"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" started out as a song made famous by Gene Autry, but he came to life in an animated special that has charmed generations. On Tuesday, Rudolph will run for the 50th straight year.

For a Christmas special to be a classic, it has to have cross-generational appeal, so CBS News assembled what you might ordinarily call a focus group -- though "focus" is probably the wrong word for the young bunch.

And it appears "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" passes that test with flying -- and glowing -- colors.

First airing in 1964, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was the creation of Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass, using a technique they called "animagic."

"The Rankin-Bass characters are just fun," New York Magazine TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz said. "Their bodies and their heads don't match up. Their movements are very awkward and strange."

"They weren't Disney, they weren't trying to be. But there's an incredible amount of artistry that goes into it," he added.

Filmed in Japan, Rudolph employs the oldest form of film animation, also known as stop motion. Movement is created by adjusting flexible dolls in tiny increments and shooting them frame by frame.

"It feels homemade to the point where generations of children were inspired to try to do their own versions of it with their action figures and bendable figurines and things like that," Zoller Seitz said.

Rudolph has influenced a number of contemporary filmmakers from Tim Burton to Wes Anderson.

"Over my years, my being involved in stop motion, I think that I came to appreciate the purity, the simplicity of Rudolph," Oscar-nominated director Henry Selick said.

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"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" celebrates 50th anniversary on CBS