December 10, 2015

#16 – Yes, Virginia

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Best of Christmas - TV, Television

December 9, 2015

#17 – A Muppet Family Christmas

By Joe
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A Muppet Family Christmas (1987)

A Muppet Family Christmas has become an almost mythological Christmas special due to its limited availability. First debuting in 1987, it got tangled up in licensing issues shortly there-after and has been infrequently rebroadcast. It also has been released in very limited fashion with a lot of what first appeared in the special being left behind. And now that Disney has acquired The Muppets, a re-release on DVD or even Blu Ray seems unlikely so long as Disney does not own the rights to the other properties featured in the special.

A Muppet Family Christmas was an ambitious special as it sought to combine multiple Jim Henson properties into one special:  The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, and Sesame Street. It starts out rather simply with Fozzie leading the Muppets to his mother’s farm house to surprise her for Christmas. Unknown to him, his mother was planning on heading to Malibu for some fun in the sun for Christmas and has rented her home out to Doc and his dog Sprocket for the holidays. Doc is seeking a nice, quiet, Christmas and he gets anything but that when The Muppets arrive. It turns out, Fozzie also invited the Sesame Street gang which just adds to the overcrowded house, and Kermit and Robin discover that the Fraggles live downstairs. An impromptu concert breaks out with Electric Mayhem and Sesame Street also stages a play. A horrible blizzard descends on the house trapping everyone in there, but when Miss Piggy fails to show up it’s up to Doc to go out and find her.

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That’s one packed house.

Aside from the mash-up of properties, the special is most known for its inclusion of several musical numbers. The special is basically over-stuffed with them, especially at the end, and it almost feels like one of those old sing-a-long VHS tapes. The combination of The Muppets and Sesame Street actually works pretty well and lends itself well to some jokes. Henson and his writers weren’t shy about poking fun at their educational property, probably knowing that if they just played it straight the results would be kind of dull. There’s nothing vulgar by any means, or even mildly offensive, so the property isn’t hurt at all by it. The Fraggles are kind of tacked-on, and since they only interact with Kermit and Robin, their segment is a bit dull. As usual, the funnier members of The Muppet clan do the heavy lifting here and mostly succeed at drawing laughs.

At this point in time, A Muppet Family Christmas’s reputation likely exceeds its true value, but it’s still a unique and entertaining Christmas special. At least until you get to the end and the nonstop caroling becomes tiresome. Kids might like that though.

As I mentioned in the lead-in, this one is pretty tough to track down these days and is no longer broadcast on television. An edited DVD was released over ten years ago, but if you want to see it as originally constituted, you may need to turn to Youtube where people (like me) who were fortunate enough to have recorded the original special in ’87 have uploaded it for all to enjoy.

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Best of Christmas - TV, Television

December 8, 2015

#18 – Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas

By Joe
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Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas (1995)

Apparently, I knew I would be making such a list last year because I got ahead of myself and did a full write-up for my #18 Christmas special, Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas. You can check it out here. As a result, I have little to add to what I wrote last year.

Because I feel the need to write something, I’ll just add that Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas holds up way better than it has any right to. The moronic duo probably should have only worked in the 90’s but they’re still hilarious even today. And even though this special goes the route of parodying the two most over-adapted Christmas stories of all-time (A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life), the special works because they adapt them in a way that had never really been done before (the only comparison I can think of is the Married… with Children episode “It’s a Bundyful Life”). Like some of the other specials on this list, Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas is unlikely to be shown on television this season so you’ll have to resort to other means in order to view it.

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Best of Christmas - TV, Television

December 7, 2015

#19 – It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!

By Joe
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It’s a SpongeBob Christmas (2012)

Here’s a tip for any would-be designers of future Christmas specials looking for a quick and easy way to my heart: add plenty of nostalgic value that harkens back to the classic Christmas specials of Rankin/Bass and the like. Think South Park’s episode “A Very Crappy Christmas” which basically parodies Twas the Night Before Christmas. Or, just watch special #19 on my list, “It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!”

SpongeBob came after my time. He’s a character that I understand has been rather popular with the generation that followed mine. He’s been on television for what feels like forever and has added a few feature films to his resume as well. He’s been so pervasive that I’ve obviously seen an episode here and there and I can see why kids would enjoy him but I don’t have any particular affinity for the character or show.

“It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!”, on the other hand, appeals to me because it seeks to emulate the look of the classic stop-motion specials like Rudolph and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. And to the credit of Nickelodeon and the producers involved, the show really was done with stop-motion puppets as opposed to being computer generated to simulate the stop-motion look. The result is striking and it almost looks like an aquarium come to life, just minus actual fish.

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SpongeBob confronts his evil robot doppelganger, who may or may not be a nazi.

The story for the special is that Plankton invents a fruitcake (laced with Jerktonium) that turns nice people into naughty ones when they eat it and he tricks SpongeBob into driving around some cart and firing off hunks of fruitcake into the mouths of his victims. There’s also an imposter SpongeBob roaming around to turn everyone against him by making him look like a jerk. Plankton’s ingenious plan is intended to make everyone look worse than he so that he’ll end up on Santa’s nice list, and it works! Of course, things end up working out for SpongeBob and the citizens of Bikini Bottom in the end and the result is a pretty delightful little holiday special.

“It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!” was a big enough deal when it was first released that it actually debuted on CBS before airing again on Nickelodeon. It also introduces a new catchy holiday tune in the form of “Don’t Be a Jerk (It’s Christmas)” which always seems to add to a Christmas special’s longevity. And because it’s so recent, it’s still shown quite frequently on television during the holiday season, though I don’t know that CBS will show it again but Nickelodeon certainly will. If you can’t be bothered to find it, there’s also a stand-alone DVD available that usually sells for less than ten dollars.

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Best of Christmas - TV, Television

December 6, 2015

#20 – The Snowman

By Joe
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The Snowman (1982)

The Snowman is an animated special based on the book by Raymond Briggs. The book is noteworthy because it’s composed entirely of pictures and the animated special is notable for not featuring any dialogue, just a simple one-sentence introduction at the beginning.

As you can probably guess, The Snowman tells a simple story about a boy who builds a snowman only to see it come to life. They play together and sneak around the house at night so as not to alert the boy’s parents. The Snowman eventually unveils his wonderful magical powers to the boy and they both make a trip to see other animated snowmen, and eventually, Santa Claus himself (though since this is a British story, maybe I should refer to him as Father Christmas). The animation features a simple watercolor look that possess a sketch-like quality, to best emulate the book. It possesses a whimsical charm that suits the tone of the material. Pretty much anyone who has ever seen this special can recall the ending. I won’t spoil it (even if it is more than 30 years old at this point), but suffice to say, it is indeed memorable and the tone it strikes makes it pretty unique amongst Christmas specials.

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He certainly makes that “belly-whopping” snowman look like a piece of crap.

The Snowman is a story I’ve always felt I should like more than I do. If someone were to describe the tale to me in detail I’d say it sounds like something I’d enjoy quite a bit. For whatever reason, it’s never struck much of a chord with me. Maybe I just got so sick of seeing the promotional ads run on Nick Jr. as a kid ad nauseum that they poisoned the feature for me. When I watch it as an adult I enjoy it but do find it’s rather slow. I think, for me, it would have worked better as a short film rather than a half hour special. Not much happens, which I get is supposed to be part of its charm, but I can’t help the way I feel. I think if the story found a way to make me care about the characters more than it does I’d appreciate it more. Still, I acknowledge it’s an important enough special that it’s worthy of inclusion in my top 25, I just suspect a lot of people who have seen it would list it higher than I have.

Recently, a sequel has been made that I haven’t seen. I’ve actually owned it for some time but have never gotten around to viewing it. Apparently, I like to stockpile Christmas specials. The Snowman used to be shown on television with some frequency around the holidays, sometimes on public access in the US, but for whatever reason is rarely shown these days. If you wish to view it this holiday season your best bet is to rent or buy it.

4 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Best of Christmas - TV, Television

December 5, 2015

#21 – Married… with Children: You Better Watch Out

By Joe
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“You Better Watch Out” (1987)

When the Fox network initially launched it was pretty lackluster. Two shows would rise up and help give it a chance; The Tracey Ulman Show and Married… with Children. It may be forgotten by some, but if there was a first family for Fox it’s not The Simpsons, but rather the Bundys. The Bundys are the original dysfunctional sitcom family. While shows like All In The Family certainly showcased a flawed family none were as remorseless as The Bundys.

The Bundys consist of Al (Ed O’Neil), wife Peg (Katey Sagal), Kelly (Christina Applegate), and Bud (David Faustino) and basically everyone of them is a pretty bad person. Not only do they seem to not love each other they do not even seem to care about one another. They’re all selfish, stupid, lazy bores. Peg is a sex-starved housewife who would never lift a finger for anyone, least of all her husband, but will happily spend what little money they have. Bud is actually book smart, but too consumed with getting laid to apply himself at much of anything. Kelly is a typical dumb blond with her mom’s selfish tendencies. Meanwhile the patriarch, Al, is a women’s shoe salesman who basically hates his life. If any of the four have a redeeming quality about them, it’s Al who at least has some feeling of responsibility for his family’s well-being, though he treats it more like an inconvenience than a sense of duty.

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The Bundys and their neighbors gather around the TV to watch the Santa landing.

In the show’s first Christmas special, “You Better Watch Out,” Al finds his usually empty pockets more empty than usual when a new mall moves into town to syphon away business from the store he works at. It’s so bad that he has no money for Christmas presents for the family. Al adopts an “oh well” attitude about it while the rest of the family is more than a little irritated. When the new mall hosts Santa as part of some big Christmas Eve display, he is to parachute into the mall but his chute fails causing the Santa to plummet to his death right into the backyard of The Bundys.

Naturally, a crime scene is established by the local police and while everyone around the house is distraught over the death of Santa, The Bundys are delighted to get some free pizza out of the whole thing. Al does eventually step up and put on the deceased Claus’s costume to assure the children amassed outside that Santa is okay, but in typical Bundy fashion, this ends up biting him in the ass when the mall no longer needs to compensate the family to keep the death of Santa a secret.

In atypical Bundy fashion, the family actually does get something in the end but this is certainly not the way anyone watching would want to spend their holiday. Married… with Children was a pretty unique show at the time. While most sitcoms went the family friendly route this show decidedly did not and ended up lasting a long time as a result. The show still holds up really well, even if a lot of the humor is sophomoric at best, and “You Better Watch Out” is the show’s clear best Christmas episode.

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Best of Christmas - TV, Television

December 4, 2015

#22 – Invader Zim: Most Horrible X-Mas Ever

By Joe
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“The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever” (2002)

Invader Zim is a short-lived Nicktoon from the early part of the century. Most Nicktoons seem to have a short lifespan but Zim’s was especially short. Either the show failed to perform well or network executives were not onboard with its tone and brand of gross, snarky, humor. Since its cancellation it has established a cult following and DVD sales performed modestly. In its short life it also produced a Christmas episode, which is all we care about for this post.

Invader Zim tells the story of Zim, a doom-obsessed alien sent to earth to conquer it, but not expected to, by his superiors. Zim arrives on earth and disguises himself rather poorly as a human adolescent. Lucky for him, this version of earth is even more self-absorbed than our actual earth and basically no one ever notices Zim’s obvious alien lineage. All except one boy, Dib, who’s an outcast among his peers and is left to combat Zim all by himself.

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Santa Zim atop his hideous throne.

Zim is a woefully incompetent invader. Despite his incredible technological advantage, he’s incapable of creating much mayhem on earth. In “The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever,” Zim decides to take advantage of humanity’s love for Santa Claus and disguises himself as the jolly old elf in an effort to convince the humans to board prison ships that will deliver them to his alien overlords. Zim crafts a Santa suit that incorporates all of the elements that make Santa, Santa. Unfortunately, Zim’s suit is too similar to the real thing and it ends up taking over Zim, making him nice. Further complicating his plans is Dib, who’s usually useless father is actually of some help for him in this episode because he has a hatred of Santa Claus.

Invader Zim’s humor could probably be described as dark. The look of the show is very stylized with lots of straight lines. There’s a slight anime influence at times, but mostly the show reminds me of AAAAAHHH Real Monsters in terms of looks. Zim is prone to saying “doom” a lot and the show seems to find something funny about moose, with the presence of a moose item often being relied upon as a joke by itself. The show can be rather hit or miss, but “Most Horrible X-Mas” ever is mostly hit and it’s amusing to see the show’s impression of how blissfully unaware society can be of something obviously dangerous.  It’s another off-beat kind of Christmas special, which this list has been heavy on so far, but I promise more traditional ones are still to come.

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Best of Christmas - TV, Television

December 3, 2015

#23 – Robot Chicken’s Half-Assed Christmas Special

By Joe

MV5BMTQ4NDMzMDg5MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODcyNTUzMQ@@._V1._CR31,27,314,421_SY317_CR11,0,214,317_AL_Robot Chicken is the brainchild of veteran actor Seth Green and Mathew Senreich. It’s hard to believe the show has been running for ten years now, but that’s the reality of the world and in that time the show has produced three Christmas specials.

The show is basically an animated version of ToyFare magazine’s Twisted ToyFare Theater that sees popular toys dropped into humorous sketches. The focus is mostly put on turning old action figures, like Mattel’s popular Masters of the Universe line, into puppets to create stop-motion sketches. The integrity of the old toy is retained but it’s often modified to include more points of articulation to create better animation. Other times the show creates its own puppets or finds random toys to repurpose into new ones. Sketches vary in length, but it’s not uncommon for one to last merely a few seconds. In that sense they’re often like micr0-sketches when compared to a traditional sketch comedy program. Usually there’s at least one longer sketch that may last a few minutes that serves as sort of the feature sketch of the episode with each episode only lasting around twelve minutes.

The show is pretty funny, and I suppose it would have to be to have lasted ten years, and the fact that each episode is so short has helped to prevent the show from becoming stale. While it’s rare for all sketches in a single episode to be laugh out loud funny, there’s usually enough there for the show to be entertaining for its short duration.

As a result, it’s hard to really review a single episode like the Half-Assed Christmas Special. And in truth, both of the other two Christmas specials (DP Christmas Special and ATM Christmas Special) are basically just as good. And since these are actually the few shows I do not have a copy of, it’s hard to recall which sketch came from which special, so I’m just going to mention some I remember.

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You better watch out when Composite Santa is on the loose!

Since the show is stop-motion it’s naturally suited to parody Rankin/Bass productions. There’s a sketch that tries to discover who murdered Santa Claus where everything is basically done up at the North Pole Rudolph style, though a cocaine-addicted Frosty is present as well. The anime Christmas sketch features Santa enlisting the help of Goku and his son to save Christmas from Composite Santa, who’s half-Santa half-Frosty, and eventually a showdown with an Akira-esque Mrs. Claus occurs. The origin of Composite Santa is also detailed in his own sketch when a mad scientist tries to create an irresistible holiday character but he turns out to be genocidal.

Hermey from Rudolf shows up in “Hermey’s Dentistry,” where we see Hermey actually knows nothing about being a dentist and fails miserably at that and other professions. He returns to Santa to beg for his old job back and then the sketch turns into a Godfather Part II parody. “Co-opting Santa” sees Kris Kringle voice his displeasure with the Coca-Cola Company for co-opting his image for over 70 years in a very violent manner. A simple, but effective sketch, also features Santa getting mistakenly murdered after he had a sudden urge to drop a deuce while on the job. This simple, but crude, setup and execution pretty much sums up Robot Chicken in two minutes.

Unfortunately, Robot Chicken’s Christmas themed sketches aren’t available in one volume, to my knowledge, so if you want them you have to buy each individual season. Thankfully, Adult Swim is pretty good about broadcasting the specials every year a couple of times around Christmas and I would assume the same will be true for 2015. We may even get a fourth Christmas special if we’re lucky. Individual sketches are also available on Youtube. The Robot Chicken specials are too short to really feature any actual Christmas cheer, it’s basically just a funny use of Christmas imagery. It’s certainly not going to bring about those warm fuzzies other specials will, but they’re pretty good at getting laughs which makes them a unique entry in this top 25.

4 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Best of Christmas - TV, Television

December 2, 2015

#24 – Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too

By Joe
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Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too (1991)

Call this one a total 180 from #25, Winnie the Pooh is as safe as it gets. The gluttonous stuffed bear has been delighting children for decades along with his buddies in the Hundred Acre Woods (where Christopher Robin plays…) in the most tamest of ways. Winnie the Pooh just manages to be charming enough to not be boring, though if your kid likes to marathon Winnie the Pooh cartoons you may beg to differ.

Winnie the Pooh originated in book form by A.A. Milne (actually, Winnie originated in Canada as a real bear) but American audiences are likely more familiar with the Walt Disney version of the character. That Winnie the Pooh was brought to life on the big screen as a sort-of collection of shorts eventually packaged into one main feature referred to as The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. In 1988, Pooh was brought to television in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a mostly forgettable 80’s cartoon series that, like many cartoons of that era, is probably most fondly recalled for its catchy opening theme.

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Not surprisingly, things tend to work out in the end.

The New Adventures did reintroduce the character to a new audience, and the same cast was utilized on several direct to video films and specials, such as Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too. In this special, Christopher Robin writes a letter to Santa for everyone, but Pooh forgets to ask something for himself. When he and Piglet retrieve the letter, he and his friends re-write it to include more stuff as the gang all experience some momentary greed. When Pooh and Piglet attempt to resend in the letter (in a very low tech kind of way) it gets lost. Not wanting their friends to have a crummy Christmas, Pooh dresses up as Santa and attempts to deliver presents to all of his friends himself.

If you go back and watch the old Pooh cartoons from the 70’s, you may pick up on the fact that Pooh is a glutton, through and through. To the point where it’s almost not cute as he really cares about his stomach above all else. The modern Pooh isn’t quite so bad, which is why this special ends in the way it does with Pooh not too concerned about getting anything for Christmas when he has his friends already and everybody learning a lesson (but also getting presents too, so it’s not like they were made to suffer). It’s cute and it’s safe, but not offensively so. If you’re looking to check it out for yourself, Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too is sold in both DVD and Blu Ray form as A Very Merry Pooh Year and includes a New Year’s special as well. And if you’re not picky, you can probably find it for pretty cheap on the second-hand market. Otherwise, I’m not sure if it will air on television this holiday season, but you can always check this site to see if it pops up.

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December 1, 2015

#25 – Moral Orel: The Best Christmas Ever

By Joe

maxresdefault-2As we kick-off the best Christmas specials feature I say we start with something dark and cynical. It’s no secret that most Christmas movies and TV specials are sweet, warm, and offer a heartfelt message about the holidays (usually something about love, sharing, compassion, selflessness, and so on). That stuff is fine in small doses, but after many Christmases it can also become trite.

Moral Orel’s “The Best Christmas Ever” is hardly the typical Christmas special. If you are not familiar with the Moral Orel series, it’s a stop-motion short-form series that aired on Adult Swim from 2005-2008 and sporadically after. It focused on the title character, Orel, a goody goody two-shoes that just wanted to praise God and live by His word. Each episode usually centered around Orel taking something too literally from a  church sermon and doing something sacrilegious by mistake only to have his father set him straight in the end with a good lecture and a good beating. The adults surrounding Orel were mostly a bunch of miserable, sinful, hypocrites that rarely practiced what they preached, but Orel remains oblivious to his surroundings.

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Orel’s blind faith in God and ignorance leads to him concluding this was the best Christmas ever in the end.

For “The Most Wonderful Christmas Ever,” Orel hears about the second coming of Jesus during church and that he won’t be happy when he returns, ushering in the Apocalypse. When Orel overhears his parents arguing about his malcontent younger brother, with his dad proclaiming his doubts the kid is even his, Orel mistakenly reaches the conclusion that his little brother is Jesus reborn. Orel’s attempts to welcome the baby Jesus are pretty humorous, but the side story of his father’s depression over his crumbling marriage is some pretty dark stuff.

Moral Orel is basically a satirical black comedy and its Christmas special captures that perfectly. In a world full of terrible Lifetime and Hallmark Channel Christmas movies, Moral Orel is a nice piece of Christmas bleakness that is funny because it’s not like anything else. Even Bad Santa has more Christmas cheer than this one.

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Best of Christmas - TV, Television