Reindeer get a lot of praise and promotion around the Yule season. I'm guessing that's because they have really good publicists or may be doing "extra" work for the big guy. Oh...you know exactly what I'm talking about. "Extra" work. And that's why I am proudly dedicating the next few blogs to famous Christmas donkeys! They deserve the spotlight too!!
Let's start with Nestor. He appears in the 1977 Rankin-Bass holiday special "Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey". As some of you may be able to surmise....Nestor is born with very long ears, it may or may not (probably) have something to do with his name. Not to get too sidetracked, but in this snow blogger's humble opinion someone really should look into the high incidence of birth defects at the North Pole. I mean come on people!! There is a large elf (little people is the pc term by the way Santa) population, red nosed reindeer, flying reindeer, abominable snow men, long-eared donkey's, snowflake girls named Suzy, living snowmen...trust me, the list goes on and on. Santa's probably been dumping his rocket sled fuel near the stables and what not and should be ticketed!
In true Christmas special tradition, Nestor learns to over come his disability and accomplishes great things. I have to say though, if you are one of those emotional PETA types then you had best watch this special on ABC Family, it's currently aired there every year but is edited. That's right, a claymation style Christmas movie needs to be edited for today's mamby pamby audience. In 1977 people were made of tougher, more heartless stuff.
The special starts off showing how Nestor is made fun of by all of his donkey brethren because he constantly trips over his own ears. Why this guy can't tie them up top like a bun is beyond me. One fine evening after some weird pagan animal solstice celebration Roman soldiers come and demand donkeys for the emperor. They buy them all of them, but get angry when they realize Nestor is such a freak! Using this as an excuse they take their money back from the donkey salesman or whatever he is and take the donkeys anyway, all except Nestor. Well the donkey vendor is obviously angry because he now has no donkey crop and is left with Nestor. He picks Nestor up and whips him at the barn wall! Then this beast of a man picks up the donkey and throws him out of the barn where he ricochets off a tree and is left presumably dead!! Hardcore!! Nestor's mom isn't having this so she leaps out of her stable thingy and runs away. She finds Nestor, but a blizzard comes along. Mom covers Nestor with her body while the storm rages on. Cut to the next day or season,,it's not really clear...and mom is dead!! Nestor cries and is about to give up hope when a cherub tells him to sack up, there's a special mission for him. He must go to Bethlehem. Eventually Nestor ends up on the outskirts of Bethlehem, and is purchased by a certain Joseph and Mary. They need to get to Bethlehem proper because baby Jesus wants out in a major way. Suddenly a sandstorm comes and the trio are blinded. Nestor's moms ghost who is also the Cherub and possibly the spirit of God or an angel (you figure it out and let me know) starts to sing a song that only Nestor's big ears can hear. By following the song he quickly gets the young couple to a manger just in time for baby Jesus to be born and becomes a donkey hero!
The songs in this special were sung by Roger Miller. I don't really know him. According to Wikipedia he's won a few Grammy's and is in the country music hall of fame. Not too shabby. I really do like most of the music in this special. The theme song has been covered by Marty Robbins. There is also a funny Riff Trax version available on their web site.
The song "Don't laugh and make somebody cry" is edited out of the ABC Family version, possibly due to copyright restrictions or because it sucks. Some of the donkey abuse is gone from their broadcast version as well. I would recommend picking up the dvd version if you're a ghoul like me and want to see Nestor getting flung around or if you really enjoy the song "Don't laugh and make somebody cry". Nestor can be found either on the Warner Brother's release "The Year Without a Santa Claus" which has "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" and "Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey" as bonus features or it can also be found on a Warner Archives Collection dvd with the movie "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus".
Marty Robbins version of Nestor's song with clips from movie
Sample of the Riff Trax episode of Nestor
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