Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Mitsuko Horie -- Oide White X'mas(おいで White X'mas)

 

I'm not sure what the situation has been of late for those traditional Xmas cartoons and Rankin & Bass stop-motion presentations, but when I was a kid, it was a given that they would be all over the channels. Outside of "A Charlie Brown Christmas", the one that I've known the best is the hour-long "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" with the vets from old Tinseltown, Fred Astaire and Mickey Rooney. It was always heartwarming watching Kris Kringle when he was a young man fighting the imperialistic Burgermeister Meisterburger.

Now, just imagine if the life of Santa Claus and his family were made into a regular weekly anime series spanning between October and March. Well, that is indeed what was done back starting from 1984 when Fuji-TV broadcast "Mori no Tonto-tachi"(森のトントたち). Known in English as "Elves of the Forest", the show depicted jolly ol' Santa and his elves living life large in a Finnish forest with the rest of the denizens.

I came across this one song from the soundtrack devised by Takeo Watanabe(渡辺岳夫). Although it's neither the opening or closing theme, it's a pretty jaunty number sung by anison singer/seiyuu Mitsuko Horie(堀江美都子)who I have just written about last week for another anime theme song. "Oide White X'mas" (Come On, White Christmas) is about what I would expect for a J-Xmas tune for the kids: light and positive vocals by Horie and optimistic/industrious melody by Watanabe with lyrics by Machiko Ryu(竜真知子).

I'm gathering that the video below is the Spanish-language version of "Mori no Tonto-tachi" since I couldn't find the original Japanese show.

2 comments:

  1. Mitsuko Horie and Yoshimi Iwasaki performing Candy Candy.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyDAnUJXLjQ

    When I was a kid, I used to have a tape with the Sinbad soundtrack. Probably my earliest memory of Japanese music.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCynLM1PAz8

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    Replies
    1. Hello, Jim.

      Ah, nothing warms the nostalgia nerves than a "Candy Candy" rendition. For me, my earliest memory of Japanese music for kids was probably the theme song for "Kamen Rider". https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2012/10/masato-shimon-lets-go-rider-kick-theme.html

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