Jules Bass on AllMovie

For anyone who grew up in the 1960s, '70s, or '80s, the mention of producer/director Jules Bass will no doubt spark the synapses to recall a warm, animated world where anything seemed possible. From television classics like Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and Frosty the Snowman to such memorable features as The Hobbit (1978) and The Last Unicorn (1982), it's virtually impossible to think back to these animated wonders of childhood without experiencing a warm wave of nostalgia. A Philadelphia native who received his education at N.Y.U., Bass had his first post-college job at a New York advertising agency, though his creative instincts were left markedly unfulfilled by the position. Bass soon took his future into his own hands, however, and co-founded a New York-based film production company with Arthur Rankin Jr. Their collaboration with Rankin/Bass musical composer/conductor Maury Laws led to such memorable songs as "The Heat Miser/Snow Miser Theme" and "Put One Frost in Front of the Other," with Bass himself serving as lyricist on many of the tunes. Taking the director's chair for such efforts as Mad Monster Party? (1967), The Little Drummer Boy (1968), Frosty's Winter Wonderland (1976), and Pinocchio's Christmas (1980), Bass crafted some of the most warmhearted children's films of his generation. Although his activity on the small screen waned after the late '80s, Bass kept busy by penning a series of children's books based on the adventures of Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon and holding a series of children's cooking lessons in France to display the healthful nature of the herbivore creature's dining habits.