paul Dooley, the latter of whom remains active as of this writing.
Executive Producer David Gerber
had a long career in Hollywood from the 1960s through the mid-2000s and served
in that role in many of the era’s iconic shows, including The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Nanny
and the Professor, Police Woman, Police Story, and many more. Director Shamus
Culhane is a legendary Hollywood animator whose career ran from 1924 to 1980
and includes work on such films as Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940), Dave Fleischer’s Gulliver’s Travels (1939), as well as Popeye, Bugs Bunny, and Woody
Woodpecker shorts and helming Marvel’s animated Thor TV series (1966).
ABC TV promotional spot.
Humans aren’t prominently
featured in the film. Joseph and Mary are only seen as shadows or distant figures, and
the Christ-child is not seen at all — the story is told entirely from the
animals’ perspective. This puts the viewer in the animals' seat and gives us an
outsider’s view of ourselves and a society filled with division and hate.
At first, the animals are
reluctant to allow Joseph and Mary to share their space. If their human owner
won’t show them any charity, why should they? And if they do let just a few in,
soon more will show up and crowd them out! The Ox, however, serves as the voice
of conscious and laments how the gift of human speech has turned them all too
human and chides his stable mates, “We have enough room, if we want to make
room.”
The real emotional hook to the
story comes with the birth of the Christ-child and the animals realize that in
Christ we are all equally loved — a realization that comes too late for them to
share before their gift of human speech begins to fade away. My mother, who
grew up on a farm in Sicily, loved the film as much as I did and we were always
saddened at this point. In the end, however, although the animals lose the gift
of speech they retain a greater understanding and tolerance of each other.
The late 1960s and early 1970s
was a time of great racial strife in America and this special is a fine example
of showing how the message of Christmas has a universal and timeless appeal. Unfortunately,
given the racial strife that persists in America and other parts of the world,
the message of The Night the Animals Talked
remains relevant today.
Putting
aside their differences, the animals join together to see the Christ-child, |
Along with the gritty 1969
Christmas special, J.T. (see separate article), which features an animal
as a pivotal plot device and also only aired for a few years before disappearing
from the broadcast airwaves, these programs never quite became as enshrined as
Christmas classics like the various entries by Rankin/Bass Productions. Both
programs were also later distributed to schools in the early-mid 1970s. The
online independent film guide FilmThreat
reports that McGraw-Hill distributed copies of The Night the Animals Talked to schools in 1975 (J.T. also saw some distribution to
public schools about the same time). The copy shown above is likely from one of
the McGraw-Hill 16-mm prints. For reasons unknown, there has been no DVD
release of the special, so the quality is not the best.
Nevertheless, both films teach
the same lesson — our love for the most vulnerable among us, animal or child,
is what makes the world a better place. May it always ever be that way.
● ● ●
I always thought the satire on humanity was the message here. Your last paragraph made me realize the true message of this story. May it always be so.
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