I told you we would probably take a look at the other Christmas episode from The Cuphead Show!, though maybe you expected a buffer. I considered it, but why not pair them up just like the creators and Netflix already did? This second Christmas episode comes right after the first. Titled “A Very Devil Christmas,” it feels more like a typical Christmas special from an animated series. It’s extra long, has a different approach to the production of the episode, and tells a story that takes place on Christmas Eve involving devils, elves, and Santa.

Wait? Devils?! Yes, this one, as you could have probably guessed based on the title, stars The Devil himself. The Devil is the main villain for the video game and show and he gets to star in his own stand-alone episode for Christmas. It’s rather unconventional for a show to make the star of its Christmas episode Satan himself, but The Cuphead Show! isn’t always typical so why should its Christmas episode be? Plus, we got the one starring Cuphead and Mugman out of the way already opening the door for The Devil to take center stage.

And it’s a great move. The Devil, played by Luke Millington-Drake, is a fantastic character. The portrayal here reminds me of one part Futurama‘s Robot Devil and one part Family Guy‘s Stewie Griffin. Millington-Drake and Dan Castellaneta (who plays the Robot Devil) almost seem to be using the same affectation for their respective characters. It’s fun. It gives The Devil this somewhat stuck-up persona, but also with a certain element of childishness as well. He’s a brat and that makes sense for a cartoon devil who is unlikely to be shown flaying the flesh from the bones of the damned. And in this episode he is going to be very childish indeed. The Devil is going to set his sights on a toy choo choo. He wants it for Christmas, but he has some issues with The Naughty List he will need to address if he hopes to receive such a gift. It’s pretty much a true solo outing as well as Mugman will not be featured at all and there’s just a brief instance of Cuphead. This is The Devil’s Christmas and he is going to soak up the spotlight.

The episode begins with an original composition. It’s a rather idyllic piece of holiday scenery of people (well, what passes for people in this universe) walking through a downtown area. The snow is falling, people seem happy, and there’s lots of winter activities taking place. And there’s also The Devil. He’s dressed for the cold with a festive scarf, though aside from that he’s completely naked. He’s at the park leaning on a large tree and observing the goings on. With a wistful smile he lets out a contented sigh and taps the ice on a nearby pond with the tip of his trident. It creates a crack which runs through the ice to a group of individuals ice skating in a circle holding hands. The crack spreads around them and the ice gives way plunging them into the cold, cold, water.

The Devil lets out a giggle and breaks into a song titled “Brings Out the Devil in Me.” And it’s a song all about how Christmas brings out the best in people, but it brings out the worst in him, which is why he loves it! As he sings, it’s treated sort of like a montage of chaos The Devil spreads about town. Some of the stuff is harmless pranks, like photo-bombing a family portrait, while other stuff may actually cause fatalities. His final act, and the big finale of the sequence, is he winds up a little toy soldier that waddles into traffic, pops the tire of a car that strikes it, which causes that car to crash into the giant town Christmas tree setting it ablaze. The Devil gets to preen in the streets while the fire department races to put it out.

The delightful toot of a toy train snaps The Devil out of his moment of joy. It’s coming from a nearby store window and he races over to it, shoves the little brats who were standing there first out of the way, and presses his face to the glass to take it in. It’s a modest little train, an engine and two cars, but it’s self-propelled and quite charming. The Devil simply adores it, but his concentration is broken by the cries of another child. This boy, Sammy Sandwich (Dave Wasson), is a literal sandwich and he’s begging his mother for a train, but he mostly just wants a spaceship for Christmas. His mom (April Winchell), a submarine sandwich, seems irritated at the requests of her son and we get to hear about how Sammy didn’t get anything last year. He was on The Naughty List, the mere mention of such perplexes The Devil, for gluing his sister’s face to the floor. Sammy pleads that he’s been nice this year so he should get something, but the conversation is over. The Devil, who was rather happy with how awful this child sounded, quietly asks him as his mother is leading him away about this whole Naughty and Nice List business. The kid gives him a quick rundown, letting him know that he detests having to be nice, leaving The Devil with something to think about.

In Hell, The Devil’s minions are all seated at a long table debating something or other. Henchman sits near the head of the table and there’s also the character of Stickler (Andrew Morgado), a blue-skinned demon with a nasally voice who exists just to remind The Devil about things he doesn’t want to hear about. Stickler is in the midst of complaining about someone always eating his lunch out of the community refrigerator, but none of the little imps are coming clean. Henchman (Dave Wasson), who is a round, purple, imp much larger than the rest, remarks that despite living in a fiery Hell hole, they should all exhibit good manners. The debate is ended by the arrival of The Devil who takes his position at the head of the table. He asks of his minions what it would take to get someone like him onto Santa’s Nice List. Everyone goes quiet and most adopt an expression of fear. The imp beside Henchman tries to quietly ask how their boss even came to know about the list, but before Henchman can answer The Devil nukes the little imp to oblivion. The Devil then asks Henchman to explain why he withheld such information from his boss. He has to carefully tell him that he didn’t think it was his kind of list on account of him being evil and all. The Devil takes offense and when he asks in return if he’s saying that he can’t be evil and on The Nice List at the same time Henchman just remarks, “Well, yeah.” The Devil just puffs out his chest and turns away from the table seemingly intending to prove them all wrong. And since it is Christmas Eve, there is only one person who can get him onto The Nice List at this hour.

The Devil taps his trident on the floor and disappears in a puff of purple smoke. The scene shifts to an exterior shot of Santa’s Workshop at The North Pole. It’s done with a physical model, but there are elves (voiced by Wasson, Grey Delisle, and Cosmo Segurson) animated over it as they ride atop reindeer or walk to the shop itself. It’s also clearly an homage to the Silly Symphonies short Santa’s Workshop as it’s staged almost exactly the same way as the first shot in that classic short. The elves even appear to be modeled after the same from it. The elves are all singing (an original composition titled “The Elf Song”) and working with cheer to make Christmas happen until Santa (Fred Tatsciore) enters. He also resembles the Santa from that short and he’s an appropriately jolly fellow. He encourages his minions to keep up the good work before disappearing into his office.

Once there, Santa finds himself face to face with The Devil himself! Seated at the big man’s desk, The Devil addresses him as Nicholas and lets him know that he’s here to put in a request for Christmas. Santa seems to have no idea who he is and even remarks that he’s a hairy boy. Santa, being the good-natured sort that he is, invites The Devil to whisper in his ear what he wants for Christmas. The Devil is surprised, but also a little disappointed and asks him, “Aren’t you going to…you know?” as he gestures towards the ground. Santa realizes what he wants and pulls up a stool so that The Devil can sit on his lap and whisper to him properly what he wants for Christmas. He does so and Santa thinks he says “Too too,” but The Devil corrects him that he wants a choo choo. Santa laughs and tells him it won’t be a problem, but he just has to do one thing first: consult The List!

Santa looks over his Nice List while The Devil stands off to the side looking rather anxious. Santa seems almost embarrassed that he can’t find his name and asks him to confirm it. The Devil tells him it’s “Devil,” which Santa assumes to be a surname. When he can’t find that he asks to know his first name which he responds is “The.” Makes sense. Santa still can’t locate it, and there’s a good reason for that obviously. He then opens up The Naughty List and practically jumps out of his suit. Not only is The Devil present there, it’s number one! He’s been number one on that list since time began! This won’t do and Santa has to firmly tell The Devil he won’t be getting that too too, I mean, choo choo for Christmas. The Devil, feeling sad, sinks into Santa’s chair as a sad violin plays. Santa can’t bare to see another being in distress, even if he is The Devil, and makes him an offer: if The Devil can be nice until midnight, he’ll give him his too too. Choo choo.

The Devil enthusiastically agrees to Santa’s proposal and heartily shakes his hand. He vows to be nice and prove to Santa that he’s worthy of that choo choo. With another puff of smoke, he vanishes back to town with confidence and bravado. Almost immediately, a little old mouse woman (Winchell) asks him if he can spare some change. The Devil recoils with an “Ew!” and blasts the little, old, women with his trident murdering her on the spot. We smash cut to an angry Santa demanding to know what happened from behind his desk. The Devil can only offer that he was off to a good start, which Santa points out was about ten seconds. He stands and grumpily remarks that he needs a drink. He walks over to a globe and it opens up revealing what you probably expected: cookies and milk. He pours himself a glass and tells The Devil that he’s likely to remain on The Naughty List forever. The Devil erupts with anger at this suggestion complete with a wall of flame behind him. Santa just shakes his head with a “tisk tisk” and adds “Threatening Santa,” to the list of naughty behavior exhibited by The Devil. At that point the horned one collapses at Santa’s feet. Groveling over his too too (Santa has to correct him this time), he begs him to give him another chance. Santa tells him there is one other way onto The Nice List, but it comes at a cost. The Devil is willing to do anything.

We cut to outside the work shop, but we can hear chanting from within. Inside, the elves are all dressed in robes like druids as they prepare an ancient ritual. A circle has been created on the floor of the darkened workshop fashioned out of peppermint sticks. One of the elves then leads The Devil into the circle, smiles at him, and departs. They all toss back their hoods to reveal lit candles and Santa enters, in a hooded, red, robe, and begins a new chant. Up until this point, they have just been chanting “Fa la la la” in a monotone fashion. Now it sounds more like Latin which the subtitles say is “Decatus, seasonem, holly jolly om.” Google says that simply translates to decadence season. Santa stops chanting and his eyes glow a light blue. He blows some sparkly dust at The Devil which blots out all of the candles. When the dust dissipates, the light returns and the elves return to their traditional song as they filter away with Santa seemingly gone. The Devil is left standing in the circle, confused, left to remark “What the heck was that?!”

The Devil returns to his throne room in Hell left to feel the whole trip north was a waste of time. As he looks at his nails, his hand begins to swell. It looks like a surgical gloves that’s been inflated and soon his other hand does the same. The Devil is quite alarmed and even appears to be in some pain as he drops to the floor. There’s a cut which just shows The Devil’s shadow on the wall as he writhes and contorts. He ends up at a vanity, clutching it as his cheeks enlarge, a white beard sprouts from his chin, and his flesh rips apart to make room for a big, red, coat. When the transformation is complete, The Devil can only look at himself, the now spitting image of Santa Claus, and exclaim “Ho ho ohh no!”

The Devil is left to stare at his new visage in the mirror in horror. His only thought is to get back to The North Pole and make Santa fix this. Before he can get his pitchfork though, some imps pass by still complaining about stolen lunches. The Devil, understandably not wanting anyone to see him, has to duck for cover. He sneaks his way into the throne room, but before he can get his pitchfork, Henchman enters with the vacuum. The Devil tries to duck for cover behind the throne, but he’s spotted. Initially, Henchman thinks he’s in the presence of the real Santa, but once he gets a closer look at this Santa he realizes it’s actually The Devil. And, once again, his first inclination is wrong as he thinks his boss has been Santa this whole time, but The Devil has to correct him and explain the situation. When Henchman asks (what we’re likely all wondering) why The Devil doesn’t just create a choo choo with his magic, The Devil angrily corrects him that creating an object for himself is not the same as receiving it as a present. That’s basically what this is all about: The Devil, having never been the recipient of a gift, wants one for Christmas.

The Devil is forced to return to The North Pole and he takes a very excited Henchman along with him. When they get there, they find the elves are loading the sleigh and singing their working song once again. Upon seeing Devil Santa, they all exclaim with glee “Santa!” and move in for a hug or something. The Devil is grossed out and starts pushing them away with the handle of his pitchfork, so at least he’s not stabbing anyone. He tells them that he’s not Santa, he’s looking for Santa, but he’s soon interrupted by a loud and drawn out, “Ehmmm!”

It’s Stickler, only it’s not Sitckler, but an elf that looks, talks, and behaves exactly like the Stickler we know from Hell. This one steps forward to inform The Devil that he is, in fact, now Santa Claus which means he needs to undertake all of Santa’s Christmas Eve responsibilities. The Devil has no interest in doing that, but Stickler tells him that he must. In fact, if he does not deliver all of the presents to children on The Nice List by midnight he’ll not only never be on The Nice List himself, but be stuck as Santa Claus for all eternity. When he says that, the camera zooms in on The Devil’s face while the word “eternity” echoes in his brain. Only, it’s not an echo, as when the closeup ends we see Stickler is just repeating the word over and over for dramatic effect until The Devil barks at him to knock it off.

Unbothered, Stickler resumes informing The Devil of the other conditions he must satisfy this evening. There’s a list of rules and rule number one is reciting the reindeer roll call. The Devil has no idea what that is, but Henchman is happily willing to inform him of the proper roll call and receives applause from the elves upon finishing it. Rule number two is that Santa must remain jolly at all times and must never lose his temper. As Stickler informs The Devil of this, he’s wagging his finger at him which causes The Devil to explode with rage. He blasts Stickler into nothingness with his pitchfork, realizes that it was a bad idea, then simply undoes it by tapping the end of the pitchfork on the ground. Once returned to the world of the living, Stickler simply moves on to rule number 3 which is that every kid on The Nice List must receive their present. The Devil reluctantly accepts this with a “How many kids can their possibly be on The Nice List?” Stickler lets the list unfold in response. It rolls across the floor, out onto the balcony, off the balcony, and then over all of the hills in the background. The Devil just explodes in fiery rage again declaring that he will burn someone, but Henchman douses his flames with a bucket of water. A soggy Devil sullenly thanks him for the reminder about remaining jolly.

We’re not done, as there is a rule number four which is that Santa must consume all cookies and milk left out for him. Henchman cheekily replies that it shouldn’t be a problem and shakes The Devil’s belly like a bowl full of jelly prompting him to inform him “Do. Not. Touch!” Henchman recoils in fear while Stickler takes The Devil by the hand to tell him the final rule: all presents must be delivered by midnight. The Devil dismisses the hand of Stickler and continues onto the sleigh to the roar of applause from the elves. The Devil arrogantly informs Stickler it won’t be a problem, but once out of sight he confesses to Henchman that he can’t possibly fulfill all of these tasks and that he fears being stuck like this forever! Henchman reassures him that everything will be fine and encourages his boss to go out and deliver those presents. Unfortunately for The Devil, he doesn’t even know the solution to the first rule. Instead of calling out the reindeer by name, he simply demands that they fly in a threatening manner. The reindeer, in a way, do as they’re told, but not before first detaching from the sleigh. With the reindeer gone, all hope appears to be lost, but The Devil has one friend he can turn to.

This is now a one-imp open sleigh as Henchman giddily takes the place of the reindeer to pull the sleigh through the sky. I guess it’s not a big deal that he couldn’t get rule number one down since Stickler said nothing. Henchman giddily leads The Devil to his first house. He approaches the chimney and deposits the presents down it without much care prompting Henchman to remind him to be more gentle. He takes the suggestion in stride before trying to squeeze down the chimney itself. It doesn’t go well so Henchman reminds him to use his pitchfork. The Devil does and materializes by the Christmas tree inside. There he drops the soot-covered gifts under the tree and then turns to the milk and cookies. He devours them with glee before returning to the sleigh feeling rather triumphant and orders Henchman to take him to the next house.

Tchaikovsky’s “Trepak” ushers in a montage of The Devil delivering gifts to the many houses on his list. Things do not go as well as the first house. He falls off a roof and gets tangled in Christmas lights causing himself to get electrocuted at one house. At another he gets mauled by dogs while another features a whole litter of kittens expecting gifts. They have all left out their own plate of milk and cookies which The Devil is now far less enthusiastic about consuming. We then go into a sequence of quicker shots. The sleigh flies past the moon in one direction, we get a little scene, then it flies past going in the other direction. There may be a record number of moon shots in this one. All the while there’s The Devil continuing to eat cookies and it’s clearly getting harder and harder to eat any more. During this, we do get a couple of cameos. A gift is delivered to the corpse of Telephone (Wasson) who had his soul taken from him by The Devil in, I believe, the very first episode. The gift is his soul and he springs back to life in triumph upon receiving it. We also see Sammy Sandwich who gets his spaceship. His sister, who is still glued to the floor, gets some glue dissolver.

When the montage is over, The Devil is left groaning on the sleigh covered in crumbs and his belly massive and overstuffed. Henchman is there to offer encouragement as they’re nearly done. He’s looking forward to the part where The Devil gets to call out “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night,” upon completion of their work, but The Devil insists that he won’t be saying that. He then asks how many houses are left? Henchman consults the list and is happy to inform his boss that only one remains. His smile is soon replaced by a grave expression, but whatever is bothering him he doesn’t relay to his boss.

The Devil soon realizes why his henchman may have been wary about this last stop and that’s because he can see it through the clouds: the home of Cuphead and Mugman. This immediately causes the flames to rise once more prompting Henchman to remind him of his jolly requirement. They land on the roof of the massive kettle and Henchman immediately starts trying to pump his boss up. He reminds him that he’s Santa and that every kid on The Nice List deserves a present, even Cuph—. The Devil cuts him off before he can finish that sentence remarking that if he even hears the name of Cuphead he’s going to throw up.

The Devil disappears in a puff of smoke and reappears in the living room of Cuphead and Mugman. If you watched the previous episode, or read yesterday’s entry here, then you’re not wondering why Cuphead’s tree looks the way that it does all burnt to a crisp. The Devil hates that he’s here and wants nothing to do with this final house. He really wants nothing to do with it when he finds out that the gift he’s supposed to leave for Cuphead is the very same train that he himself wants! The Devil almost can’t bring himself to do it. He contemplates simply stealing the train for himself. Yeah, that will teach Cuphead a lesson and shouldn’t naughty children be taught lessons? Even hard ones like not getting what you want at Christmas?

The Devil’s contemplations are interrupted by a sound like the coo of a dove. It’s little Cuphead (Tru Valentino)! All dressed in his cute red pajamas wondering what Santa brought him. The Devil tries to play it cool, but he’s clearly uncomfortable. Cuphead remarks that he wasn’t sure if Santa was coming and then adds he hasn’t always been nice this year. When he says it’s hard to be nice all of the time and is looking for reassurance on the subject, The Devil practically breaks down with a “You have no idea!” and stuffs his face with milk and cookies in response. Cuphead then adds that even if he wasn’t good enough to get a present this year, just meeting Santa has made this the best Christmas ever. The Devil is flattered, and sort of ashamed, and he finally agrees to give Cuphead his present. He can’t bare to look at him though as he dangles the train out with his back turned. Cuphead has to pull rather firmly, and thank Santa more than once, before he can finally pry it loose. He’s pretty much overjoyed though and The Devil will have to live with the knowledge that he contributed to his mortal enemy’s best Christmas ever. As he hears the train give out a toot, it’s almost enough to make The Devil take it back, but instead he sadly walks over to his pitchfork to prepare to leave, but before he can, Cuphead has one final message: Merry Christmas, Santa. He sighs in return, and replies with the same, before vanishing.

On the roof, Santa Devil looks dreadful. Henchman carefully asks how it went in there and The Devil only sighs in return. He’s practically doubled over by the sleigh when he confesses how awful it felt to do something nice. The realization then sets in – The Devil did something nice! Henchman pulls open the list and goes to the bottom. The two stare for a moment, but when nothing happens a sadness overtakes them. Then the list glows! Magically, the name The Devil appears at the bottom in big, bold, cursive, letters! The two clasp hands and jump up and down with glee as Henchman cries out “You did it!” The Devil announces that it’s time to return to The North Pole – there’s a choo choo with his name on it just waiting for him there!

The two return to the work shop and are greeted by a mass of cheering elves. Even Stickler Elf is seen clapping, though his facial expression never changes. The Devil drinks it all up and even receives a compliment from Stickler Elf. He begins to boast about how when he sets his mind to something he can do anything, and as he does Henchman notices a change taking place. He calls out attention to the swirling, blue, mist gathering about The Devil which encircles him like a Christmas tree. When the dust tree pops, The Devil is himself again! The mist then swirls a short distance away and soon materializes Santa Claus looking just as he did before the weird ritual from earlier.

At the sight of the real Santa, Henchman looks like he’s about to burst. He keeps his cool though as Santa congratulates The Devil on a job well done. He even declares it a Christmas miracle that he was able to deliver all of the presents in time. Now, it’s time to collect as The Devil informs Santa he’s ready for that choo choo now as he rubs his hands together. Santa laughs and says he’s receiving something that’s better than a choo choo. The Devil falls for this and his eyes swell at the thought of something better than a choo choo only for Santa to inform him that his gift this year is the joy of being nice!

As you can imagine, this does not go over well with The Devil. Not at all. He does his exploding fire thing as he declares the idea stupid. He points to Santa and his elves and calls them all stupid before announcing to Henchman that they are leaving. As he drags Henchman away, the imp waves happily shouting “Bye Santa!” The two disappear in a puff of smoke to return to Hell. Honestly, I think The Devil took that better than any of us expected. Santa, on the other hand, looks hurt as he turns to Sitckler Elf and shrugs. The elf returns the shrug and we fade to black.

The blackness is interrupted by the opening of a refrigerator. The camera is placed inside the fridge and we see The Devil’s sullen face staring in. There’s a bag marked “Stickler” and The Devil pulls a sandwich out of it answering the question of who has been stealing everyone’s lunch. He begins consuming the sandwich as he slinks over to his throne and drops into it. He puts his head in his hand and bemoans his plight, how even when he does what he’s supposed to he still doesn’t get what he wants. Oh woe, is The Devil!

A tooting of a train horn breaks the sound of sad music. The Devil’s head pops up to behold a toy train right there in his throne room! It’s not the train he wanted, it’s even better! It’s a larger train, a ride-on, and it has four cars instead of two! The Devil is overjoyed and magics up an engineer’s uniform and hops into the center of the circular track declaring that this train makes an even better noise than the one he wanted! He jumps on the first car and rides around the track in triumph. The camera zooms out and we can see behind the throne. Henchman is there, covered in soot with a bunch of tools and some instructions strewn about. He has a look of happiness on his face as it’s clear he’s the one who got the train for The Devil. He says “Merry Christmas, boss,” as this one fades to black.

And that is how The Devil had a merry Christmas! It’s such a farcical concept on its face: Satan wants a choo choo for Christmas and is willing to help Santa in order to get onto The Nice List. I suppose some would find that immediately distasteful – Satan, and Santa?! The character of The Devil is so charming and funny that we forget about how insane a premise this is almost immediately. Even his outbursts are played for laughs, though he definitely murders some folks in this one (that poor, little, old mouse) for no real reason other than he’s just a bad guy. I suppose if you want to find a moral in this one, it’s that Christmas can bring out the best in anyone. Even The Devil.

The animation is top notch even if it’s not hand drawn. I love the many expressions we see from The Devil and Henchman throughout their night. The town looks lovely with this Christmas coating upon it, almost Rockwell-esq. The music sprinkles in some public domain stuff, mostly from The Nutcracker, but also makes liberal use of its own original compositions. Composed by Dave Wasson and Ego Plum, the two originals are unmistakably Christmas tunes even if they don’t directly adapt a more well known song. The cartoon is also not long enough for us to get sick of them and aside from their first instance in the show, they’re mostly confined to instrumentals. I love the homage to Santa’s Workshop and I was repeatedly dazzled by the many, many, moon shots in this one.

And it’s funny! This is one of the funniest and most entertaining Christmas specials I’ve had the pleasure of watching. It’s not even reliant on the viewer being familiar with The Cuphead Show! as pretty much everyone knows who The Devil is. It certainly helps to be familiar with it when the scene does shift to take place in the home of Cuphead, but knowing who he is and why the tree looks as it does only adds a little to the scene. For newcomers, they can easily understand that ordinarily The Devil and Cuphead are at odds with each other and that’s pretty much all you need to know. The cartoon does have to cheat a little in that scene for every gift we saw up to that point was fully wrapped. For Cuphead’s house, they’re all unwrapped so that The Devil can see that Cuphead is getting the toy he covets himself. They could have just had it fall out of a box or something, but I’m not bothered by it. It’s basically one of the few nits I can pick with this one, and I had to hunt for it.

If you can’t tell, I really like this Christmas special from The Cuphead Show! It is high on my list of modern Christmas specials alongside Prep & Landing, Duck the Halls, and the DuckTales Christmas episode “Last Christmas!” Coincidentally, all of those are Disney creations and this cartoon, while not made by Disney, references a classic Disney short within it. If you have never seen this one I recommend you check it out regardless of whether or not you’re familiar with Cuphead or The Cuphead Show! It’s streaming on Netflix, which is full of other Christmas episodes and specials from other properties, so it’s not a bad one month sub for Christmas season if you ordinarily are not a subscriber. I plan to watch this one again before the holiday arrives – toot toot!