Rudolph the Ripped-Off Reindeer: Hollywood Robs Rankin
Warner Bothers is ripping off Arthur Rankin who was half the team behind so many of those great Rankin/Bass cartoons from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to ThunderCats. Due to an “accounting error” Warner Brothers claims that it’s too late to pay Mr. Rankin in a dispute that now goes back over twenty years:
Bah humbug! Stingiest firm in Tinsel Town refuses to pay
“The filmmaker responsible for such Christmas television classics as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman is not a jolly happy soul this holiday season as he battles international media giant Warner Bros for millions of dollars of past-due payments. Arthur Rankin, one half of animation powerhouse Rankin/Bass, is fighting the entertainment giant for $2.6 million owed to his company over the past two decades.”