| “ | I will make the whole town pay! (Dummy: What will you do, Kubla?) I will send 1000 Ka-knights to destroy the town and everything in it! | „ |
| ~ Kubla Kraus |
| “ | Dummy, look. We're melting! (Laughing) Soon I will destroy the town and get my bride. What happiness. What joy! What glee! (Laughing) | „ |
| ~ Kubla Kraus |
Kubla Kraus is the main antagonist in Rankin Bass' 1979 Christmas special Jack Frost. He is known as the Cossack King, though his Cossacks abandoned him long ago, forcing him to build a mechanical army in their place. He appears to be deeply lonely, going so far as to carry on a delusional friendship with a puppet who he names Dommy. Kubla's main motives for villainous behavior appear to be greed, poor social skills, and extreme isolation.
He was voiced by the late Rankin/Bass veteran actor Paul Frees, who also played Uriah Caw in Cricket on the Hearth, Burgermeister Meisterburger and Grimsley in Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Jack Frost in Frosty's Winter Wonderland and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, Aeon the Terrible and Winterbolt in the Rudolph specials, Quizler in Mouse on the Mayflower, and Boris Badenov in the Rocky and Bullwinkle series.
Biography[]
Kubla is one of the story's main driving forces throughout the story. He negligently causes the disaster which introduces Jack Frost to his love interest Elisa.
Upon seeing Elisa himself, Kubla too falls in love with her, and vows to win her heart by way of kidnapping her. Kubla tries to convince her that he is the right man for her to marry by having Dommy describe how handsome he is, and then repeating the same lines that he said as Dommy when prompted to speak for himself. Jack Frost has already become human in order to earn Elisa's love, and he attempts to rescue Elisa from Kubla with the aid of a knight whom Elisa has fallen in love with. Jack is imprisoned by Kubla and pleads with Father Winter to retain his magical form so that he can freeze Kubla's castle and prevent his mechanical army of Ka-knights from invading and destroying the town where Elisa lives, in retribution for the rescue. At the end of winter, Jack again pleads with Father Winter, this time to become human again so that he can defeat Kubla once and for all.
Jack knocks Kubla out with a ceiling cave in and uses Dommy to command the Ka-knight army to march down a path that sends them all to their doom. Kubla comes to and asks Dommy who he likes better between him and Jack Frost. Dommy of course choses Kubla (as Kubla was controlling him at the time), and Kubla charges at Jack, attempting to push him through the window, but Jack dodges, and Kubla, along with Dommy, crash through the window, which would've made them plummet to their imminent demise, but Father Winter sends a gust of cold wind to blow them away somewhere safe, but far from January Junction forever. Because Jack has been delayed all winter, fighting against Kubla Kraus, he spends virtually no time with Elisa, and she marries the knight who otherwise played a very minor role in the piece. Heartbroken, Jack is unable to complete the tasks he needed to achieve to allow him to retain his humanity, so he returns to being the magical spirit of winter. However, Eliza somehow manages to figure out that Jack saved January Junction from Kubla. Before her wedding, as Elisa and Sir Ravenal (her fiancé) head to the ceremony, her bridal bouquet turns white from a cold breeze. Her husband wonders what happened, and Elisa deduces this was Jack Frost's doing. She responds, "An old friend just kissed the bride".
Personality[]
Kubla is a selfish and tyrannical despot who takes advantage of his citizens and does not care about the consequences of his actions. He annexes even the most modest forms of currency from the peasantry of January Junction in the name of taxation. Because of this, he is very wealthy, but has no real friends and is often unhappy as a result. He carries on pseudo-relationships with the machines that he builds, treating them like living people and animals. He suffers from terrible people skills and archaically sexist notions about male/female relationships. He appears to be afflicted with depression, narcissism, and potentially mild schizophrenia, or a schizophrenic-spectrum disorder.
Physical appearance[]
Kubla is a large man with an almost muscular build, black eyes, fair skin, a bulbous nose with a small wart on the end, bushy black eyebrows, hair, mustache, and a large, equally bushy black beard. He wears a fuzzy, red fez-like Russian hat, a shiny silver tunic lined with light brown fur trim, a matching silver sash around the middle, a pink long-sleeved shirt, one light brown leather glove on his left hand and a metal glove made of iron on his right, forest green pants, a black, high-collared cape, and light brown boots.
Trivia[]
- In addition to "ruling with an iron hand" Kubla's right hand is actually made of iron.
- This is similar to the villain January Q. Irontail in the Rankin Bass special, Here Comes Peter Cottontail.
- According to his song, "There's the Rub" Kubla doesn't know why he isn't happy despite having total control over January Junction and its finances.
- A short redemption story for Kubla Kraus currently exists on Wattpad and takes place after the events of the film.
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