Category Archives: christmas

December 6, 2024

Dec. 6 – The Cuphead Show! – “Holiday Tree-dition”

By Joe
Original air date November 18, 2022.

What’s next for a video game that looks like a cartoon? Why, a cartoon! Novel concept, huh? Cuphead is a 2017 video game created by Jared and Chad Moldenhauer heavily inspired by animation from the 1930s. It’s basically a hand drawn video game and a fully playable one, at that. It made waves when it was first unveiled and seemed to instantly become one of the most anticipated video games in recent memory. It attracted so much attention (and additional funding) that the Moldenhauers and Studio MDHR decided to expand upon the game from its original boss rush premise to something closer to a full-fledged platforming experience with the addition of run n’ gun levels. Upon release it received quite a great deal of praise for its animation and a lot of notoriety for its punishing difficulty. The game has since been released across several platforms and also received a downloadable add-on, Delicious Last Course, which also received a physical release alongside the main game.

Once Cuphead was a bonafide success, it was basically a no-brainer to commission an animated series. Netflix, along with King Features Syndicate, did just that with The Cuphead Show! releasing in 2022 on the streaming platform. It has since released three “seasons” totaling 36 episodes, though in typical Netflix fashion, all of the seasons were part of the same initial episode order. We’re now two years removed from the finale airing without word of another batch of episodes being ordered so I guess that’s all she wrote, but with a streaming show it’s not uncommon for years to lapse in between seasons.

Brothers Cuphead (center left) and Mugman (center right) spend most of their time getting into and out of trouble.

The show is about Cuphead (Tru Valentino) and brother Mugman (Frank Todaro), two rubber-hosed miscreants with cups for heads who get into mischief all throughout Inkwell Isles where they live. Early on, they get on the bad side of the Devil himself with Cuphead losing a game in which the cost was his very soul, so the boys have to spend a great deal of time (and episodes) avoiding the Devil at all costs. The show is animated with modern technology, the puppet-like stuff utilized by most, despite the video game being hand drawn. Despite that, it does a reasonable job of approximating the look of a hand drawn cartoon and is one of the best looking animated shows on Netflix (or pretty much any streamer, for that matter). Like the game, there are filters applied and some desaturation techniques to make the show look aged while the soundtrack (provided by Ego Plum) is appropriately jazzy. There is a throughline to the show involving the plot surrounding Cuphead’s deal with the Devil and the ghostly Chalice (Grey DeLisle) character, but for the most part episodes can be consumed in a stand-alone fashion. This helps to make The Cuphead Show! feel almost like a relic in this age of serialized story-telling, even in kids shows.

As part of the third batch of episodes, we received not one, but two Christmas episodes. This one, “Holiday Tree-dition” is the first of those two and the shorter of the two. Most of the episodes are half episodes while some are stretched out to a half hour or longer. It’s quite common for cartoons with that type of setup to devote two segments to Christmas, but with this episode we’re looking at a pretty typical running time for the show. The other one starring the Devil gets the double-length treatment.

The home of Cuphead, Mugman, and Elder Kettle is done using real assets like a stop-motion production.

The show begins with the standard intro. When I first booted this program up with my kids, I was surprised the show didn’t just use the theme from the video game, but after hearing this new intro I could see why. This one pops. It’s jazzy, bouncy, and fun and one of those intros that is rarely skipped in my house. The episode is introduced with its own lovely title card before we’re shown the outside of Elder Kettle’s home where Cupman and Mugman reside. The opening shot is done with real assets. They’re models and I assume this is an homage to what the Fleischer Studios used to do back in the day where they’d have a live-action setting and animate over it.

They’re all bundled up to go get a Christmas tree!

Inside the giant teapot we find Elder Kettle (Joe Hanna) in his cozy confines welcoming us with a jaunty Christams tune! Mugman and Cuphead are going to join in on the fun as the trio sings an original diddy about Christmas trees. It would seem getting the tree each year is a big deal in this house and as the trio sing they put on cold weather clothing, Elder Kettle grabs an axe, and they head out the door to go get their tree. I feel inclined to point out now that the inhabitants of Inkwell Isle are a mix of anthropomorphized animals and objects. Cuphead and Mugman are somewhat unique in that they have human bodies, albeit toony ones, with a cup for a head that’s filled with what looks to be milk. Elder Kettle, is just a giant kettle with rubber hose arms and legs. I don’t know if his relationship with the boys is ever explained. He’s a fatherly figure, though more grandfatherly I suppose, but I don’t know if there’s a mother in the equation here.

I fear for what will happen to these two if they don’t come back with five bucks and a tree.

Anyway, as the trio marches off to get a tree, Elder Kettle starts to drift back out of scene. Cuphead and Mugman soon notice he’s gone, and when they turn around they see him going back into the house. They run over and bang on the door and Elder Kettle answers. It would seem he’s decided that he no longer wants to be held responsible for the Christmas tree. He’s retiring, so to speak, and entrusts the boys with the task. Now, even though he was seen carrying an axe moments ago, Elder Kettle is not going to entrust the boys with actually cutting down a tree. Instead, he gives them a ten dollar bill and instructs them to go to Porkrind’s and buy one. Porkrind is going to ask for ten, but Elder Kettle instructs his boys to only offer five bucks. He seems to suggest that they’ll enjoy having some change leftover, but then also tells them in no uncertain terms that they are to come home with change so I guess he didn’t intend for them to do anything with it.

I’m starting to think that Elder Kettle stayed home because he wants nothing to do with trying to negotiate with Porkrind.

Cuphead and Mugman then head to Porkrind’s as instructed. There we see Porkrind (Cosmo Segurson) overseeing his tree lot and reenforcing that all of the trees cost ten bucks. Porkrind, if you could not guess it for yourself, is a big pig-man with an eyepatch. I guess you would not have assumed the eyepatch part, but probably the pig part. Everyone at the lot seems fine with the price, but that’s not going to stop Mugman from attempting to haggle. Cuphead stands behind him as both a supportive voice and to play “the kid” in the relationship while Mugman is like the bartering father. He suggests to Porkrind that five dollars would be a fair price for a tree and to add to the verbal suggestion he holds up five fingers. Since Mugman is a cartoon character, he only possesses four digits on each hand so he has to use two hands to do so. Plus, since he’s wearing mittens, his fingers have to rip through the mittens for added emphasis. Porkrind seems unwilling to haggle though and tells Mugman the price was ten bucks last year, it’s ten bucks this year, and he’s even willing to say they’ll be ten bucks next year. That doesn’t stop Mugman from trying as he does the typical bad barterer maneuver of just going up a dollar on his offer hoping Porkrind is willing to give a little. He does not. Actually, he ups the price to fifteen. Mugman can’t believe it, and then some little light bulb guy (Keith Ferguson) accepts the fifteen dollar offer. Mugman tries to negotiate back to ten, but there’s a problem: Porkrind is all out of trees.

We’re only a few minutes into the cartoon and Christmas is already ruined!

With no tree, but still ten bucks in their pocket, the boys decide there is only one maneuver left: cry. They throw a fit as Porkrind heads into his trailer fearing their Christmas is ruined, only for the pig-man to pop back out. No, he’s not feeling sympathetic for them or anything, instead he just suggests they cut down their own tree. Naturally, to do so they’ll need an axe. I guess going back to the house for the one Elder Kettle had is out of the question, so instead they opt to buy one from Porkrind. The price? Ten bucks!

Cuphead should not allowed to handle sharp objects.

Even though the boys managed to spend all of Elder Kettle’s money, when they were only supposed to spend five, and also still lack a tree, they seem rather happy as they march off into the woods. Cuphead is even swinging the axe around irresponsibly, but Mugman is apparently used to such as he manages to duck every swing and still keep a smile on his face. As they stroll though the woods, they walk by various trees which Mugman dismisses for pretty obvious reasons since they’re all pretty ugly. One tree which has the idyllic Christmas tree shape is dismissed as being too desperate because it was also juggling snow balls. The boys begin to feel like they’ll never find a good tree, which of course occurs just as they’re walking by a perfectly good tree.

Behold! The perfect tree!

With the tree found the only thing left to do is cut it down. This presents a problem because, like brothers often do, the two boys fight over who gets to actually wield the axe and chop this sucker down. As they fight over it, the axe gets thrown by accident and it cleanly slices through the trunk of the tree. That is a damn fine axe. You can complain all you want about Porkrind’s pricing, but at least he’s selling a quality product. The tree then falls over and lands on the boys, but they emerge from the pine looking no worse for ware. Instead, they have a different problem. The tree has started to move, and soon they find themselves running down the side of a mountain in pursuit of a runaway Christmas tree!

It’s just a little snow-covered. It’s still good! It’s still good!

The boys have little trouble in catching up with the tree, but as they run alongside it and try to jump on, something always gets in the way be it a big boulder or a random snowman popping out of the ground. Both finally make a jump for it, but they collide in midair. When the two hit the ground they’re rolling and soon end up in a massive snowball before getting smashed apart. Now they’re running, but Cuphead can’t locate the tree. That’s because it’s sliding behind them, but faster than they can run, and it takes them both out. This works out though because now they’re on the tree, but it’s still racing down the hill in an out of control manner. The good news is the hill finally ends, the bad news is that it ends in a cave full of sleeping bears.

What?

At first, the bears appear like they’ll remain sleeping and it will fall on the boys to somehow get the tree out of there quietly, but before they can do anything the bears all suddenly wake up with a roar! From outside the cave, we see the tree get tossed out. Then we hear the sound of pummeling before a bear emerges holding both Cuphead and Mugman by the back of their shorts. He gives them the boot, but they end up landing on their tree which is sliding somewhere. Cuphead remarks that those bears were pretty mad while Mugman sees an opportunity for a pun and says “Yeah, we barely escaped with our lives!” As he does so he nudges Cuphead looking for some feedback on his joke, but Cuphead couldn’t hear him.

This should give the video game designers an idea on how to punish the player.

And that’s because they’re in a sawmill! Mugman doesn’t realize it at first as he keeps repeating his joke only for Cuphead to say “What?” Finally, they notice where they are just as a bunch of wild saw blades appear. There’s a pretty menacing, personified, furnace (Dave Wasson) full of saw blades that waits for them at the end of a conveyor belt. It’s laughing too, but whatever it planned to do it either doesn’t or we just don’t get to see it because we cut to an exterior shot of the mill. It literally spits the tree out, with the boys still atop it, and they sail into the night sky past a full moon holding each other and screaming.

There’s no Santa to be found, but we’re still getting in a moon shot.

The tree returns to Earth and is once again in motion. It’s all bent and mishapen and Mugman is in some serious distress over the quality of their tree. When he declares that things can’t possibly get any worse, Cuphead responds in the only way a cartoon character can, “Wanna bet?” It would seem they’re heading for a cliff and when the tree goes off of it, it hangs in the air a second allowing the boys to scream before it drops. When it hits the ground it does so with a bounce. It pops open, like an umbrella, and returns to its former glorious shape! The boys aren’t out of the woods yet though (well, technically they are out of the woods, but you know what I mean) as the bounce and pop of the tree has basically turned it into a rocket sailing through the sky.

Cuphead appeared to get the worst of that.

At home, Elder Kettle opens the front door and wonders aloud where the boys are. That’s their cue to come rocketing in like Goofy after the ski jump! Elder Kettle is barely able to jump out of the way as the tree crashes through the front door. When he peaks his…head…into the house, we see Cuphead has crashed into the piano while Mugman landed on the stool. As for the tree, it’s right where it’s supposed to be in its tree stand in the middle of the room.

What a glorious tree!

The trio look on with awe and it immediately transitions to a decorated tree. Elder Kettle announces that the boys get to do the honor of lighting it. He holds up two ends of an electrical chord and the boys cheerfully plug it in. The tree lights up a glorious hue, but then the cable sparks. The spark travels down the chord leaving blackness in its wake until it arrives at the tree and the whole thing goes up with a puff of smoke leaving a smoldering husk behind.

Oh, well, I guess this is more fitting for them.

Once again, Cuphead and Mugman are reduced to tears. As they cry into Elder Kettle’s…waist?..the two wail that they ruined Christmas. Now is the moment where some traditional Christmas special wisdom is brought in. Elder Kettle tells the boys that Christmas isn’t about a tree, it’s about who you spend the holidays with. He adds that whatever tree they have will be just fine. Then he adds, bluntly, “Even if it is burnt to a crisp.” The trio then rejoin in their Christmas tree song and march once around the tree before standing and looking upon it together. We get an external shot of the house all lit up for Christmas and that’s the end.

This holiday edition of The Cuphead Show! is plenty fine. It’s just a fun romp about the two main characters setting out in search of the perfect tree to keep their family tradition alive and encountering problems along the way. Its a silly, absurd, sort of cartoon with a lot of fun quips and visual delights. It’s not the most inventive and it’s pretty easy to predict the next story bit as the cartoon moves along, even the non-traditional ending felt like a foregone conclusion. The only real surprise was that there was no payoff for Elder Kettle’s threats about not returning with change. I was expecting a Home Alone style ending where we hear the outraged scream of Elder Kettle looking for his five bucks before smashing to credits.

So the tree sucks, at least everything else is looking rather nice and festive.

Even if this feels almost by-the-numbers for a silly Christmas adventure, “Holiday Tree-ditions” manages to entertain with its audio and visual presentation. I really love the cast for this show and feel like they found the perfect voices for both Cuphead and Mugman. There’s also a smattering of Christmas music in the background as well as a lovely, fast-paced, instrumental version of the Christmas tree song which accompanies the duo’s journey down the mountain on their tree. The animation is really expressive and this is the sort of cartoon that rewards people like me who pause it constantly in search of good screen caps because it allows for one to appreciate all of the facial expressions in use. My only critique of the visual presentation is that maybe we should have seen Cuphead and Mugman’s condition degrade throughout the episode since they do get smacked around pretty good.

If you would like to check out this episode of The Cuphead Show! then I think your only avenue is via Netflix. I’m not sure if it’s been sold outside of the streaming giant or not. If the episode seems a bit too light for your taste, then you could always check out the other Christmas episode from the show which is much longer. Maybe we’ll even cover it here very soon…

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 6 – Silly Symphony – “Santa’s Workshop” (1932)

Back in 1929 Walt Disney launched the Silly Symphonies series of cartoon shorts. Unlike the Mickey Mouse shorts that were growing popular at the time, Silly Symphonies did not center on just one character or even a group of characters, but rather were fairly self-contained. Some shorts that became popular, like The Three Little Pigs,…

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by Joe

Dec. 6 – Christmas in Tattertown

Nickelodeon in the late 1980s was a network on the rise. Cable was expanding to more and more households each and every day and Nick was able to seize the youth market almost from the get-go. Prior to that, broadcast networks dominated children’s programming, but restricted it to certain parts of the broadcast schedule. And…

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by Joe

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December 5, 2024

Dec. 5 – Back to the Future – “Dickens of a Christmas”

By Joe
Original air date November 23, 1991.

In 1985, a little film called Back to the Future debuted in theaters. Starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, the story about a modern day teenager going back in time 30 years to encounter his parents when they were teens was an instantly timeless tale. It spawned two sequels which were shot back-to-back and they too have weathered the test of time and emerged quite favorably. It’s a film franchise that definitely has every right to be in the conversation of best movie trilogies of all-time. And since the basic premise is so relatable in any era, it’s a franchise that lends itself tremendously well to more sequels or even a reboot.

Except that ain’t gonna happen. Creators Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale have taken the stance that there will be no sequels or reboots as long as they’re around. The two wisely retained enough degree of control that they have this kind of sway when it comes to future films. And then there’s the unfortunate reality that Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease making his return as Marty McFly very unlikely if not impossible. I have no idea what happens when Zemeckis and Gale are no longer with us, but for now there will be no Back to the Future Part 4 or a new school reboot like Back 2 the Future.

And that’s fine. Creators should have that kind of sway and if they don’t want to hand over their property to the Hollywood reboot machine then that’s their right. Most fans of the franchise seem to be of like mind anyway, though if you’re disappointed then that’s okay too. Reboots, or long delayed sequels, from my experience are usually not very good. The thing is, their existence doesn’t erase what came before. If a reboot is bad I either don’t watch it or move on after a single viewing. What I don’t do is take to social media and complain about some new movie ruining my childhood or destroying the legacy of Property X. Reboots and sequels do none of those things.

The two Bobs may have said “No” to more movies, but what they didn’t say “No” to was an animated series. That may seem odd, but I’m guessing when the cartoon came up they weren’t sure if they were done with the franchise yet. Plus, what harm can a cartoon do? It’s for kids, it will make some money, maybe sell some toys, and after it’s aired it probably vanishes into the abyss of forgotten media. Only they couldn’t have predicted the Internet and what it would make possible nor the rise of entire shows existing on physical media. The kids of the 80s and 90s were practically raised by television so no show was allowed to be forgotten for very long.

The main cast (left to right): Verne, Clara, Doc, Marty, Jules

The Back to the Future animated series debuted on Saturday mornings in the fall of 1991 (well, technically late summer, but fall TV programming). Returning from the film franchise is Christopher Lloyd who reprises his role as Doc Brown, only not in the way you may have expected. I guess he didn’t want the voice acting paycheck and instead opted to film some live-action segments introducing the episode and closing it. Usually, he’s working in his garage or something. Bill Nye is also on-hand to do some experiments and inject an educational component as well. For the actual cartoon, Brown is voiced by Dan Catellanetta and he’s the patriarch of the Brown family. The show takes place after the third movie, so he’s married to Clara (Mary Steenburgen who apparently did want that voice acting check) and father to boys Jules (Josh Keaton) and Verne (Troy Davidson). Marty (David Kaufman) is still hanging around and attending school, though he’ll graduate from Hill Valley High and go on to college. Each episode basically takes this crew and throws them somewhere in time where they’re certain to encounter a descendent of Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson, also returning from the films) who is up to no good.

It’s really a solid premise for a weekly show so long as you don’t mind Doc Brown deciding to screw around with time once again. It’s easy to integrate an educational component and we have built-in lore thanks to the film franchise. And unlike cartoons such as RoboCop or Rambo, this one is actually based on a franchise kids might actually be allowed to watch. The show only ran for two seasons with each totaling 13 episodes so no syndication deals for Back to the Future. That meant this one did kind of go away for awhile, but like everything, it’s been found. During that first season we got a Christmas episode. As you can tell by the title, this is going to be a variation on A Christmas Carol, but since we’re talking time travel here, it gets to do something other than a direct parody or adaptation. Instead, think The Real Ghostbusters if you’re familiar with that show’s Christmas episode (and if you’re not, we got you covered).

The show begins with a re-recording of “Back in Time,” so no Huey Lewis for the kids. The opening is composed of what appears to be unique animation as opposed to clips, which is always a plus. It does feature the gang tangling with a dinosaur though which is actually kind of a bummer because the episode is unlikely to be as exciting as that adventure probably was. Full disclosure upfront, I’m watching this online and the pics are going to be bad because it’s not available for streaming officially anywhere. I thought I was going to be able to watch it on Peacock, but apparently not. The episode begins with Doc Brown who is presently working under the DeLorean. I question if this is actually Christopher Lloyd since we can’t see his face. He sets up the episode by remarking about a summer that was really hot and they used the time machine to basically escape it. That’s where our cartoon begins.

I apologize in advance for the quality of these images.

It would indeed appear to be hot, as Doc suggested, as Clara is seen carrying a basket outside. Verne comes running into the kitchen (still wearing a coon skin cap even though it’s oppressively hot) and tries to nab a cookie from the cookie jar. He’s intercepted by his father, who he didn’t notice at first because he’s suspended from the ceiling. Doc tells his boy that he specifically forbade him from consuming more baked goods. He has to sound like he’s of a higher intelligence so he can’t just say “No more cookies.” The kid takes off, disappointed, and Clara comes in with a basket of what Doc thinks are prunes. They’re plums, but it’s so hot they’re basically becoming prunes. Clara snaps at him because it’s so damn hot and also because Doc has left greasy footprints all over the ceiling. He assures her that once he’s finished installing the ozone-friendly, freon-free, cooling device he’ll clean up. The irritated expression on her face suggests to me that she’s heard similar lines before that did not bear fruit. Jules then enters with an egg that has become hard boiled, essentially repeating the plum to prune joke, but now with poultry.

I wish whenever my family got into a fight we could just go back in time to solve our problems.

We cut to a monster movie featuring a bootleg Godzilla. The picture is a bit, shall we say thin, and that’s because it’s a projection coming from Marty’s hoverboard. He’s zooming through the streets of Hill Valley on that thing while watching a movie. He’s basically predicted modern day distracted driving, just on a device time has yet to truly invent (those hoverboards they sell at the store should be banned for false advertising). And since he is distracted, and this show strives to be somewhat educational, he crashes. First into Ein who was enjoying a swim in a kiddie pool and then into the home of the Browns apparently destroying the cooling device the doc was trying to install. Everyone starts yelling at each other until Doc calms them down. He notes that they’re “at each other’s trachea,” and Marty reacts with, “Yeah, and soon we’ll be at each other’s throats.” A good language joke, though wasn’t Marty always pretty smart in the movies? Clara remarks it’s because it’s hotter than the dickens, which gives Doc an idea. In order to beat this heat they need a little Christmas spirit!

Nice threads. Even Ein gets a cute little hat and scarf.

We’re then whisked away to a snowy cityscape. As the title of the episode implies though, we’ve gone back in time to the 19th century. Some carolers are singing “Good King Wenceslas” on a street corner until the time machine zaps into view high in the sky. They quickly change their line to making a remark about not believing what they’re singing. The Brown family, and Marty, take refuge atop a nearby building. Once out, Doc uses a device to zap some period appropriate clothing onto everyone, though not until he first hits them with period inappropriate clothing for a gag. Once concluded, young Jules requests to look after the keys to the DeLorean, which Doc shows some apprehension about because he’s using an old family heirloom, a watch, as a key fob. Jules insists he needs to demonstrate how responsible he’s become and Doc relents. Obviously, something unexpected is going to occur when it comes to the watch.

What is up with this guy’s nose? It’s like he’s from a different show.

Doc then asks Marty if he likes the view and Marty confirms that he does. And that’s because he’s being a little perv and peeking at some girl strolling through the streets. You would think after running into his mother and all of these other descendants that he’d maybe be a little gun-shy about eyeballing a woman in the past. She’s probably a relative. Marty is so keen on getting a closer look that he actually falls off the building. The idiot somehow manages not to die though and the rest of the family find him in the snow-covered street. He ducks into a toy store after the girl and the Browns catch-up just in time to see the girl smack Marty across the face. Doc then spies the toys inside and is captivated. In order to get a closer “gander” he heads inside and picks up one of the toys with glee. The clerk comes over (he looks like a rodent for some reason) to ask if he likes it and Doc replies that he does for he had one as a boy. The clerk is profoundly confused because, as you may have guessed, he just invented the thing that morning.

Of course Biff is Scrooge.

Outside, the boys are just staring through the window like a couple of creeps when some shady looking character sneaks up behind Jules and picks the watch out of his pocket. Verne notices him almost immediately and alerts his brother. Verne wants to tell their dad right away, but Jules is reluctant to and decides to give chase. Ein notices them run off and lets out a bark which alerts Doc and Marty that the boys have taken off. They too give chase leaving Clara in the store to witness the entrance of the next character. You probably could guess it, but it’s this era’s version of Biff. And it would appear he will be assuming the role of Scrooge, though his name is still Tannen. He apparently has done business with the clerk here who owes him a mortgage payment which is an hour late. The penalty for such? Debtor’s prison! Some cops with this Ebenezer Tannen arrest the man and his wife and as they’re leading them away Tannen takes note of Clara. It would seem he likes the woman, calling her comely, and makes a pass. She shoves him away into a bunch of toys which only enrages him. He starts calling for the police to arrest her too. It would seem Clara has made a powerful enemy and these cops are plenty crooked.

Probably unwise to chase blindly after thieves into their menacing looking hideout.

We catch-up with the boys who find themselves in a dark alley. They spy the kid who swiped the watch as he’s heading up a long, rickety, staircase into a dilapidated looking building. The kids race up there, but are soon met by a bearded fellow named Murdock who seems eager to dispose of them. After an act break, we find the boys suspended upside down and bound with rope. The kid who stole the watch seems sympathetic to them while his boss suggests he’s going to dispose of them. The thief thinks maybe these boys could be pickpockets like him, but Verne gives him a “No way, Jose,” channeling his inner Michelle Tanner at the mere thought of being a crook. It takes his brother to remind him that going along with such a thing may get them the watch back. If he’s trying to be discreet he’s doing an awful job, but Murdock appears to not overhear. He asks the two if they’ve ever stolen anything before and Verne just responds with, “Cookies!”

Back in the old days, there weren’t cameras everywhere contributing to a constant state of surveillance. Instead, carolers kept a detailed log of all that transpired.

Outside, Marty and Doc collide in the street having been unable to locate the boys. Ein soon follows knocking them over, and when they all get to their feet they discover that they’re back where they started only now the toy shop is closed and there’s no sign of Clara. Doc notices some carolers in the street and asks them if they know what happened to the shop owner. They reply in song to the melody of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” as they recount what transpired. Doc is alarmed to hear the name Tannen, but rather proud of his wife when he finds out she clobbered him. He then asks about the boys and it would seem these folks have been keeping a close watch on everything that’s happened as they recount their tale. These folks are a very convenient plot device. Marty then asks if they know where they may find the pickpocket and demands they respond without song. The lead conductor tells him the kid’s name is Reg (as in short for Reginald, or Reggie) and he hangs out at the Hog’s Head Tavern. Doc announces he’ll go after the boys and tells Marty to go see about Clara as he runs off into the night.

This old timer is his own biggest fan. That guy in the back is grumpy because he’s had to hear the same joke countless times at this point.

We’re taken to the prison where Clara, the shop owner, and his wife are being lead to a cell. The guard tells them it’s semi-private, which is a joke because the cell is jam-packed with people. Clara asks the first old man she sees how long he’s been there. He tells her that when he came in he was wrinkled, drooling, and absent most of his teeth which is true of is appearance now. He then adds that he was a baby and he has a good laugh at his own joke. At least the people in here have been able to hold onto their sense of humor. Meanwhile, Doc has located the tavern in question and with him is Ein. Doc enters with his canine companion to find a rather unsavory looking bunch in attendance. He nearly gets darts lodged in his head when he mistakenly steps in front of a target. The man playing the game is irritated, but when Doc whips out some cash in exchange for information he becomes far more friendly.

Why was some guy walking around with a stinky sock in his coat pocket?

It’s time to check-in on the boys as Murdock and his companion have taken them to a shopping district. It’s probably the best place for a pickpocket to be on Christmas Eve and Murdock is giving them a lesson in thievery. He sends Reg out first as a demonstration and the kid nabs what must be a dozen watches with lightning speed. It’s now Verne’s turn and he spies a fellow with a large overcoat. He reaches into the massive pocket, but it’s so deep he falls in. He comes out and the man appears none the wiser, but when Verne returns to the others we find that he only managed to steal a smelly sock. Murdock makes the crack that his first try stinks, and Verne seems to agree. Just then, the guy Verne stole from (I think) has his pants fall down. That’s odd, since no one stole a belt, but he calls for the police and assumes he’s been pick-pocketed. Murdock tells the boys not to worry and act casual, then he has them all run. Way to play it cool, Murdock.

The only thing missing is a lightbulb over his head.

Marty is shown coming upon the debtor’s prison. He knocks on the big door to get the guard, or warden, or whatever’s attention and announces to him that the queen herself just pardoned Clara Brown. The guard is unmoved and informs Marty that the only one who can pardon the folks in here is Ebenezer Tannen. Marty asks how many people has Tannen let go and the guard responds with the expected number: none. Marty concludes he’ll have to sweet talk old Tannen, but the guard just tells him he’s wasting his time and refers to Ebenezer Tannen as a real “Scrooge” – hah, he said it! Hearing that just gives Marty an idea.

Don’t worry, boys, daddy is here to save you! Maybe.

Back at the hideout, the boys are being made to scrub the floors while Murdock announces he needs to rest his thinker on account of being the mastermind of the operation is hard work. He then smacks his head on a door frame and is alarmed to see another man has entered the hideout. It’s Wilkins, who is the man Doc paid for information back at the tavern and he brough the Doc with him. He tells Murdock that Doc claims to be a friend of Reggie’s, so Murdock calls for the lad. When Reggie tells him he’s a stranger to him, Murdock accuses Brown of being a cop. Doc seems particularly horrified at being likened to a cop, which is pretty amusing. The two men aren’t buying it though as they eye him with evil intentions as we hit another act break.

I mean, it’s not a bad idea.

It’s time we see what Ebenezer Tannen is up to. He’s in his nightgown and cap and preparing for bed when he hears a voice calling to him. He throws open the shutter of his window to find Marty, draped in a black robe, and atop his hoverboard. He announces to Tannen that he’s the Ghost of Christmas, which just confuses Tannen as he asks which one – past, present, or future? Marty wasn’t prepared for that, but since this is a 23 minute show and we’re past the halfway point, Marty tells him “All of the above.” He then tells him he’s hear to save his soul and he grabs Tannen by the wrist and hauls him out into the night sky. He then politely requests that he keep his arms and legs inside, though since he’s not actually in anything this joke makes no sense.

No Breath Right strips back then, just Breath Right jabs.

At the hideout, Murdock is taking that nap he was so looking forward to while Wilkins sleeps nearby. In another room, Reggie and the boys are asleep on the floor, that is, until Reg elbows Jules in the ribs to tell him to pipe down (he was snoring). With all three awake, the boys start asking Reggie about his life with them wondering why his father makes him sleep on the floor. Reggie almost laughs in response at the suggestion Murdock is his dad and explains that he’s just some guy that provides food and a roof over his head so long as he keep stealing watches. When the kids point out that stealing is wrong (they’re so persuasive) Reggie just remarks that stealing is better than being placed in a juvenile work camp and I have to agree. Though the whole sleeping on the floor thing sucks. He should steal a bed.

I’d probably have the same reaction if I walked into my father suspended from the ceiling. Though considering how this episode began, maybe he shouldn’t be so surprised?

It’s time to see how Marty is doing as he brings Tannen to one of those mentioned work camps. There they find children slaving away on Christmas Eve and it’s enough to make Tannen cry. No, not because he feels any sort of pity for the children, but because he just remembered an eight-year-old who owes him money. This is going to be a long night, Marty. We quickly jump back to the hideout where Jules apparently has an idea. He informs Reginald (as he calls him because he speaks with proper English like his father) that they may have a way for him to get out of this life he’s leading if he were to only help them retrieve the stolen keys. Reggie apparently needs no convincing and agrees to do so. He retrieves the watch and keys and hands them over to Jules prompting Verne to declare him lucky. I think he really wanted to see his brother get in trouble. As Jules starts walking out assuring Verne he always had the situation under control, he cries out “Father!” when he nearly walks into his old man. It seems Doc was tied up along a rafter and upon hearing his son cry out he wakes up and slams his head into the beam. Jules quickly unties him and when Doc hits the floor with a thud Murdock finally wakes up only to see the kids and the “copper” running off. Wilkins wakes up, slams his head into the ceiling (Murdock did the same), and remarks “We have to find a taller hideout” before too giving chase. I figured all of those head bumps were leading to something, though I don’t know that the payoff was worth it.

Gimme those nuts! That’s literally the line from the show. You can’t convince me they weren’t making a balls joke.

In the city streets, a poor family sits crowded around a fire cooking a meager meal of chestnuts. Marty and Tannen happen upon them, but when Marty points out how this family has nothing but a few, meager, chestnuts, Tannen just tackles the father demanding some of the nuts. Marty takes to the sky and grabs Tannen and hauls him off leaving the mother to remark to her little child that Marty is an angel. The father scoffs at the thought for the supposed angel left his nuts all strewn about. I think the writers enjoyed getting to use the word “nuts” so liberally.

All wrapped up in a soggy, salty, package.

Doc and the boys are seen running through the streets with the bad guys hot on their heels. They happen upon the Hog’s Head, once again, only to find it closed. That doesn’t stop them from barging in and when the maid cleaning up the place objects, Doc just hands over a wad of cash to “Cover the damage he’s about to do.” They run off into the tavern while Murdock and Wilkins arrive. The maid is further angered to see more people as Doc taunts them from…the ceiling? Oh yes, those magnetic anti-gravity shoes or whatever they were called just had to reappear. Doc is on the ceiling and preparing to give these scallywags a lesson on Newton’s first law of motion: A body at rest will remain at rest while a body in motion will remain in motion. Doc then unleashes a bunch of pickle barrels from the ceiling which collide with Murdock and Wilkins. The resulting collision leaves them all wrapped up somehow which the police, who soon arrive, appear to enjoy. It’s a good outcome, save for the fact that Doc left shoeprints all over the ceiling and wall. The maid angrily hands him a mop and bucket and demands he clean it up giving Doc a chance to look at the camera with a glum expression.

Obviously, we’re going to need to see Scrooge dance on Christmas Day or it just wouldn’t be Dickens.

Marty has apparently had enough as he returns Ebenezer Tannen to his chambers. Marty remarks he’s shown Tannen stuff that would make The Terminator cry getting in a topical reference for its time. Before Tannen can even respond, a device falls out of Marty’s robes and lands on the floor. It’s the projector he had on his hoverboard and it’s still showing the monster movie. Upon seeing the projection of this Godzilla like being, Tannen is immediately shaken! He begs Marty to spare him from the monster’s wrath and Marty informs him only if he releases everyone in debtor’s prison and also clears all debts. Tannen frowns, but agrees, and we cut to a scene of all of the prisoners joyously racing out the front gate. As the former prisoners stream into the streets, the shop owner and his wife come upon Tannen who is now dancing and singing in the streets with a wreath around his neck. They can scarcely believe what they’re seeing, but Tannen instructs them to call him Eb from now on and vows to lead a better life. That monster movie worked way better than I would have expected.

Looks like Reggie gets a family for Christmas. Good for him.

Now that all of the wrongs have been righted, it’s time for a merry Christmas! The Brown family (and Marty) are celebrating with the toy store owners. Reggie has been adopted by them and he’ll be able to work in the store now. As for the poor, downtrodden, family that had nothing but a few chestnuts to eat, well, we don’t know. I guess they’re still in the gutter because they are no where to be found. Everyone seems happy though, and even Tannen comes barging in with a Christmas goose, but upon seeing Marty he realizes he’s been tricked. Marty runs and Tannen gives chase only to collide with a cart full of figgy pudding (I guess we can’t do manure jokes on Saturday morning network television) and is left laying in the street. The carolers return to basically tells us what happened and Tannen ends it by saying he hates it, it being the pudding he’s covered in. Or Christmas. Or both! I would have thought he was going to say “Bah! Humbug!” but maybe that was too obvious? The camera pans to the sky where the DeLorean is passing by. Doc gets to finish the song by singing “And a happy new year,” only for Verne to correct him that it’s actually an old year. “Not for long,” cries his dad as the DeLorean jumps forward in time, back to the future!

It’s not shit, but I guess figgy pudding is the next grossest thing one could be covered in?

That ends the cartoon portion. The episode goes back to Doc under the DeLorean who tells us the family still returns to London each year to see how everyone is doing. He sets up an experiment about potential and kinetic energy which is demonstrated by a young Bill Nye. When that’s done, we return to Doc for one final gag where it seems he’s been stretched out some how. It’s at this point we finally see his face and I guess it is Mr. Lloyd. He makes a crack about the car being a stretch DeLorean and then tells us he’ll see us again in the future. A very un-Christmassy conclusion.

Back to the Future the TV series is a pretty mediocre cartoon from the 90s. Well, I am judging it on this one episode which is admittedly unfair, but I also did watch it a bit as a kid and that was pretty much my opinion then too. I didn’t stick with this show week in and week out and I fell off pretty fast. I’m not sure I even made it to this episode, though I did get a few of the Happy Meal toys. As such, I couldn’t justify buying this thing on physical media hence the awful screen caps. This blog isn’t monetized, after all. The video I watched was cropped and rotated slightly in addition to just being kind of lousy quality. It could be a VHS rip, as the show was released on VHS, which would explain the quality. Or it was intentionally made to look bad so as to avoid a copywrite strike.

This poor family is presumed dead.

As a Christmas special, this is merely okay, just like the series as a whole. I give it credit for taking Dickens and putting a different spin on it. Scrooge-Tannen was pretty easy to see from a mile away, but his part of the story was really quite minimal. In fact, there was just too much going on for this episode to really land in any meaningful way. The boys had their story wrap in surprisingly simple fashion while Marty and Tannen only had three brief scenes. The episode didn’t bother to keep tabs on Clara once she was locked-up which is probably for the best considering the one joke from the jail was pretty bad and there was just no time. There wasn’t even enough time to give that homeless family a happy ending. I can’t think of a children’s show where such a family was just left to dangle like that. Doc is running around tossing money around like it’s nothing and he can’t find time to give those people some of that cash?

If forced to say something positive though, I will say I enjoyed the voice cast. Thomas Wilson, in particular, is great in the role of Tannen. Actually, I liked all of the Tannen scenes and I wish we got more of them. The resolution was actually clever, not so much the monster movie thing (though that was clever too), but I just liked how he didn’t really learn a lesson. He only cleared the debts because he thought he was about to be consumed by a giant beast. Once the fraud was revealed, he was clearly back to being the same asshole he always was and probably returned to being. At least for one Christmas everyone involved got to enjoy themselves debt free.

Despite that, the more I ponder this one the more I dislike it. It’s not that funny, though not offensively bad with the material. The stakes never feel that high even though they probably should given the plight everyone finds themselves in. We don’t spend enough time with the store owners or Reggie to really care about them and their ending. It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened at Christmas. The animation is average and I’m not a fan of the character designs. Despite my somewhat negative take, if you want to watch it for yourself then you have some options when it comes to physical media. The show is available on its own, in seasons, or as a massive set with the film trilogy. If you don’t own the film trilogy, then hey, maybe go for that? Or you could watch some bad quality options online in the usual places. I felt like the one I watched was the best, but there are more available which all do their own thing to the audio and video. Those are probably your best options as you don’t need a time machine to know that this thing isn’t likely showing up on a streaming platform, officially, anytime soon.

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 5 – A Flintstone Christmas

It’s the fifth of December so that means we are returning to one of the 25 Greatest Christmas Specials (as decided by me because it’s my blog) to take a deeper look than what was done some 8 years ago. When I re-evaluated my Top 25, one of the biggest fallers was A Flintstone Christmas.…

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by Joe

Dec. 5 – A Garfield Christmas

This year, I’m bringing back a feature from last year where I take another look at, what I consider to be, the greatest Christmas specials ever made. I explained my reasoning for doing this in prior posts, but in short, the first time I looked at some of these specials I did just a short…

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by Joe

Dec. 5 – Pluto’s Christmas Tree

Today we’re doing the second look-back to one of the best Christmas specials ever conceived, as chosen by yours truly, and it’s one of my all-time favorites: Pluto’s Christmas Tree. Despite being titled Pluto’s Christmas Tree, this Jack Hannah-directed cartoon short from 1952 is actually considered a Mickey Mouse cartoon. Mickey apparently had it written…

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by Joe

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December 4, 2024

Dec. 4 – Doug – “Doug’s Secret Christmas”

By Joe
“Doug’s Secret Christmas” premiered December 14, 1996 as a primetime special on ABC.

Last year, I made an effort to get to a lot of the Nicktoons that I had yet to cover. My initial thinking when I started doing this Christmas blog was to try and avoid the specials that had been covered in depth many times over. Then I realized that, hey, if you want to post about 25 Christmas specials a year you really can’t be picky. Plus how many people really want to read about mega babies and chuckling critters who reside in the woods? And it was on December 4th last year that we talked about Doug, the somewhat quiet original Nicktoon that ran for 52 episodes before leaving the network. Doug was supposed to be the big hit, but it lagged behind Rugrats and The Ren and Stimpy Show among the first trio of Nicktoons. I’m guessing Rocko’s Modern Life eclipsed it as well when that showed up a year later. It’s hard to say why Nickelodeon thought so highly of Doug initially to the point where they expect it to be more popular than the other two shows. Maybe because it’s adults that are in charge at any given network and Doug’s coming of age whimsy speaks to an adult more than a show about babies?

Whatever the reason, Doug still had a solid run and I knew plenty of kids that liked it, even loved it. When creator Jim Jinkins entered into a contract to produce the show for Nick the contract was for 65 episodes to be ordered as seasons of 13 episodes. If Nick failed to order all 65, he was allowed to take the show elsewhere. He also retained ownership of the character and, like the other early Nicktoons, was able to run the show via his own production company. Nickelodeon seemed to learn a lot from those initial shows and would retain more control and ownership in the future, but it was a good deal for Jinkins and it allowed Doug to eventually be sold to The Walt Disney Company.

Pretty much everyone is back with only a slight redesign.

That’s how we ended up with Disney’s Doug (and in some places it’s referred to as Disney’s Doug). After a hiatus of over two years between new episodes, Doug made his debut on ABC’s Saturday morning television block in September of 1996. The show was a direct sequel seeing Doug enter middle school (I thought he was already in middle school?) with all of his usual friends. Most of the cast was able to return, save for perhaps the most important member in Billy West as Doug. The show would last another 65 episodes while also spawning a movie. It seems to be generally accepted that the Disney version of Doug is inferior to what we got with Nick. I checked out the new version as a kid when it premiered, but didn’t stick with it. It felt similar, but different, but more than anything I think I had just moved on from Doug. The low stakes and slice of life programming just wasn’t my thing at that point as I found myself aging out of Saturday morning television. Once X-Men was done not long after, so was I.

Now, nearly 30 years later, I’m ready to take another look at the Disney version of Doug. The first season included a new Christmas episode which I had never seen until now. I definitely didn’t stick with the new show long enough to make it there and I actually never even knew another Doug Christmas episode existed until very recently. For me, this is like finding hidden treasure, though it could only be considered such if it’s actually good. Considering this is Doug we’re talking about, I’d be surprised if it’s awful. Doug is what I’d call a high floor kind of show. It may rarely impress, but it’s almost never bad.

That’s a pretty good Grinch parody.

The Disney version of Doug begins a lot like the old one. The song is new, but still very much Doug. And since the show had a new production company, it looks a little different, but still Doug. The lead character received only the most basic redesign in that he has long sleeves now instead of short ones, but he’s still rocking that green vest. Now, if this is the first episode of the Disney version of Doug that you’ve ever watched, you might initially think it looks a lot different. That’s because the episode opens on Doug’s neighborhood looking quite…toony?

Doug?! As the Grinch!

That’s because it’s a Grinch parody! There’s a narrator (sounds like Doug’s dad, Doug Preis) speaking in rhyme as a shadowy figure with an animal companion descends Doug’s chimney. It’s Roger (Chris Phillips), the town bully, only he resembles the Grinch. And with him is his cat Stinky who has a lone antler atop her head a-la Max. He’s here to steal Doug’s Christmas, only there’s a problem: it’s already been stolen! He looks around and finds no tree or decorations of any kind. The interior of the house is drawn and colored to resemble a home from the classic television special and the creative team a pretty nice job. When Roger-Grinch looks around to find out who stole Christmas first, it’s revealed to be Doug himself! He’s all grinchified as well and we fade to black on this shocking revelation!

That’s more like it.

That’s when the title of the episode is presented in the same manner as the Nicktoons version with Doug coming out of a door to turn a light on revealing the show’s logo. Porkchop, Doug’s dog and star of his first Christmas special, comes in with a gift and reveals the title of today’s episode. The episode proper begins with Doug at his journal telling us about Christmas in his town, Bluffington. Right off the bat, I must say I can barely tell the difference between Thomas McHugh and Billy West as Doug. I’m a little surprised by that because I remember noticing as a kid, but I was definitely watching way more Doug back then. Doug basically lists out what people around town do for Christmas including his old pal, Skeeter (Fred Newman), who is addicted to Christmas specials (I can relate). We get a quick cutaway of him sitting down with his family to watch one and I’m expecting another parody of a classic television special, but instead we get a meta joke of Skeeter watching the first Doug Christmas episode. I approve. We also see Mr. Dink (Claude Nicot) who, as you may have expected, is setting up a very extravagant, very expensive, display. A woman walking by stops to check out the Santa he’s setting up, but it pops up from the ground and says “Hubba, hubba,” instead of “Ho, ho, ho,” which offends the woman.

Doug gets meta on ABC.

As for the Funnie family, their traditions seem pretty ordinary. As Doug tells it, he starts putting up decorations in his room the day after Thanksgiving and I guess the rest of the family does as well. On the 20th, they put up the tree and the lights go up outside on the 21st. The 22nd is the last day of school, stockings go up after that, and on Christmas Eve they visit Grandma Funnie’s house for fruitcake. Before all of that can happen though, Doug informs us he must create The List! That would be the Christmas list of things Doug wants, always a major focal point of a kid at this time of year.

I wonder how long he’s had this book?

Doug sets out to seemingly discuss this list with others in the house. As he does, we see his mom and sister (both voiced by Becca Lish) go over breathing exercises in the living room. Apparently, Doug’s mom is pregnant and the baby is expected in about a month. I think that has been a season long arc for the Funnie family. In the den, Doug finds his dad (Doug Preis) who has something on his mind. Doug wants to talk presents, but dad would like to have a man-to-man conversation that he’s been putting off. He picks up a book which is all about the old birds and the bees. Apparently, Mr. Funnie would like to talk about how he and his mom made this new sibling that’s about to enter their lives. He reads from the book and doesn’t even insert Doug’s name where he’s supposed to instead just saying “Blank’s Name.” Doug stops him before things can get any worse and lets his dad know he’s learned all of this in school already. Doug even gladly explains what sex is (he’s even allowed to say the word), but the audio drops and there’s a clear indication of time passing. The two emerge from the den with Doug’s dad sheepishly rubbing his head and thanking his son for the lesson adding they left some stuff out when he was in school. Poor Mrs. Funnie…

They still fight like kids. That must be exhausting.

With the “lesson” concluded, Doug’s dad has some bad news for his son. With the baby coming, Santa isn’t going to have much time for presents and Christmas. Doug looks glum and tries to hide his list behind his back when his dad asks about it. He plays it off as a list of baby names, but sister Judy is there to snatch it from him and laugh at his suggested “names” of in-line skates and dirt bike. She runs up the stairs while Doug gives chase prompting dad to remark to his wife, “Ready to start this all over again?” She responds by throwing a throw pillow at him (so that’s what they’re for).

The new school is a monument to Beebe. I guess if that’s what it takes to get funding from a rich guy in town then so be it.

It’s the next day at Beebe Bluff Middle School, a school literally constructed in the shape of Beebe’s profile. It would seem another ongoing plot of this first season is the construction of the school which wasn’t quite ready for its first day. I think the joke here is they made sure to have the Christmas lights up, while Doug still doesn’t have a rear wall to his locker as he spies a construction worker when he opens it. Beebe (Alice Playten) approaches Doug in the hall to inform him that her family is going away on some SCUBA trip for Christmas and she needs someone to feed her fish (I guess they give the housekeeper the week off, or maybe they travel with all of their staff). Roger walks by and announces that he’d happily do it on account of the fact that they’re neighbors (Roger’s family won the lottery and now he’s rich). Beebe counters she knows he’d feed her fish…to his cat! Doug agrees to do it and they’re interrupted by Fentruck (Newman), the foreign exchange student from the fictional Yakistonia. He’s one of those characters that exists for us to laugh at, “He’s funny because he’s different!” It’s not mean-spirited though, nor is it really well thought out as Fentruck explains Christmas in his country is basically just Halloween. Doug is polite about it all, but Roger comes over to basically tell Fentruck he’s an idiot because what he described is not Christmas. They don’t really use this as a teaching moment as Roger is just left to utter a one-liner, “How international?” as the two walk off.

Doug finds nothing funny about the Funnie family Christmas tree.

We next check-in with Doug as he’s heading home. On the way, he stops by the tree lot of one Mr. Chestnut (I’m not sure who is doing his voice, the credits on this show are terrible) who apparently knows him from last year or does something else in town the rest of the year that puts him in contact with Doug. He speaks with a southern drawl and remarks that Doug got his best tree last year (he probably says that to all of his customers) and asks what’s he going with this year? Doug tells him he’s just stopping by and will come back with his dad in a little bit to get a tree. As he walks home, he imagines he and his family decorating the perfect tree. Only when Doug gets home he doesn’t find a family waiting to go grab a new tree and instead spies some little, tabletop, half-finished tree. Doug can barely speak he’s so shocked as his dad explains that, with the baby coming, he didn’t see any reason to make a big fuss out of the tree. He hands Doug what I assume are the instructions to finish setting up the tree as he and his mom leave for some birthing classes leaving Doug all alone to construct this monstrosity.

I know the last day before school vacation is usually pretty loose, but this is taking things to another level.

It’s now the last day of school and Doug isn’t letting this whole tree business bring him down too much. He still has some hope that it could be the best Christmas ever, because why settle for just a good Christmas? As he heads out for school, we see that Mr. Dink is still messing around with his Santa display. Now it’s talking like a pirate instead of cat-calling the neighbors. At school, Fentruck is providing everyone with a look at a traditional Yakistonian Christmas which involves him dancing in a white sheet while everyone eats cotton candy and bobs for apples. Roger basically thinks Fentruck is trying to pull a fast one on them and, for once, I think I agree with the school bully. This is absurd.

It’s the waffle iron of Skeeter’s dreams.

After school, Doug and Skeeter engage in what Doug describes as traditional last minute shopping at the mall. Doug is looking for a gift for Patti (Constance Shulman), the girl he longs for, but he can’t find anything he likes. Skeeter, on the other hand, has his eyes on a Christmas Tree waffle iron. Apparently, his dad would make the family tree-shaped waffles ever Christmas, until Skeeter used it to create a bunch of trees for a diorama. The waffle iron did not survive the battle, as he puts it. He wants to get this one for his dad, but he doesn’t have the funds. Doug happily offers up his money, though we don’t hear any specifics which is probably smart as it will help keep the episode timeless, to a degree. Even though they’re shopping at a mall, which is pretty dated in some parts of the world. Skeeter is delighted and vows to pay Doug back as soon as he can, only there’s one problem now.

Don’t mind Doug, he’s just cooking some ears.

Doug is broke. He loaned Skeeter all of his money so he could get that waffle iron for his dad and now he’s left with just sixty-three cents to spend on Patti. Hopefully she likes gumballs. Doug, of course, did not let Skeeter know about this detail so he’s not one of those types who is going to then guilt trip someone he just helped out. This is Doug, who is one of the most selfless cartoon characters around. He’s also resourceful and decides he’ll just make something for Patti. We’re treated to a little montage of Doug basically doing some arts and crafts which involve some sculpting and baking. He had previously been looking at earrings at the mall and it would appear that he’s decided to make some instead. When they’re ready, he pulls them out of the oven and retreats to his room. Along the way, his mom asks who is going to finish the tree which Doug left unassembled save for the base. As he walks by it he derisively refers to it as a fuzzy TV antenna.

Earrings that look like ears. That Doug is one clever boy.

The next day is Christmas Eve and it’s Doug’s last chance to see Patti before she leaves for the holidays. They meet-up at the ice cream parlor in town where Doug gives her the gift he made: earrings of little ears. It’s quirky, it’s clever, I approve. Patti seems to as well. She gives Doug his gift, but on the condition that he can’t open it until Christmas. That’s…odd, but okay. They soon part ways, no kiss for Doug or even a hug, as Patti needs to get home and Doug needs to feed Beebe’s fish. We are then shown these fish which have their own indoor pool and eat steak. It would appear that Beebe’s fish are actually piranhas so I’m puzzled why she thinks Roger’s cat would ever be a threat to them. Speaking of, Doug pauses to look out the window at Roger’s mansion where a big Christmas Eve party appears to be going on complete with…clowns? You do you, Roger.

This is Doug’s idea of a good old-fashioned Christmas.

Doug heads for home and on the way passes by fellow schoolmate Chalky’s (Preis) house. He’s like the jock character and he’s playing football with his family in the front year. They’re all in a big pile, save for Chalky, who asks Doug if he wants to get in on this action? Doug politely declines saying he has to get home, but as he nears home it’s starting to hit him that this Christmas isn’t going to be a special one. This triggers Doug’s imagination as he ponders what it would be like to be coming home to a real old-fashioned, family, Christmas. And in Doug’s mind, that’s a cozy log cabin where his dad talks like Bing Crosby. The house opens up like a stage performance and some performers skate around a tree. I kind of recognize the vocalist, I think he was a Ringo Star parody in the original series, though he doesn’t sound anything like the Beatle. If it is his him then I guess his voice is still being provided by Preis.

I guess this interaction exists to show us that even the nerds are down with Christmas.

When Doug snaps back into reality, he is once again trying to convince himself a good Christmas is still possible. He then runs into the twins, Al and Moo (Eddie Korbich). They’re both covered in Christmas lights and when Doug asks them if they’re afraid of getting shocked one of them (I have no idea which is Al and which is Moo) indicates that he is indeed getting shocked. They both have questions about Mr. Dink’s Santa, but also questions about why Doug’s house doesn’t feature any holiday decorations? They seem to assume that Doug’s parents are some kind of holiday haters. Do Jewish people not exist in Doug?

Doug is finally getting a little ticked off with his family and their attitude this year towards Christmas.

Doug returns home and finds his mother and Judy watching television. He asks about going to grandma’s, but his mom stands up somewhat uncomfortably and says they won’t be going this year. Doug’s dad is still at the mall (he’s a department store photographer so I guess he works there) and Judy adds that their mother is in no condition to travel this Christmas. She also sees this as an opportunity to complain about men as she’s a bit of a dated character type – the killjoy feminist. Her convictions are immediately undermined when she asks her mom to get her some coco while she’s up. Doug angrily announces he’ll be in his room.

Well, it’s certainly an improvement over the tree his dad bought. And who can complain at that price?

Once there, we see Porkchop is either sorting cards he received or really procrastinating on his own Christmas cards. Doug is left to ponder that without lights or a tree can they even call it Christmas? He imagines what Christmas morning will be like with his family sitting around the kitchen table in silence until his dad remembers to wish them a merry Christmas from behind his newspaper. Doug doesn’t want that kind of Christmas so he heads out to Mr. Chestnut’s tree lot. He gets there just in time as he finds Mr. Chestnut cleaning up. When he inquires about a tree, he’s informed that he’s only got one left. It’s a small, diminutive, tree, but one that’s far healthier in appearance than what Charlie Brown settled on. When Doug asks how much, Mr. Chestnut tells him it’s free. A more cynical show would have him jack the price up on account of it being Christmas Eve, but this is Doug and Doug is a nice kid who people are happy to treat with the same kindness he radiates.

I can’t tell if he’s embarrassed to be declared the world’s greatest dog or if this is a fake smile implying he hates the mug.

It’s on the way home from the tree lot that Doug and Porkchop vow to have their own, secret, Christmas. They setup the tree in Doug’s room and exchange gifts on Christmas morning. Porkchop got Doug another journal (he can always use more of those) while Doug gifted Porkchop a world’s best dog mug. I can’t tell if he likes it. Doug then turns on the radio and tries to stay positive as we hear a Christmas song which the DJ announces is a dedication to Doug Funnie from his pal…Doug Funnie. Okay, now this is starting to get sad.

Time to meet the little Dirt Bike.

Doug’s attempts at optimism have now run out. He asks aloud where is everyone? And no one answers. He leaves his room to look around the house and finds it empty. His parents aren’t in their bedroom, nor is Judy in hers. The phone rings and Doug answers. It’s his dad who is at the hospital. He tells Doug that “something happened,” but doesn’t elaborate. He seems very serious, even grave, and we cut to Doug walking down a hospital hallway with his dad still perplexed and sounding fearful about what’s going on. Despite that, we know what’s up as it turns out Doug’s mom had the baby. In the rush of everything, they just treated Doug like Kevin McCallister and forgot all about him. Doug enters his mom’s room to meet his new baby sister. He and Judy are surprised when their dad tells them that they decided to use the names they both came up with. Meet Cleopatra Dirt Bike Funnie! The older siblings can only faint in response.

I’m more than done with this B plot.

And of course, Doug is going to get a happy ending. The Funnie family hosts a Christmas party at their house, it’s just a few days late. A lot of people seem to show up, including Skeeter’s family. His dad thanks Doug for the waffle iron, while Roger and Fentruck resume this runner about Yakistonian Christmas. Fentruck, dressed as a vampire, is listening to Roger explain Halloween. When he then explains what Christmas is, Fentruck basically tells him that’s Yakistonian Easter. Roger just drops to the floor and starts throwing a tantrum. Let’s move on.

“It’s not such a bad little tree.”

Doug, seated with his family on the couch, declares they should make this an annual tradition. And by this he means his parents having another baby which earns him a throw pillow to the face from someone offscreen. Judy then chimes in to announce that they’ve run out of diapers, but Doug cheerfully volunteers to run out and get some. As he’s grabbing his coat, Patti approaches with the gift she had given to Doug. It would seem in all of the chaos of the Funnie Christmas, Doug forgot to open it. He notices Patti wearing the earrings he made her and she says she likes them because it looks like someone made them. Doug blushes and says that’s because he did and starts to go into his money problems, but Patti stops him as she doesn’t want to get all mushy and literally says “Shut up and open your present.” Inside is a scarf which Pattie knitted for Doug. He’s touched because apparently Patti hates knitting. It’s not that great since it gets narrow at the end because she ran out of yarn, but Doug doesn’t care. He even gets a hug from Patti. I bet he wishes he wasn’t wearing sweatpants right now.

Come on man, the girl is practically throwing herself at you. Make a move!

Doug and Porkchop then run off into the Bluffington night in search of diapers for little Cleo. He’s sporting his new scarf, naturally, and runs by Mr. Dink who is taking down his decorations (why isn’t he at the party?). Mr. Dink wishes Doug a happy new year while Doug returns with a “Merry Christmas.” It’s at that point, predictably, that Dink’s Santa finally says “Ho. Ho. Ho.” with Dink remarking, “Oh, now you get it right!” Doug then pauses at the next street corner so he can look up at the sky and shout “Merry Christmas everybody!” The camera zooms out to an aerial view of town and we fade to black.

And in the end, Doug gets a merry Christmas. Did you expect anything less?

“Doug’s Secret Christmas” is basically what I expected. It’s a quiet, low stakes, affair with just the right amount of sweetness. It’s a lot different from the previous Christmas special which actually had very high stakes as Doug found his dog on death row. I’m glad they went for something less intense this time. It is a predictable episode as I’m guessing everyone expected Doug’s mom would have the baby by the time it was over. What is less predictable is that our main character never gets spiteful. He shows no hint of resentment towards the baby at all during the episode even though his family is basically allowing the unborn child to ruin Christmas. I would add his dad is pretty bad at managing everything because surely he still could have taken his son to get a tree? It’s understandable though that their belts may have been tightened with the incoming child, but kind of odd to still hear his dad refer to Santa. Maybe he was just being cute? He is the same guy who didn’t think his middle school-aged son knew about sex. I’m guessing the show didn’t want to blow the whole Santa thing since kids were likely to watch this so I’ll forgive them that.

I was a bit surprised that by the time we get to the actual secret Christmas the episode title is referencing that it’s almost over. Doug and Porkchop essentially have a failed secret Christmas and then find out the baby is here. The whole episode moves both methodically, but kind of briskly, because we’re waiting for the premise to kick-in, but the show is in no rush to do so. It does help to setup the ending and I like a holiday episode that covers the run-up to Christmas along with the holiday itself. I liked the subplot of Doug helping Skeeter which lead into his gift for Patti. It’s an example of the show still moving quickly because that potential crisis is averted almost immediately and Patti is happy with her gift. The only subplot I continuously rolled my eyes at was the one with Fentruck and Roger. I just don’t find that type of humor funny. I’m not offended by it because the show isn’t really mocking another culture, I just don’t buy Roger getting all worked up about it. Who cares? It’s just a lazy Yackov Smirnoff joke.

Doug is easy to root for since he’s not after a toy or something, he just wants to have a nice, family, Christmas. That’s not too much to ask.

“Doug’s Secret Christmas” keeps the art style of the first Christmas special by making sure Doug is dressed for the occasion. Such minor details are something I appreciate in animation because who would wear shorts at Christmas in a cold climate? Doug is all bundled up and appropriately so. The town is pretty well decorated and I very much enjoyed the introduction done in a Chuck Jones style. It doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense upon reflection, Doug didn’t steal Christmas, but I guess it’s a lot more engaging to have Doug be the Grinch. It’s not like they could have a baby Grinch. Well, I guess they could have, but it probably would have really confused people and changed the whole tenor of the episode. I also found this to have pretty much the same feeling as the original series. Maybe just toned down a little? Skeeter doesn’t make any weird noises and the only weirdness really comes from Fentruck. I guess Beebe having piranhas is odd, but it’s just a visual joke as we’re left to ponder what kind of fish a rich girl like her would have. They could have been anything extravagant, I suppose.

All that is to say that I can safely recommend “Doug’s Secret Christmas” for anyone who has enjoyed an episode of Doug, be it on Nickelodeon or ABC. I think I actually prefer it to the more popular Christmas episode of Doug as that one is uneven for me. It’s a very serious story, but it’s not really handled in a serious enough manner. Plus it tortures poor Doug and Doug is a character I don’t want to see in abject misery. He can face hardships, but lets not dangle the death of his dog over his head for an entire episode. This one doesn’t do anything spectacular, but it’s an enjoyable watch. The high floor Christmas special.

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 4 – Doug – “Doug’s Christmas Story”

Last year, we covered in depth the inaugural Christmas episodes of Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show, two of the three original Nicktoons that premiered in 1991. Now, we’re going to look at the Christmas episode for the other original Nicktoon: Doug. Doug was created by Jim Jinkins and was one of the first…

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by Joe

Dec. 4 – The Pups’ Christmas

Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were among the first stars of cartoon creation to burst onto the scene. Together, the duo would work for Disney, Warner, and MGM (among others) creating and overseeing some of animation’s most memorable characters from the golden age. After working with Leon Schlesinger’s studio to produce Looney Tunes shorts, the…

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by Joe

Dec. 4 – Family Guy – “Christmas Guy”

In the fall of 2013, beloved family dog, Brian, met his demise. Brian was an extraordinary dog capable of communicating in English with his family members who was often seen walking on two feet. Despite that though, he met a rather ordinary end for a dog when he was unceremoniously struck by an automobile. Life…

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by Joe

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in christmas, Television

December 3, 2024

Dec. 3 – American Dad! – “Season’s Beatings”

By Joe
Original air date December 11, 2011.

It feels like it has been a minute since we took a look at an American Dad! Christmas episode. The show can be counted on to produce such an episode almost annually and often times the Christmas episode is among the best of the season. 2024 is also the year we had to say goodbye to actor Martin Mull. It’s possible you don’t immediately conjure up a role for Mull upon hearing his name, but he’s definitely one of those “Hey, it’s that guy!” type of actors that most have encountered. He seemed to get a lot of work in TV in the 90s and I can’t think of a program he was a part of that wasn’t better off for having him. And, to no surprise, he’s great on this episode of American Dad!.

Included a couple of years ago as one of the top Christmas specials of all-time was the season seven episode of American Dad! titled “For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls,” so it only makes sense that we return to American Dad! with the season eight episode “Season’s Beatings.” We’ve gone out of order with the show as I wanted to jump ahead to the sequel episode of “For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls” with “Minstrel Krampus,” so now I’m here to rectify that.

American Dad! is old news around here so I’m not going to make the usual preamble in this space, just know that you’re getting a subversive Christmas special. It’s not going to be for everyone. I hesitate to use the word “edgy” because it’s too often relied on and seems to be a favored descriptor for those with bad takes, but this episode is probably on the edgier side since it’s going to deal with the main character trying to murder a kid at Christmas. He’s the antichrist though so it’s okay! Still, if your idea of a good Christmas special is something like an episode of Full House or The Little Drummer Boy then this probably won’t be for you.

Roger is here to whip up some good old-fashioned eggnog!

The episode begins in conventional fashion with no Christmas theming added to the opening title. Lame. Once over, we at least are immediately treated with an exterior shot of the Smith household all decked out for the holidays with a fresh blanket of snow. Inside, Francine (Wendy Schaal) and son Steve (Scott Grimes) are making cookies while Roger (Seth MacFarlane) is mixing up a batch of his special eggnog. Steve scolds him for taking so long with the ‘nog and Roger assures him it’s almost ready, but it just needs a final test. His slurred speech would suggest he’s already tested the drink extensively, but just to be sure he pulls out a cage containing two rats. He offers a ladle full of the stuff to a brown rat who sniffs it before taking a few licks. It immediately starts screaming and tares off the head of the other rat in the cage with it. After making out furiously with the severed head, the rat dawns it like a headdress and runs in circles until it stops to vomit out blood until it collapses and explodes sending rat pieces flying. I told you this wasn’t the sort of Christmas special for everyone.

The eggnog may feature some side effects…

After Roger declares his eggnog perfect, Stan (MacFarlane) enters the room with exciting news: Father Donovan is putting on a Christmas pageant at the mall all about the life of Jesus! Fran asks if he’ll be trying out and Stan smugly announces that he’s sure to land the lead role of Jesus for the play because he’s the most devout member of the congregation. Roger drunkenly laughs about the concept of Christianity, referring to it as his favorite deadbeat dad story (comparing it to the real song “Biological Didn’t Bother” by Shaq) as he slurs his speech and somehow manages to not fall off of the stool he’s standing on. Stan angrily slams down the pamphlets he was holding and demands that Roger not insult his religion. Roger, rather calmly, gathers up his jewel encrusted “pimp cup” and stumbles over to Stan as if he’s about to offer some retort, only to point out that Stan as a pimple under the skin of his chin that’s likely to reach its apex in about two weeks. He then saunters off into the living room.

She sure is flexible.

In the dimly lit living room, Hayley (Rachael MacFarlane) and her husband Jeff (Jeff Fischer) are cuddling on the couch watching TV. Hayley asks her husband if everything is all right noting that he cried a lot more than usual during sex this morning. Jeff sits up and announces that he wants to have a baby. He feels they have a lot of love to give plus he also feels broken inside and kids are sure to fix everything! Hayley wants nothing to do with being a mother declaring she has no maternal instincts and only animal ones. She lists off eating and pooping as such instincts and casually tosses in a “laying on the ground ahead of a storm” which she immediately demonstrates by walking around in circles and curling up on the carpet as thunder booms outside. She punctuates the joke by scratching her ear with her foot.

Not the role Stan was anticipating.

At the mall the next day, some parishioners are setting up for the play while Father Donovan (Martin Mull) looks on with a lit cigarette casually placed between his fingers. Stan comes into frame to enthusiastically confirm that he’s willing to play Jesus in the play, but Donovan shoots him down immediately. Stan can’t believe it and points out that he’s the most devout member of Donovan’s flock, but Donovan just laughs him off and informs him the role has nothing to do with devotion – it’s all about the abs, baby! Jesus is shredded, and Stan is, well, not. Stan tries to convince him other wise by laying on the cross that’s being worked on at the moment, but it snaps in half under Stan’s weight causing the female worker who was painting it to declare, “Now what am I going to burn on my ethnic neighbor’s lawn?” Father Donovan assures Stan he has the perfect role for him and holds up a red jacket and pants. Stan thinks this is a reference to Fireman Jesus, but Donovan confirms for him that he wants him to play Santa. To try and convince him how great a role is he produces some Bratz dolls that Santa gave him – for free – last Christmas! He then darkly adds that he can’t believe this is the suit Earl died in.

The Smith family has added a new member, and he’s an orphan! Maybe this will be a wholesome Christmas special after all?

Back at the Smith home, we see Jeff’s van pulling into the driveway and then cut to the living room. Jeff has an announcement to make – he’s adopted a son! He has named the little guy (who I would guess is 2 or 3) Nemo, after his favorite character from his favorite book: the novelization of the movie Finding Nemo. Hayley is outraged that Jeff went and did this while Francine is shocked and delighted. She can’t believe she’s a grandmother and felt her only chance at becoming one was if Steve got raped by a confused lesbian. She runs to Nemo and scoops him up covering him with kisses. Jeff says he wanted a son to carry on his legacy – his Suburu Legacy, so maybe this is going to be a running joke with him. Hayley is confused because adoption should be a lengthy process and asks Jeff how he pulled this off. He’s dumbfounded and chalks it up to an end of month clearance event while adding that the orphanage seemed real eager to get rid of this kid. Nemo then walks over to Hayley who backs away declaring “Eww, get it away from me!” He grabs her hand and nuzzles it which triggers Hayley’s maternal instincts to kick in times ten. She starts sobbing uncontrollably and wraps Nemo up declaring him her baby. Aww! Stan then comes down the stairs in full Santa costume and demands to know who Nemo is. Francine declares they’re grandparents, and he just responds, “Steve was raped by a confused lesbian?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Back at the mall, Stan is apparently not playing Santa in the play, he’s just playing the part of Santa for the mall. There’s a kid sitting on his knee and Stan curtly asks him what does he want? The kid, in a deep, gravelly, voice, replies with “Umm, let me think about it?” Upon hearing how deep his voice is, Stan demands to know if he’s even a little boy, but the guy just tells him “Don’t worry about it.” After telling him he can’t be here, the not kid says “Come on, I waited in line let me just sit here a minute.” Stan doesn’t agree to that and tells him to get off, but the not kid assures him he’s almost done. When Stan asks what he’s almost done with, he just responds “Don’t worry about it.”

I’m sure Stan will have a rational reaction to Roger landing the role of Jesus.

The performers in the pageant then enter and Stan declares he has to see this. Tossing the not kid from his lap, Stan hurries over to the stage to find out who is playing Jesus. It’s Roger, who is wearing a wig and a loincloth and has some impressive abs on display. Stan is outraged to find Roger as Jesus and demands to know why he would want to do this. He says that Stan made it sound like a big deal and notes it gave him an excuse to work on his abs and his…savior bulge, as he gestures to his groin. Stan can’t believe it and when he finds out that Roger is also drunk he loses it. He punches Roger in the face and climbs on top of him to rain blow upon blow upon this false idol. Roger gets away momentarily and crawls to one of the female performers. He doesn’t ask her for help though, just calls her ugly. He’s definitely not Jesus material.

Looks like I was wrong.

We return to the Smith home as Stan pulls into the driveway. Inside, Nemo has Jeff’s hat on which I’m assuming everyone finds cute. Hayley is filming him and still sobbing uncontrollable prompting Francine to remark that her “bitch crying” is ruining the home movie. Stan then enters still in his Santa suit only now it’s covered in blood. Francine jumps up and asks him what happened. His cover? He was sitting on the bus next to Courtney Love and she sneezed. Even if that were believable, it’s ruined by good old television which Jeff points out as a news story covering the beating at the mall is played. Stan insists it’s not what it looks like and that he was defending Jesus while the anchor describes the beating as an unprovoked attack on Christianity. It’s not helped by the soundbite of Stan shouting at Roger as he wails on him “You can’t play Jesus you lazy, wine-loving, bisexual!” We then pull out from the TV to reveal a female priest is watching the coverage. She picks up the phone which cuts to another priest type doing the same and this goes on until it reaches the pope who asks “Are you watching this shit?”

Very wrong.

Stan insists to his family he wasn’t slandering Jesus, but Roger. The news then alerts the viewing audience that the mall Santa has been identified as none other than Stan Smith. The phone rings immediately and Steve answers informing his father that it’s Father Donovan, and he sounds punitive. We cut to the church where Stan is having a face to face with Donovan who has some bad news: he’s being excommunicated from all of Christianity. Stan can’t believe it and asks how he can get back in. Donovan tells him there are only three ways: find the Holy Grail, kill the antichrist, or donate ten million dollars to charity adding that’s how Jared Fogle from the Subway ads got back in (this episode was made before Fogle was arrested and jailed for being a pedophile so this joke reads quite dark now). Stan points out that he can’t do any of those things, but Donovan can only offer his apologies. He demands that Stan turn in his badge and he apparently does have a gold, Christianity, badge that he places on Donovan’s desk. As he goes to leave, Father Donovan calls out to him to wait! He doesn’t have anything to add, he just wants Stan’s opinion on if he should grow a mustache or not further asking, “What do hookers like?”

Klaus doesn’t get a line this entire episode, but at least he looks cute.

The only thing for Stan to do is go home and cry in front of his family about being excommunicated. Roger is still nursing his injuries from his encounter with Stan at the mall (and really seems to be taking it all in stride, probably because he achieved orgasm during the fight which he confirms to Steve) while Klaus, the goldfish, can be seen wearing an adorable little Santa hat in his fish bowl. Steve tries to suggest to his dad that he just get a new religion and Francine remarks it worked for Mohammed Ali and thinks he changed religions, and his name, to Kareem Abdul Jabar. No, Francine, those are two different people. Stan doesn’t want to change religions, so he just sobs instead.

That’s quite the discovery, Stan.

In his office, Stan is grabbing all of his kitschy religious items and tossing them into a box. As he does, he cries some more until his wails are interrupted by little Nemo who comes walking into the room doing the same. Stan seems to have taken to his new grandson better than I would have guessed as he picks him up and goes in for some snuggles. He then notices a mark on the boy’s head. It reads 6…6…2, phew! Wait! Below the 2 is a “+4” and then under that is the number 666! Nemo is the antichrist! Roger then enters with one of those tins filled with caramel corn. He claims to Stan that he made it just for him, but there’s a card on it indicating it was a gift to their neighbors Terry and Greg from someone named Trevor. We then get a quick cutaway of the pair looking for the gift under their tree while an angry Trevor, who thinks they regifted it, looks on. Trevor declares that they’re worse than Connor and everyone, including Trevor, gasps at the outburst. Connor must be pretty bad. Back in the study, Stan tells Roger to forget the corn because he has found a way back into Christianity and all he has to do is murder his grandson! And I thought they were bonding.

I’d call Father Donovan out on this boast, but I’m afraid he’ll try and prove it.

It’s nighttime and Father Donovan is pulling up to the Smith house in a car that features a license plate which reads “12 Inches.” Sure, buddy. Donovan enters the house and Stan shows him Nemo’s mark as the kid sleeps in a crib in the living room. Donovan tells Smith that he better make sure he knows for certain that Nemo is the antichrist before he kills him. Apparently, he’s made some mistakes in the past. Roger and Jeff then enter the house with Roger remarking that was some of his worst caroling, but best tagging, ever. We get a quick cut to someone’s garage door which features an image of Santa and what looks like strippers. Stan informs Jeff that he needs to take them to the orphanage where he got Nemo so that he can find evidence that proves he’s the antichrist so he can kill him. Jeff just says “Okay,” either not grasping what’s going on here or he just doesn’t care. Roger tells Stan to give the cutest orphan a crisp bill of some kind and the ugliest one a…he backhands Stan for dramatic effect. Stan then informs Roger that he’s coming too since he got him into this mess. Roger is fine with that, but informs everyone that before he can go anywhere he needs to…wipe…better. Gross.

This probably doesn’t bode well for the priest.

Outside the burned down remnants of the orphanage, an old groundskeeper is there to tell the gang the place burned down last week, the day after Jeff adopted Nemo. He also shares with them that was the day he got his cholesterol test results back which no one seems to care about. The group split up and look amongst the wreckage for any clues they can find about Nemo. Only Father Donovan seems to have found anything as he looks over a manilla folder and calls Stan to tell him to meet him outside. As he waits for the others to come out, a crow observes Father Donovan pacing back and forth. Its eyes glow red and we cut back to Nemo who is playing with blocks with his mother. His eyes glow red and then in slow motion he knocks his little block tower over which causes the orphanage to shake and collapse on Father Donovan.

This is probably something the orphanage should have shared with Jeff.

Stan and the others race outside seemingly avoiding catastrophe, but Father Donovan is not so lucky. His torso is sticking out of a pile of flaming rubble. He tells Stan he can’t feel his legs and asks if they’re okay. We pan over to see the man’s severed legs on fire prompting Stan to deadpan “They’re fine.” Donovan hands over what he found which is Nemo’s file confirming that he is indeed the son of Satan with a jackal for a mother. There’s even a nice family portrait of Nemo, a jackal, and a Satan that resembles Tim Curry from Legend. It’s at this point that Jeff realizes that Nemo spelled backwards is Omen, but Roger is quick to point out that doesn’t make sense since Jeff was the one who named him. They choose not to dwell on it as Father Donovan outlines what it means for Nemo to be the antichrist. He tells Stan that he needs to retrieve the sacred daggers from the Vatican as they are the only items that can kill Nemo. When Stan asks if he’s sure, Father Donovan says “Yes, I read it on Wikipedia.” He then goes into a long history on musician Jon Bon Jovi which he also read about on Wikipedia. As he does this, he’s clearly struggling to breathe, but he manages to finish the lesson before finally passing. Stan informs Jeff and Roger that they need to hurry to the Vatican, but Father Donovan wakes up and continues his history lesson. His last words are “Kenny…Loggins.” Stan seems afraid to say anything else in fear that it will prompt Father Donovan to share more last words. Godspeed Father Donovan. I hope there are hookers in Heaven waiting for you and they don’t care if you have a moustache or not.

Something tells me Steve will not enjoy this.

Our next scene reveals that Stan has apparently managed to utilize CIA resources to get a plane and head to the Vatican. Stan calls home to let his family know what’s going on and he gets Steve. Steve immediately starts to share the results of his latest eye exam, but Stan obviously doesn’t care. He just blurts out the Nemo is the antichrist. Steve pauses, looks annoyed, then resumes sharing the details of his exam. At the next pause, Stan just shouts what they’re doing and passes on a warning to beware of Nemo before hanging up. Steve, clearly agitated, puts the phone down only to be startled by the presence of his nephew on the couch beside him. Nemo’s eyes glow red once more and Steve shivers beside him until his eyes turn red in response. He drones that he is here to serve him as his buddy Snot (Curtis Armstrong) enters the house. Steve’s head spins around with a snapping sound and Snot rightly is freaked out and makes a hasty retreat.

What did Seth do? I don’t think I want to know what Andy Dick did.

Stan, Roger, and Jeff arrive at the Vatican. Roger is already bored and complaining of thirst while Stan ignores him and outlines the plan. They need to gain access to the catacombs in order to find the daggers they seek, but when they arrive at the gate the two guards inform Stan he’s not allowed to enter. We get a close-up shot of a flier of banned persons. One is Jared from Subway with an “OK” stamped over him. Stan is there and below him it looks like maybe Christian Slater and Andy Dick? The one that looks like Slater might just be Seth MacFarlane, I don’t know. It is! When the camera zooms out we can clearly see his name below. Odd that they didn’t include it in the frame for the close-up. Anyway, Stan informs Jeff and Roger that they’ll have to retrieve the daggers, but Roger doesn’t want to. Stan then asks him why he can’t just assume a persona that’s eager to do this? Roger likes the suggestion and morphs into Roland Chang – Super Positive Asian! He basically wears a wig and smiley face hat and gets slanted eyes. It’s kind of racist? Roger is certainly not PC.

We know what this means…

The catacombs are pretty creepy as we see Jeff and Roger walk amongst some dusty, old corpses. Roger tells Jeff to be on the lookout for the daggers and empty boxes since he has a friend that needs boxes in preparation for a move. A rat emerges from a hole in the wall to spy the pair and its eyes immediately turn red. We cut back to Nemo who is seated in a highchair with a sippy cup and army men splayed before him on the kitchen table. His eyes in turn glow red and he removes the lid to his cup and dumps it upon the army men. In the catacombs, Roger asks Jeff if he does coke and gets no reply so he just says “Yeah, me neither.” Suddenly, a rush of water comes surging in and Jeff and Roger are forced to try and get to safety. Roger manages to get onto a ledge, but the water sweeps Jeff away. Roger cries out, “Jeff!” in response to this only for Jeff to shout back “What?”

That is just a fantastic nut shot. Look at how the eyes go cross.

We then see Roger emerge from a floor vent into an ornately decorated sanctum. A group of cardinals, or bishops, or whatever they’re called are just standing around a bit surprised to see a super positive Asian fellow emerge from their basement. Roger has to break the bad news to them that they have a bit of a moisture problem in the basement. He then spies the ceremonial daggers right there on the wall! He informs them he can prepare an estimate for repairs, but then just kicks the first bishop in front of him right, square, in the nuts. We cut to Stan waiting outside as Roger comes running out shouting “We’ve got the daggers Jeff died run, run, run!”

Well, at least in this state Steve should be more helpful when it comes to stringing lights and such.

We now return to the Smith household where Hayley is tossing a football with Nemo while Steve looks on speaking in tongues. Francine is on a ladder and hanging lights when she scolds Steve to stop speaking in Aramaic – it’s a dead language. Stan and Roger come speeding in and Francine demands to know where they’ve been. Stan asks her if she got his message, but as illustrated by Steve crawling around on the roof in some kind of a reverse crab walk pose, she did not. When Stan points out that Nemo turned Steve into an apostate of Satan, Francine confirms he’s been a pill all day. They also find time to slip in casually that Jeff is dead which shocks Hayley. When Stan tells her that they have to kill Nemo, he tries to use Steve like a club of sorts to telekinetically beat back Stan. Francine still doesn’t buy into this and just thinks Steve is hungry. She tells him she just made a Trader Joe’s run and lists off a bunch of digs at Trader Joe’s ending with something about a mushroom flatbread pizza that smells like nutsack.

Get ready for an extended brawl as our main character tries to kill a toddler!

Hayley, despite all of this, isn’t willing to let her father murder her son. She grabs him after Stan gets tossed into the ladder Francine was on forcing her to grab onto the lights to stop herself from falling. Roger leaps into action to stop Hayley from taking off, but Francine comes inadvertently swinging in and knocks Roger to the ground. The lights end up causing a fire which provides a distraction for Stan to grab Nemo and run. Hayley tackles him through the living room window of Terry (Mike Barker) and Greg’s (MacFarlane) and they roll around their house destroying a bunch of stuff in the process. Stan kicks his kids out of the house, but Nemo uses his telekinetic powers to throw Stan through the ceiling. He dangles for a second, then falls and resumes chasing after Nemo. Terry realizes this is the perfect opportunity to destroy some figurines of Greg’s he hates so he awkwardly swats them off an end table, well after the Smith’s have vacated their home, and does a pretty poor job of acting like it was an accident.

Did we really need to mock the blind here? This one was a little too dark for me to be funny.

Back outside, Hayley pounces on her dad and demands he not harm her Satan baby indicating she’s accepted the reality of the situation, but still would prefer to not have her son murdered. A menacing looking dog leaps to Nemo’s defense so Stan pulls out his gun and shoots it. A blind man then wanders over asking if they’ve seen his dog, Clancy. Hayley and Stan don’t move or say a word and just let the poor guy pathetically call out for his service dog while receiving no response. He decides to move on, and is promptly run over for his efforts. That was just unnecessarily cruel.

It’s all come down to this. Is American Dad! really going to show toddler murder on network television?!

With the blind man dead, Hayley and Stan resume their brawl only to be interrupted by Steve. He jumps on his father, still speaking in tongues, but Roland is here to put him down! He sprays Steve with some bug killer that causes him to fall off and act like a spider that just died. Roland tells Stan now they can kill that boy together and punctuates his optimism with a hearty thumb’s up. Stan grabs the daggers while Nemo tries to flee through the backyard. He uses his mind powers to chuck a charcoal grill at Stan, but Roland grabs him and pins him to a patio table. Stan goes in for the kill, and misses Nemo stabbing Roland in the hand. Roger immediately snaps back into his standard persona and begins to insult Stan, but then has to remind himself that’s not who Roland is and instead offers words of encouragement. Stan regathers the daggers and looks to try again, only for Hayley to pull his own gun on him. He gives her one look, then decides to kill the kid.

Don’t worry, this isn’t The Wizard of Oz.

The screen goes white as we hear the sound of a gunshot. We’re at the hospital and Stan is waking up in his hospital bed surrounded by his family – including Jeff! If you’re thinking this whole episode was a dream, well you’re wrong. All of that stuff really happened, and Hayley did shoot Stan! It’s not explained how Jeff survived, he just did. Nemo was not murdered, but the family has good news regardless. Turns out, Roger’s pimp cup from act one was actually the Holy Grail so Stan has been readmitted into Christianity! As for Nemo, Hayley sent him somewhere far from Stan where he’ll be safe. We then cut to someone tucking little Nemo into bed – it’s Sarah Palin (Schaal). She offers up some encouragement about sleeping in the White House soon and then leaves the boy because her new issue of Highlights magazine has arrived. With his new mother gone, Nemo pops out from under the covers. He takes off his onesie pajamas, which are covered with crosses, and puts them on upside down. He then speaks in a shrill voice threatening Stan Smith that he’ll see him at the Rapture! His head spins around and he vomits a whole bunch while a voice over lets us know that Baby Antichrist wants to wish us a Merry Christmas! The screen is then covered in green vomit and the credits roll.

Merry Christmas to you too, Baby Antichrist!

I told you it wasn’t going to be one of those warm, fuzzy, Christmas episodes. American Dad! knows how to deliver the subversive, and since its main character is a devout Christian it makes it pretty easy to craft a Christmas special. There are probably some uncomfortable images in this one for those who take their religion seriously, but there isn’t much here truly mocking Christianity. Father Donovan isn’t really a wholesome take on a priest while the suggestion that anyone with money can buy their way into the good graces of the Pope could certainly be taken as a jab at the faith. On the other hand, Donovan did say “charity” when mentioning how Stan could pay his way out of trouble so it’s not like he was enriching any one person had he been able to go that route.

Sarah Palin jokes were pretty dated in 2011. They’re even more so now.

No, what’s really the aim of this episode is just to fashion a Christmas episode around a grandfather seeking to kill his newly adopted grandson. That’s pretty messed up, especially because Stan seems completely fine with the whole thing. Then again, Nemo is pretty clearly the antichrist and I suppose a good Christian would want to kill such a creature. And it’s not as if Nemo had been around all that long. I find it funny, and the episode is chock full of Christmas theming which I do so enjoy. We get lots of decorations and fun Christmas outfits for most of the family. I definitely could have used a bit more of Father Donovan so I was a bit sad to see him killed off about halfway through, but at least he didn’t overstay his welcome. The Palin joke at the end wasn’t very good. They insulted her intelligence with the crack about Highlights magazine, but it’s a pretty toothless joke. And Nemo did leave us with a taunt, but he would not return. There’s even a later Christmas episode about The Rapture, but no Nemo. I guess he’s still biding his time up there in Alaska, but he should probably ditch Palin and hitch himself onto another wagon if he wants to get into Washington.

Bless you, Father Donovan. Hopefully, you’re in a better place.

Should you wish to partake in this non-traditional Christmas special the easiest way to do so is via Hulu. If you’re outside the US, then Disney+ will have it. TBS is still the cable home for American Dad! and you can probably find this one playing throughout the month there as well. It’s not my favorite American Dad! holiday episode, but it’s up there. Maybe even number two, so I give it a strong recommend with the caveat that it’s not for everyone. Now let’s all strive to be a little less like the antichrist this holiday season and a little more like Roland Chang – Super Positive Asian!

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 3 – Animaniacs – ‘Twas the Day Before Christmas

Children’s cartoons often take to Christmas when the season rolls around. The holiday is usually ripe for parody or just direct adaptations so it’s easy for the writers to kind of phone it in. What’s not customary is for a cartoon series to feature two dedicated Christmas episodes in a single season! That’s what Animaniacs…

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by Joe

Dec. 3 – Popeye the Sailor – “Mister and Mistletoe”

Last year for the Christmas Spot we took a look at the 1960’s TV series Popeye the Sailor and its Christmas episode “Spinach Greetings.” There are a lot of Popeye fans in the world and my assumption is that most would not put Popeye the Sailor above the theatrical shorts that helped catapult Popeye to…

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by Joe

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December 2, 2024

Dec. 2 – Dinosaurs – “Refrigerator Day”

By Joe
Original air date December 11, 1991

Nothing puts one in the Christmas Spirit like carols about the refrigerator. Or so Dinosaurs would have you believe. Not that Christmas is actually mentioned at all in today’s special because it takes place in a setting on Earth millions of years before the Christ in Christmas was born. Back then, the sentient beings of the world celebrated a different sort of holiday and it was one centered around the refrigerator. Think about it for a second – the refrigerator really is an amazingly transformative invention. Prior to its creation, there was no way to keep food from spoiling when the outside temperature was above 50 degrees or so. People would have root cellars where they would store things like apples and cheese in the winter because they were hearty. Apples could be turned into apple sauce or pie while cheese would spoil from the outside in. Those moldy parts could be discarded, or consumed if you like that sort of thing. That’s why in a society that apparently doesn’t really worship a god a refrigerator can seem like a truly miraculous thing.

Dinosaurs was an ingenious idea that lead to a pretty great show.

On this blog, I tend to stick with cartoons when it comes to the daily Christmas post, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. And Dinosaurs is kind of like a live-action cartoon. It was often compared (sometimes negatively) to The Simpsons during its heyday and it’s fairly apt. Both shows are sitcoms that just go about the whole medium thing different. Where as The Simpsons is a bonafide animated production, Dinosaurs is a costumed one with advanced puppetry. The show was created by Mike Jacobs and Bob Young and receiving a “developed by” credit is the infamous Jim Henson. Henson died before the show’s premiere, but it’s he who is credited with the idea of doing a sitcom about a family of dinosaurs. The costumes for much of the cast are very similar to what the company made for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. You basically have an actor in a big, rubber, suit, with animatronics built into the face that are then operated by a puppeteer. I can’t imagine how miserable these costumes must have been to wear, but the technology on display is truly amazing. These characters are as alive and expressive as most sitcom stars and the show became an overnight success when it debuted in 1991.

The Sinclair family is a fairly typical family of four at the beginning, but made five before the first episode ends.

Dinosaurs was considered an expensive production, but despite that it ran for four seasons totaling 65 episodes, an important number if syndication was going to be in its future. It’s also a show that has become infamous since it left the air because the final episode basically kills everybody off. I mean, it’s a show about dinosaurs – how else could it have ended? The Sinclair family doesn’t literally die, but the ice age is essentially about to begin and it’s pretty bleak. Their doom was brought about by their own society’s ills and in that regard it’s even less of a surprise the show ended in such a fashion. Dinosaurs is a sitcom and a funny one at that, but it’s also a pretty biting satire of 90s culture. The show was very critical of war during a time when most of the country was consumed by Gulf War patriotism and the show even tackled religion in a pretty savage way for network television. In my experience, the show burned bright and faded quickly with most only remembering it for the baby and his infamous “Not the mama,” routine, but once the show hit Disney+ I gave it a complete rewatch and was kind of blown away by how well it holds up.

The enduring image from the show.

If you are new to the show, Dinosaurs is about the Sinclair family. Earl (Bill Barretta as the suit actor, Stuart Pankin the voice) is a typical sitcom dad in that he’s a blue collar worker with a mean boss who just wants to be left alone when he’s not on the job. He’s not stupid, but he is pretty ignorant which leads to some stupid decisions. His wife, Fran (Mitchel Young-Evans, Jessica Walter) is the typical moral center of the family and a stay-at-home mother to a pair of teenagers, Robbie (Leif Tilden, Jason Willinger) and Charlene (Michelan Sisti, Sally Struthers). Both kids have pretty typical teenaged problems dealing with popularity, the opposite sex, puberty, and so on. In the very first episode, Fran lays a surprise egg which hatches into Baby Sinclair (a more conventional puppet operated by Terri Harden and Kevin Clash with Clash providing the voice) who basically throws their world for a loop. Earl and Fran, already having teenaged children, certainly weren’t looking to start over with another baby, but life is funny like that.

This will be Baby’s first Refrigerator Day.

“Refrigerator Day” is the 12th episode of the show’s second season. It originally aired on the ABC network on December 11, 1991. The episode begins with everyone in the Sinclair household decorating for Refrigerator Day. Basically, it looks like Christmas with a different name. Fran has just finished baking a traditional mold pie while Baby asks his grandmother Ethyl (Brian Henson, Florence Stanley) what Refrigerator Day is. She dryly informs him she already told him, but he asks if he was listening. The humor in this show is very much in-line with The Muppets. Ethyl explains that before there were refrigerators life basically sucked. Fran chimes in as well, but the whole thing is lost on Baby who doesn’t understand their explanation, but does perk up when Charlene mentions it includes lots of presents.

Instead of having to introduce a new item to the home and decorate it, the dinosaurs just trim-up their fridge. It’s a sound method.

Robbie asks his dad if he’s basically going nuts on gifts this year and Earl is happy to tell his son that he indeed is. He gets in a dig at his own expense when he points out that it’s easy to blow all of their money on presents with his salary, but he’s in a very jovial mood so his dead-end job as a tree pusher isn’t going to bother him. He does bring up the dreaded Refrigerator Bonus, so you know he’s either not going to get one or its going to be miniscule. He reaches into that holiest of appliances, the refrigerator, to pull out a snack. It’s a living, small, mammal which gives the show an almost Flinstones vibe as most of their food is seen alive first and is often sarcastic. Fran comes over to lecture him about the true meaning of the holiday. And wouldn’t you know, it’s basically all of the same stuff as Christmas with the noted exception that this holiday is preceded by two days of fasting. Fran snatches the little vermin away from Earl who also gets to make a fat joke at the expense of the megalosaurus.

We jump to later in the day and Earl is on the job. His friend and co-worker, Roy (Pons Mar and Julianne Buescher as puppeteers, Sam McMurray voice) is puzzled by Earl’s lack of lunch who is then forced to explain the whole fasting ritual. Roy, being a bachelor, doesn’t have a wife to enforce such things. Earl isn’t too bummed though, because he soon hears the summons of his boss B.P. Richfield (Leif Tilden and Steve Whitmire, Sherman Hemsley) which can only mean one thing: bonus!

“Toddy.”

Earl heads into his boss’s trailer in a very good mood which is unusual for him as heading into the boss’s trailer is usually a terrifying experience for Earl. Richfield is apparently in the Refrigerator Spirit as he’s decorated his trailer with lights and tinsel and even installed a fireplace so his workers could come in out of the cold. He offers Earl a hot toddy and even takes time to remark what a funny word “toddy” is. Earl is very much enjoying this as his boss produces three envelopes. They each contain a Christmas bonus and when he asks Earl to guess which one is his he surprises him by saying “All of them!”

Now that’s the Richfield we know and love (?).

If this all seems too good to be true it’s because it is. Earl is having a pretty sad fantasy about getting love and respect from his boss, which is shattered by the screams of said boss to get in his trailer. The actual trailer is just as cold and miserable as usual. No fireplace, no hot toddy, no offers of an embrace, and perhaps not unexpectedly, no bonus. Earl actually gets handed four pencils, not to keep, but to sharpen. When he prods his boss about a bonus he’s met with an angry stare and confirmation that there is none. They do a little Looney Tunes bit where Earl tries to say there will be one, while Richfield says otherwise, but Earl being a dinosaur and all has never seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon so he doesn’t know how to turn the argument around in his favor. When Earl protests that he depends on the bonus, Richfield tells him that’s why he isn’t getting one. When you expect a bonus, it’s just salary. When Earl tries to tell him that he isn’t expecting one now, Richfield just remarks, “Good! Now you won’t be disappointed!” As Earl leaves dragging his tail behind, Richfield tells him not to tell anybody else about the no bonuses this year. He wants to tell them himself and describes it as a little holiday treat. I love Sherman Helmsley as Richfield, he is just so damn good at being a terrible boss.

At least Earl doesn’t try to hide his lack of a bonus from his family.

If you’re worried that this means we’re about to embark on an A Christmas Carol like plot involving Richfield then worry not. He’s beyond hope. Instead, Earl heads home with the bad news. We first find Charlene and Robbie preparing more decorations while watching TV. There’s a commercial about celebrating Refrigerator Day by giving paint which Robbie finds distasteful, but Charlene seems more open to Refrigerator Day commercialism. It’s followed up with a holiday greeting from the We Say So corporation about deregulation and corporate freedom. Wow, does it ring true in 2024. Following that is when Earl enters to summon the family to share the bad news. At first, Baby won’t let him share the bad news as he keeps interrupting to talk about his new found love of Refrigerator Day which involves drawing a refrigerator, drawing on the refrigerator, drawing on the walls, etc. Earl is finally able to get it out that he’s not getting a bonus and that they’re broke. Charlene sees no problems here because Earl already bought the presents. When her mother points out that they have no money to pay the bills she still fails to see a problem. Earl tries to reassure everyone that they’ll be okay. It’s the holiday season and everyone is more charitable at this time of year and more willing to wait for their money.

Avert your eyes, dear reader, it’s too gruesome!

We smash cut to the family’s refrigerator getting repossessed in front of a distraught Earl. Larry the repo dinosaur informs him he’s half a day late with his payment so the fridge has got to go. Earl tries appealing to the guy by pointing out his children and that it’s Refrigerator Day. Baby has even latched into his leg, but his mother pulls him away. Larry informs the family that his boss demands that they take the appliance that leaves the biggest mark and puts them under the most pressure, hence why the fridge goes. Earl refers to the guy’s boss as an evil man, which Larry confirms also while adding that he did give them all a nice holiday bonus. With the fridge gone, Earl is left to confront his own failure. He declares himself lower than dirt and despite his family trying to console him he announces that this will be the worst Refrigerator Day ever!

Earl is not coping well.

Earl rises the next morning and, out of habit, saunters over to where the refrigerator would normally be. When he discovers it gone, he becomes delirious and basically starts sobbing. The rest of the family retreat to the living room where Fran shares an idea she has with her kids: they take the presents back to the store, get their money back, and use it to buy back their fridge! Charlene is so disgusted by the suggestion that she can’t even form a proper analogy to describe what it would be like to have no presents on Refrigerator Day, but one look at their father singing to himself while holding ice trays is enough to convince the others. It’s here we find out that the concept of returning purchased goods to a store is a completely foreign concept in dinosaur society. Fran acknowledges it’s an odd thing to do, but thinks they have to try. Meanwhile, Earl seems to be getting even more delirious and cries out that they’re starving. Fran reminds him that they’re fasting, but Earl points out that fasting is a choice. They have no food and therefore are starving. He’s pretty logical when he wants to be.

These two just can’t wrap their heads around the idea of returning bought merchandise.

We next find the family at Kave Mart, a pun that is generic enough to still work today, but is obviously a pun on K-Mart which no longer exists or barely does. Fran and the kids carry in their wrapped gifts and approach a clerk about returning them. He seems puzzled, but says okay and tells them to just put them whereever. When Fran explains that she also wants her money back he gets real confused. He calls in his co-worker Hank to try and figure this out. It’s basically a very straight-forward discussion on logic: why would a store, which already has enough product, buy back its own merchandise? And why would someone like Fran try to sell something without making a profit? This is what it’s like to have a discussion with a libertarian. The two clerks get a bit angry with Fran thinking she’s trying to pull a fast one before declaring that the only way they would be willing to buy merchandise would be if they paid wholesale. Fran reluctantly accepts despite the protests of Robbie who rightly points out that they’ll get practically nothing for these items. What kind of fridge could they possibly get selling these items back to the store for far less than what they paid?

Refrigerator Day is saved?

A Styrofoam cooler, that’s what. We smash cut to the not-fridge while Ethyl takes a gander as Fran informs her mother it was all they could afford. Earl enters to wish everyone a happy Refrigerator Day, but in a very gloomy manner. He informs them he wanted to give them the presents he bought, but it seems they’ve been stolen so he’s going to head to the garage to hang himself. Fran intercepts Earl’s suicide march to tell him the gifts weren’t stolen and they returned them to the store to buy back their fridge. Earl can hardly believe it and nearly becomes overwhelmed with emotion, until he sees the new fridge. He’s back to feeling suicidal as he apologizes to Baby for ruining his first fridge day and implores him to take a whack at his dome with a pot as he so often does. Baby declines which makes Earl feel like an even bigger failure. Ethyl is there for him though as she strikes him across the belly with her cane reminding him that she’ll always be here for him, “Fat boy.”

And now Earl’s own son has rejected the proposal of inflicting violence upon his skull. Could this day get any worse?

It’s at this point that Fran feels inclined to remind everyone what Refrigerator Day is all about. She reminds them all the day is for them to reflect back on their ancestors who have nothing and appreciate all that they have today. She tries to throw it back at Earl by declaring them blessed, but he’d still rather head to the garage and hang himself. Fran stops Earl to inform him that they are going to do the annual Refrigerator Day pageant. Earl replies, “At the risk of sounding immature – I don’t want to!” and stamps his feet. Fran pushes past him to say then they’ll do it without him as the kids follow along behind her. I’m finding it hard to believe that teenagers would go along with a family pageant, but they are a different breed from me.

Now here’s a custom I can do without.

We cut to Ethyl reading from a book, “And now it can be told…the True Story of Refrigerator Day.” It’s essentially a parody of A Visit From Saint Nicholas/Twas the Night Before Christmas. Come to think of it, that’s what this holiday is lacking. A cosmic being who spreads presents and good cheer. Actually, the story is more like the first Thanksgiving complete with pilgrim-like costumes. Earl reluctantly takes part while the rest are fairly enthusiastic. We learn the story of the holiday is that the patriarch of this story heard a voice demanding he build a box that’s cold inside. The dinosaurs stopped migrating and constructed their box. They do, and the family has a little, prop, fridge for their story. As its told, to make it cold they were going to toss it in a lake, until the daughter discovered it had an electrical plug. The play ends with the family singing a “Fridge Carol” that sounds like “The Feast of Stephen.” It’s a crazy holiday, but when you get right down to it, Christmas is pretty wacky too. And don’t get me started on Easter!

It’s a Refrigerator Day miracle!

Performing in the pageant has done wonders for Earl’s mood. He declares his love for the pageant while someone is at the door. It’s the guys from Kave Mart! They’ve brought back their fridge and all the presents from before. Refrigerator Day hadn’t been stolen, it came just as before! Actually, there was no change of heart or visit from three ghosts. The store just figured out that a return policy like the one Fran proposed is a huge, money-making, idea and to buy off the Sinclair family from claiming credit for it they’re being bribed with their old refrigerator and gifts. Earl even gets his bonus and the store also installed snow machines on the roof for ambience. All they have to do is sign away all rights to the return policy idea which Earl is happy to do.

With everything all wrapped up in a neat, Refrigerator Day, package, there’s nothing left to do but celebrate. The children gather around the refrigerator while Earl and Fran reflect on what they have. The image is framed like a greeting card with the cast and crew of Dinosaurs wishing us all the happiest of Refrigerator Days!

The Sinclairs get a happy ending, but they’re also swindled out of a million dollar idea.

It’s not exactly Christmas, but it’s just Christmas with a different name. Dinosaurs took a conventional plot, oddly one also utilized by The Simpsons which Dinosaurs was sometimes accused of ripping off, but they found a way to turn it on its head. The concept of a return policy is completely off the wall in this consumerist society. The world of Dinosaurs is one dominated by We Say So which basically has a monopoly on everything. Do they own Kave Mart? Probably. The bit at the store is great and the show has several expertly crafted cuts to drive home its own brand of satirical, sometimes dark, humor.

It’s that dark humor that can possibly rub some the wrong way. We have multiple suicide jokes and the Richfield character is truly detestable. I find it all pretty damn hilarious, but that’s just me. The characters emote really well and this episode contains a rare additional set in the form of the department store. The one criticism I have of the show is it often takes place in very familiar locations, but that’s because new sets are really expensive. The extras, like the clerks and repo man, are basically stock costumes that get used and reused constantly throughout the show. Sometimes they change up the voices and sometimes they stick with the same ones. It’s almost like a fourth wall situation where the dinosaurs are just actors in this show we’re watching and they play the roles expected of them.

Every Christmas episode should end with a faux greeting card.

Dinosaurs is a terrific little 90s gem of a series. If you remember it somewhat negatively as “The Baby Show” then know that your memories are inaccurate. While Baby was a breakout star, he wasn’t relied upon to do a lot of heavy lifting outside of an episode here and there. It really is a family sitcom, but one that’s not at all sweet or mild and it really leans into the satire. It has a lot of Muppets-styled timing with some of the jokes, but it’s far more focused and lacks that intentional corn of its more famous predecessor. If you have never watched it definitely give it a try especially if you’re a fan of other Jim Henson productions. It’s a pretty unique show and it’s all available on Disney+ so it’s pretty accessible by today’s standards. And remember, while you’re drinking down your nogg and opening presents, think about those who made our refrigerator possible and thank them. If you want to know their names, go check Wikipedia or something. I’m busy decorating for Refrigerator Day.

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 2 – Justice League – “Comfort and Joy”

In 1995, Warner Bros felt it was a big enough entity that it could launch its own broadcast television network. Dubbed The WB, it would try to compete with the big four of ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, but never really achieved that level of success which is why it no longer exists. The strategy…

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by Joe

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December 1, 2024

Dec. 1 – Mickey’s Orphans (1931)

By Joe
Original release date December 5, 1931.

It’s December 1st and you know what that means – time for Christmas specials! Not to “well, actually,” myself, but the Christmas special viewing season began before today in my house as it’s annually the day after Thanksgiving. What you may call Black Friday, I dub the start of the Christmas Special Season. And this year, it’s a shorter than usual one since Thanksgiving occurred on the 28th of November which is the latest the holiday can take place which means we have less time than usual to squeeze in some favorite seasonal viewing.

Not that any of that has any impact on this year’s edition of The Christmas Spot. It’s always 25 days of 25 festive topics which most often take the form of a holiday special walkthrough. It’s actually been years since I did something other than a holiday special on one of the 25 days of Christmas (sorry Family Channel/ABC Family/Freeform/Whatever you’re called now, I’m stealing your bit) – will this year change that? I don’t know! I just know I have my work cut out for me.

It’s always a Mickey Mouse cartoon, never Mickey and Minnie. Poor Minnie.

To kick things off this December I am righting a wrong. It was many years ago I made a post about Christmas specials staring Mickey Mouse. You know that guy, right? He’s often celebrated as the first global cartoon star following his debut in 1928. I have no idea if that is accurate or not, there were a lot of cartoon characters that came before Mickey, but when you’re a company as big and powerful as The Walt Disney Company and you’ve lasted longer than many of your competitors you basically get to write your own history. I think we can all agree that Mickey is pretty damn popular and recognized around the world even to this day as the brand ambassador of a mega-corporation. He’s even still starring in current Christmas specials and probably will continue to do so long after many of us expire.

Oswald got to do Christmas first where he tried to bring Christmas to some poor kids. Only in his cartoon, it was the home of the children that got wrecked, not Oswald’s.

Back when I did that post though, I failed to mention Mickey’s first ever Christmas cartoon: Mickey’s Orphans. Released in 1931, it stars Mickey (Walt Disney), Minnie (Marcellite Garner), and Pluto and features the characters taking in some orphaned kittens (mice taking care of kittens – how absurd) on Christmas. The Wikipedia entry for the cartoon states it’s a remake of an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon (that guy who was famous before Mickey) titled Empty Socks. Well, I’ve watched Empty Socks and I don’t see how it could be classified as a remake. That cartoon features Oswald playing Santa for some orphans (who also happen to be feline) and they’re basically brats and they actually end up burning down the house. This one has the orphans coming to Mickey’s house and, yes, they’re pretty destructive. I can see how the Oswald short influenced this one, but calling it a remake seems like it goes too far.

This being a short from 90+ years ago, it should come as no surprise that it’s in black and white and the audio and visual quality isn’t exactly pristine. Mickey cartoons are often cited as being technically great, but not as entertaining as the stuff from Warner Bros or even the later cartoons from Disney staring Donald Duck. As someone who has watched a lot of cartoons from that era, I can mostly go along with that. Mickey cartoons tend to feature a lot of just singing and dancing. There are some that are quite entertaining though, and on a technical level even the oldest ones can often impress in some way. Mickey became more of a bland every man character much later into the 30s when he could play off of his more comedic sidekicks, Donald and Goofy. In ’31 he was allowed to be a bit less polished, more of a rascal, though this being a Christmas cartoon in which he takes in orphans don’t expect a whole lot of that stuff. He’s actually just going to roll over and take it in this one.

This individual isn’t even going to bother with the church, apparently.

The cartoon begins with a robed figure walking through the snow at night. The wind is howling and it’s whipping the individual’s ragged clothing around. The figure is carrying what looks like a picnic basket with its right arm. It’s a nice shot that doesn’t rely on a repeating background and “Silent Night” is helping to set the mood as a somber one. The individual then comes to a warmly lit house and we hear Minnie Mouse before we see her. The individual looks through a window to find Minnie playing “Silent Night,” but not singing it (she just keeps saying “La la la” because I guess she has trouble with lyrics), at a piano. I think? I don’t know, it has two large pedals that she’s working over. Nearby, we see Mickey decorating the Christmas tree. Each time he places an ornament we hear a little chime. He grabs two candy canes and then taps the ornaments in time with the music. We pan over to see Pluto asleep by the fire. He’s looking well fed as he snores.

I guess two mice can be parents to a cat. Why not?

Outside, the ragged figure runs over to the front door and lays the basket down in front of it. The person picks up a bundle from inside it, kisses it, then places it back in the basket and rings the doorbell. They take off as Mickey opens the door. An eager Pluto runs out and returns quickly with the basket. He sniffs at it, and from inside pops out a little kitten. Pluto doesn’t seem thrilled, but Mickey happily scoops up the little fella and brings it over to Minnie. She thinks it’s adorable, though it’s oddly hostile towards Mickey as it bites him on the finger. He’s such a good-natured man-mouse though that he laughs it off. Meanwhile, Pluto is still sniffing around that basket and soon another kitten pokes its head out and whacks him on the nose. Then an impossible amount of kittens burst forth!

That must have been some kind of magic basket to fit all of these kittens in it. Maybe they have a future as a gang of clowns?

The kittens soon overrun the place swinging on clocks, bouncing on pianos, and pulling on poor Pluto’s ears and tail. Another kitten has displaced the couple’s parrot in its cage while another group ride a chandelier like an amusement park ride. Mickey gets his tail tied around his ankles and there’s a long shot of the kittens just going nuts in the living room. To their credit, Mickey and Minnie seem unphased by all of this as they continue to smile. Minnie whispers an idea into Mickey’s ear, who in turn does the same with Pluto. The two soon depart, but not before Mickey grabs a deer mount from the wall. I wonder what they could be up to?

Hey! It’s food or a fashion accessory, not both!

With Mickey gone, it means Minnie has to look after all of the kittens. One needs help blowing its nose while another is tugging her skirt and seems anxious about something. I thought maybe it dirtied its diaper, but apparently the little tyke is just hungry. Minnie does what any responsible adult would do and gives the hungry toddler a candy cane. The little cat licks it all over then starts strutting around using it like an actual cane. That thing is going to get real gross real fast.

There was no way Mickey was going to star in his first Christmas cartoon and not play Santa.

Minnie then takes a seat at the piano once again. The pedals have strangely disappeared. She starts playing “Jingle Bells” which is apparently Mickey’s cue to come bursting through the front door. He’s dressed like Santa Claus and being pulled on a sleigh by Pluto who’s sporting the deer head like a helmet. Mickey is whipping him, which seems a bit cruel, and he’s apparently enjoying it since he has that same big, dopey, grin plastered on his face. When the sleigh comes to a stop, Mickey hops off with a big sack of presents, but the little monsters don’t even wait for him to start handing out gifts. They run him over and all dive into the sack. Each one comes running out with something until there’s nothing left, just a final kitten clutching the sack itself. It stops to ask Mickey, “Are you Santa Claus?” Mickey smiles and nods and the kid responds by blowing him a raspberry and tugging on his beard so hard that he topples over. Ungrateful brat!

This doesn’t even resemble playing anymore, they’re just hacking stuff to bits.

With the gifts distributed, the children return to their path of destruction. A series of them start a marching band and some have actual instruments while others are just banging on household items. The music is livelier now too and kind of sounds like it could be a version of “Ain’t We Got Fun.” Whatever it is, it doesn’t sound Christmassy. A bunch of the kids somehow got ahold of saws and hammers and we get to see them destroying Mickey and Minnie’s furniture. A bunch are also smashing other objects with more conventional toys while a trio of kittens wielding pop guns use them to break some stuff and blast Mickey in the bum. Meanwhile, the construction crew of kittens has moved on from the living room to the piano and they’re hacking that thing up. I guess they weren’t a fan of Minnie’s playing?

Mickey got to enjoy himself for maybe three seconds.

More destruction ensues as the kids smash windows and basically anything else of value in the house. A kitten comes riding by on a train (did you ever hear how Walt loved these things? Of course there’s a toy train in this picture) and smashes into Mickey. He does a flip and ends up seated on the caboose. He waves to Minnie as they drive by and she’s up on a sofa like she’s trying to escape the carnage, but the two happily wave to each other like their house isn’t getting demolished. I guess Walt pays them well. The kitten conductor drives the train under an end table so the back of Mickey’s head smashes into it and knocks him from his perch. Another kitten is shown shooting Pluto in the butt with a toy canon and when the dog runs into the wall the deer head he was wearing pops off and lands on his butt creating some weird chimaera of a creature that frightens the kid.

That’s…unsettling.

Mickey seems like he doesn’t know what to do, which just makes him more of a target. A kitten operating a toy steam shovel uses it to scoop coals out of the fireplace and drop them down Mickey’s pants. He starts hopping around which alerts the kitten fire brigade to come to his rescue. Two kittens come riding in on a toy fire truck and blast Mickey in the butt. He enjoys the relief it brings and just sort of stands there soaking it all in. Quite literally. On all fours. It’s an odd sight to be sure.

Oh, what a lovely tree! Surely those orphans will appreciate it!

Minnie then gets everyone’s attention with a little horn. She’s standing by a curtain and Mickey comes over to help her reveal what’s behind it by playing a drum. After a vintage drum roll, the curtain is pulled back to reveal the Christmas tree. It’s quite a lovely sight as it’s full of ornaments and lit with several candles. These things must have been extreme fire hazards back in the day. The kids all cheer and then attack! The tree has some more gifts under it, but the kittens cover the tree by climbing all over it and as they disperse what’s left behind is a standing, old, stick. Mickey and Minnie can only look on with shock and awe and for the first time there appears to be a twinge of sadness on their faces.

This is the shot we go out on. I don’t think it’s going to be a merry Christmas for the Mouse family.

If you think this is where the kittens realize they’ve been a naughty bunch and have treated these mice poorly, think again! Nope, there is no moral here as that’s the end. Mickey and Minnie can only stare at what’s left of their tree and are left to ponder what their Christmas might have been like if these wretched orphans hadn’t been dumped on them.

What a weird cartoon. It is similar to the Oswald short I mentioned coming in as in both some orphans just act like rotten kids and there’s no comeuppance for them. They just spread destruction at Christmas and that’s it. We’re supposed to laugh at their wickedness, I suppose, and that’s enough. We’re not really supposed to care about Mickey and Minnie and what’s left of their house. I suppose making sure orphans are in a safe environment at Christmas is something to aspire to. Minnie and Mickey’s physical possessions aren’t really that important, but these two take these kids into their home, go to great lengths to give them a special Christmas, and get nothing in return. It’s definitely not the kind of cartoon you would see starring Mickey Mouse in 2024.

Mickey is Mr. Nice Guy in this one, but he just gets crap for it.

There isn’t a whole lot to this one. There are some visual gags, but they’re not inventive or creative. It’s just kids being destructive in pretty standard ways. Mickey’s makeshift Santa entrance had a little cleverness to it, but it’s not like he used household objects to create toys like Grampy did in Christmas Comes But Once a Year. Visually, it’s a nice looking black and white short. Disney has always been on top of the animation game and that was true back then just as it so often has been throughout the decades since. The music is probably all public domain stuff. There’s a few Christmas numbers, and I think I even heard Beethoven, and it’s fine. There’s almost no dialogue save for the little kitten asking Mickey if he’s Santa and a few remarks by Minnie. The audio always comes across as more dated to me than the black and white visuals and that’s true here.

Mickey’s Orphans is a pretty unremarkable Christmas cartoon from the famous mouse, which is probably why it’s quite forgettable. There weren’t any scenes from this used in the broadcast of Mickey’s Christmas Carol like we saw with On Ice and Mickey’s Good Deed. Like a lot of what makes up the legend of Mickey Mouse, it mostly just gets credit for being first and not much else. Still, at only about seven minutes it’s hardly much of an investment of your time if you want to check it out. It can be found on YouTube and other free streaming platforms with ease as Disney isn’t very protective of its old black and white cartoons. If you want to own it then that’s a different story. This was released in the Walt Disney Treasures line on the very first Mickey Mouse in Black and White set, but it’s now long out of print and quite expensive. It’s also the only set I didn’t buy back when they were more affordable and that’s because these cartoons can be hard to sit through. Do I really want to spend all of that money just to say I own them even if I’ll never watch them all? The answer has, so far, been “No.”

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 1 – Christmas Comes But Once A Year (1936)

We’re back with another year of The Christmas Spot! And to kick things off this year we’re taking a look at a bonafide Christmas Classic. Christmas Comes But Once A Year may not be the household name that Rudolph and Frosty are, but for Gen X and millennial kids it’s probably familiar because it was…

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by Joe

Dec. 1 – 35 Years of The Christmas Tape

Welcome back to another year of The Christmas Spot! This year we’re kicking things off with a post I’ve been sitting on for a few years now. When I utter the title “The Christmas Tape,” I’m curious what comes to the minds of readers. It sounds both generic and specific and I suspect a few…

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by Joe

Dec. 1 – Frosty the Snowman

Welcome back, lovers of Christmas, to the 7th edition of The Christmas Spot! If you missed the introduction a few days ago, we’re doing things a little differently this year. Yes, you’re still getting a dedicated write-up each day through Christmas about a beloved or not-so-beloved holiday special, but this year we’re also going retro…

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by Joe

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November 29, 2024

McFarlane Toys BTAS Christmas With the Joker Action Figure

By Joe
It’s time for your favorite holiday tradition: Christmas with the Joker!

Yesterday, the United States celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday so you know what that means? The Christmas season is underway! And it’s one that feels like it could not have come any sooner. We need a little Christmas, right this very minute, and today it’s coming to us via an unexpected source: The Joker. Yes, the Clown Prince of Crime is getting into the Christmas spirit today for, what else, an action figure release. This is yet another old one from DC Collectibles re-released via McFarlane Toys. The first such set of figures we looked at released this way didn’t go that well. Will this Joker fare any better? Will the magic of Christmas help to elevate him above his brethren? Let’s find out together.

Joker, as seen in the episode from which this figure is based on.

It was years ago (2017, if I’m not mistaken) that DC Collectibles released a Joker action figures based on the episode of Batman: The Animated Series “Christmas With the Joker.” In just the show’s second episode it not only introduced audiences to its version of the Joker, but also made it a Christmas special. Since the show was debuting in September, that meant it had to be held back a bit, but still managed to air in November. Nonetheless, it’s not one of the show’s better episodes, but the mere fact it features the Joker and it’s a Christmas episode helped it to remain memorable.

He certainly looks happy to be celebrating the holidays with us.

When this figure was first released, I considered getting it. I don’t know why I didn’t, I guess maybe I was trying to save money? I probably feared that getting even one action figure from this line of Batman figures would open the floodgates so I held off. When it went on clearance I still held off. When it got a re-release with a pearl finish? Oh yeah, I held off. And when that re-release also received the discount treatment? By then I had become a pro at ignoring this Christmas Joker so it was a piece of cake to do so yet again.

He’s definitely not going to scale with the McFarlane Batman Santa.

Now, it’s 2024 and McFarlane Toys has decided it needs to re-release this Christmas Joker. I don’t know why in 2024 that I feel like now is the time to jump in, but it’s what I’ve done. The wave one figures from McFarlane were borderline terrible. I like the sculpt of the Scarecrow and Freeze is okay, but the Batman and Robin figures were just plain bad. The paint jobs are pretty hideous and the toys feel cheaper than ever. These figures were fragile when originally released, but they didn’t feel cheap. I don’t know what McFarlane is doing, but these feel comparatively worse. Still, for a Christmas figure I just expect it to stand there and look festive. My demands of this figure are pretty minimal and should be easy to please. I’m not sure it’s capable of meeting even those unambitious demands.

“Now here’s a Santa I can really get behind!”

Joker comes in the normal packaging which is a big window box that’s entirely too large. There is no Christmas theming to the packaging which feels like a real missed opportunity. Make it look like a wrapped gift and you stand to sell two of these per person, Todd. Joker is depicted as he was for most of that episode, well, aside from the hat. He wears the hat for all two seconds, but this figure has one molded to its head. In another missed opportunity, McFarlane could have included a non-hatted head to switch to, but maybe this one was never designed for a removable head? Aside from the hat, Joker is sporting a Christmas sweater that’s a simple red with a green turtleneck underneath. From the waist down, he’s basically your standard Joker with purple pants and white and black shoes.

“Here Harvey, you look like you could use a little Christmas spirit.”

The sculpt is fine, but the paint is not. Joker isn’t as bad as the other figures, but the detail work is pretty awful. His mouth and teeth are sloppy and my figure had a big black smudge on his chin that I’ve mostly been able to remove with a Magic Eraser. His eyes are outlined in black, but he has no eyebrows to speak of. The edges of the white on the Santa hat aren’t particularly sharp, but what isn’t dreadful with this release is the cel-shading. McFarlane added some dark red to the right side of the figure and some dark purple to the pants. There’s also a hit of dark green on the inner sweater. It’s far more purposeful than some of the other figures and the color choices are fine. If all of the figures looked like this there probably wouldn’t be many complaints about the shading. There’s also still a lot of bare plastic here including basically all of the white parts and pants. The original release looks like it was almost all painted, by comparison, so if you can get that one instead for a decent price you may find it the better piece.

Yuck.

What’s not any different is the feel of this thing. It’s cheap and it’s pretty junky. The MSRP appears to be $30 though Target initially offered it for $25 (and it is a Target exclusive). Even at the lower end, it doesn’t feel great. This is more like a $15 figure and the articulation is befitting that price range as well. You get very little here as the head only rotates. If it’s supposed to look up or down mine won’t budge. The shoulder pins are fine and the elbows bend almost 90 degrees. The hips are those awful hinges that DC used to utilize and they both look and feel like absolute shit. He can do splits, but you won’t want him to. Kicking forward and back is minimal while the knees do what they’re supposed to. There’s basically nothing but swivels at the ankle. As an action figure, this thing is terrible for $25 and truly god-awful at $30.

He’s got a candy cane. Cool?

All that said, few are going to buy a Christmas themed Joker action figure to put him in crazy poses. Well, some might want to, but usually these holiday themed figures can get away with subpar articulation if the presentation is there. And aiding in the presentation are the accessories. Joker comes with an assortment of hands: fists, gripping, and what we’ll call candy cane hands. He has these candy cane holding hands because he comes with a candy cane – imagine that? It’s basically a tight trigger finger hand. It would have been nice if regular trigger hands could have worked, but I guess they didn’t want to make a really fat candy cane. As for the candy cane itself, it’s fine. It may not be fat, but it is a pretty big candy cane, but at least those custom hands hold it well.

Joker’s sad little tree.

Joker one-ups the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles we looked at earlier this week by coming with his own Christmas tree. This tree makes Charlie Brown’s tree look robust by comparison as it’s really more of a stick. There isn’t a single needle left on this dead piece of pine and it has some twigs poking off of it from which ornaments can be hung. Joker comes with five ornaments: one red, yellow, and green and two blue. One of the blue ones should have a white star painted on the top, but McFarlane cut that from the budget. They’re all spherical with a plastic, black, loop molded onto them so they can be placed on the tree. I wish the loop was just a little bigger as it’s challenging to get them onto some of the smaller branches. Some aren’t angled well for an ornament and the plastic is kind of brittle. I had stress marks on one of the lower limbs as I tried to get a loop over it and had to abandon that idea. His candy cane hands can sort of pinch the hoops on these ornaments so he can hold them, which is a good design choice. There’s also a yellow-painted star molded to the top of the tree.

This little guy enjoys causing mayhem just as much as Joker.

Lastly, Joker comes with his little elf buddy, Laughy. He’s a hand puppet, but not the kind you stick your whole hand into. He’s literally Joker’s fist with a face painted onto the side with an elf costume molded to it. The paint is thick and flakey, but otherwise the hand looks pretty good. It plugs into Joker’s right arm and the fit is rather tight (compared with the incredibly loose alternate hands). There’s a standard, horizontal, hinge which is fine, but the limited range at the shoulder and Joker’s head make it hard for truly convincing posing. If his elbow could actually bend past 90 degrees that would have helped too. Even with the articulation limits, this is probably my favorite accessory of the bunch and I can’t see myself ever displaying Joker without it. Also included is the torso for Maxie Zeus as this is a build-a-figure wave. To complete Maxie you’ll need to also purchase Two-Face, Batgirl, and a Batman variant that’s an homage to an old Kenner toy. I did get Two-Face and if that Batman variant were at all desirable I might have convinced myself to get the rest to complete the figure, but there’s no way I’m spending 30 bucks on a terrible Batman figure.

“Wow Laughy, a shotgun? You shouldn’t have!”

This Christmas themed Joker figure is more or less what I expected. The articulation and overall feel of the figure is truly subpar, but in-line with the first wave of figures. I wish the paint on the Joker’s head was better, but at least the cel-shading is done reasonably well. I also wish he was cheaper, but considering I got the figure at a slight discount I guess I should feel a little better about it. For $30, I can only recommend this for the Christmas enthusiast who also happens to love Batman: The Animated Series. If a Christmas figure does nothing for you then the only reason to get this is for the build-a-figure part. From what I can tell based on the parts I have, the Maxie Zeus figure is going to be a lot like The Condiment King meaning the sculpt is above average, but the scale is way off. He’s a big boy, but hopefully he’s not as floppy in the hips as Condiment King for those who get him. I feel bad for those diehards who really want a Maxie Zeus (I personally did not care for that episode) because they have to get a Batman variant they probably don’t want as well as a holiday themed Joker they may or may not want. For those who don’t, hopefully there’s enough people like me out there willing to buy your unwanted Christmas Joker. At a reasonable discount, of course. That might be the best way to go about getting this guy.

For more Christmas figures or to see what inspired this release check out the below:

McFarlane Toys Gold Label Batman Santa (Blue Suit)

Ho! Ho! Ho! It’s the jolly one – Santa Claus! Oh, wait, no, it’s the somber, moody, one: Batman Santa! Yes, it’s our first Christmas themed post of 2023 and it’s an action figure review – shocking, I know. McFarlane Toys has held the DC license for several years now, but this is my first…

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by Joe

Batman: The Animated Series – “Christmas With The Joker”

Episode Number: 2 Original Air Date: November 13, 1992 Directed By: Kent Butterworth Written By: Eddie Gorodetsky First Appearance(s):  Robin, Joker, Summer Gleason, Arkham Asylum An interesting choice for a second episode of a series. It’s a Christmas episode, which feels kind of inline with Batman thanks to Batman Returns. It’s also the debut of…

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by Joe

Naughty or Nice Classic Santa and Cyborg Santa

It was looking like we were in for a photo finish this year. Last year, toymaker Fresh Monkey Fiction partnered with online retailer Big Bad Toy Store to launch the Naughty or Nice collection. Structured similar to a Kickstarter campaign, FMF posted several action figures for preorder with a minimum order quantity needed for the…

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by Joe

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November 26, 2024

NECA TMNT Dimension X-Mas Vacation

By Joe
Oh God, they’re back!

If you know anything about me then you probably know that I like collecting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures and I like Christmas. Strangely, those two things have not come together all that often. Most of the television shows featuring the famed four opted not to feature the holiday in an episode. And without much Christmas stuff to go off of, the toys have not broached the subject all that often. There have been a few instances though and one infamous example is the 1994 release We Wish You a Turtle Christmas. Utilizing assets from the stage show that had been touring the country, the direct-to-video special saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles prepare for the holiday while seeking out a gift for Splinter. It was a musical event and one I never watched as a kid. Sure, I saw the tape available for rent, but those hideous costumes were a huge turn-off. Plus, by 1994 I had moved off of TMNT and onto Marvel and video games. There was no going back.

It’s a logical way to reuse these ugly, old, turtles.

In 2020, NECA Toys released a set of action figures based on the old stage show. They called the Musical Mutagen Tour and it brought those ugly ass turtles to the world of plastic in a rather convincing manner. It was a convention exclusive that was also made available at Target since it was the summer of 2020 and conventions weren’t happening. Ever since that release though I had wondered if a set of figures based on that terrible Christmas special were in the cards. NECA likes to do holiday themed releases and we’ve seen Gremlins get more than a couple. They’ve also done Misfits and Elvira and there’s probably more I’m forgetting or choosing not to remember. TMNT is their biggest seller these days and it was dying for a Christmas release of some kind and 2024 ended up being the time for it.

“Hey dudes! You wanna sing carols about pizza?!”

The Dimension X-Mas Vacation is that set. It may not say it on the box due to licensing, but this is basically We Wish You a Turtle Christmas the action figures. It’s NECA repurposing assets from its movie line of TMNT figures along with the heads of those Musical Mutagen Tour figures. Joining the package are some accessories pulled from that special and it’s all presented in a very lovely package meant to simulate a VHS release. There’s even a new story created for this non-existent special that’s summarized on the box itself and it sounds rather plausible for a TMNT release of that era. The set was kept under wraps until San Diego Comic Con of this year and has been made available through Walmart for the not so low price of $150. Because of that price and the niche appeal here, this is probably going to appeal to a smaller audience than usual, but I am most definitely that audience.

The packaging is pretty cool.

This set features figures of the turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo, as they were depicted in We Wish You a Turtle Christmas. It’s basically four identical figures where the only difference is the color of the bandanas. They’re all “naked” as compared with the tour turtles save for their usual belts, pads, and shoes. Yes, shoes, as these costumes decided making turtle feet was way too hard so they have black sneakers and leg warmers. It’s ridiculous. They also each come with a Santa hat which gently rests on the bandana knot on the back of their head. There are two styles of Santa hats between the four turtles and the only difference is which way the pom pom is going: 2 left and 2 right.

“Leo! You’re supposed to put the lights on the tree! On the tree!”

Most of the components of the bodies are reused from the prior tour set which means this is the dated 1990 movie body. The hips are the old pin joints, which is the main tell. The elbows are NECA’s own double-jointed setup and these ones were clearly cut to accommodate the much larger elbow pads of the Musical Mutagen Tour set. Here, they cut for the pad is too generous resulting in uglier looking elbows. The shell and plastron are new though and a better match for the source material compared with the other releases of these bodies. I’m not sure why we couldn’t get updated hips, but it is what it is. Paint across the board is mostly fine. The white of the Santa hats features numerous blemishes across the four while the bodies themselves are pretty clean. There is an overall harder plastic feel to these guys compared with other movie figures. Making use of the gripping hands is going to be harder than usual and there’s some flashing in the elbow joints. It gives the figures a slightly cheaper feel. These costumes are supposed to look cheap, but the figures don’t need to be. The paint around the teeth is at least an improvement over the tour turtles I have with less bleeding of the pink paint onto the teeth.

“Check it out – a tree stand!” “Donnie, this ain’t your best work.”

Articulation for these guys is essentially the same as the tour turtles, which is to say it’s basic. The articulated jaw is a welcomed edition and one of the aspects of these designs that stands out the most in my memory. They’re so ugly and NECA really captured that. Most of the joints are pretty stiff, some almost to a worrisome degree. These guys aren’t going to pose all that well to begin with so I’d advise not forcing anything if it’s fighting you. A hair dryer or hot water will be your friend. The shoulders and hips are especially tight for me while the elbows varied from figure to figure. The elbow joint almost looks like it wants to split which obviously isn’t good, but I haven’t had any breaks. I’ve also been pretty gentile. The ankles are also pretty useless so it’s too bad they didn’t figure out a better way to do the sneakers. The ankle joint really just needs to be visible with this design and it’s not the case. I’m sure the soft goods leg warmers aren’t helping.

“Come on, Mikey, no peeking!”

These turtles aren’t intended to mix it up with the Foot and instead are supposed to just look ugly and festive on your shelf. And to do so NECA included a bunch of Christmas themed accessories. In addition to the hats, each turtle also has a scarf. It’s a soft goods, white, fabric with a wire running through it so it can be posed rather well. One of the four in my set is frayed a bit, which sucks. There’s also a string of Christmas lights to drape over the head of one turtle. They’re sculpted in a soft plastic so it works reasonably well and makes your chosen turtle look like some sort of hideous Christmas tree. There’s also the framed pizza from the special which is just a plastic square with a pizza in the center. The lack of a glass pane means it’s also pretty easy to have a turtle hold it even with the really tight hands. There’s a little hand bell and also a manhole cover, because every TMNT universe needs one, I guess. There’s a skateboard with moving wheels and a nice deco on it and then we also get a whole bunch of presents. They all feature different wrapping paper and help fill out the display. To round out the release there’s also the customary set of optional hands. Each turtle comes with gripping hands, then we get a set of open, thumbs up, pointing, and loose gripping hands for the four to share. I wish we could get a full complement of at least the open and loose hands for the turtles, but this selection is pretty standard at this point.

“Check it out dude, the perfect gift for Splinter!”

Since these are the singing and dancing turtles from a Christmas special, we definitely did not need the usual weapons so NECA did not include them. What I think we definitely did need though is a tree! No Christmas tree in the set makes it feel pretty light. For my pics, I used the Figura Obscura tree, but since it’s not decorated it only works so well. And at $150, that’s unfortunate. There’s a lot of reuse here as well as some reuse potential with the gifts considering all of the Christmas stuff NECA does. For all I know, some of these gifts could even be from other sets, just not ones I have. I like the hats and I like the scarves. I’m a bit torn on if I would have preferred soft goods Santa hats to the molded ones we got. Normally, I’m for molded stuff, but since these were live action characters I think soft goods might have worked. We could have also got a stocking for each turtle. It feels like we should have got more and I question how well this thing will sell because it’s already pretty niche and the price won’t attract many impulse purchases.

“Whoa! No way! He does exist!”
“Huh? I thought I heard something…”

Criticisms aside, if you want some Christmas themed TMNT figures your options are pretty slim. It’s basically the ReAction figures Super7 did a few years back (which I have, but kept on card) or the Christmas plush of Raphael from back in the day. Maybe we’ll get a figure in the future from NECA based on the Michelangelo one-shot which took place at Christmas. And since Super7 is going down the 2k3 rabbit hole, maybe we can get Christmas turtles from the episode of the show based on that one-shot. What I’m saying is this set is fine, but we need more Christmas turtles! And while I think this set is too expensive for what it is, I am glad it exists. Figures based on an obscure and pretty terrible Christmas special is something I find fun and action figures should be fun. Now, if you’ll excuse me Christmas is coming and I need to deck the halls with pepperoni.

“Check it out Santa-dude, something way better than milk and cookies!”

Do ugly turtles and Christmas interest you? Perhaps you’ll enjoy reading these:

NECA TMNT Musical Mutagen Tour SDCC Set

Awhile back, I decided to rank the various incarnations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from worst to best. Occupying that dubious last place spot were the Turtles featured in The Coming Out of Their Shells tour. That may sound like the title of a TMNT sex tape, but it was something else entirely. If…

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by Joe

Dec. 11 – We Wish You a Turtle Christmas

Several months ago, I reviewed a product called The Musical Mutagen Tour Action Figure Set. It was a set of toys based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stage show, Coming Out of Their Shells, from 1990. Back then, the Turtles were so unbelievably hot that they could sell out a terrible stage show in…

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by Joe

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (4Kids): The Christmas Aliens

In 2003, Fox and 4Kids Entertainment launched a brand new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series.  This series was the first re-launch for the TMNT after a long hiatus from both film and television and was an attempt at introducing the Turtles to a whole new generation.  One of the consultants for the show was…

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by Joe

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November 24, 2024

The Christmas Spot is back for 2024

By Joe
Get that Halloween out of here – it’s Christmas time!

Welcome back for another year of The Christmas Spot here at The Nostalgia Spot! 2024 has been another long year in some respects and I think we could all use a little Christmas right this very minute. Just like in years past, December 1st will mark the start of the advent calendar countdown to Christmas here with a different Christmas-related post each day. And for most (all?) of those days, that is going to take the form of taking a look at a Christmas special. Some will be true classics, some will be total duds, and there may even be a few oddities as well.

There has been Christmas content on this blog every year since its inception. Christmas and nostalgia just go so well together. The advent calendar style countdown is entering its tenth year, and if you haven’t noticed, that’s a lot of content! It does mean that it may be time to wind this thing down. It’s quite the time sink to come up with 25 posts every December and I’ve really felt the grind the past couple of years. I don’t do anything on this blog for exposure or money, it’s all just for fun and my own personal amusement so if I’m losing that enthusiasm then maybe it’s time to put a bow on it. There will never be a day where Christmas completely disappears from this blog so it’s not like I’m going to just stop. And my enthusiasm for the season hasn’t diminished either.

All that said, maybe once the calendar turns over I’ll feel differently about it. Maybe I’ll feel like it needs to continue now more than ever – I don’t know. Let’s not dwell on it because we have 25 Christmas posts still to come in December 2024 and it’s going to be a lot fun. I’ve looked at some good ones this year, and some bad ones that are still fun to talk about so grab some milk and cookies and come back on the first as we kick this thing off!

Can’t wait until the first of December for Christmas stuff? Well, worry not, for these a whole bunch of stuff on this blog to tide you over. Here is just a sample, but if you want more just click on that The Christmas Spot link in the header of this blog to find all of our Christmas Spot coverage.

Dec. 15 – The Night Before Christmas with Tom and Jerry

As someone who loves the cartoon shorts produced by Warner and Disney, I sometimes am guilty of overlooking the contributions of MGM from that same era. MGM was a big player back then, and their flagship creation was Tom and Jerry. The cat and mouse pair first debuted in 1940 and were the creation of…

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by Joe

Dec. 2 – The Tick Loves Santa!

The Tick arrived on the Fox Network’s Saturday morning programming block in 1994 after a wave of successful super hero cartoons. With the success of Batman, X-Men, and Spider-Man it meant the timing was right for a parody hero like The Tick to get a shot at finding an audience. Often the last cartoon aired…

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by Joe

Dec. 25 – Samurai Pizza Cats – “The Cheese Who Stole Christmas”

Welcome, Christmas Day! Hopefully you’re not hungover from too much Christmas partying last night, and if you are, hopefully it was worth it. By now, Santa should have deposited presents under the tree, if you were good this year, and hopefully he remembered the batteries. It’s been fun, but this post means we are done…

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by Joe

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February 14, 2024

Naughty or Nice Father Frost & Mall Santa

By Joe
Two very different Santas.

Fresh Monkey Fiction is back with Naughty or Nice Wave Two and just in time for…(checks calendar)…Valentine’s Day? Okay, so things didn’t go quite as planned with this line. In 2021, Fresh Monkey Fiction partnered with Big Bad Toy Store for this line of action figures based primarily on Santa Claus. That preorder took about a year to fulfill, but the first wave arrived just in time for Christmas 2022. It was around that same time that FMF put wave two up for preorder. I’m sure they tried their best, but FMF is a small shop and probably doesn’t have much sway when it comes to overseas factory priority. I suppose I could have waited and put this review on hold until we get closer to Christmas 2024, but there’s this flying, naked, guy in my house pointing a bow and arrow at me so I guess we have to do it now.

The new figures are basically the same as the old ones, just with new heads and a longer coat for Father Frost.

The Naughty or Nice Collection is essentially one figure modified for each separate release. Both figures we’re going to look at today utilize the same body as the two figures I looked at in 2022. I’ll link to that review at the bottom of this entry, but essentially if you liked those figures then you’ll probably like these ones provided you like the aesthetic they’re going for. Obviously, I’m not all-in on this line as I have need for only so many Santas in my collection, but these two appealed to me. Both figures come packaged in a window box display and it’s been modified from the first wave. Where wave one had more of a “Hasbro” shape, wave two is rectangular. There’s more red incorporated, the character name is now on the bottom of the front of the box instead of the top, the cross-sell has been updated, and the side panels feature images of other figures from wave two. I have no idea which design in-box collectors will prefer, but both seem fine to me.

Father Frost is managing better up top than his Santa brothers.
They don’t all have to be red and green.

Let’s talk Father Frost first. This is basically blue, wizard, Santa and it’s not based on any specific folklore that I’m aware of. I think of it as a combination of Santa and Jack Frost. Frost stands at about 6.5″ to the top of his head, slightly taller with the hat, and the only thing different about the sculpt from the Santa figures I looked at from wave one is that this figure has a longer coat which necessitated a different belt overlay. The head is different from the traditional Santa to feature a longer beard and hair on top and a face that is less full. What attracted me to this design is the blue and white deco. There’s a lot of red, white, and green in my Christmas display so any chance I have at adding some blue is welcome. I do like how the figure turned out, though I will say the shade of blue has a touch more yellow to it than the promotional shots and even the images on the box where it’s a darker blue. I would have preferred that, or even a more powder blue, where as this is almost in between.

And he apparently has some rather gnarly powers.
Translucent powers – activate!

The paint job on Father Frost is an improvement over wave one in some respects, but also not perfect. The head portrait is done very well. I like how he has blue eyes with a touch of white inside them. Upon very close inspection the left ear isn’t perfect nor is the transition from beard to right cheek, but it’s nothing you would see even at an arm’s length. The white portions of the coat have been dirtied with a paint wash that makes the robe look more lived in. The belt buckle is painted silver as are the buckles on the boots and it’s pretty clean. Based on the box, it looks like the end of the belt was supposed to be painted silver, but it was missed by the factory on mine and I’m guessing it will be on most. The only paint detail that bugs me a little is the hem of the coat isn’t painted all the way to the edge. It’s worse on the back, but at least it’s the back. For this wave it does look like all of the hinges are cast in the best color so when paint flakes off of them there won’t be a miscolored piece beneath it.

He comes with the same naughty and/or nice list we’ve seen a whole bunch, but in his hands I like to think of it as a spell scroll.

Father Frost comes with a solid assortment of accessories and optional parts. He comes with a set of blue gripping hands, but also has four ungloved hands: trigger right, gripping left, left fist, pointing right. Basically, if you don’t like the look of the blue, gloved, hands you have bare hands instead. He has an alternate head which is the same sculpt as the default, but it’s cast in translucent blue plastic. This was added after solicitation on the suggestion of someone in the Facebook community (if I’m not mistaken) so that Father Frost could match one of the elves in the wave and it’s a good idea and pretty cool that it was added. It looks nice, but it’s hard to get onto the ball joint. And you want to get it all the way seated so that you can’t see the painted neck. They also wisely added some gray paint to the top of the neck ball so there isn’t an odd blob of color inside the head. Father Frost’s main accessory is his staff which is topped with a translucent, blue, crystal. It looks like the sculpted rope was supposed to be painted a different color to differentiate it from the staff, but that didn’t happen. Still, it looks fine. The other accessories are reused: a present which opens, a nice list, and a stand. There’s also a little locomotive toy which fits inside the present. The present has a white and blue deco to coordinate with Father Frost.

Totally not Willie from Bad Santa.

Father Frost is the magical interpretation of Santa, Mall Santa is the opposite. This guy seems to be clearly inspired by the movie Bad Santa, but he’s kept legally distinct. He’s basically a worn down, drunken, cynical, Santa just trying to make a buck. He features a balding portrait with a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He has a five o’clock shadow and a look of almost sad indifference in his eyes. His left eye is supposed to be a black eye, but the paint there is a bit lacking and it doesn’t make it as obvious as the promotional images. His beard is part of the sculpt and I kind of wish they sculpted it in such a way to make it look more obvious and pathetic that it’s a false beard. Maybe a gap between the chin and beard or hooks around his ears would have done the trick. There appears to be a paint wash on his face to dirty him up which has been applied to the body as well. His suit is a deeper red than the other Santas and the whites are all dirty. There’s even a stain in the middle of his chest, which is a nice touch. The look the figure is going for is obvious, but I do wish he could have been on a skinnier base, but I know that’s not really what this line is designed to do.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do with a cookie?!”

Mall Santa does not come with any alternate hands or portraits. His default hands are gloved, gripping, hands and I’m torn on if I prefer those to ungloved hands. The good news is if you do want different hands then you could always borrow them from another figure. Mall Santa’s main accessory is his bottle of whisky. It’s a translucent amber with a black cap with prints on both sides to let you know that it is indeed whisky. The cap doesn’t come off, and the articulation is limited in that he can’t really “drink” it. The cap also isn’t removable, so while I like it, the accessory is a bit limited. There’s also a handheld bell in case he’s more of a donation seeking Santa. He comes with a crushed, red, present with silver ribbon which is pretty neat and makes for a good pillow should you wish to display him passed out. He also has a gingerbread man cookie with a bite taken out of the head and a teddy bear toy. There’s nothing cynical about the bear, it’s just another toy for the display. He also comes with the customary stand, should you wish to use it.

“Ohh Krampus, I have another one for your naughty list.”

Both Father Frost and Mall Santa arrive as expected. Obviously, since they were based on the same molds as last year’s figures it makes sense. The articulation is completely the same, which is why I’m not doing a rundown on it for this space. I would like to see some improvements to the upper body to get better range out of the shoulders since these figures should be able to eat cookies and drink milk (or booze) and they can’t do that. Father Frost basically is what I wanted. Some of the paint could be better and I would have preferred a darker blue, but he looks fine with the other figures and will make for a nice addition to the Christmas display. Mall Santa is also mostly as expected and any disappointment I have with it is basically the same as when it was solicited. I would have loved a passed out, second, portrait and more booze. A crumpled beer can, six pack, empty bottles, something else to go with the whisky would have been cool. His paint is clean though, actually better applied than Father Frost, and the figure works for me. I also count Bad Santa among my favorite Christmas movies and I understand it’s not for everyone.

“Look out, kids, Santa needs to empty his stomach.”

If you’re looking to add more Santa figures to your Christmas action figure collection in February, then I can certainly recommend these two. The others are probably just as good and it all comes down to if you like the design. This line is exclusive to Big Bad Toy Store and everything from wave two is in-stock as of this writing. Each Santa will set you back $37 which isn’t a small amount. They are from a smaller company and not produced in the same volume as a bigger toy company, but it’s probably still a little more than I think most would want. I compare the price to original IP from other small shops where their figures come in at the 30 dollar mark. Still, with the amount of paint and overall feel of these figures I would say you’re getting something better than Marvel Legends quality so it’s reasonable to me. Just don’t ask me about those reindeer they’re currently soliciting for wave three.

Who doesn’t want to read about Christmas toys in February?!

Naughty or Nice Classic Santa and Cyborg Santa

It was looking like we were in for a photo finish this year. Last year, toymaker Fresh Monkey Fiction partnered with online retailer Big Bad Toy Store to launch the Naughty or Nice collection. Structured similar to a Kickstarter campaign, FMF posted several action figures for preorder with a minimum order quantity needed for the…

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by Joe

McFarlane Toys Gold Label Batman Santa (Blue Suit)

Ho! Ho! Ho! It’s the jolly one – Santa Claus! Oh, wait, no, it’s the somber, moody, one: Batman Santa! Yes, it’s our first Christmas themed post of 2023 and it’s an action figure review – shocking, I know. McFarlane Toys has held the DC license for several years now, but this is my first…

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by Joe

Figura Obscura – The Ghost of Jacob Marley

Four Horsemen Studios is back with another holiday release in its Figura Obscura line of action figures. This sister line of their more famous Mythic Legions property launched two years ago with Krampus and continued with last year’s Father Christmas. Many fans, myself included, expected another holiday figure this year, though if you had asked…

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by Joe

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in christmas, toys