Author Archives: Joe

December 19, 2015

#7 – Donald Duck: Toy Tinkers

By Joe
Toy_Tinkers

“Toy Tinkers” (1949)

For the number seven entry I am cheating a little, but only a little. I spelled it out in the intro to this feature, but I am considering theatrical shorts for this feature as long as they’ve basically been adopted by television. “Toy Tinkers” starring Donald Duck falls under that umbrella as it debuted in theaters in 1949. “Toy Tinkers” came during a time when Walt Disney was moving away from the short subject to focus on feature length films and television productions. Pretty much the only character still receiving shorts was Donald Duck, who had usurped Mickey Mouse’s role as lead character for cartoons. Mickey would receive short films here and there into the fifties, but Donald was the only one receiving consistent work.

“Toy Tinkers” is very similar to a later cartoon, “Pluto’s Christmas Tree,” because both feature Chip and Dale. In this cartoon, Chip and Dale sneak into Donald’s house after seeing him chop down a Christmas tree. When they get in they decide to stay due to its warmth and abundance of nuts. Donald, not being the friendliest duck, sees the duo and decides to have some fun at their expense. He even ends up pulling a gun on them after disguising himself as Santa Claus. Chip and Dale, of course, do not take this laying down and opt to fight back. They’ve had a few battles with Donald over the years, and just like in virtually every other one, they get the better of the duck after turning his living room into a war zone.

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Santa Donald: way better than Santa Claus.

“Toy Tinkers,” as the name implies, features lots of toys and gags centered around them. The tamest moments of the short feature Chip and Dale interacting with these toys in an innocent and curious way. The toys also play a vital role to the combat sequences that follow where pop guns, trains, and wind-up cars are put to use. It’s a clever little short that’s plenty charming. It doesn’t really feature much Christmas spirit, but makes up for it with its use of timeless characters. Seriously, if you can’t enjoy a Donald Duck cartoon then we can’t be friends.

“Toy Tinkers” can be found on the Chronological Donald Volume 3, a collection of Donald Duck cartoons that is long since out of print and mighty expensive on the resale market. There is a holiday DVD from about ten years ago that included it which is much easier on the wallet, “Holiday Celebration with Mickey and Pals,” if you wish to seek it out. The Disney Channel will sometimes slip it into its programming during December as well, especially if they need to fill some small gaps in programming, but you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled to find it. If you wish to make it easy on yourself, pretty much every old Disney short can be found on Youtube. Since the company isn’t actively trying to sell them, they must not care about their availability online.

 

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December 18, 2015

#8 – South Park: Mr. Hanky, The Christmas Poo

By Joe
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“Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo” (1997)

You can always count on South Park for something perverse, and it doesn’t get much more perverse than a talking piece of Christmas shit. South Park has made quite a few holiday specials, and no holiday has received more attention than Christmas. South Park’s Christmas specials contain some of the usual suspects like Jesus and Santa Claus, but creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker apparently felt they needed their own Christmas mascot so they created Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo.

Mr. Hankey is the star of the show’s very first Christmas special which aired during the first season. Mr. Hankey is presented as a benevolent spirit of the holidays who packs more Christmas cheer into his tiny, little body than any man, woman, or child. Mr. Hankey is the star of the episode, but the plot centers around Kyle who feels left out at Christmas because he’s apparently the only Jewish kid in town. His mother flips out at Mr. Garrison for casting Kyle as Joseph in the school Christmas pageant which snowballs on Garrison as everyone apparently has a problem with some aspect of Christmas. The Jews want to ditch the nativity, the Christians want Santa out, the hippies want to stop the slaughter of trees, and so on.

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Mr. Hankey in Mr. Mackey’s coffee is probably the best gag in the entire episode, or worst, depending on your point of view.

Meanwhile, Kyle views Mr. Hankey as the solution to the town’s problem because he brings presents to all good girls and boys (so long as they eat their fiber), regardless of religion. It’s just that few in town are willing to embrace a piece of crap as a new Christmas mascot. Kyle starts seeing Mr. Hankey everywhere as a personified dookie with a Santa hat, which leads to some disgusting but hilarious gags, while everyone else just sees a regular old mookie-stink. Kyle ends up getting committed, only for the kids to find out Chef believes in Mr. Hankey, and the special actually wraps up in a pretty typical Christmas special sort of way, when you ignore the talking poop.

It’s funny, it’s ridiculous, but South Park actually does a pretty nice job of highlighting how non-Christian kids must feel at Christmas time. There’s a heart here, which is part of the humor as Parker and Stone prove to the viewer that we too can love a piece of poo. “Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo” can be found on the season one box set of South Park and also the “Christmas Time in South Park” DVD, which I reviewed previously. The special, along with every other South Park Christmas special, is almost certainly guaranteed to air on Comedy Central this year so check your local listings if you want to catch it. And lastly, every episode of South Park is available to stream on hulu if you want to watch it that way.

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December 17, 2015

#9 – A Flintstone Christmas

By Joe
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A Flintstone Christmas (1977)

It may have been considered a slight when I passed over The Flintstones for inclusion in my top ten animated television shows, but maybe a 9th place finish here will take away some of that sting. The modern stone-age family has been around a long time, and while their profile has certainly diminished over the years, The Flintstones are still pretty well known.

Basically every time I have chosen to talk about The Flintstones on this blog it has been related to one of the Christmas specials, and in particular, A Flintstone Christmas. A Flintstone Christmas came after the show stopped airing new episodes and is essentially the episode “Christmas Flintstone” re-done as an hour-long television special (for more on that, check out my review last year of A Flintstone Christmas Carol which also includes “Christmas Flintstone”). It used to be that you could count on seeing the special re-air every year on either Cartoon Network or TBS but that hasn’t been the case of late. So like yesterday’s entrant, A Garfield Christmas, A Flintstone Christmas is in danger of becoming kind of an unknown Christmas special.

The story for A Flintstone Christmas revolves around Fred and Barney filling in for Santa Claus. Fred is supposed to play Santa for his work’s Christmas party, but when the real Santa gets injured on Fred’s roof (sound familiar?) Fred has to put on the Sant suit and fill-in. Barney tags along as Fred’s elf, and the two stumble their way through the night. At one point they lose all the presents and have to head back to the North Pole to get more, but this serves as a way for the show to present Santa’s work shop and his many elves.

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When Santa gets hurt, it’s up to Fred and Barney to make sure Christmas goes on without a hitch.

There’s a few original songs thrown in to liven things up. They’re actually not too bad and it’s kind of nice to not have to hear the same public domain songs over and over. The only one I don’t care for is the overly sappy song that revolves around Pebbles waking up on Christmas morning. Fred (Henry Cordon) has some singing parts that can hardly be labeled as singing, so those songs are kind of lousy as well. All in all though, the music gets the job done.

The animation is pretty standard Hanna-Barbera stuff and doesn’t look all that different from the show. It’s probably slightly better and there’s some very minor visual effects at work in some places. It’s really only noticeably better if you watch this special and then watch an episode of the show. Unfortunately, there aren’t any great dinosaur gags to speak of, which was a major part of the show’s charm. It would have been fun to see some odd dinosaur appliance incorporated into Santa’s work shop, but oh well.

A Flintstone Christmas is kind of hard to come by these days. Since it’s not shown on television anymore, the only way to see it is either online or by purchasing the special on DVD. For some reason, A Flintstone Christmas Carol appears to be the special of choice that gets peddled around each holiday season while A Flintstone Christmas has been relegated to Amazon’s manufacture-on-demand printing service. As a result, the DVD release is as bland as it gets, though it does also include the 90’s special A Flintstone Family Christmas, which actually isn’t that bad. It’s a really fun special though with a premise that would clearly be ripped-off down the road. There’s some laughs and nice Christmas sentiments tossed-in and it never feels overdone. Hopefully A Flintstone Christmas will eventually find its way back to television where it belongs this time of year.

 

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December 16, 2015

#10 – A Garfield Christmas

By Joe
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A Garfield Christmas (1987)

We’re rounding into the home stretch as coming in at number 10 is A Garfield Christmas. It seems odd to use a running analogy when describing Garfield as one wouldn’t choose him to handle the last leg of a relay race. Garfield is essentially a typical cat personified. His gluttonous, slothful, behavior is really only barely exaggerated beyond that of a normal house cat. He’s sarcastic, possessing a dry wit, though he also does have a little prankster in him where Odie, the dog, is concerned. His owner, John, apparently knows his cat’s thoughts as the two pretty much are able to communicate with one another even though Garfield, being a cat and all, can’t actually speak.

In the 80’s, Garfield made the move from the comic strip to television in the form of multiple specials, most being well received and even Emmy award winning. The success of these specials is likely what led to the creation of the cartoon series Garfield & Friends. In A Garfield Christmas, John packs up the car and takes his pets to his family’s farm for Christmas. Garfield would much prefer to hang back at the house with his nice, warm, bed and has little use for Christmas cheer (though he’s down with the food and presents). He’s able to find a kindred spirit in Grandma when they arrive at the farm, who also seems to detest the mushy aspect of Christmas. The rest of John’s family is just as enthusiastic about Christmas as he is, with both John and his brother Doc Boy essentially reverting to a child-like state of being for the holidays.

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Looky what he can do!

It’s the Grandma character that steals the show. Her vibrant personality is offset by a quiet sadness as she reveals to Garfield that Christmas is the time of year that makes her miss her late husband the most. It’s a simple plot device but one that’s extremely relatable for most people (and if not, it will be someday) which is what makes it so effective. Garfield is able to do a nice thing for Grandma, which is what brings about the feels in this Christmas special. Garfield isn’t really associated with warm-heartedness, but it works here. The special isn’t just one big love-fest either as it’s still pretty funny and quite entertaining.

The special is over 25 years old and is starting to show its age. The Garfield strip had its own look and personality which translated well to animation and is something age will never take away. It may be old, but it’s still nice enough to look at. The audio, both the voice cast and music, are well done and one of the special’s strengths. Being that the special is old and the Garfield character isn’t as popular as he used to be, it’s not often shown any longer on television, which is a real shame. It is available on DVD as part of a Garfield holiday collection that I fully recommend as both the Halloween and Thanksgiving specials are pretty good. It’s also probably really cheap and the best way to make sure A Garfield Christmas is a part of your holiday this year.

 

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December 15, 2015

#11 – Prep & Landing

By Joe
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Disney’s Prep & Landing (2009)

It seems like every year a prominent new Christmas special shows up on television and routinely disappoints. Even Pixar found the going tough when last year they unveiled Toy Story That Time Forgot which I found pretty lackluster. Six years ago though Disney had much better luck with an all knew intellectual property:  Prep & Landing.

It seems like a new Christmas special or film needs to do something different in order to make a mark. The Santa Clause has always been my go-to example as that has become a modern classic by taking a different look at the Santa character. Prep & Landing is similar because it chooses to focus on the elves responsible for prepping a house for Santa on Christmas Eve. It’s a novel concept as no child ever actually sees Santa at work and this special gives them a reason why.

The story follows Wayne (Dave Foley) who has been on the prep and landing team for over 200 years and has just seen his subordinate get promoted. Wayne is one of those quiet professionals who has most likely been most passed over for reassignment because he does such a good job where he is and hasn’t made enough noise about wanting a change. He ends up getting paired with a new, enthusiastic, assistant named Lanny (Derek Richardson) and Wayne basically slacks off and lets Lanny run the show. This causes their assignment to be blown and a storm re-routes Santa away from the house they were supposed to prep. Wayne feels awful since the kid is on the nice list, and resolves to get the house prepped and convince Santa to make the trip.

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Wayne and Lanny on the job.

Prep & Landing is a CG Christmas cartoon and it looks fantastic. It was basically made in conjunction with the feature film Bolt which is when Disney’s CG really took a leap forward and started to rival Pixar’s. The voice acting is also really good, and there’s lots of little Easter eggs hidden in the background. Prep & Landing was so successful that it’s spawned another half-hour special and two shorts. They’re actually all pretty good, but the first half-hour special is still the best. It’s the creativity that makes it special and the production values are the cherry on top. Since Prep & Landing is still fairly new it’s shown multiple times each Christmas season (and will air on the 17th this year on ABC) and is often paired with the sequel “Naughty vs. Nice.” If you don’t want to wait for it to come on television, or you missed it, there’s also a DVD and a Blu Ray set that contains both specials and the shorts available for purchase.

 

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December 14, 2015

#12 – Futurama: Xmas Story

By Joe
Futurama: "Xmas Story" (1999)

Futurama: “Xmas Story” (1999)

Ahh Futurama, the satirical show from the 30th century. Futurama is a great television show with wonderful animation, fantastic writing, and an exemplary cast of voice talent. The show is arguably at its best when it’s taking something familiar from the present and giving us a wild futuristic take on it. One such example is the season two episode “Xmas Story” where we see what Christmas has come to in the year  3000.

The episode opens with the Planet Express crew taking a ski holiday and Fry is frustrated by all of the changes that have occurred in the thousand years he was frozen. This causes him to reminisce fondly on Christmas, which causes confusion as no one knows what Christmas is but they soon figure out that Fry means Xmas. Xmas in the year 3000 is a horrible event due to man creating a robot Santa over a hundred years ago which was defective and determined everyone was naughty. Now every year this robot Santa goes on a rampage and slaughters anyone dumb enough to be out on the streets. Fry is disheartened by what has happened to his favorite holiday, but at least the gift-giving still remains part of the tradition. He sets out to get Leela a present, and settles on a parrot that gets away. By staying out and trying to recapture his gift he ends up attracting the attention of Santa. Leela goes out to save him and the two have to elude Santa if they hope to stay alive.

Santa Claus is gunning you down!

Santa Claus is gunning you down!

There’s a twisted sort of ending put on the episode, where they all sing a bastardized version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and the Professor takes off his clothes. The episode is full of one-liners consistent with the best of Futurama. There’s a recurring gag about the Professor mocking 20th century notions of modesty (hence the nudity mentioned above) and lots of Xmas puns repurposed for the 30th century version of the holiday. John Goodman guest stars as Robot Santa and provides a nice menacing voice for the robotic terror. There’s also a B plot featuring Bender posing as a homeless robot for free booze. He’s able to round-up a posse of homeless robots, including Tinny Tim, and they go on a robbing spree. It’s a typical Bender plot and also typically funny.

“Xmas Story” is a classic Futurama episode at this point, considering it’s over fifteen years old now. It’s probably the best holiday themed episode the show ever did, and it produced some good ones. Re-runs of Futurama air frequently on Comedy Central and “Xmas Story” will probably be featured this year as Comedy Central is pretty good at rolling out their various Christmas specials as the holiday approaches. If not, then it can be found on the season two DVD set of Futurama.

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December 13, 2015

#13 – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

By Joe
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Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

The Rankin/Bass produced Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is often referred to as the original Christmas special. It’s not, but of the most popular Christmas specials it is the oldest. It was originally produced in conjunction with General Electric. During its original broadcast the characters would appear in GE ads during the commercial breaks because everyone wants a new vacuum or refrigerator for Christmas. Now it’s obviously broadcast without those inserts, which have mostly been lost to time because who could predict this special would be so popular over fifty years later? Also lost, most of the original puppets used to make the show and some of the stock footage because, again, who would have known there would be a market for any of this stuff?

Rudolph is obviously a Christmas classic. It’s shown multiple times every year on CBS and for many families it’s appointment viewing. The characters are not above appearing in modern commercials either (this year they want you to switch cell phone providers) and there’s more toys, ornaments, and decorations with their likeness than you can count. What I’m getting at is that this one is so popular that it’s probably considered an upset that I’m ranking it outside my top ten. Had I ordered my favorite specials as an eight year old, sure this would have ranked a lot higher, but it’s not really one of my favorites today.

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Is there any doubt Rudolf would end up in this position by the end of the show?

By now everyone is familiar with the story of Rudolph, so it makes little sense to summarize it, but I will because that’s who I am. Rudolph is a reindeer born to Donner (spelled as Donder and Dunder in other sources) and his unnamed wife (often referred to as Mrs. Donner). He has a peculiar nose that’s essentially a red light bulb and everyone thinks it sucks and makes fun of him. So he runs off with an elf who doesn’t want to make toys and they join-up with an eccentric prospector and wind up on the Island of Misfit Toys. Rudolph sees he doesn’t have it so bad once he meets the depressing toys and decides to head back to Christmas Town. There he has to save his family from the Abominable Snowman and save Christmas with his wonderful nose.

The animation is stop-motion and the puppets, particularly the reindeer, look great. When they’re not moving. The animation itself is rather primitive and awkward, but it’s been over fifty years so we should be used to it by now. I think the story is solid, though it feels a little dragged out. The music is what drives me nuts. Sure the main theme is fine and I can get down with “Holly, Jolly Christmas” but nothing else does it for me. I always feel song fatigue by the time the Island of Misfit Toys rolls around and the rejected toys start singing.

So yeah, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is fine, I just don’t think it’s great. I rank it as highly as I do out of obligation as much as personal enjoyment. I’ll watch it this year, and probably start fiddling with my phone fifteen minutes into it.

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December 12, 2015

#14 – A Very Special Family Guy Freakin’ Christmas

By Joe
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Family Guy: “A Very Special Family Guy Freakin’ Christmas” (2001)

Family Guy might be the first show to be cancelled and then brought back to television a few years later. Shows have gone off the air and come back in different forms or as a sequel series but I don’t know many that were outright cancelled and then brought back really without any changes. The story of Family Guy’s unwillingness to die is probably more interesting than the show itself. When people complain to me about how bad The Simpsons have become I like to point out just how long that show was good and how quickly a show like Family Guy went down the toilet.

The post cancellation seasons for Family Guy seem to get worse each year. Outside of the Simpsons cross-over I really haven’t watched it much over the past few years because it’s just not funny. The first three seasons, however, were pretty damn good. They sustained themselves mostly because the show’s gags had not become overdone just yet and the cut-away bits just felt like a random piece of humor. One of the standout episodes of season 3 is “A Very Special Family Guy Freakin’ Christmas” in which the show is able to tell a Christmas tale without betraying the show’s tone of voice.

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Merry Christmas Stewie!

The episode has a few different plots intertwining with each other. There’s Lois, who’s just trying to make sure her family has a great Christmas (this was before her character was changed to an unlikable, terrible, mother) by doing all of the heavy lifting mothers so often get stuck with. Stewie is trying to wrap his head around the concept of Santa Claus and seems to regard him as a foe, though one who could potentially provide him plutonium. And Peter, who’s just trying to catch his favorite Christmas specials on television (in particular, “Kiss Saves Santa”) but keeps getting roped into doing things he doesn’t want to do. Peter, and the kids, are basically blind to Lois’s plight and take her for granted. When Brian nearly burns the house down (in part due to Peter’s negligence) she snaps and has a nervous breakdown that makes her act like some kind of cross between an ape and The Incredible Hulk. This leads to the climactic scene at the Christmas pageant where Stewie’s Linus moment thaws Lois’s heart, and the police fill her with a bunch of tranquilizers.

Stewie is, of course, acting in his own self interest to get on Santa’s good side and is rewarded in the end. The Griffen family ends up having a merry Christmas in a very Family Guy sort of way. “A Very Special Family Guy Freakin’ Christmas” has enough heart but not at the expense of the laughs. This is a comedy special first and foremost. It’s a bit surprising the show didn’t go into full-on cynic mode with its special, but it’s also probably for the better considering how mean-spirited the show has become in recent years. This special is Family Guy at its best. Peter is a boob but not overly so, Stewie still has some edge, Lois is a good person, and Brian provides some dry humor.

“A Very Special Family Guy Freakin’ Christmas” will probably be shown multiple times on television this year, either on TBS or Cartoon Network. Fox will probably show a more recent, and inferior, Christmas special from the show. The episode is also readily available on DVD as part of Season 3 and as a stand-alone release.

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December 11, 2015

#15 – Frosty the Snowman

By Joe
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Frosty the Snowman (1969)

Frosty the Snowman is a Christmas special that everybody knows. It’s been airing on CBS every year since 1969 and will likely continue to do so for as long as there’s a Christmas. Starring comedian Jackie Vernon as the voice of the titular snowman, Frosty the Snowman is the rare Rankin/Bass production done in traditional animation as opposed to stop-motion and is based on the song of the same name.

Because the special is so well-known, there’s not a lot that can be said about it that hasn’t been said before. I could strike a more snarky tone and point out that, for some reason, a bunch of the children at the beginning are wearing shorts in the winter time. And what is going on with the voice of that kid in the gray sweater with the bowl cut? It’s almost as if they didn’t want to hire another voice actor so they just made some weird sound effect. Maybe he’s a robot? It’s also easy to question the wisdom of the kind-hearted Karen who opts to climb into a giant refrigerator when she’s not even wearing pants. And why does Santa only have four reindeer? That one has bothered me for years.

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Only four reindeer for Santa? Was it too much of a financial burden to give him four more? Was food so scarce at the North Pole that Santa and Mrs. Claus had to butcher the other four for meat?

Yeah, there’s some weird stuff in this one but there’s also some genuine humor. Frosty being rather dim is funny and a surprisingly logical move for a children’s program. It’s also incredibly quotable with lines sticking with me through the years such as “No money, no ticket!” and “We evil magicians have to make a living too.” Frosty may be the star, but I do think Professor Hinkle is the MVP. He’s easy to dislike, just inept enough to stay one step behind, and a constant source of humor. He has that truly wicked moment during the special’s climax as well that adds legitimacy to his character. Really, how often do we actually see the villains in these various Christmas specials do something truly evil?

For a Rankin/Bass production, this cast is pretty star-studded. I already mentioned Vernon but they also opened up the checkbook for comedian Jimmy Durante who serves as the special’s narrator. The first lady of voice overs, June Foray, lends her voice to Karen. Billy De Wolfe voices Hinkle and Paul Frees has a small role as the traffic cop. Woven throughout the special is, of course, the song “Frosty the Snowman” and they actually do a pretty good job bringing the song to life without it feeling forced (though I suppose striking up a random parade is a little odd) or overplaying it. There’s also the emotional pay-off towards the end that gives the special an added punch.

Frosty the Snowman is a nice little Christmas special that virtually everyone knows. It gets enough right for it to earn a spot on pretty much every list of this type. The only thing that really holds it back for me is that it is a little corny and a little dated. There’s probably some exhaustion bias at work here too since I’ve just seen it so many times. Still, I don’t think being the 15th best Christmas special, considering just how many there are, is anything to be ashamed of. And it’s also ten times better than any of the sequels and spin-offs that have been made after this special.

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December 10, 2015

#16 – Yes, Virginia

By Joe
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Yes, Virgina (There’s a Santa Claus) (2009)

Yes, Virginia has the unique distinction of being based on a true story. The story dates back to a newspaper editorial from 1897 (!) that was titled “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!” The story goes, that a young girl named Virginia asked her father if there really was a Santa Claus and his response was to tell her to write a letter to The Sun, a local newspaper in New York, telling her if it’s in The Sun then it must be true. It’s an enduring tale that has been adapted numerous times into musicals, specials, and films and is often recounted in some fashion every year.

This post is about the 2009 special promoted by Macy’s. It’s a tidy little story that stays true to the source in terms of the big picture, but there’s of course little dramatic bits added in to up the entertainment factor. Virginia has a little friend named Ollie who’s probably too adorable for his own good. Virginia also encounters bullies who want to convince her there is no such thing as Santa and a bell-waving Santa who tells her the exact opposite. The editor of The Sun is also a featured character who is at first reluctant to print Virginia’s letter. It’s this character who needs to come around and find the Christmas spirit in order for our special to be complete.

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What it lack in visuals it makes up for in heart.

It’s impossible to engage the story of Yes, Virginia and not feel good about it. It’s a wonderful story and a piece of American history that should have no issues making kids and adults feel some holiday cheer. The only downside to the special is the animation, which was likely done on the cheap. Yes, Virginia is computer animated and some of the characters and sets are borderline ugly. It doesn’t animate particularly well, and the voice cast and music are nothing remarkable either. This is a special that is entirely dependent upon the story it is telling, and the characters in the lead role, are likable and easy to get behind.

Being that Yes, Virginia is only six years old, it’s still routinely shown on television each year. It’s also a free streaming option if you’re an Amazon Prime member, and if you’re not, it can be rented through the website for a small fee. It’s also readily available on DVD and well worth the small investment if you haven’t seen it.

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