The Little Drummer Boy received an approval rating of 75% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on thirteen reviews. Production Supervisors: Takeo Nakamura and Hiroshi Tabata (both uncredited).Designers: Donald Duga, Charles Frazier.Based upon " The Little Drummer Boy" by Katherine Davis, Henry Onorati and Harry Simeone.Producers/Directors: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin, Jr.The Vienna Boys' Choir singing the title song.Paul Frees as Ali, Aaron's father, Three Kings.As a sign of gratitude, Baba is healed and rushes into Aaron's arms, filling Aaron's heart with joy at last. Having no gift to give to the baby, Aaron decides that his "gift" to Him and His parents will be his playing his drum for them. However, they can do nothing, but insist that maybe the baby can help. Aaron takes the injured lamb to the Magi to be healed. There, upon recognizing Joshua and trying to reunite with him, Baba is struck by a Roman chariot. Later Aaron and his two remaining animal companions Samson and Baba escape, climb the tallest hill and join up with the Magi as they follow the star and then journey toward Bethlehem. One of the caravan camels becomes too weak to continue traveling and the Magi has no extra camel, so Ben seizes Aaron and bargains with them that they use Joshua in exchange for some of their gold, but Aaron refuses to take any gold from Ben and leaves for Bethlehem with Samson and Baba.
Seizing his chance, Ben greedily attempts to perform for the Magi, but they are uninterested as they try to make haste to get to the star's destination. Some time later, the troupe comes upon the Magi caravan who are following a bright star in the sky. When performing in Jerusalem, Aaron becomes infuriated by the townspeople's amusement and lashes out at them for being thieves and knaves. Because his drumming can make the three animals dance, Aaron is kidnapped and forced to join Ben Haramed's caravan with rather inept performers against his will. Emotionally scarred from the tragedy, Aaron begins to hate all humanity. One night, bandits from the desert steal their livestock, kill Aaron's parents, and burn the farm down. On his birthday, Aaron's parents give him a drum as a gift, to which the animals dance when he plays it. A young Jewish boy named Aaron lives a peaceful and happy life with his parents on a farm with their three farm animals, Samson the Donkey, Baba the Lamb, and Joshua the Camel.