It might seem amusing to folks younger than me who grew up on Marvel’s Avengers, but back in the first decade of the new millennium there wasn’t a hotter team of superheroes than the X-Men. The X-Men had been around since the 60s, but really took off as a comic book property in the 80s. That popularity helped land the X-Men on TV in 1992 via the hit Fox Kids show simply called X-Men. That show wrapped in 1997, but not too long after that came the film franchise, the first trilogy of which concluded in 2006. Following that, it was known throughout the industry that Fox intended to break-up the X-Men for future films with rumors that Wolverine, Magneto, and I want to say even Gambit were expected to get solo films. Of them, only Wolverine managed to land his own film franchise, but during that same era came a new animated series: Wolverine and the X-Men.
If Wolverine was the franchise’s biggest star and set to lead his own film franchise, then it made sense to have a prominent television tie-in to keep the kids interested, especially if the films were going to aim a little older. The show premiered in January 2009 on the Nicktoons network which means Wolverine, Cyclops, and the rest are now all on equal footing with Tommy Pickles, Arnold, Stimpy, and the rest of the Nicktoons gang. The show was developed by Craig Kyle and Greg Johnson, and while I don’t think either has ever stated it, but the show feels like a spiritual successor to the first animated series. It has a very similar approach in that the world the X-Men inhabit has existed for awhile before we get to jump-in. These characters have a history with one another and we’re going to see some of that, or we’re just expected to already know. It’s a very dramatic series and not your typical Nicktoon as it’s not out to make the audience laugh. The characters are often pretty humorless, the stakes are high, and sometimes things seem rather grim. It’s also serialized and the type of show that rewarded viewers who tuned in each week for a new episode, but may have also alienated the ones who did not.
Back in 2009 I was not comfortable with the idea of Wolverine leading the X-Men. In 2024, I’m still not all that comfortable with it.
For me, I was well into adulthood when this show came about and I was immediately turned off just by hearing the name. Wolverine and the X-Men? First, we’re reducing the team to a bunch of Robins and it’s not just spotlighting Wolverine with the title, but actually making him the leader of this version of the X-Men. I’ve never liked the idea of Wolverine as a leader because a core part of his character is he’s a loner at heart. There always comes a point where he feels like he needs to close himself off to his allies and deal with things by himself. The show does take steps to address that, but it’s not something I ever become comfortable with. The second X-Men film does a solid job of making Wolverine a reluctant leader, but one of the failings of the third is he basically carries himself as a born leader. This show has some of that, it attempts to make him grow as a leader, but there’s a credibility problem throughout.
The portrayal of Wolverine turned me off and kept me away for years. The show also was not picked up for a second season following a debut 26 episodes. It’s said the financing partner had problems as a second season was in pre-production, but I think most attribute the show’s demise to the Marvel acquisition by Disney. That too took place in 2009 and Disney would refocus the brand onto film assets it had control over. That meant X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man would see a reduction in marketing and promotion in favor of The Avengers. If Disney had wanted to step in and finance a second season of Wolverine and the X-Men it absolutely could have done so, but chose not to. Because of that, I felt no compulsion to even check out the show since nothing further was coming. When Disney+ launched I started watching it, but it didn’t hold my attention. Only recently have I decided to really give this one a shot. We’ve been deprived X-Men cartoons for a long time now and there’s a good chance I missed out on something special. And if I didn’t, well at least this would be a decent way to pass time during my workout.
The show begins with an unexplained tragedy and much of the show’s sole season is devoted to uncovering just what happened.
Wolverine and the X-Men begins with the X-Men well established. Wolverine (Steve Blum) and Rogue (Kieren van dan Blink) are in the midst of an argument as it appears Wolverine is blasting off by himself once again. Suddenly, Professor Xavier (Jim Ward) and Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) experience what looks to be a terrible headache and an explosion results. There’s a massive crater on the grounds of the Xavier Institute and the other X-Men are all in some state of distress, except Professor X and Jean who have vanished without a trace.
Following the traumatic beginning, there’s a time skip of a year and humanity has created the MRD – Mutant Response Division which all mutants view as a threat to their livelihood. This prompts Wolverine and Beast (Fred Tatasciore) to reassemble the X-Men to fight back, but without the aid of a telepath the job is tough. Enter Emma Frost (Kari Wahlgren), a former headmistress herself of a mutant school, who wishes to offer her telepathic abilities in exchange for membership in the team. Wolverine agrees, and Emma is able to locate Xavier in Genosha, a small, island nation controlled by Magneto (Tom Kane). There they find Xavier alive, but in a coma. Magneto allows the X-Men to take Xavier home even though he very much clings to his own ambition to squash humanity with or without the help of the X-Men. Once home, the real plot begins as Xavier is able to telepathically reach Wolverine from 20 years in the future.
Xavier is able to communicate telepathically from the future with his X-Men, of which he’s chosen Wolverine to lead.
The season unfolds both in the present and the future. Xavier has awakened to find himself in a post apocalyptic wasteland. The war between humanity and mutants laid waste to everything and now the sentinels run the show. Yes, this is like a version of the classic “Days of Future Past” plot, but as a whole series. Xavier appoints Wolverine as the leader of the X-Men and charges him with reassembling the team so that they can prevent this future from happening. This will bring them into contact with past members, some join up, and some don’t. Most of them embody their typical archetypes, in particular Iceman (Yuri Lowenthal) and Shadowcat (Danielle Judovits) who are basically the happy-go-luck teens of the team. Then you have Cyclops (Nolan North) who is essentially a shell of his former self following the loss of Jean. Rogue has run-off to join Quicksilver’s (Mark Hildreth) Brotherhood of Mutants essentially defecting to the bad guys while former X-Men like Angel (Liam O’Brien) and Nightcrawler (also O’Brien) feel their talents could be better utilized elsewhere.
The season unfolds with Wolverine working to stop the MRD while Xavier has joined up with some mutants in the future to try and figure out just what happened. Time seems to operate on “Days of Future Past” rules where a day in the present equals a day in the future for Charles, so he can’t simply go back further in time to prevent the initial explosion. We’re basically fed breadcrumbs for the main plot throughout the season and it all pays off in a suitable way in the end. Also along the way are numerous one-shots sprinkled throughout like episodes where the X-Men have to help a fellow mutant avoid capture by the MRD or explore some relationships between team members. There’s naturally some Wolverine solo missions reaching back to his days in the Weapon X program. A lot of this type of stuff borrows liberally from the comics, but there is often some twist introduced. For example, Wolverine did not have a relationship with Silver Fox in his past, but a different woman the identity of which might have annoyed some, but I kind of liked. I wish it had been explored more, but I’m guessing that was being saved for a future season. The show is definitely at its best when it’s sticking to the main plotline, but some of the one-offs are entertaining.
Is anyone surprised to see Bishop among Xavier’s allies in the future?
Toonz Entertainment handled the production on the show which strikes me as a mix of how the characters looked during the Astonishing X-Men era with some stylization likely intended to give the show it’s own vibe while also making it easier to animate. A lot of the male characters are depicted with large upper bodies and tiny wastes with long legs. Even a short guy like Wolverine has pretty long legs, though he’s also not as short as he would have been depicted pre-Hugh Jackman era. The women are presented more straight up and down though their abdomens usually pinch-in dramatically. They’re also almost universally well-endowed. It’s all 2D, and if any 3D effects are in use they’re well hidden. The costumes are largely from the Astonishing era and I guess since this was a cartoon for digital cable they were able to get away with keeping them pretty true to book so Emma Frost looks like she’s about to burst out of her top in basically every scene she occupies. The animation itself is pretty good and there’s no denying that this show animates better than the Fox series. Whether or not you like the style present is certainly more of a subjective decision.
The music is appropriately dramatic. It very much feels like it was intended to evoke the film franchise and I wasn’t sure if I was even hearing compositions taken from the films itself. Film composer Michael Kamen doesn’t receive a credit, so I think this is just a case of the show’s composer Dean Grinsfelder doing a good job of inhabiting that style. The voice cast is basically all new for those of us who grew up on the old cartoon series. Steve Blum is a solid Wolverine. He knows when to add a little growl to his lines and when to play it more straight-up. I like Nolan North as Cyclops and was surprised at how much Tom Kane’s Magneto sounds like Patrick Stewart, which kind of makes me want to see Stewart play the character, but that’s obviously not happening. Nobody on this show makes me forget the cast I grew up on or replaces their voices in my head when I read dialogue in a comic, but I did enjoy what was here.
There’s a whole episode devoted to Marrow playing the role of Hogarth to this sentinel’s Iron Giant. It’s cute.
Wolverine and the X-Men consists of twenty-six episodes and there is a resolution to a lot of the questions the series has at the onset. That doesn’t mean it ends all neat and tidy as there very much was a new threat setup for the following season that never came. It’s a shame, because it could have been interesting to see how this show would handled some pretty familiar comic book plots. It also would have been fun to see how the team’s dynamic worked post finale as there were some changes.
I do think I was initially rather hard on the series and it was probably a mistake for me to dismiss it based on the premise. I did enjoy my time with the show, though it’s not perfect. Like a lot of X-Men media, the show struggles with the large cast. We wind up knowing plenty about some of the A-listers, but the B-team, if you will, gets very little time to shine. Shawdowcat and Iceman basically exist just for their powers and are given almost nothing to do aside from that. Ditto for Beast who serves the role of “smart guy” who can figure out most of their problems. Rogue and Wolverine have a lot of conflict at the beginning that just sort of fades away and gets a very quick, last second, resolution in the end. And part of this issue stems from the mutants in Genosha having their own plots as well as those in the future with Xavier. There’s a lot going on and the show was certainly ambitious with the scope of its plot. Even though it stumbles, I do appreciate how far the show tried to take things as it demonstrates a real faith in its audience to be able to follow along. They weren’t just trying to sell toys to five-year-olds.
With the show long dead, the only remaining question is “Should you bother?” I think if you’re a fan of the X-Men then this show is a fun diversion. Yes, if you end up liking it then you’ll feel some pain when it’s over since the show was cut down so unceremoniously. With X-Men ’97 continuing the adventures of the original show perhaps a revival of Wolverine and the X-Men is possible? I wouldn’t get your hopes up as the show definitely didn’t have the impact of the ’92 series, but I suppose anything can happen. I do think the show is enjoyable for what it is so while it sucks that there wasn’t a second season, watching this definitely doesn’t feel like a waste of time.
We have plenty more coverage of Wolverine and the animated X-Men:
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Whenever I approach another year of The Christmas Spot I usually have some kind of goal in mind. Maybe one could even think of it as a theme. The past few years I’ve made it a point to highlight some of the best Christmas specials I covered in the past, but felt I had short-changed the first time around. And that’s kept up, though after this year that task will basically be accomplished. It’s not the only goal I had this year as I also wanted to spotlight a lot of stuff I had just overlooked up until now. That’s why we’ve had some Looney Tunes themed posts this year and you could even count Scooby Doo as part of that. The other big one was to really dive into the Nicktoons.
Some of this drive to highlight more Nicktoons is born out of nostalgia for 90s properties. The Nicktoons were quite popular and there’s probably an appetite among my readers to engage with them at Christmas. There also were a fair amount of holiday specials produced by Nickelodeon for these shows and as someone who loves Christmas I want to make sure I’ve seen them all. Most of them I remember to some degree, while others I’ve completely forgotten about or missed entirely. The other motivating factor here is that now all of these shows are very accessible via Paramount+. That’s certainly a good thing, but as we saw with HBO Max and Disney+ this year, all of that content you see today isn’t guaranteed to be there tomorrow. And if you’re going to do an annual advent calendar of Christmas specials, streaming is the easiest way to interact with such episodes and specials so I do feel a sense of urgency with some of these properties.
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters is the fifth official Nicktoon and second (but no the last) developed by Klasky-Csupo.
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters was the fifth of the Nicktoons and the second created by Klasky-Csupo. It premiered in 1994 and its creation is primarily credited to Gábor Csupó and Peter Gaffney with a lot of input from director Igor Kovalyov. It’s a show about young monsters Oblina (Christine Cavanaugh), Krumm (David Eccles), and Ickis (Charlie Adler) who are all students in monster school just outside New York City. They attend a boarding school located in a dump overseen by The Gromble (Gregg Berger) who is tasked with teaching them how to scare humans and, perhaps more importantly, how to not get caught by said humans. It’s a little bit like Monsters Inc which followed this only there’s no monster world they travel from and the scares don’t power their society. They basically just scare because that’s what monsters do.
The show ran from 1994 through 1997 with reruns following that kept it on the air for quite awhile. It received the standard Nicktoon episode order of 52 which was broken up into multiple broadcast seasons. It was a bit of an odd inclusion to the lineup as, following the creation of Rocko’s Modern Life, the Sunday morning Nicktoons block had been made a whole two hours, but now they had five shows. Nickelodeon by then was premiering a lot of the new The Ren & Stimpy Show episodes during its Saturday night timeslot and fellow Nicktoon Doug wasn’t going to be around much longer so things did kind of work themselves out.
This one isn’t a traditional Christmas episode, but it does have its own version of the Red Ryder BB Gun.
The show does have a very interesting style. It’s undeniably Klasky-Csupo, but with monsters as the main characters those almost intentionally ugly character designs work very well with the show’s setting. All of the monsters are oddly shaped with lots of grotesque details about them. There is a more scatological humor at play in the show, though I would say it’s not as gross as Rocko or Ren and Stimpy. These monsters do live in a landfill and get around the human world by flushing themselves down the toilet. Toenail clippings are their currency and monsters like Krumm rely on their grotesque odor in order to scare humans. Some of the designs though are just really fun. Krumm was always a favorite of mine as he doesn’t have eye sockets. His face basically ends at his nose so he’s forced to carry his eyeballs around over his head. This can cause problems when he needs to use his hands for something else, but he doesn’t mind sticking his eyes in his mouth or even on the ground. They’re surprisingly durable.
If you’re a 90s kid then it’s likely that you’re familiar with Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and it’s also possible you’re saying to yourself, “Wait, I don’t remember that show having a Christmas episode?” And you would be partially correct. This one is a little bit of a cheat, but you know when you have to do 25 of these things every year you’re willing to settle for “close enough.” The sixth episode of season one features the segment “Gone Shopp’n” which places the three main characters in the mall decked out for Christmas. Only, it’s not actually Christmas, but a Christmas in July sale. If you didn’t know that detail then it likely wouldn’t matter as this looks like a Christmas episode. It aired in December, so it sure looks like it was timed as the show’s Christmas episode that year, but maybe they felt that by making it a Christmas in July episode it would give the network more freedom to re-air it as they saw fit? I don’t know, but we’re counting it so let’s go!
The episode begins, as all episodes of the show do, with a spooky, but lively, theme song set mostly to clips from the show. It’s composed by Drew Neumann and the song is punctuated with a stock scream (I don’t think this is another instance of the famous Wilhelm scream) since the show is called Aaahh!!! Real Monsters with the “aaahh” portion meant to be a scream. It’s a clever bit of wordplay that makes the title so much more interesting than if it had been called Real Monsters. It also made things more interesting on the Nickelodeon hype man when doing TV spots for the show.
This is rent-a-cop, Hal, who is going to be a passive participant throughout this one.
“Gone Shopp’n” is the second segment of the episode following “Monsters Don’t Dance.” It’s going to be a single setting segment as it starts and takes place at the Valley View Mall. It’s all decorated for Christmas in July which really makes it no different from just Christmas. I don’t even see a Hawaiian Santa anywhere so I’m puzzled why they even bothered to make this Christmas in July. Maybe someone at the studio was adamant that this show never have a true Christmas episode? There’s a quick cut of the face of a security guard who looks pretty intense, before we see some additional cuts of another gentleman apparently sneaking into the mall. He’s actively avoiding the guard and clearly up to no good. He also seems very interested in a ski sale.
It must have been fun devising ways for Krumm to scare people with his detached eyes.
A voice over the P.A. alerts us to the fact that the mall is closing in five minutes. Inside a store called Crystal Clear, a young woman (Cavanaugh) is scoping out a crystal ball that the clerk is aggressively pushing on her. The voice actor for the clerk (Nick Jameson) is doing an accent of some kind, I think he’s supposed to be middle eastern, and it’s probably not the sort of thing you would see in a modern cartoon. The young lady doesn’t understand why the ball is so expensive, but the clerk encourages her to gaze into it for it will reveal the depths of her soul. When she does, it rotates on its own revealing an eyeball which blinks. The two humans scream and cry out “Monster!” as they run out of the store.
Pay no attention to the man in the ski clothes.
Krumm pops up from under the table as it was his eye that frightened the two humans. As they run through the mall in terror, the security guard (Rodney Saulsberry) from earlier just shouts at them, “Hey! No running in the mall!” He’s soon approached by the mall’s manager (Michael Tucker) who wishes to push the new security system on him. The guard seems put-off and hostile towards his boss and the new system challenging that it couldn’t possibly prevent horseplay on the escalators. The mall manager doesn’t care and just wants the guy to enable the alarm. They’ve been burglarized multiple times this month and he seems desperate to put an end to that. The mall cop agrees to do as he’s requested and vows that no burglar can escape this “Rent-a-cop!” As he says that, we see the shady guy from earlier is watching disguised as a mannequin in ski attire.
If this episode had been made after the Lord of the Rings film franchise got off and running then we certainly would have had a “precious” line in here somewhere.
Ickis, Krumm, and Oblina poke their heads out from behind a corner. Oblina gestures towards a restroom and announces that’s their way out (remember, they travel through toilets) and the three take off. Oblina doesn’t make it very far though before something in a store display window catches her eye. Ickis shouts back at her in confusion over why she stopped, then joins her and becomes transfixed as well. Krumm then strolls up in confusion and sees what all the fuss is over: a lava lamp. The three monsters are completely enraptured by the novelty lamp. They can’t take their eyes off of it and we get a fun little cut of the lamp dancing in their eyes as the camera moves from monster to monster.
No running in the mall!
Nearby, the manager is leaving and passing on some final instructions to the rent-a-cop to remember to enable the alarm after he leaves. He also adds that he should release the dogs. The guard agrees and does that immediately. Two snarling, angry, looking dogs come running out and immediately go for the manager who narrowly avoids them by slipping out of the exit. He then can be heard shouting out “After I leave, you moron!” in response to him letting loose the beasts right away. The guard smiles sort of sheepishly realizing his error, then presses the button on the security box that barricades all of the entrances, even pipes and toilets. Satisfied, the guard turns back around and catches the guard dogs running by which calls for another, “Hey! No running in the mall!” The guard then smiles to himself and…closes his eyes. He falls asleep standing up and in doing so his elbow presses the door button again undoing all of the locks he had just activated.
Our thief is soon going to learn that he’s overprepared for this heist.
With the guard asleep and the security system disabled, our would-be thief jumps out from his disguise and immediately gets to work. He tosses a large rope net on the floor and then baits it with a juicy T-bone steak. He then heads over to a jewelry store with a hole saw to drill through the glass window. He takes a peek at the guard first then turns on the very noisy drill to create a hole in the glass. As he reaches in to grab the loot, the entire window shatters! He immediately looks back at the guard and finds him still snoring so he grabs the loot and moves on.
Behold the lamp’s beauty.
At the lamp, the monsters are still captivated by its warm, glowing, warming, glow. Ickis notes a tag that reads “Lava Lamp $20.00” and mistakenly thinks it’s called a Lava Lamp 2,000. The monsters all try to come up with a word to describe its beauty, but words fail them. Krumm declares it reminds him of his mother which makes him feel warm inside. Their religious moment is soon interrupted though as the dogs have taken notice. Ickis screams when he sees them and the three start running for a vent. Unfortunately for them, the guard is a little unsteady on his feet and his elbow has drifted back and reactivated the security measures which drops a series of bars across all of the exits once again.
That’s using the old noggin! Or, butt?
With their escape routes cut-off, Oblina does the only thing a monster knows to do in this situation -she resorts to scaring! Unfortunately, the dogs aren’t impressed and the three are forced to book-it. They hit a dead-end at a barred up store and appear to be dead in the water. It’s Oblina who has the bright idea to “use her” to break into the store. She is an unusual shape and is similar to a crowbar and that’s essentially how they use her to prop the gate open. Krumm, with his eyes in his mouth, holds the gate up long enough for Ickis and Oblina to slide under it before he joins them, his ass left red and irritated in the process.
The monsters probably shouldn’t feel too safe where they are.
With the threat of the dogs momentarily avoided, Ickis wonders aloud what they’re to do now, but Oblina can only think of “the Lahmp.” She pronounces it by exaggerating the “A” sound which confuses Ickis, but Krumm informs him she means the lamp. They then all get momentarily captivated by the thought of it and seem legitimately depressed about being separated from the lamp. I’m thinking it might not be a good influence on their lives. Oblina vows that they will not be leaving here without it!
What the hell is this thing in Oblina’s mouth?! Is it sentient? Can it speak? I have so many questions!
We get another shot of the wavering security guard who, once again, drifts back into the door release button. As the bars all retract from their various coverings, it would seem the monsters are in trouble. They have a plan though as we smash-cut to the crew crashing through the store display window in a little car. It sounds like it’s a battery-operated car as opposed to a peddle one. Ickis is driving while Krumm and Oblina can only watch as the dogs give chase. Oblina tries in vane to once again scare the dogs away, but nothing appears to be working. Even her weird technique that reveals some little monster living inside her.
They should have just gone all the way and gave him driving gloves and a scarf.
Ickis cries out for someone to do something, and it’s at this point I noticed he’s wearing some old-timey driving goggles, which is pretty cute. Since Oblina has tried every trick she knows, it’s Krumm’s turn to try to stink them out, but they’re dogs. They eat their own poop, smells don’t bother them. Ickis takes the crew up the escalator and as he does the bumper of the car falls off. They drive under a bench and everyone ducks which takes out the windshield. It’s like Smokey and the Bandit! Ickis takes the car back down the escalator and through some Christmas decorations before driving through the central Christmas display and past the sleeping guard. He’s able to make a hard right and send the dogs smashing into some garbage cans granting them a moment’s reprieve.
Saved in the “ick” of time…I’ll see myself out.
It’s going to be a short moment though as the car comes to a stop and then falls apart completely. Ickis has had it, and with the dogs baring down on them once again exits the remains of the vehicle and prepares to unleash his ultimate move. When Ickis needs a scare, his technique is to enlarge himself to gargantuan proportions which usually does the trick, but once again, these dogs prove to be impervious to their monstrous tactics. Ickis seems resigned to his fate, but Oblina spots an advertisement for dog muzzles alongside a lasso sale (it seems like a very interesting store). With Ickis about to meet his end, Oblina and Krumm spring into action lassoing the dogs effortlessly as the muzzles settle over their jaws.
When you’re forced to carry your eyes around in your hands like Krumm does, you learn how to be resourceful.
With the dogs neutralized, Oblina declares it’s time to go retrieve their lamp! With Krumm holding the pair of leashes, Oblina dangles a dog bone from a fishing rod and the monsters commandeer the store display Santa sleigh. Ickis questions how Oblina learned to do that with the lasso and she credits it to once eating a spaghetti western – hardy har har. That doesn’t explain how Krumm was able to do the same, but he can’t really tell us anyway since he has his eyes back in his mouth. Or maybe he can, since he has no trouble saying “Get along, little doggies!” His attempt to spur them on fails though as they just sit on the floor and stare at the bone. Krumm then spies a better motivator – the steak! He pulls the steak from the trap with a ski pole so as not to set it off then attaches it to the fishing rod. That does the trick as the dogs take-off, but without the monsters which was seemingly by design.
We are often most vulnerable at the height of our revelry.
Now that the dogs have been properly dealt with, the real mission to retrieve the lamp can begin. Or it would have if not for the fact that a laughing Krumm, amused by his dog contraption, stumbled onto the net set by the thief and got caught in his trap. Suspended from the ceiling, Krumm calls out for help and informs his friends that he hates heights. Ickis is immediately put into a state of panic at the sight of Krumm high above them and Oblina has to bark at him to “Get a grip!” She then assures Krumm that they’ll get him down. Ickis seems to disagree even though he’s the one monster present who seems to have no trouble growing to gargantuan sizes, but I guess his power doesn’t work in such a way that it would allow him to simply enlarge himself to retrieve Krumm? Instead, he sarcastically asks if Oblina knows any monsters that can fly.
So apparently Oblina can enlarge parts of herself for purposes other than scaring, but Ickis cannot.
Hard cut to the whirling sound of a toy airplane. Ickis is the lucky monster riding in the plane, while Oblina controls it with a remote control. Ickis is screaming the whole time while the dogs go running by with the sound of jingle bells coming from the sleigh – this all feels like a deliberate attempt to show us what a heavy sleeper the guard is even without actually showing us the guard again. Oblina tells Ickis to stop acting like a baby and jump, which indicates to me the plan is for Oblina to basically “buzz” Krumm as Ickis leaps onto the net and cuts him down. Ickis turns to the camera and pauses his screaming long enough to inform us that he’s not having fun. Oblina brings the plane over Krumm and Ickis comes through jumping onto the net which knocks it from the ceiling. The two fall onto the waiting…lips…of Oblina who was able to enlarge her mouth like an inflatable raft to cushion their fall. The plane continues on and flies right past the snoring guard and slams into the wall creating a rather spectacular explosion for such a small toy. The guard doesn’t wake up, but does manage to utter yet another “No running in the mall.”
Ickis is underneath those dogs. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
Free from the net, Krumm simply thanks Oblina while Ickis starts wailing about how he could have been severely hurt. Oblina is not interested in his complaints at this point and tells him he was safer in that plane than he is now. Ickis replies with an, “Oh really?!” and appears poised to go on a rant, but is soon flattened by the dog-pulled sleigh to which Krumm can only remark “Bummer,” at the sight of his flattened friend.
How could he possibly leave such a majestic object behind?
We then get to check-in on our thief. He’s moved onto the crystal store from the beginning and is using his hole saw on the glass door, which just shatters like the window from earlier. He enters and makes for the counter where he goes to use the saw once again, then thinks better of it and simply smashes it to steal…a geode? Far be it for me to judge value for a thief. We cut back to the monsters and Ickis is complaining about losing feeling in his right claw while gesturing to his left arm. I don’t know if this is a joke or an animation error. Oblina tells him that he’ll feel better once he’s back in the presence of the lamp and Ickis concedes as much. They then come upon it as the thief is leaving the store. He heads out, then upon seeing the lamp backtracks, smashes the window, and makes off with the lamp!
I was expecting something more elaborate to get the lamp back, but we are running out of time here.
The monsters aren’t going to let this go as Oblina proposes they scare this man so bad that he sleeps with the lights on for the rest of his life! As they give chase, the guard once again bumps the doors button and all of the bars and shutters return. This gives the monsters precious time as they come upon the thief using a blow torch on the bars over the exit. When he sets the torch aside, he grabs Oblina. I guess he thought she was a crowbar, but upon seeing the monster she screams and pulls a bunch of guts or something out of her mouth. It achieves the desired effect as the thief screams and drops her before running off. The monsters are then able to bask in the glow of the lamp, which is apparently battery-operated or something for it’s still glowing.
So that’s how you wake him up!
The thief (Adler) runs up to the security guard and wraps him in a hug begging for him to save him from the monsters. As the guard is startled awake, his elbow hits the emergency alarm. The shutters then go up and the mall manager is there immediately with a handful of cops as they come storming in. The monsters are forced to dash away to a hiding spot while the manager starts congratulating the guard for catching the crook. The guard is understandably confused, while the thief doesn’t correct the manager since he’s still traumatized from the scaring. The guard then realizes the crook was caught and is happy to take the credit, despite doing nothing all night.
Together at last! Merry Christmas, little monsters.
Hal, that’s the guard’s name, taunts the burglar before the real cops take him away. Then to just sort of add to the dysfunction of the night, the dog-sleigh comes racing by and the manager is forced to duck for cover as Hal shouts out “Hey! No running in the mall!” followed by another “Darn dogs,” once again. The manager then tells him how happy he is the burglar was caught and asks Hal how he did it? As Hal stammers and stalls the manager loses interest and decides to reward his security guard. Since he’s probably a rich guy who doesn’t actually like handing out money, he hands Hal what he feels is a suitable reward: the lava lamp. It had been left on the floor with the other booty and Hal accepts it in a manner that indicates he considers this to be a pretty shitty reward. When the manager presumably turns and walks away, Hal casually tosses the lamp in the trash. And at the bottom of that trash can, are the monsters reunited with their “precious” once again.
That’s how the episode ends. Even though it’s not a true Christmas special, the good guys get the thing they desired most this Christmas in July in the end. This is a very light, silly, sort of episode. There’s a clear goal for our characters and it should be an easy one, but those darn dogs just keep getting in the way. There’s some solid physical comedy and even some subtle stuff at play. The bits with the thief sneaking around even though he really doesn’t have to are quietly amusing and I like how no character points out how useless the guard is. The show is just confident in that its audience will get the joke and with children’s programming that isn’t always the case. The characters, especially Oblina and Ickis, bounce off each other well as their personalities clash. There were no moments that made me laugh out loud, but I was suitably entertained throughout.
Praise be to the sleigh, for without it the Christmas component would have been totally irrelevant.
The Christmas component is understandably muted in a show about monsters. We’re not going to get the usual feels out of this one and that’s fine. Instead, Christmas is merely a prop. It’s a way to decorate the scenery and make the mall a touch more interesting. In truth, you could take all of the Christmas stuff out of this one and it wouldn’t really change much. The only obstacle would be replacing the sleigh the dogs end up attached to. And it’s the presence of that sleigh that helps it pass my Christmas test since there isn’t an obvious replacement for it. It’s not like the dogs could pull one of those cars that are sometimes setup in the mall. Maybe a custodial cart? I don’t know, but there’s just enough Christmas that if it were all deleted the episode wouldn’t work.
All that being said, should you make time for “Gone Shopp’n” this holiday season? In a vacuum, probably not. If you’re marathoning the Nicktoons Christmas specials though, then sure, keep this one in the rotation. It’s brief since it only uses half of the show’s running time which is in contrast to most Nicktoons which dedicate the whole half hour to the holiday. It has it’s own flavor, and shows starring monsters are inherently cool, if you ask me. And should you wish to watch this, you can do so via Paramount+ or by purchasing one of the DVD releases of the show. It’s not particularly hard to come by and was released more than once so you have some options. Happy screaming!
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
I’m quite surprised to have made it all the way to December 19 without resorting to The Simpsons, American Dad!, Bob’s Burgers, or some other animated sitcom that has an annual, or near annual, Christmas episode. Not that I have been avoiding such shows, and I may turn to one again before this is all…
One of the most celebrated comic strips of all time is Krazy Kat by George Herriman. Krazy Kat debuted in the New York Evening Journal in 1913 and concluded its run in 1944. It contained a fairly simply premise where a cat named Krazy pined for a mouse named Ignatz, only the mouse hated the…
We look at a lot of Christmas stuff pulled from every day cartoons, for the most part. On occasion though, I suppose we should throw the Christians a bone and look at something a bit more secular. Yes, I think most people know Christmas was basically co-opted by the church many years ago, but it’s…
In 2001, Rugrats had the honor of being the first Nicktoon to make it 10 years. The path to that honor was not a smooth one as the show had effectively been cancelled in 1993 with the third season. That appeared to not be performance related, but more strategic on the part of Nickelodeon as the Nicktoons brand was a constantly changing block of cartoons. It was only when the network realized that reruns of Rugrats were not only their highest rated program, but one of the highest rated cable programs in general did it finally decide that maybe keeping the show in production was a good idea. The show would end up lasting for 9 seasons with the final, new, episode airing in 2004. A new series has since been launched that returned some of the original cast and it would appear that Rugrats is not going anywhere anytime soon.
For that tenth anniversary episode the show aired the two-part special “All Growed Up.” The episode was a flash-forward and fans of the show got to see what the babies would be like as pre-teens. It’s one of the last Rugrats episodes I can remember watching. I did not come back to the show when it resumed in 1995 and I didn’t see any of the movies it spawned, but I was curious enough about “All Growed Up” to give it a look. I really don’t remember anything about the episode, but I do recall my number one takeaway from it was that this special was destined to become a series of its own. And it did! The special was a massive success scoring a 7.2 rating when it originally aired making it the number one cable show that week. It’s estimated that 70% of children in the show’s target demographic tuned in and those were numbers that Nickelodeon could not ignore. They almost immediately ordered 35 episodes of the show and on April 12, 2003 All Grown Up! debuted.
It’s probably a stretch to call them all grown up, but they’re definitely not babies anymore.
All Grown Up! returned basically all of the cast members who were still alive from the original show. At that point, Nancy Cartwright had replaced Christine Cavanaugh as the voice of Chuckie while David Doyle, voice of Grandpa Lou, had passed away in 1997. The show would run for five seasons totaling 55 episodes and aired its final episode on August 17, 2008. The show’s third season (which was part of that initial 35 episode order so we’re talking broadcast seasons) premiered on December 7, 2004 with the Christmas episode “The Finster Who Stole Christmas.” Rugrats had become known for its holiday specials as it was one of the few to dedicate full episodes to Jewish holidays. It was also no stranger to Christian holidays like Christmas thanks to the main character’s family being a mixed household. It’s easy to look back on that decision as one of genius since it creates easy opportunities for holiday episodes, but back in the 90s Jewish holidays were not thought of as marketable. Rugrats blew that preconception to dust as its Passover and Chanukah specials did big ratings proving that audiences just like to see their favorite characters celebrating their chosen holidays.
All of the regulars are back, except Anjelica who isn’t in this episode. Plus Dill, whom I’m too old to think of as a regular.
The show begins with this very generic alternative rock song performed by Cree Summer on vocals. I don’t particularly care for it and I miss the more whimsical charm of the original series’ intro. When it’s done, we find ourselves at a school. It’s pretty well decorated for Christmas and the bell has rung to release a horde of preteens upon the world. Dill Pickles (Tara Strong) is walking with his brother Tommy (E.G. Daily) and explaining to him how he believes that Christmas gets all of the best songs as he compares it to Chanukah. Tommy tries to offer up “The Dreidel Song” as a counterpoint, but seems to concede that yes, it’s not a particularly good song. They’re walking along with Chuckie (Cartwright), Susie (Cree Summer), and the twins Phil and Lil (Kath Soucie). Phil informs the group that his mom just burnt a whole bunch of angel cookies so they’re up for grabs. It would seem this is the show’s way of retaining how Phil, the baby, was always interested in eating gross items. This leads to a brief discussion about how the gang plans to spend the holidays with Susie mentioning she landed a big role in her church’s choir. All of the kids are really supportive of her and let her know they’ll be sure to attend her performance which is really sweet. One kid is conspicuously quiet though and that’s Chuckie.
This is pretty much how I expected Chuckie to turn out.
As the gang heads home, Chuckie lags in the back with his head down. Dill starts explaining to his brother how he has plans to create the world’s best Chanukah song and wants his brother’s help. Tommy thinks this is actually a pretty good idea considering the dearth of quality Chanukah songs. Dill is pretty sure of himself pointing out how he believes he’s an excellent singer in the shower and he makes up songs in there every day! Susie then recaps everyone’s holiday plans for us and in the process informs the audience that Anjelica is away on a ski trip, and then turns to Chuckie to ask what he’s got going on for the holidays. Chuckie just sighs and says, “Oh, the usual – high expectations met by crushing disappointment.”
Chuckie doesn’t have a lot of happy Christmas memories. Or really any.
We cut to what I assume is Chuckie’s bedroom. He and Tommy are watching a video on the television that’s apparently Chuckie’s Christmas gift to his dad: 20 years of Christmas home movies compiled on one DVD. We get to see glimpses of the many Finster Christmases and they’re all pretty terrible. There’s often a tree falling over, Chuckie crying (the tape begins before Chuckie is born, hence why it can total more years than Chuckie’s been alive), and Chuckie’s dad running out of frame due to some catastrophe. Chuckie is longing for a nice Christmas, one that’s more celebratory, but concedes that his dad’s mantra is “Christmas starts with family and ends with family.” He’s not really into the flashy stuff. When Tommy points out how the tree in every scene on the tape is pretty sickly looking it gives Chuckie an idea. If he can get a nice tree this year then that will be the way to setting the proper mood for his holiday.
Braving the cold to get the Finster Family Christmas tree!
The scene transitions to one of Chas (Michael Bell) leading his son Chuckie through the snow apparently in search of a tree. When the camera zooms out we see they’re actually just at a tree lot and the snow is being created by a snow machine. They’re still dressed rather warmly, but I do think this show is meant to take place somewhere in the southwest where there probably isn’t typically snow and frigid weather. The tree lot attendant shows Chas a nice looking tree that he seems to be in awe of. And that’s the problem. Chas Finster is a simple man and doesn’t like flashy items. He’s also probably very pragmatic when it comes to expenses, but Chuckie tries to tell him that buying a big tree is sort of like buying in bulk which is something his dad is prone to do. Chas reminds him that he only buys corn dogs and eyedrops in bulk, which apparently explains the added girth Chas possesses when compared to his character in Rugrats.
Chas and Clark Griswold have very different takes on what the family tree should look like.
Chas then comes across the perfect tree! It’s actually in the kindling section and the tree attendant is surprised that anyone would show interest in what are essentially needle-less sticks. He also positions himself in front of the kindling sign to conceal it from Chas’s view so that he can extract a little more money out of him since he’s committed the cardinal sin as a consumer in letting a salesman know that he’s very interested. The person not interested is Chuckie. When Chas asks for a price, he’s given 20 bucks though a small amount of snow falls on the tree and snaps the top off so the salesman immediately changes the price to 15. Chuckie can only hang his head in embarrassment when his dad tells him they’ll come back tomorrow for by then it will likely only be ten!
Now if you saw this while out for a walk how would you interpret the situation for the tree?
We next find Chuckie sullenly walking up a sloping sidewalk kicking a pinecone in frustration. He kicks it a bit too hard and it manages to knock someone’s Santa Claus decoration from their roof. Chuckie runs over to pick Mr. Claus up, but when he does he notices a Christmas tree bound with twine left leaning on someone’s garbage bin. Chuckie runs over in disbelief that someone would be throwing out a perfectly good tree, but gives it no further thought since fortune has apparently smiled upon him this day. As he drags the tree out of sight, some guy emerges from the house with a puzzled look on his face as he calls to his offscreen wife asking where’s the tree?
Chuckie went at this all wrong, he should have focused on the fire hazard the other tree would have presented. This one is much safer.
Chuckie struggles to get the tree home, but he manages to pull it off with only a minor concussion. He then has his dad cover his eyes so he can lead him into the living room to see what he brought home. When Chas opens his eyes his reaction is actually rather positive. I guess it’s pretty much in-line with how he responded to the resplendent tree at the lot, which is also why he shifts gears pretty quickly and remarks it’s not really a Finster tree. Chuckie points out that’s because it’s green, but then hangs his head once more and tells his dad they can get rid of it if he doesn’t like it. Chas immediately starts reassuring his son that it’s fine and he likes the tree. He gives him a concerned smile while Chuckie returns a more genuine one of his own as his Christmas wish is coming together nicely.
I guess these kids hang out at a coffee shop, because coffee is good for 10 year olds.
Our next scene takes place at the Java Lava Cyber Cafe. When did we stop calling cafes with internet access “Cyber” cafes and just went back to calling them cafes since they basically all have wi-fi now? A mall Santa comes walking out somewhat nervously ready to sip his hot coffee while inside Phil appears to be decorating. Dill and Tommy are rocking out on some keyboard while Chuckie and Susie just hang out eating popcorn. My guess is, since Phil and Lil’s mother Betty was always big into coffee in the original show, this is her place of business and the kids help out. It’s also probably a frequent hang out spot for them in the show (I’ve never watched a single episode until now).
Yup, looks like everything is falling into place and Chuckie is going to have the best damn Christmas ever!
Dill and Tommy’s song sounds pretty terrible and the two seem to know it as Tommy proposes they take a break. Dill seems less aware, but is in agreement on account that he’s creatively spent. Betty (Soucie) and Lil come walking in with trays of holiday themed beverages. They sound pretty awful with names like honey baked java, yam latte, and figgy pudding macchiato. Everyone is reluctant to partake, all except Chuckie who downs a cup of one of the likely terrible concoctions. Lil points out that it’s not like Chuckie to be the brave one, but he’s rather content at the moment and chalks it up to an abundance of holiday spirit. Phil sees this as an opening to bring up that someone in the neighborhood recently had their Christmas tree stolen. Chuckie does a spit-take when he hears about it while everyone has some rather choice words to share about the thief. Chuckie, growing visibly sick at the realization he likely stole someone’s tree, runs off to the bathroom clutching his stomach. Betty just assumes it’s related to her drinks, “Looks like that’s a big ‘No’ on the fig latte,” is the punch line used to go out on.
Or not…
After the break, we find Chuckie outside hyperventilating into a paper bag while Tommy exclaims “You stole a Christmas tree!” Chuckie apparently used the act break to explain partly what happened, though we get to hear him tell Tommy he thought they were throwing it away. He’s quite worried about getting run out of town while Tommy tries to calm him down. Since it was a simple misunderstanding, Tommy sees no reason why Chuckie can’t just tell his dad what happened and return the tree. Chuckie perks up at the idea, and this seems like a pretty simple solution to the episode’s plot. Now what are we going to do for the remaining 15 minutes or so?
Chuckie’s tree has apparently ignited the Christmas spirit deep within his father.
Tommy and Chuckie return to Chuckie’s house where the two are happy to find the tree just standing there undecorated. This seems to affirm in Chuckie’s mind that his dad didn’t even like the tree anyway, which is an assumption that’s about to be shattered. I knew we couldn’t just wrap this thing up so neatly! Chas comes waltzing into the house with his arms full of Christmas ornaments. Chuckie is surprised to see his dad bought new ones, and then Betty enters in behind him to inform him he bought more than just that. Apparently, Chuckie’s tree really pointed out to his dad how shoddy their Christmases were and the old guy has gone Christmas crazy! He’s even got gingerbread cooking in the oven so he can construct an entire gingerbread village right down to the emergency call boxes. Chuckie had initially told his dad he needed to tell him something before he saw all of this Christmas stuff, but now he has literal Christmas stars in his eyes and can’t bring himself to tell him the truth. Instead, he just says he wishes his step mother and step sister could be here, but Chas tells him not to worry as they should be boarding their plane home right about now. Earlier, we learned the two were in Japan and coming home on Christmas Eve so we’re basically right up against the holiday at this point. We then get a quick check on the two as Kira (Julia Kato) and Kimi (Dionne Quan) are being informed by a ticket agent that they’ve been bumped from their flight home. Looks like we’re going to need to order a Christmas miracle.
That truck driver was an asshole.
Chuckie and Tommy are outside the Finster home where Chuckie confesses to a somewhat disinterested Tommy that he just couldn’t bring himself to tell his dad what happened. Chuckie sort of rambles on while Tommy can’t get over how good the gingerbread is that Chuckie’s dad made. Chuckie then gets the idea that to solve his problem he just needs to buy a new tree for the family he stole from. Tommy points out how expensive that tree was, but Chuckie brushes aside his concern as he’s been schooled in the Finster art of tree shopping! We cut to the tree lot where only one, scraggly, tree remains and the attendant wants 50 bucks for it. Chuckie literally drops to his knees begging for a better deal, but he’s just met with a “Supply and demand” explanation. We then cut to Tommy and Chuckie carrying the tree with Tommy pointing out how Chuckie had saved all year for that money. Chuckie must have given in, but he’s at least comforted by the fact that he still has a little over 3 bucks left. He pauses to scratch his nose and in doing so lets go of the tree. Tommy does as well, for some reason, and it flops into the street and is predictably run over by a passing truck leaving it in shambles. Chuckie sadly picks up what’s left of it which at least kind of resembles a Christmas tree, albeit at only 9 inches tall. Tommy tries to cheer him up by saying maybe it will look nice with some tinsel or something, but there’s no fixing this mess.
One Christmas tree goes missing and Betty starts reevaluating her security measures. She’s definitely one of those parents that will accidentally shoot one of her kids when they get caught sneaking back into the house after a night out.
A close-up of Betty installing a security camera takes us back into the Java Lava. Susie is working the register while Dill is apparently still working on that song. He asks her what rhymes with dreidel, but Susie just tells him nothing does (how about ladle?) and supposes that’s why there’s so few Chanukah songs. Tommy and Chuckie come walking in and Lil immediately notes that Chuckie has a case of the holiday blues. Betty then draws attention to her new surveillance system and blames the tree thief for the holiday blues going around. Susie reassures everyone not to worry about that and when Chuckie asks why she theorizes that “the big man upstairs” will take notice. I wasn’t sure if she meant Santa or God, but then suggests a smiting shall be upon them which answers that. This freaks Chuckie out and as Betty turns on her camera she tells Chuckie to “Say cheese,” but finds the kid has run off. You would think they would start to piece some things together at this point.
You know Chas, there is such a thing as too much Christmas spirit.
Chuckie heads home only to find his dad rehearsing Christmas carols with a group of authentic looking carolers. Chuckie is bewildered at this continued outpouring of Christmas spirit from his father and is further surprised when he finds out they’re rehearsing for the Christmas party Chas intends to host. He even declares that from now on the name Finster will be associated with Christmas fun! This turn is so intense on the part of Chas that I’m starting to think this is all a dream, but I don’t think so. Chuckie declines the invitation to join in on the fun and tells his dad he’s off to bed instead. Chas doesn’t pick up on any distress in his son, and in his defense I’m guessing Chuckie is frequently mopey, and instead just has everyone whisper their song instead.
This is how Chuckie tortures himself when he sleeps. You know, that family bought an expensive tree, they’re probably not hurting for money.
With Chuckie in bed, it is time for a dream sequence. Chuckie dreams himself outside the home of the family he stole from while the sound of sobbing can be heard coming from inside. He peers through the window and finds a rather Dickensian looking family seated at the table. They appear to be very poor as a young boy consoles his sobbing mother. The daughter curses the one who stole from them while the father instructs her to essentially turn the other cheek. As they prepare to say grace, Chuckie runs off into the woods where he encounters a new creature: the Christmas tree! It speaks to him, and when Chuckie questions who he is, the tree responds rhetorically and turns into a burning bush. Chuckie wakes up with a startle in his bed repeating to himself that he’s going to be smited, wicked smited. I find it weird that he sleeps with his glasses on.
I’ve never known anyone to get upset about getting stuck in Hawaii.
Time to check in with Kimi and Kira who are now in Hawaii. Kira is on the phone with Chas while an airline employee claims to have good news for them. She thinks it’s about their luggage, which has gone missing, but he just wants to offer some macadamia nuts to them. Kira is trying to keep it together, but Kimi attempts to leap across the counter and grab the guy. Kira informs her daughter that he’s probably doing everything he can to locate their luggage, but rather than confirm that assumption the man just keeps waving the little bag of nuts in her face. She sighs and accepts the meager offering. I suspect she’s going to explode next time we check-in on these two.
Back in 2004, the mall was still clinging to life.
Chuckie, Phil, and Lil are next seen strolling through the mall. It must be Christmas Eve at this point and they’re basically exactly where I wouldn’t want to be. Tommy and Dill are there too and Dill is still trying to come up with a song. Tommy points out they only have two days until Christmas, so I guess my assumption was off. As was Chuckie’s earlier explanation that his mother and sister were coming home on Christmas Eve, unless they were planning on all of these travel nightmares they’re going through.
Chuckie, you’re already in enough trouble, you don’t need to go picking a fight with Santa.
It’s at this point that everyone has basically taken notice of Chuckie’s mood, and it becomes harder to ignore when he stops dead in his tracks to basically curse out a display Christmas tree. It’s located where the mall Santa has taken his perch and Chuckie confronts him to share his opinion that the holiday has turned into a sham. He points out a tacky holiday advertisement to support his claim, but the Santa doesn’t really seem to care. Tommy tries to pull his friend away and Chuckie agrees to back down, but not without one of Santa’s freebie candy canes! He lunges for it and at this point a bunch of helpers emerge to the sound of alarms to pry the Finster away.
The smiting has begun!
Tommy and the others lead Chuckie to a bench. He apparently got to keep the candy cane and I would say he’s rather fortunate to not be tossed out of the mall at this point. I’m betting that sly Tommy was able to talk him out of any further punishment. Lil asks Chuckie what’s gotten into him and then confesses that it’s kind of attractive. I’m guessing that normally such a declaration from Lil, or any girl, would knock Chuckie off of his feet, but he’s too far down in the dumps now. No longer able to take it, he tells the rest of his friends that he’s the sicko who stole the tree! Tommy quickly jumps to the defense of his bestie telling the others it was an honest mistake. Chuckie insists he’s in real trouble with the man upstairs, but Lil assures him that God won’t smite him. I thought they were purposely avoiding the mention of God until Lil jumped in there. Chuckie disagrees pointing out that he even has elves on his case now. He suspects a smiting is in order and tells his friends they should keep their distance. Right on cue, sparks start raining down on Chuckie, but it’s from someone welding a banister above them (pretty odd to do while the mall is open). Chuckie is beyond consoling and begins to leave and then has to move faster when more sparks start showering him.
The party is our chance to see how time has treated the other adults. Not so well. Lil looks like she’s had a bit too much eggnog. Howard appears to be near death.
It’s party time at the Finster residence! Not only are those carolers present, but Chas hired a full, live-action, nativity scene as well. He really has gone all out. We also get to see all of the adults we’ve been denied up until now. Howard, Phil and Lil’s dad, is looking rather feeble while Didi and Stu have aged more gracefully. The entire Pickels clan decided to wear formal attire, but Chas is doing the same so maybe that was encouraged? One person not in a suit is Chuckie and Tommy finds him sulking in a corner thoroughly miserable. He points out that this is the Christmas he’s always wanted and he couldn’t be more unhappy. The phone rings and it’s Kira and Chas has the Christmas wind knocked out of him when he finds out the two are stuck in Mexico. Chuckie blames himself and feels he’s essentially cursed his family’s Christmas by stealing that tree. Tommy points out that he could potentially fix this since he’s the one who stole it. When Chuckie asks how Tommy replies, “By stealing it.”
It’s nice to see they still go on adventures, just now they’re crimes.
We then find the crew dressed like ninjas and lurking outside the Finster house later that night. Stealing a Christmas tree is clearly a five kid job. They come to the window where Tommy whips out old reliable – his screwdriver, and uses it to break into the house. Chuckie points out that they can go through the door, but the others seem really invested in this ninja stuff. At least Tommy is, and as he makes various hand gestures to the others they just return them with confused looks. He then just tells them to get the tree. They try to shove it out the window, ornaments and all, but it’s a tight fit prompting Chuckie to remind them that the door is still an option.
The “cool” has evaporated.
In Mexico, we find Kira and Kimi on the streets. The good news is they appear to have all of their luggage, the bad news is they’re going to miss Christmas. Kira seems a little frazzled as well with the mariachi playing in her ear and street vendors repeatedly trying to sell her items. Kimi tells her mom she’s proud of her, and when Kira asks why, it’s because she’s managed to keep her cool throughout all of this. That means she’s about to lose it and does when some rando tries to swipe the cab she hailed. She grabs the man by the collar and throws him to the ground while recounting her misadventures up until now in case we needed a quick recap.
Chuckie is the only kid to ever wake up happy to find his Christmas tree stolen.
With that out of the way, we can return to the tree plot. The kids place the tree on the stoop of its rightful home and ring the bell. Then, for some reason, they stand around a moment until a light comes on inside and at that point they finally run. We cut to the next morning and Chas is discovering the missing tree. He apologizes to Chuckie, but the son is happy to just curse those tree thieves that have been making the rounds. As Chuckie dramatically cries out “Why?” Chas concludes that he should have listened to Betty’s warning and given Chuckie “that dog early.” Chuckie then excitedly asks if he’s getting a dog, but Chas just says “No.” He then wonders why someone would steal a Christmas tree, but leave behind “a Kid-Vid X-Game?” In this universe Kid-Vid must have broken free from the Burger King Kid’s Club. Chuckie then repeats the previous gag by asking if he’s getting such a game and Chas deadpans, “No,” once more. Does he know what really happened and is just torturing his son at this point?
Oh look, the family is all together at Christmas. Who could have predicted that?
Chas concludes that Christmas is ruined and draws his son in close and is puzzled at the presence of pine needles in Chuckie’s hair. That’s it, Chuckie is done keeping things from his dad and confesses to stealing the tree not once, not twice, but three times! He then concedes that he’s confused about how many times he stole it (I think it was just twice, Chuckie) and Chas just calmly tells him to explain what happened. And he…doesn’t? He just tells his dad that he wanted a big Christmas like everyone else and that’s it. Before Chas can ask a presumed follow-up question, the door opens and Kira and Kimi come waltzing in. The family embraces and Chas gets to give his son a lesson by showing him they don’t have nothing and repeats the mantra about family and Christmas. Kira is pretty amazed to see how festive the house is, but then asks about the lack of a tree. Chuckie suggests he tell them about that over breakfast. Kira then pulls out a bonsai tree and declares that anything is better than one of Chas’s trees and hands him what I assume is a little gift she brought back from Japan. They place it in the spot vacated by the Christmas tree and the sound of Susie singing “The First Noel” fills our ears.
Here’s that Susie solo we were promised.
As Susie sings we get to see the camera pan over the town and its festive decorations. I thought we were going to check-in on the other families, but no, instead we are taken to the church as the sun goes down. Inside, Susie is singing and all of her friends and their families are gathered just as they promised. When Susie finishes her song she announces that their Jewish friends have something to share as well. This is Tommy and Dill’s cue to launch into this Chanukah song they’ve been working on. It’s an ode to latkes, and most of the audience seems amused by it. Didi, surprisingly, does not. I also notice a lack of Grandpa Lou in attendance which had me running to a wiki to see if he was dead. He’s not supposed to be so I guess he’s just asleep in front of the TV.
And, of course, the Chanukah song as well. I’m guessing Dill is one of those characters that always wears a hat.
That’s it though as the episode ends with a pan up and out of the church as the audience applauds the silly song about latkes. That wasn’t bad and I was surprised at how effortlessly these characters just sort of slip into teenagers. I thought they might have felt forced into these somewhat new personas, but it all felt natural. The episode also didn’t feel like it had to get everyone into it. The cast is rather large now and likely a tad cumbersome, but I was surprised we didn’t get a quick cut to see what Anjelica was doing. Only Betty and Chas of the adult characters had any lines, not that we needed to hear from anyone else, but I was still surprised. Usually these holiday episodes feel the need to get everyone involved, but not All Grown Up!
The only plot in this one that mattered was Chuckie’s. The bit with his step mother and sister only existed to make Chuckie feel bad and that God was out to get him for stealing a Christmas tree. Even so, it was a rather low stakes plot considering it was a misunderstanding. A rational person would have righted the wrong fairly quickly, but that wouldn’t be very dramatic. We had to wait until the last minute for everything to be set right, though Chuckie really didn’t have any comeuppance. I guess his torture was all the comeuppance he needed. The subplot about the song was unnecessary, though I liked that the episode did end at the church since it was mentioned by Susie early on and I like that her friends are all supportive of her. It’s also somewhat quaint to see a church-going community on television in 2004. The Simpsons has been doing it for awhile, but even with that show it feels like a throwback to a bygone era.
There are a couple of subplots, but the only that matters is Chuckie’s.
And speaking of, the “villain” of the episode being God was pretty interesting. Well, I suppose technically the villain was Chuckie, but he feared God’s retribution and the almighty was even named. That’s definitely rare for a kid’s show, but it did make sense here considering we’re dealing with tweens. It would have felt really silly for Chuckie to fear getting coal in his stocking or something. If the show were Not Quite Grown Up and the kids were in elementary school then sure. They don’t outright say anything about Santa not being real, but it’s implied with Chuckie asking his dad what he got him for Christmas. I suppose Chuckie could have feared the police or another threat instead, but God works.
As for the production, this is still very much a Klasky-Csupo show. Character models are still pretty weird and almost purposefully ugly. The aged-up babies actually all look a lot less monstrous now, maybe it’s simply the hair? If it weren’t for the purple hair, Tommy would look fairly normal. Chuckie looks about the same, while I really dug Lil’s updated design. She has some flair, Phil as well, and I don’t know that I would have predicted that out of the twins. There’s a lot of wardrobe changes too for an animated show and I certainly appreciated the variety. The show is almost mean to the adults though. They all look like they aged 20 years, not 10 or whatever it’s supposed to be. Poor Howard looked the worst, but at least he’s still with Betty. I thought she would have left him for another woman by now. Mark Mothersbaugh is still the composer for the show, but his score is not really evocative at all of the one in place for Rugrats. I’m guessing that was tailor-made for a show about babies and this one needs to be about tweens, but in doing so it lost a lot of personality. Nothing about it stood out to me. At least the character voices all sound great. I’m not sure if they had to modulate Daily and Strong in post at all, but I was impressed with how low they were able to go with their voices. Soucie’s Phil and Lil were left mostly unchanged and same for Summer’s Susie. I actually don’t have much exposure to Cartwright’s Chuckie, but I think it’s basically the same between the two shows with maybe just a bit more confidence in the delivery since he’s no longer a baby stumbling over words.
At least the kid got to experience some fleeting moments of Christmas bliss.
I don’t know that I’ll ever get around to it, but I am curious about the rest of the show. I also wonder if Nickelodeon will ever bring these characters back as high school aged kids. The original audience of the show is approaching 40 at this point, so maybe that ship has sailed. Do those kids want to see them as adults? I was only a casual Rugrats viewer back in the day and I can safely say the idea of adult Rugrats doesn’t interest me. Maybe as a special, but what would I want from it? Can Rugrats be cynical or will everyone be leading happy, healthy, adult lives? I don’t know, but considering these characters are babies once again in the new show, that seems like something pretty far off.
If you want to spend Christmas in agony with Chuckie, All Grown Up! can be found streaming on Paramount+. There, this episode is listed as the seventh in the third season for some reason, but it’s there for you if you wish to view it. I doubt that Nick will air it, but I suppose you never know. You might as well pair it with the other Rugrats holiday specials, they’re all pretty good (the secret best one is actually the Mother’s Day episode), and you’re likely to have a good time whether you’re a kid, adult, or just a kid at heart.
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
Yesterday, we took a look at the 1992 Christmas special from the third Nickelodeon Nicktoon The Ren & Stimpy Show. Today, we’re basically working backwards and talking about the second Nicktoon to premiere: Rugrats. The Ren & Stimpy Show is probably the most celebrated of the original Nicktoons when it comes to animation circles, but…
For today’s subject, we’re going all the way back to 1937 to talk about the Columbia Pictures Gifts from the Air. This particular cartoon comes from an era dominated by Disney, Warner Bros, and MGM with a tip of the cap to Noveltoons. The Color Rhapsody Theatrical Cartoon Series is not particularly well-remembered outside of…
It was a couple of years ago we looked at the first Aqua Teen Hunger Force Christmas episode because it contained Danzig. I was basically required to talk about it! This year we’re coming back to it, and wouldn’t you know, there is a musical component to this one as well. If you’re unfamiliar with…
Come 1996 the Nicktoons were an established brand. Launched in 1991, Nickelodeon had tremendous success with the likes of Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show and soon more shows followed. Nickelodeon seemed to be a bit stingy with their in-house shows when it came to renewals as when a network looks to renew a successful show, it often has to pay more per episode to bring everyone back. That may have been why there seemed to always be new shows in the pipeline. The original block of 3 shows soon became 4 when Rocko’s Modern Life was added, and then gradually more shows were added and some would be dropped from the Sunday morning timeslot.
I kept up with Nicktoons for the first several years, but I started to drift away as I entered my teens. The last Nicktoon I remember being excited about was Aaaah! Real Monsters which launched in 1994 and I probably only followed the first batch of episodes from that show. I was moving towards the edgier stuff and sleeping in on Sundays so Nicktoons were no longer appointment viewing for me. One show I really only experienced through osmosis was Hey Arnold!Hey Arnold! premiered in 1996 and was a far more grounded show than the Nicktoons that had preceded it. Doug was the only direct comparable as that too centered on just some kid of middle school age trying to navigate adolescence. Only Doug was interested in tooning things up as the character Porkchop was a true cartoon dog in that he possessed unreasonable intelligence and communication skills. Plus Doug was always dipping into his imagination which allowed the show to go places a typical school setting couldn’t provide. With Arnold, we really don’t get any of that. Arnold is just a kid who lives with his grandparents who run a small apartment building in the city. He has friends, kids he’s not on good terms with, and mostly the show could be described as a slice of life piece.
Where Arnold distinguishes himself is via his good nature. He is a very empathic individual without a mean bone in his body. He can get angry with others, but he’s not retaliatory or mean-spirited. He’s comfortable voicing his concerns and mostly he seems to just want to make the world a better place in any way that he can. The character is a creation of Craig Bartlett and he actually originated in a pretty foreign place compared to this show: Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. Bartlett created the character for that show which may explain his unusual design featuring the football-shaped head. He liked Arnold enough to retain control of the character and centered a show around him, which Nickelodeon picked up. The show itself seeks to portray a modern, urban, setting and how kids in the city behave and interact with each other. There are certainly some more “wacky” premises to certain episodes, but my overall impression of the show always came back to that it’s very grounded compared to its contemporaries.
The real question is: did Arnold make that snowman, or Helga?
I say I experienced Hey Arnold! largely through osmosis because it was never a show I sought out. My sister liked it and if I was using our family computer it meant she had control of the television in the same room so that’s how I saw a lot of this period of Nickelodeon. I don’t know how much of the show I saw. I certainly saw enough to know who Arnold was and who his best friend was. I knew Helga was the school bully with a bad homelife who harbored a secret crush for little football head. I knew Arnold didn’t have parents, but I don’t know if it was ever explained why. And I knew the show had a Christmas episode in its first season. It’s one of the few episodes I can recall with any specificity as it was surprising in how moving it was. I say surprising, but for anyone who watched the show regularly, I don’t think it was. For me coming at it as just another Nicktoon, I wasn’t expecting to be moved to tears by its resolution. Because it wasn’t a favorite show of mine, I kind of lost track of it resulting in “Arnold’s Christmas” being something close to a one and done for me as opposed to an annual viewing. When I compiled my updated list of the 25 best Christmas specials, it was one I considered, but ultimately declined to include. Consider this entry a re-appraisal of “Arnold’s Christmas” as I know many people younger than me absolutely consider it among the best of the best and likely the best Christmas special produced by Nickelodeon.
Helga is about to drop some Christmas wisdom on poor Phoebe.
Like many Christmas episodes, this one foregoes the usual opening title for a more festive one. We see many scenes of kids playing in the snow and some of the tenants of the apartment building are skating over frozen streets. There’s an Arnold-shaped snowman and the whole sequence is set to an original instrumental by series composer Jim Lang that sounds vaguely “Christmas” without actually sourcing some public domain music. As the music fades out, we see the kids running in the street and the camera soon finds Helga (Francesca Marie Smith) walking on a sidewalk with her only friend, Phoebe (Anndi McAfee). Phoebe is delighted by the presence of Christmas all around them, but when she asks Helga what she likes best about this time of year she gets the very Helga response of “Presents, dummy!” Well, not exactly, but that’s her tone as she details her feelings on the holiday which can be distilled to getting as much stuff as possible before it’s all over.
Nancy Spumoni is like some sort of living Barbie?
Soon, Helga’s gaze finds a store display advertising Nancy Spumoni snow boots.This is apparently her version of the Red Ryder BB gun as she details all of the features of the boots as she circles the display practically drooling over them. Another kid, Rhonda (Olivia Hack), chimes in to remind Helga that this is the hot item basically all of the girls their age wants this year and they’re hard to come by. Helga dismisses her take as she’s feeling confident she’ll get what she wants this year. And if she doesn’t, it sounds like she intends to make sure her parents pay somehow. Possibly physically.
Gerald and Marge Simpson could probably share stories on hats.
We then cut to Arnold (Toran Caudell) walking with his best friend Gerald (Jamil Walker Smith). Gerald is carrying a shopping bag which makes it look like they just got done with some Christmas shopping. Arnold is asking Gerald what he got each member of his family and Gerald responds that he got a tie for each one, including his four-year-old sister. Arnold tells him he can’t just get ties for everyone on his list and shares his philosophy on gift-giving which is that each gift you give should mean something and come from the heart. Gerald appears to be moved by this and decides he can give the tie he got for his sister to his grandfather and find her a toy or something. He then takes off and when Arnold asks where he’s going he tells him to the store to return the present he got for Arnold. Arnold just smiles, and as he walks off we see Helga had been eavesdropping on the conversation. As Arnold walks off, she goes into her usual routine of listing off the things about Arnold she despises before a switch seems to flip in her head and she does a 180 and lists off all of the things she adores about him. She vows to get him the perfect gift for Christmas, something that will cause him to pine for her the way she does him, and as she wraps an arm around a lamppost a delivery truck passes by splashing mud all over her.
This guy Oskar is kind of a dick.
We shift to the apartment building Arnold resides in and get a peek at Mr. Hyunh (Baoan Coleman) ascending the stoop to enter the building. He pauses and looks over his shoulder just before he enters and the wind appears to whisper something. He enters and walks into a festive setting. Arnold’s grandmother, Gertrude (Tress MacNeille), appears to be finishing up decorating the tree and shouts “Happy Thanksgiving!” to all of the tenants present in the common area. I don’t know if it’s a joke that she says Happy Thanksgiving or if it actually is Thanksgiving. The events that follow don’t appear to last a month, but I suppose there could be a big time-jump that’s not explained. Arnold’s grandpa, Phil (Dan Castellaneta), announces they can now draw names for their annual secret Santa. Oskar (Steve Viksten) passes around a bowl and everyone pulls a name, only they’re all Oskar. They call him on his bullshit and he just laughs it off before they pass out the real names. From what little I remember of this show, I do recall Oskar being a selfish d-bag who mostly gets away with it due to his cheerful disposition. Phil requests Gertrude play some Christmas music as they start over and she starts playing “Yankee Doodle” on the piano which is a lowkey funny joke as no one reacts to it. I’m starting to think grandma is just a wee-bit senile. They all take a name, including Arnold, who gets Mr. Hyunh. He looks at the older fellow with a look of disappointment, but one that clearly stems from him being at a loss as to what he could get him for Christmas.
Mr. Hyunh has no shortage of sweaters.
We find Arnold and Gerald in the middle of a snowball fight. Arnold has told Gerald about his problem, but Gerald doesn’t see it as any big deal and tells him to just get Mr. Hyunh a tie. Arnold reminds him how he feels about gift giving, so Gerald makes the logical suggestion: go talk to him. Arnold brightens up immediately at the suggestion and doesn’t even seem to mind the snowball that smashes into his head. We cut to Arnold seated on Mr. Hyunh’s couch as a somewhat uncomfortable Mr. Hyunh sits across from him and asks Arnold what he wanted to ask him. The apartment seems rather sparse and has bananas on the wall paper, which I wonder if that was Mr. Hyunh’s doing or Arnold’s grandparents? Arnold says he just wanted to check-in with him, and at this point it must be obvious to Hyunh that Arnold is his secret Santa for why else would he be so inquisitive all of a sudden? They make some small talk where Arnold learns that Mr. Hyunh dislikes candy and has a whole bunch of sweaters. He has so many that even offers one to Arnold who declines and Mr. Hyunh almost looks hurt by the rejection.
Crushing.
Mr. Hyunh then reveals that this time of year is always hard for him as it causes him to think about his long lost daughter Mai. Arnold asks about her and we’re shown a flashback. Mr. Hyunh apparently hails from Vietnam, though the show never says this. He describes his former home as being a place torn apart by war. He had a baby daughter there, and when things were getting rough he was able to flee his home and is shown amongst a bunch of other citizens at what appears to be the US embassy trying to get to safety. The helicopter though is full, but Hyunh makes the hard decision to hold his small daughter up in the soldier’s face who accepts the child. As the helicopter takes off, he shouts out the name of the city where his daughter will be taken so that Hyunh can hopefully find her. Unfortunately, this all took place 20 years ago. Hyunh only somewhat recently was able to get out of Vietnam and to the US and he’s so far been unable to track down his daughter. It’s a heartbreaking story, and one that certainly has parallels to real world events. Relations between the US and Vietnam were rather frought for understandable reasons and they didn’t normalize until 1995 so it tracks that Mr. Hyunh would not have been able to arrive where he is until relatively recently. For the viewer, that real world connection is mostly irrelevant as the show gives enough information on its own to understand the situation Mr. Hyunh finds himself in and certainly enough to feel empathy for him, but it sure does underscore the pain for those who understand the inspiration here.
I can’t decide if Arnold’s optimism is infectious or frustrating.
Following that tale, Arnold is able to walk away from the encounter knowing what Mr. Hyunh wants for Christmas most. The only problem is, how does one go about finding a proverbial needle in a haystack? He must have shared this desire with Gerald, because we cut to the two of them walking through the streets with Gerald calling Arnold crazy. He even refers to Mr. Hyunh as the “monkey man guy” so apparently his unique wallpaper is well known. Arnold doesn’t think he’s crazy though and knows Mr. Hyunh is just a guy who wants to be reunited with his daughter and if there’s anything Arnold can do to help make that happen he’s going to try. Gerald then reminds him of the impossibility of the situation and we also find out that it’s already Christmas Eve! He tells Arnold that the only way he can hope to find Mai is via a miracle, but this doesn’t get Arnold down as he points out that Christmas is the most likely time of year for a miracle to occur. Touché, Arnold.
There’s a lot of Christmas Eve shopping going on today.
We then smash cut to Helga angrily digging through a bunch of toys in a department store. She’s still looking for a gift for Arnold and is frustrated by her lack of ideas. She wants something big and flashy. A train catches her fancy, but she dismisses it as too juvenile. She cries out “What would Arnold want for Christmas?” and we hard cut to Arnold saying “Here it is!” Only he isn’t eyeballing some shiny toy, but standing outside of a government building with Gerald. Arnold tells Gerald he called a bunch of government offices today and they all pointed him here, which is some office of records or something. He’s convinced that the information they need is in this building, they just need to find it.
Well they’re certainly having a good time.
The two enter and find it sparsely populated upfront. That’s because it’s Christmas Eve and there’s an office party taking place. There’s no visible alcohol, but it’s pretty clear that the attendees are enjoying some spirits as one is wearing a trash bucket on his head and laughing. Recognizing this as a lost cause, the two head further into the building and find one, middle-aged, man working on his own in a darkened room. He is Mr Bailey (Vincent Schiavelli), the department supervisor, and he’s a busy man who doesn’t want to be bothered. Arnold explains the situation to him, and Gerald chimes in as well, though the whole time Bailey doesn’t break his concentration and continues typing away. Once they’ve finished their pitch, Mr. Bailey tells them he’s touched by their story (which reads as sarcasm, on his part), but informs them that what they’re asking would take hours and resources he doesn’t have right now. He basically tells them to beat it, and even suggests checking out the party down the hall, and the two boys look defeated as they head for the door.
Mr. Bailey: the rough around the edges bureaucrat with a heart of gold.
As they walk out, Bailey gets a phone call. It’s his wife, and when he informs her that he hasn’t done the Christmas shopping yet Arnold perks up. They listen in on the phone call, and when he’s through Arnold has a proposition for Mr. Bailey: he’ll do his Christmas shopping for him in exchange for Bailey’s help in tracking down Mai. Bailey seems understandably reluctant to entrust his money (300 bucks) and shopping to two kids he’s never met, but concedes he really doesn’t have time to do the shopping so he agrees to Arnold’s proposal, but on one condition: Arnold has to get everything on the list by closing time, or no deal. Arnold happily agrees and he and Gerald take a wad of money and Bailey’s shopping list and set out to accomplish this fairly tall order. It’s Christmas Eve, and not particularly early in the day, so they have their work cut out for them. Unsurprisingly, Arnold is not dismayed at all, but quite the opposite. He’s certain they’ll fill the list and Mr. Bailey will find Mai and Mr. Hyunh will have a merry Christmas!
Look at this kid! You’re supposed to walk in the aisles, Stinky!
The first stop on the shopping spree is a store called Budnick’s. Is this a reference to another Nickelodeon show? Maybe, or maybe it’s a coincidence, but I’m going to go with “yes” because it makes me happy. Before we can get a glimpse at this list though, we first need to check-in with Helga. She’s contemplating a skateboard for Arnold and talking up the gift to herself to the point where it seems like she’s found the perfect gift. Then another kid pops up, Stinky (Christopher Walberg), to tell Helga that it is a great gift. How does he know? Because Arnold has one just like it! The kid’s a bit odd as he’s tall and gangly and actually steps over the display of skateboards to enthusiastically tell Helga all about it. A dismayed Helga returns the skateboard to the rack and slinks off, but hey, at least she didn’t get Arnold something he already had!
Mr. Bailey’s list, in case you were curious. I’m not seeing a typewriter.
We then get a glimpse of Arnold and Gerald shopping nearby. They’re grabbing some clothes off the rack, Arnold selects a watch, and they take all of their stuff to gift wrapping. Once done, we see them running back out onto the city streets where they head for another store: Tildales. Inside, they purchase what looks like a Walkman before running off to another store to get a typewriter (these bags they’re carrying just got a whole lot heavier). They race out of there and actually take a breather by sitting on a bench. There they can take stock of what they have left to buy and it turns out they’re down to one last item: Official Nancy Spumoni Snow boots. It’s clear judging by Arnold’s optimism that he has no idea how sought after these silly boots are, and if Gerald is aware, he has no immediate reaction.
Gerald is about to lay some reality on Helga.
We cut back to Helga who has, once again, found the perfect gift for her beloved Arnold. It’s some video game called The Frozen Tundra Death Warrior 7000! It doesn’t sound like the sort of thing Arnold would like, but what do I know? Helga disagrees as she thinks it’s flashy and something Arnold will be delighted to find underneath his Christmas tree. As she convinces herself of the gift’s majesty, she vocalizes her desires and wishes which include an admission of love for Arnold and the hope that this gift will inspire him to feel the same way about her as she does him. She even declares that this must be the truest meaning of Christmas. Worth noting, the price tag on this game is 100 bucks so Helga is really throwing some coin around to impress Arnold. As she clutches the game to her chest, she’s startled when she turns around to spy Arnold and Gerald on their mission for those fancy snow boots. She quickly hides the game behind her back. She addresses the pair in her usual bully fashion, referring to Arnold as football head and Gerald as tall hair boy (she’s very creative). She pokes fun at them for their last minute shopping, but when Arnold asks what she’s shopping for she’s happy to whip out the video game. She boasts how anyone receiving that for a gift would be really impressed, but Gerald takes a look at it and corrects her by noting it’s expensive and flashy, but not exactly personal. Apparently he really did take Arnold’s message to heart when it came to gift giving. Helga basically has a defeated look on her face as Gerald hands the game back with a “No offense,” that likely doesn’t help salve her wounds.
I’d call them jerks, but since they’re working retail at Christmas this is probably the only chance at laughter they’ve had since Thanksgiving.
Arnold reminds Gerald that they have to get going, but takes the time to wish Helga a, “Merry Christmas,” before departing. After he leaves, Helga fumes and slams the game into a shopping cart that just rolled up out of no where behind her. She then notices that Arnold dropped something. It’s the list that Mr. Bailey gave him and Helga picks it up and sees the Nancy Spumoni snow boots written on it and her face begins to glow. She then follows the pair as Arnold asks a clerk (Maurice LaMarche) if they have any of the boots in stock and the guy calls over his co-workers and makes Arnold ask again so they can all laugh at his expense. He tells Arnold how sought after they are and offers a waiting list that may pay dividends by the fourth of July, but that won’t work for Arnold. As Arnold leaves the store, Helga looks on with curiosity.
Helga should consider a career as a ninja.
A montage follows that shows Arnold and Gerald dashing to the subway and to various stores around the city. Each one just contains more clerks and more laughter from them when Arnold asks if they have any snow boots in stock. When the montage is over it’s nearly 6 o’clock and Gerald reminds him they need to get back for closing time. They’re just going to have to tell Mr. Bailey that there just aren’t any boots out there. Arnold, in a defeated voice, just voices disbelief that there isn’t one pair of the boots out there in the city. They return to Mr. Bailey lacking the snow boots, but not exactly empty-handed since they did get everything else on his exhaustive list. If you thought Mr. Bailey would be an understanding guy well then you’re as naive as Arnold. No snow boots, no deal, is what they get from Bailey who seems more angry than appreciative of what the boys did for him. Arnold and Gerald are forced to leave and they sulk on a bench outside. Helga is lurking behind a tree as she has apparently been following them this whole time. Arnold conveniently summarizes the plot of this episode for Helga to hear as she now knows that Arnold is after those boots just so some guy will help him locate a missing person. Arnold thanks Gerald for sticking with him through all of this and notes that he needed a miracle to pull this off, but just came up short. Gerald tries to cheer him up by letting him know that what he did is more than anyone would do to help someone and even tosses in a “That’s what Christmas is all about, Arnold.” Arnold is still pretty downtrodden by the whole thing, though he seems almost too tired to be truly sad or angry. As the two walk off, the camera lingers on Helga as she now knows the whole story.
The Pataki family having a good old time without their 9-year-old daughter who they apparently don’t keep track of.
At the Pataki house, Helga’s family is belting out their own drunken rendition of “Jingle Bells.” The thing with Helga’s mom (Kath Soucie) is she’s always shown drinking something in the show, usually coffee, but her mannerisms imply she’s basically drunk. And here, she seems to be drinking eggnog. Actually, it’s quickly confirmed to be eggnog. Basically, she’s an alcoholic, but the show must not have been allowed to spell it out so plainly so they have to tiptoe around it. Her father, Bob (LaMarche), is just a boisterous asshole who pays no attention to Helga and both parents are far more invested in Helga’s older sister, Olga, who they view as the golden child. Helga comes into the house with her shoulders slumped as she heads into the living room and collapses on the couch. Her mom comes over and asks where she’s been all day and Helga replies curtly, “Out, Miriam.” She always addresses her parents by name as she seems to think they aren’t worthy of being called mom and dad. Miriam does note that her daughter looks depressed, but doesn’t actually ask her anything or attempt to investigate why. Instead, she just hands over a Christmas present. Helga opens the box and finds one of the things she had been longing for: Official Nancy Spumoni Signature Snow Boots! She immediately brightens up while her mom tries to tell her how long she had to wait in line just to get them.
I could have gone with a sad Helga picture, but let’s have a look at happy Helga since she doesn’t experience much pure joy in this episode.
After giving her mom a quick hug, Helga throws them on and races outside to bask in the afterglow of the perfect Christmas present. As she spins her way through the snowy streets, a realization hits her. Arnold’s list has fallen out of her pocket and is staring up at her. Her shoulders immediately slump once more as she regards it as she whines out loud, “Not another moral dilemma!” She then goes over her emotions, how she’s happy because she got what she wanted which typically would be enough for her; more than enough, really! Then she notes how Arnold is not happy because he won’t be getting what he wanted this Christmas, which involves these silly snow boots. She finally knows what it will take to get Arnold the perfect Christmas present, the other thing she’s been longing for. It also means giving up what she refers to as really boss snow boots, which will end up with her getting nothing. One could interpret this scene as the show talking down to its audience by so explicitly laying out the stakes for Helga and Arnold, but I think it’s a worthwhile exercise so we stop and think about how this is all going through Helga’s head in the moment. She was on the wrong end of Christmas at the episode’s start, so in order for her to undertake the selfless act we all know is coming, we really need to see her internal dilemma before us so that it’s believable. And the fact that the scene ends with Helga once more slumping her shoulders and then dropping to her knees really helps to sell it. She’s arriving at the right conclusion, but she’s not happy about it, and she even admits out loud that she’s going to end up with nothing. No boss snow boots. No affection from Arnold. Nothing.
Honestly, if I’m in Bailey’s shoes I’m not sure I care about some random kid’s belief in miracles.
In Arnold’s room, we find the little guy laying in bed just staring at the ceiling. He imagines what it must have been like for Mr. Hyunh to watch his daughter fly out of his life as he just lays there. We then cut to the government building and Mr. Bailey is shown locking up. Helga comes running up and tosses the wrapped snow boots into his arms and orders him to get back in there because they have a missing person to find! If you thought Bailey would be delighted to get the sought after boots he needed, well you were once again mistaken. He tells Helga to go home and hands her back the box. It’s Christmas Eve and he wants to get out of there. Helga tries pleading with him, but he just keeps heading for his cab and reiterates to her that he just wants to go home. Helga then makes one final plea, “For pity’s sake, are you really that cold? Look in your heart. We’ve got a choice here, either you and I work all night to find a certain lost daughter, or you can leave now. But if you leave now, that little football-headed kid will never believe in miracles again.” Mr. Bailey says nothing, but he turns away from his cab and he has a frozen, almost emotionless, look on his face as the scene fades to black.
That’s not the usual, optimistic, Arnold we’re used to.
The next morning, Gerald shows up at the apartment house to wish Arnold a merry Christmas. Arnold still looks defeated as he’s seated in a chair while others seem to be basking in the merriment of the holiday. He returns Gerald’s gesture, but has the look of someone who didn’t sleep a wink last night. Across the room, the gift exchange is underway and Oskar opens his gift to find a bag of coal. He asks who could do such a thing, and Ernie (Dom Irrera) smiles and in an unconvincing manner states “Wasn’t me!” Grandpa Phil then announces that’s the last of the presents, but Ernie points out that Mr. Hyunh didn’t get one. Arnold’s shoulders slump further as his grandfather looks under the tree to make sure he didn’t miss any. Mr. Hyunh states it’s okay and he doesn’t need a present and would seem to prefer just staring into the fireplace. Arnold then drags himself off of his chair to go talk to him, but is interrupted by the doorbell. As Grandpa Phil angrily goes to see who would bother them on Christmas, Arnold seems to just stare at Mr. Hyunh who isn’t looking in his direction. Gerald comes to stand beside his friend as I’m assuming he expects Arnold to tell Mr. Hyunh what they attempted to do the prior day, but Arnold just can’t seem to bring himself to do so.
I don’t think the next few images require captions…
Without saying anything, Grandpa Phil comes back into the room with a big grin on his face and brings a young woman into the room with him. She’s smiling and is clearly of asian descent, but she just continues to smile in the direction of Mr. Hyunh and waits for him him to turn around. A whisper of “Mai” can be heard and I think the implication is that it’s Mr. Hyunh’s daughter’s name echoing in his head, as it did early in the episode when was climbing the stoop, but it also seems to get him to turn around. She continues to smile at him while Mr. Hyunh just looks on with a stunned expression on his face. The moment is allowed to linger for a beat, before Mai finally breaks the silence by asking “Father?” He returns her question with “Mai?” and the two quickly embrace as Mr. Hyunh declares “I can’t believe it!” Arnold looks on with shock while the others mostly smile. Ernie can be seen quietly crying in the background. Mr. Hyunh then introduces Mai as his daughter to everyone. Arnold offers up a “Merry Christmas, Mr. Hyunh,” while Phil attempts to put a bow on the whole thing by declaring that Mr. Hyunh got his present after all.
Arnold then confesses to Gerald that he basically can’t believe this happened and questions how it could have? Gerald just matter-of-factly declares it a miracle, the one Arnold had been counting on, and there’s really no explaining a miracle. He then suggests that maybe Arnold has a Christmas angel looking out for him, and Arnold almost seems receptive to the idea. We’re then shown through the window that Helga is standing in the street looking on. She’s in her socks too, so she apparently did end up surrendering those boots to Mr. Bailey, as expected. She looks happy though and nearly overcome with emotion as she whispers softly to herself, “Merry Christmas, Arnold.”
A sweet ending for a sweet story. It’s obvious that Mr. Bailey and Helga returned to his office after their encounter outside and were able to find Mai and somehow connect with her to orchestrate this meet-up. If she was escorted to Arnold’s house by Helga or not is unclear. What is a touch confusing about the final scene is we see Gerald arrives and it’s clearly daylight, probably late Christmas morning. When we cut to Helga the sun is much lower and it’s approaching dusk. I’m going to chalk it up to an artistic choice that the director just felt it would look better for Helga to be standing outside on a darkened street than a busy one in broad daylight, because hours definitely did not pass between when Gerald arrived and when we pan to Helga. No matter, as the impact of the moment is still felt. Mr. Hyunh’s reunion with his daughter is sweet and tear-jerking, and Helga’s almost silent offering to Arnold is just as tender. There’s a touch of sadness as well since Helga gave up a lot to orchestrate this, and not just snow boots, but her own Christmas with her family even if her home life isn’t ideal. She also likely will get in a lot of trouble for giving those boots away, but we also know she won’t tell anyone what happened to them. She’ll probably tell her mom they were stupid and she sold them. Or her mom won’t even notice, because they usually don’t pay much attention to her. And Arnold is likely never to know what Helga did for him this Christmas which adds a touch of tragedy to the scene, but in looking at Helga’s expression, it would appear she did not end up with nothing after all.
Ok, I’ll caption this one because I think it’s so cute that Ernie is moved to tears.
The story told through Mr. Hyunh is probably still the main takeaway. Even if Arnold and Helga are at the center of the show, it’s hard to argue that Hyunh’s story didn’t steal the episode. It’s pretty crushing, and frankly impossible, for me as a father to put myself in his shoes and the shoes of many real life people who had to make that terrible choice to give up their child in the hope that it would provide them a better life. Knowing there are many real life Mr. Hyunh’s out there who probably never found their child in the end is equally heartbreaking and for a show like Hey Arnold! to shine a light on the refugees of Vietnam is a noble cause. This isn’t something I ever saw touched upon by another show in this demographic and it’s that aspect of it that has really helped it to endure over the years since its premiere.
It’s a sweet image, but I have to point out that Helga was wearing her normal shoes when she confronted Mr. Bailey and probably should be wearing them, but the socks drive home that she did in fact swap her boots for his help.
One watch of this episode and it’s easy to see why so many people adore it and why it is worthy of being considered among the best. Am I ready to reorder my list from a few years back to include it? No, but if I should return to that list I’ll certainly consider it. As a Christmas special, it is a bit formulaic and predictable. On the surface, a bratty kid learning the true of meaning of Christmas via a selfless act is pretty by the numbers, but the show found a new and captivating way to approach it. It’s also handled expertly and I love how several scenes are allowed to just linger and breath for maximum effect. The reunion of father and daughter is a clear example of that, as is all of the monologuing conducted by Helga throughout to really illustrate what she’s thinking as her emotions are a bit more complex than they appear to be on the surface. I also really liked the score utilized throughout and felt the show did a great job of not spreading itself too thin. Hey Arnold! is a show with a vast assortment of supporting characters that the episode really could have been bogged down by, but the writers involved knew we didn’t need to see how every kid in Arnold’s class is spending Christmas this year and the episode benefits from that.
Merry Christmas, Helga.
If you would like to catch this episode of Hey Arnold! this holiday season then I would say you’re in luck as it’s a pretty available show. It’s presently streaming on both Paramount+ and Hulu and there’s always the possibility one of the Nickelodeon channels airs it this month. It’s also available to rent digitally if you don’t have a subscription to either service or cable and it’s been made available on DVD. If you’re like me and have a pretty substantial collection of physical media due to a love of Christmas specials, then this one is definitely worth owning.
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
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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 of the Nicktoons to go into production. Back when Nickelodeon set out to commission its own animation, the studio didn’t actually have an in-house animation studio, or at least not one capable of producing three shows. This meant the original three Nicktoons were all animated independent of Nickelodeon which would in turn make them more expensive than the shows that followed. Rocko’s Modern Life was the first Nicktoon produced by Nick’s own internal studio, Games Animation, which also took over The Ren & Stimpy Show following the firing of John Kricfalusi. I think it’s because of that aspect of the show’s production that Nickelodeon was always reluctant to order more. The original contract with Jinkins was for 65 episodes which were ordered in chunks and spread out as seasons, a common tactic unique to animation where one production season is treated as multiples by a network. Nick ended up stopping at 52 episodes though as Doug wasn’t the hit they had envisioned. Not that it was a failure, it just wasn’t on the same level as the other two original Nicktoons. Combine that with it being more expensive to produce than some of the Nicktoons to follow meant Jinkins got to take his project elsewhere. Nickelodeon had agreed to let Jinkins retain ownership of the property from the onset which is how it ended up in the hands of Disney where it would be revived in 1997 and run for a few more years.
It’s easy to see why Doug may not have been the success that Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show were. Rugrats was fairly unique in its depiction of toddler life which was ripe for comedy while The Ren & Stimpy Show was just off-the-wall zaniness. Doug was a gentler show that was basically a coming-of-age story about a kid who was actually older than the show’s target demographic. Doug was roughly 11 and a half and said to be in the 7th grade and most of the episodes dealt with Doug facing pretty ordinary problems: allowance, rumors, popularity, peer pressure, etc. The show was able to flex its animation muscle a bit with Doug’s imagination. Doug acted as both main character and narrator for each episode and would often fantasize about a way out of his problems where a superhero, secret agent, or some other product of his imagination would save the day. In the end, Doug would have to figure things out on his own that didn’t involve superpowers or fancy spy gear. Alongside him was always his trusty canine sidekick, Porkchop, who is basically on the level of Scooby Doo or Astro as far as intelligence goes. He’s way beyond a normal dog and he’s a character that helps remind the viewer that they’re watching a cartoon and not something set in the real world.
Jim Jinkins created Doug to not be an education show, but he did want each episode to have a moral of some kind which gave it a decidedly different flavor from the other Nicktoons.
Unlike the other two debut Nicktoons, Doug saved his Christmas episode for what Nickelodeon dubbed Season 4 of the show. Airing in 1993 was “Doug’s Christmas Story,” one of the last episodes of the show to premiere on Nickelodeon. Only three episodes remained from the Nick production run after it with Doug wrapping up on New Year’s Day 1994. And like a great many Christmas episodes from shows that customarily split their half hour block in two, “Doug’s Christmas Story” takes up the full 23 minute runtime for the episode so it can tell a more complete story. It’s one of tragedy and triumph and I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say Doug will have an okay Christmas when all is said and done.
Pictured: the kids actually able to afford hockey sticks.
Following the standard opening credits (boo!), we find Doug and his friends doing something familiar for the opening of a Christmas episode: skating. More precisely, they’re playing hockey on a frozen pond, but it’s impossible not to get some A Charlie Brown Christmas vibes from the scene. Doug chimes in as narrator to tell us that basically the worst possible thing that could happen in the lead-up to Christmas is about to happen. He doesn’t actually tell us what that something is, we have to watch and find out. Once he’s done setting the stage, we see the town kids playing hockey. You get a sense of which kids come from money and which don’t. Some have nice gear and actual hockey sticks, while Doug (Billy West) and his buddy Skeeter (Fred Newman) are using a rake and broom, respectively. Apparently, no one owns a hockey puck though as the kids are playing with a pine cone.
This isn’t going to go over well.
Porkchop (Newman) is also present and sliding around on the ice, but he comes to a section marked as a hazard for thin ice and freaks out a bit. As he backs off of the ice, it breaks, and the sign sinks below the surface of the water. A scrum around the not-puck results in the pine cone sliding over in the direction of the area Porkchop just vacated. Beebe (Alice Playten) skates over to retrieve it completely unaware of the thin ice. Despite the pine cone being located near open water, Beebe still heads in the direction to retrieve something that literally grows on trees while Porkchop tries to warn her. Now, I said Porkchop possessed intelligence far beyond a normal dog and compared him to the likes of Scooby Doo, but one thing Scoob can do that Porkchop cannot is actually talk. He communicates with pantomime mostly, and it’s pretty hard to figure out how to get the message of “thin ice” across in such a fashion. Especially when time is a factor, so he does the only thing a dog can do: he bites Beebe. By locking his jaws on her leg, he’s able to pull her away from danger, but to Beebe and any onlooker, it just looks like he attacked her (well, that’s how we’re supposed to read it and thereby ignore the actual open water she was skating towards). Beebe screams and the other kids gather around. As Doug approaches to find out what happened he’s given the bad news: Porkchop attacked Beebe. Doug is rather flabbergasted, but does the normal thing of reprimanding his dog as he has to go off of what the eyewitnesses saw, even if it makes no sense.
Following a quick break to introduce the title card, we find Doug and Porkchop at home. Doug is reprimanding Porkchop for what he did by telling him that you don’t bite people, even if it is Beebe. Beebe is basically the spoiled rich girl of the show that is hard to like, so if the viewer was going to enjoy seeing any of the characters in the show have pain inflicted upon them, chances are it would have been Beebe. Or the school bully, Roger, who is surprisingly absent from this one. Anyway, Porkchop tries to pantomime what happened for Doug, but his message isn’t getting across. Doug just tells him to quit goofing off and sends him into his igloo, which is his dog house. After Porkchop sullenly heads inside, Doug’s sister Judy (Becca Lish) pulls into the driveway and beckons Doug to come with her so they can get Christmas presents for their parents while they’re out. Doug seems a bit reluctant to leave Porkchop, but hops into the car anyway.
The former mayor turned disc jockey.
We then cut to a radio station where the former mayor of Bluffington, Bob White (Greg Lee), is hosting a talk show. He’s relaying some recipe that involves cocktail weiners soaked in grape jelly, which just sounds terrible. We also find out that he’s a bit of a sore loser as he lost his re-election bid in an earlier episode to Doug’s neighbor, Mrs. Dink, but he points out on his show that she’s out of town which practically makes him the acting mayor for the holidays (I don’t think that’s how it works, Bob, but whatever). Some of his terminology is eerily similar to some of the stolen election rhetoric that’s become all too common in our current society. Anyway, his caller brings up the incident at the pond and Beebe getting attacked by a dog. Seems like a weird thing to gossip about, but okay, it’s a small town. White is understandably just hearing about this for the first time, but he seems to view this incident as an opportunity to get some much needed publicity.
This seems a little over-the-top for a dog.
Doug and Judy are shown shopping and apparently Judy wants to get their father a new golf club. He needs a 9 iron and she mistakenly thinks getting him a 7 and a 2 iron would be better than just getting him one club! Doug, for his part, has his mind still on what happened earlier and can’t really focus on the task at hand. He does see a hat that he thinks would look great on Porkchop and decides to buy that for him for Christmas. This seems to cheer him up a bit as we find the two driving home, but when they get there they find a huge crowd assembled. White has apparently summoned the media and the police and demands that Porkchop be arrested for what happened earlier. He even brought his back-up singers from his radio show to punctuate everything he says. Referring to Porkchop as a trained killing machine, he orders the dog be taken away where he’ll be put away forever. This is all done in the name of keeping the children of Bluffington safe. Doug is understandably confused and a bit distraught, but there’s nothing he or his family can do to stop the cops from tossing Porkchop in a paddy wagon and hauling him off to the pound.
It’s not visible in this shot, but I like how the animators decided to put pants on Doug instead of his customary shorts considering it’s winter and all. For some reason, he’ll be back in shorts though before this one ends.
We then find the Funnie family in their nicely decorated family room. Doug’s dad, Phil (Doug Preis), is trying to cheer his son up by saying how the spirit of the season should help everyone come to their senses. Judy, on the other hand, is ranting about how unbelievable it is they had a killer in their midst this whole time which earns her a reprimand from their mother, Theda (Lish). Doug’s mom then asks him if he’s sure Porkchop was just trying to play with Beebe and that’s the story Doug is running with as he can’t fathom Porkchop ever actually hurting someone. They’re interrupted by the doorbell and it’s a letter for Doug. He opens it to find out it’s from Beebe’s father, Mr. Bluff, and he’s pressing charges against Porkchop. The family is pretty surprised by this development, but they cheer up when Phil suggests they start a petition that has every signer declare that Porkchop is in fact a good dog. Doug thinks it’s a great idea, but also one that he should undertake by himself since Porkchop is his responsibility. I get the sentiment on Doug’s part, but maybe he’s not taking this as seriously as he should? Four people canvassing the town would cover a lot more ground than one, but his parents don’t object and Doug sets off to do right by his pal.
She is just the worst.
Doug gets started right away on gathering signatures for his petition. He starts with his neighbor, Mr. Dink (Newman), who is happy to provide his name for Doug’s cause. He finds other neighbors in a similar position, but soon runs into trouble. When one person finds out he’s trying to help the dog they saw on the news, he declines to sign it. Others seem to follow suit and one older lady even reprimands Doug for spreading such negativity at Christmas time. The fact that Doug just stands there and lets her lecture him makes him a better person than I for I would have gone off on the woman. Defeated, Doug walks off and ends up downtown. A store display has a television running and Doug happens to catch a news report on what the media is calling the incident at Lucky Duck Lake. A re-enactment is shown which features a particularly vicious looking dog basically maul a young girl which gets Doug’s dander up. Realizing this is all getting out of hand, he decides he needs to talk to Beebe to try to put things in perspective.
Mr. Bluff is almost cartoonishly evil given his indifference, or disgust, towards dogs.
And Beebe is currently in the hospital. Doug races over there and tries to enter her room, only he runs into her father, Mr. Bluff just outside it. When he tells Mr. Bluff who he is the man refuses to grant him access to Beebe. In doing so, we also find out that the Bluffs don’t just want Porkchop put away, they want him killed, though he uses the kid friendly term of “put to sleep.” As Doug tries to reason with him, the man just walks away forcing Doug to follow. When he offers up the excuse that Porkchop was just playing, Mr. Bluff just reiterates that they’ll let the court decide if putting an innocent girl in the hospital is just playing. Doug follows him to his limo where the old man finally states it plainly that it’s no use, he doesn’t like dogs on account that they don’t have any money or even understand the concept of money. Now that we’ve established that this man is cartoonishly evil, we can remove any sympathy we might have felt for him as the father of a girl wounded by a dog. Doug tries to appeal to him once more by stating Porkchop is his best friend, but Mr. Bluff just tells him to get a new best friend. As he drives off, Doug suggests he knows just who to turn to in order to solve this crisis.
You know it’s a special episode when Doug’s personas have to get together to formulate a plan.
If you’ve watched an episode of Doug before then you probably know what’s coming. Doug is going to dip into his imagination and consult with one of his personas. Only since this is the biggest crisis we’ve seen Doug face to date, one persona just isn’t enough. We’re taken to a Hall of Justice like building where Doug’s Indiana Jones rip-off, Race Canyon, comes sliding down a firepole. He’s surprised to find the superhero, Quailman (who is just Funnie with a belt on his head and his underwear over his pants), is there already. He thinks Quailman summoned him, but he did not, and soon enters the James Bond wannabe Smash Adams. He’s brandishing a pair of non-alcoholic drinks that he hands to the others and notes they were all summoned here by someone else over a missing dog or something. And that someone else is: Doug! He spins around in a chair dramatically to announce he’s the one who assembled this collection of the world’s greatest heroes (his definition, not mine) because it’s going to take their combined might to get Porkchop back!
Apparently none of them are wise enough to tell Doug that breaking his dog out of prison is probably a bad idea.
Doug shows the assembled heroes a map of the pound where Porkchop is being held. He solicits a plan from each hero and it goes about as well as you might expect. Quailman suggests flying in and using his super powers to subdue the guards, which Doug can’t do. Next is Race who just suggests beating everyone up, but Doug isn’t about to do that. Smash suggests using high tech gadgetry (as he puts it) which Doug actually thinks is a good idea. He then seeks out the real world help of the Sleech twins (Eddie Korbich), the class nerds capable of inventing stuff, to see if they have a solution. They’re eager to help Doug since he’s likely one of the few kids at school who doesn’t make fun of them for their nerdy ways. And since their dad is a donut maker (a plot of a prior episode), they suggest Doug use subterfuge by hiding a smoke bomb in a cupcake. Apparently, these boys have been spending their Christmas break devising weapons that combine with holiday desserts which is a bit alarming. Doug is right to treat these future school shooters kindly.
Poor Porkchop.
Doug sets off with Skeeter and his cupcake bomb to execute his horrible plan to spring Porkchop from the pound. Only upon entering the premises, they find a No Cupcakes sign waiting for them. I guess the plan was to give the cupcake to Porkchop who would then use the cover of the smoke to escape? Seems like the actual cell is an obstacle Doug didn’t account for. Well, with that obstacle in place, Doug still decides to push ahead and alerts Skeeter that he’s up. Skeeter does as he’s told and fakes an illness, only the cop doesn’t really care. He takes a phone call, and it’s about Porkchop too, and that’s the distraction that allows Doug to slip inside to find Porkchop. At first, Doug can’t find him, but he calls out for Porkchop and a helpful dog points him in the direction of a door labeled Very Bad Dogs. In there, he finds a spiral staircase that leads deep into a dungeon-like setting where Porkchop still can’t be found and that’s because he’s in the section for Very Very Bad Dogs. Meanwhile, the cop tries eating the cupcake despite Skeeter’s warning not to and activates the smoke bomb, which will surely reflect poorly on Doug. He soon finds Porkchop who is basically in solitary confinement. He’s locked in a box which in turn is locked in another room separate from the others. Or not locked, as Doug is able to enter, but he sets off an alarm in the process and is hauled away. We briefly get a glimpse of a teary-eyed Porkchop waving goodbye to his best friend. It’s the saddest shot in the episode.
Aww, look how cute they are!
The guards at the pound must have felt some pity for Doug as he apparently avoided his own arrest. We next find him standing outside of Porkchop’s igloo which is covered in police tape. He’s at a loss as to what he can do next and starts to reflect on his past with his dog. We see a toddler Doug opening a present on Christmas which just so happened to contain Porkchop. We also get a shot of last Christmas when Porkchop gifted Doug the very journal he’s writing in as he narrates this story. We then see a vision of the future and a Doug draped in a black coat standing beside Porkchop’s grave. It’s at this point that Doug finally allows himself to cry for how could he not feel helpless knowing that if he fails his dog is as good as dead?
If things weren’t serious before, they are now.
The next day is the trial, and it starts with Mr. Bluff speaking casually to the judge and refers to him by his first name, Dave (West), and informs him he wants this over with quick so he can get to his office Christmas party. The judge tries to discourage him from being so casual, but lets him know he’s of the same mind, essentially. Porkchop is then brought in, muzzled and tied-up, and apparently Doug will be representing him. I guess the Funnie family couldn’t afford a lawyer? I’m also guessing that since this is essentially a civil matter that they’re not entitled to representation. Bluff’s attorney presents an expert on dog psychology who has predictably decided Porkchop is predisposed to being a killer. While he’s giving his testimony, Porkchop is trying to communicate something about the lake to Doug which the expert just uses against him as further proof the dog is nuts. Then they drop the hammer by bringing in their last witness: Beebe. She’s confined to a wheelchair with her leg wrapped and Doug is legitimately alarmed to see the state she’s in. She looks rather sad, like she doesn’t want to be there, but takes the stand, nonetheless.
With how cavalier everyone is towards Porkchop in this one, I’m guessing dog ownership isn’t that high in Bluffington.
Upon seeing the state Beebe is in, Doug does what he always does when overwhelmed: he retreats into his imagination. This is just further proof that someone else should be representing Porkchop here, but clearly he’s ride or die with Doug. In his head, Doug imagines his three heroes proposing suggestions on what to do next, which Race thinks should be to plead guilty. The three then get into a physical altercation which just forces Doug to realize that the only one who can get he and Porkchop out of this mess is himself. Beebe is then shown finishing her testimony and it’s now made clear she’s not really fully onboard with this charade. As she says what happened she tells the court that Porkchop did bite her leg, but tries to clarify that it didn’t hurt, which her father’s attorney tries to gloss over. When Doug asks if he can cross-examine the witness, Mr. Bluff objects declaring the girl has been put through too much already. The judge apparently agrees as he asks the people present “Isn’t she a brave girl, ladies and gentlemen?” Again, we’re talking about a dog here so apparently the same rules don’t apply. Doug then approaches the bench to try to plead his case that Porkchop should be allowed to tell his side of the story. He explains that Porkchop has been trying to tell him something about the lake and proposes going there, but the judge finds this suggestion ridiculous. He points out that a dog can’t tell it’s side of the story, and since it’s Christmas Eve, they all have families they need to return to.
Finally! Porkchop has a reason to smile! Though I don’t understand why he would suddenly be permitted to remove the muzzle.
Doug takes that as an opening and declares that Porkchop is a part of his family just as Beebe is to the Bluffs. The judge still seems unconvinced, which is when Doug addresses the assembled crowd to point out how Porkchop is a part of the community. It’s at this point the episode goes off the rails a bit for me as we hear about all of the good deeds Porkchop has done. Doug calls out one woman and points out that Porkchop babysat her kids when she had to go out of town to see an aunt. Another family had their house burn down, and Porkchop showed up the next day to help them rebuild. Another person chimes in that he lent them money and a woman stands up to declare that Porkchop fixed her transmission. The capper is that even the judge has encountered Porkchop in his day-to-day life. It seems his daughter suffered an accident and Porkchop actually taught her how to walk again. The judge probably should have recused himself from the case given that, but even so, the dog taught his kid how to walk! This is one absurdly amazing animal. This judge is ready to execute him after that experience?! This dog should be world famous and Bluffington’s number one citizen!
Old Killer is at it again!
After Doug pleads his case, the judge finally allows for Porkchop to do the same and orders everyone to reconvene at Lucky Duck Lake. Once there, Beebe explains what happened to the judge once more and points out where she thought she was at the time of the attack. Doug asks her to point out exactly where she was, but she’s not sure. Patti (Constance Shulman) spots the pine cone they were using as a puck and determines that she must have been there. Of course, there’s open water still present and even the Thin Ice sign is visible floating on it. As Beebe heads over there, Porkchop once again goes into a panic as he tries to warn everyone about the ice. To the onlookers, this just makes Porkchop look like he wants to maul her again and the judge even suggests that he’s seen enough. Doug assures them that Porkchop is just trying to tell them something and he gets on one knee to consult with the dog. It’s too late though as Beebe falls through the ice!
If you want a rich person to care about a poor dog, you basically have to save their life or the life of a loved one. And they better witness you doing it too!
Mr. Bluff immediately cries out for someone to help his daughter, but Doug shouts out a warning about the ice (finally, someone gets it!). Porkchop is able to break free of the guards and runs after Beebe diving into the water as Beebe goes under. He’s able to pull her up and onto the ice and drag her to safety. We then cut to everyone gathered in a hut of some kind as Patti declares that Porkchop was trying to keep Beebe away from the thin ice. Finally, the last horse, or horses, cross the finish line and the people gathered rightly acknowledge that Porkchop is a hero, not a devil. Porkchop is set free and we cut to Christmas morning and Doug looking at a newspaper which declares Porkchop a hero for saving Beebe. Porkchop is gifted the hat Doug bought for him and he seems to like it, though he also has a cold. Doug also narrates that people kept coming by all morning to see Porkchop, including Mr. Bluff and Beebe, whose leg is suddenly all better. Mr. Bluff, who clearly has had a change of heart, wants to know if there’s something he can do for Porkchop as a showing of thanks for saving the life of his daughter. Doug doesn’t know of anything, but Porkchop apparently does.
There’s the happy reunion we’ve been waiting for!
Porkchop is somehow able to communicate that what he would like most is for Mr. Bluff to put on a feast for all of the dog’s at the pound. We then get to see how it all unfolded as it took place in the center of town. The former mayor attended and Doug informs us that he was able to use his radio show to find homes for all of the dog’s in attendance. Mr. Bluff, who apparently has a different outlook on dogs now, offers a toast to all in attendance and a special toast for The Hero of Bluffington – Porkchop! Porkchop is there as well dressed as Santa Claus and he joins the Funnie family for a toast. The camera pans out as the assembled crowd break into “Deck the Halls” which takes us into the credits. As a parting gift, we’re treated to an image of a Christmas card from the Funnie family.
Doug even channels The Grinch with a “He himself,” line in reference to Mr. Bluff.
And that’s how Porkchop went from villain to hero one Christmas. It’s a solid approach to tug at the heart strings, have a dog wrongfully accused of being a bad dog and toy with the emotions of the viewer by suggesting the life of the mutt is over. And while the premise is a bit preposterous, it fits with the setting of the show since Porkchop is a bit preposterous himself. It just takes things too far by making the people of Bluffington look incredibly stupid by not realizing what is obvious to anyone who looks at that lake. And they also look like lunatics for wanting to terminate Porkchop from the start. The dog is amazing! Too amazing as it undermines the situation because no one would assume the worst of Porkchop given what he’s demonstrated in the past. It’s to the point where it’s absurd. Am I taking this cartoon too literally? Possibly, but it did it to itself by going way too far in characterizing Porkchop as a force in the community. We didn’t need all of those incredible examples of the dog’s good nature in the courtroom to be on his side. And if the show didn’t portray the people of Bluffington as being so readily out for blood then it wouldn’t have taken such a speech to grant Porkchop a defense. Sure, heading to the scene of the crime to let a dog tell its side of the story is a bit odd, but the judge was literally denying Doug any kind of defense for his dog. He couldn’t even cross-examine a witness!
Looks like it was a merry Christmas after all, just as I predicted it would be.
This one is clunky, but don’t assume that means I wasn’t still moved by it. Of course I was! I get a little choked up each time I watch that silly dog pull Beebe from the water and I do feel good for Doug and his dog when all is said and done. It’s still a heartwarming story, it just pushes things too far. It tries way too hard to be that kind of story when it didn’t really have to. That’s why a much better Christmas Nicktoon is “Arnold’s Christmas.” That plot needed some pretty crazy things to fall into place as well, but it doesn’t feel like it’s reaching to the degree that “Doug’s Christmas Story” is. Does that make this one bad? No, but I can totally understand someone having more of an eye roll reaction here than feeling truly moved.
Season’s greetings from the Funnie family!
If you would like to see this one for yourself, your best option is to stream it on Paramount+. Doug, being a less celebrated Nicktoon, isn’t assured of finding airplay on cable this year. It’s also a little messy in that Disney owns the character now so Nickelodeon might not be eager to promote this one, even though the company retains ownership of this era of Doug. The episode was released on both VHS and DVD if that’s your fancy, and it can be rented on other streaming services. I give it a bit of a tepid recommend. While I think anyone can enjoy it, it’s probably best enjoyed by those who watched the show as a kid. Anyone else might just find it too ridiculous to take seriously.
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
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Yesterday, we took a look at the 1992 Christmas special from the third Nickelodeon Nicktoon The Ren & Stimpy Show. Today, we’re basically working backwards and talking about the second Nicktoon to premiere: Rugrats. The Ren & Stimpy Show is probably the most celebrated of the original Nicktoons when it comes to animation circles, but I don’t think there’s much of an argument to be made as to which was the most commercially successful. That honor fell to Rugrats, the Klasky-Csupo original that is still relevant even today. Like Ren & Stimpy and Doug, Rugrats was a show in production basically until Nickelodeon had enough episodes to fill an entire calendar. And it did, because Rugrats aired seemingly all of the time on the network in the early to mid 90s to the point where I feel like I’ve seen each episode from that run a hundred times, and Rugrats wasn’t even a favorite of mine! It was solid though and rarely failed to entertain me as an adolescent, and even as an adult now that has watched the series more than once with my children, I can still say it’s pretty charming. Unlike the other Nicktoons, the success of Rugrats could not be ignored by Nickelodeon and the show returned to production in 1996 followed by a movie in 1998. That film would receive sequels and the show even got a spin-off in 2001 in the form of All Growed Up. And it’s still going today as Nickelodeon airs a new CG version of the series on its network and Paramount+.
Following a successful first season for each Nicktoon, Nickelodeon brought back all three seemingly with the mandate of making a Christmas episode. Two shows debuted a Christmas episode in 1992, though as we saw yesterday, The Ren & Stimpy Show Christmas episode was booted to MTV. Doug would follow with its Christmas episode in 1993. In the years following this episode, Rugrats would become somewhat famous for shining a light on non-Christian holidays. Lead baby Tommy Pickles lives in a mixed-religion household with his mother being Jewish and father some form of Christian. During the show’s hiatus, Nickelodeon would commission two Jewish themed specials for Passover and Chanukah, which was pretty cool. I had some cousins on my mother’s side who were Jewish as the result of my uncle marrying a Jewish woman and I remember my mom actually making it a point for my sister and I to get an understanding of the Jewish religion. Well, the holidays anyways as she bought us a kid’s book or two and even made us watch those specials. I think we even tried to add the Rugrats Chanukah special to our treasured Christmas Tape, but it didn’t record. Probably because we forgot to remove the piece of Scotch tape from the VHS that prevented it from ever getting recorded over. Or, the spirit of The Christmas Tape struck and decided only Christmas specials may appear on it. It’s probably the latter.
Anyway, before that could happen Nickelodeon apparently wanted Christmas to occur so we have “The Santa Experience.” This is one of those rare episodes of the show where both segments are combined into one. Like many cartoons of the era, Rugrats aired in half hour blocks and consisted of two roughly 11 minute cartoons that were unrelated to each other. It often felt like one segment would try to contain the whole ensemble, while the second would focus on just a baby or two with Tommy almost always included. And if you happened to have made it this far in your life without ever experiencing Rugrats, it’s a show about babies. Tommy Pickles (E.G. Daily) is the de-facto alpha baby and most of the episodes seem to occur at his house. He lives with his mom Didi (Melanie Chartoff), dad Stu (Jack Riley), and grandpa Lou (David Doyle). Lou, being a retiree, is seemingly counted on to watch the babies often (despite his narcoleptic tendencies) thus explaining why they always end up at Tommy’s house. The other babies are fraternal twins Phil and Lil (Kath Soucie for both), the cowardly Chuckie (Christine Cavanaugh), and 3-year old Angelica (Cheryl Chase), Tommy’s bully of an older cousin. The babies often go on adventures where they’re relying on their imagination to create the show’s visuals, sort of like Muppet Babies. Often their adventures stem from them misunderstanding something from the adult world with Angelica often pushing them along into a situation likely to get them into trouble or in one where she can take advantage of them.
“The Santa Experience,” revolving around Christmas and all the weird stuff that goes along with the holiday, seems ripe for a Rugrats plot. Tommy, being the youngest, has never really experienced Christmas and his buddy Chuckie, who is 2 and afraid of everything, has some stuff to share about Santa Claus. Meanwhile, the spoiled Angelica is going to see Christmas as the perfect opportunity to get more stuff and if she can ruin things for the babies then that will make her happy too. And for the parents, Didi is pretty obsessed with marking milestones with Tommy and it can be expected that she wants to make sure one of his earliest Christmases is a memorable one. It’s so easy that it’s no wonder why they wrote it!
Tommy has to set his friend straight on this Santa guy.
The episode begins following a normal version of the credits (they did change-up the music, but not really for the better) with an image of snow falling. It’s fake snow because we’re at a mall, and Tommy and Chuckie are waiting in-line with their dads to see Santa Claus. Chuckie is describing Christmas in grave tones and seemingly doesn’t like that the grown-ups all smile more during the holidays. He’s working towards the worst part though: Santa Claus! Tommy, who seemed concerned during Chuckie’s big explainer, laughs when he gets to Santa and tells him that Santa is good because he’s big and fat and brings presents. The kid’s only 1 and he already figured this stuff out.
Angelica is the type of kid mall Santas dread.
The next child is then summoned to meet Santa and Angelica declares it’s her, whether it was or wasn’t I can’t tell. She runs into this makeshift Santa’s village and jumps into the big guy’s lap. We get a closeup of his face as he grimaces indicating that Angelica must have landed on a sensitive area. The Santa (sounds like Michael Bell, who voices Angelica’s dad Drew) then goes into the usual routine and asks Angelica what she wants for Christmas. She tells him that she wants a Luxurious Hair Cynthia doll, which is kind of funny because the defining characteristic of her beloved Cynthia doll is that most of her hair has been pulled out. The Santa seems agreeable to this, but Angelica stops him because she has more. She then lists off a bunch of stuff she wants that’s all designed to sound insane. Something about a nuclear fission game and a real surgical kit are the highlights. As the Santa starts to pushback by telling her that’s a lot, she raises her voice to yell “I’m not finished yet!” You see, the big item she desires is a Deluxe Cynthia Beach House with real working hot tub, satellite dish, entertainment center, and attached garage.
She just shoved that poor elf aside.
She ends her list with a smile while leaving the Santa stammering and unsure of what to say. Obviously, this guy is pretty good at his job and doesn’t want to put that kind of pressure on the kid’s parents as he tries to tell her that’s a very long list of presents. Angelica pushes back and questions why he doesn’t already know this stuff already. He stutters and stammers some more and then Angelic lays a harsh accusation upon him: You’re not the real Santa! She goes for the beard and it’s a fake, a rookie mistake by the department store, and she runs screaming out of the little hut “Santa is a fake! Run for your lives!”
Terrific off-model shot right here. This is the type of thing Klasky-Csupo wouldn’t have been allowed to do on The Simpsons.
We then dissolve on a Happy Holidays banner and find ourselves in the Pickles’ living room. Angelica is opening a “Thanks for Shopping” box that’s apparently full of toys. Phil and Lil ask where she got it and she tells them from Santa Claus. They respond with confusion since it isn’t Christmas yet, but Angelica tells them you just have to know how to work him. Stu, Drew, and Chuckie’s dad Chas (Bell) enter carrying boxes and Drew is concerned for his daughter’s well-being following the incident at the mall. Stu tells him she looks pretty happy to him as we cut to Angelica gleefully ripping open another box and Chas confirms that the store gave her practically every toy they had. Drew is still worried that she’ll be traumatized by the ordeal and it’s not hard to see how Angelica came to be as spoiled as she is with a father like Drew.
The adults just completely ignore the two scared toddlers.
The fathers continue doing dad stuff while Angelica continues rummaging through boxes. She’s extremely dissatisfied with the toys gifted to her and refers to it as a bunch of junk since none of it came from her list. Phil and Lil try to take a peek in one of the boxes and she swipes at them sending them running scared into the kitchen. The boys are seated at the table while Didi appears to be helping Betty (Soucie), the mother of Phil and Lil, with some plumbing under the sink. This is supposed to be a bit of gender humor where the men are just gabbing while the masculine Betty does the manual work. It’s dated.
Best character on the show, right here.
Drew is still fussing over Angelica’s experience while Chas tries to tell him she’ll be fine. He had horrible Christmases growing up and states the best gift he ever got was a rubber glove and tongue depressor. He’s worried for Chuckie and doesn’t want him to have as lame a Christmas as he did. Drew states he wishes he could reaffirm Angelica’s faith in Santa and it’s Betty who chimes in with the idea to rent a cabin up north and have a good old-fashioned family Christmas. Well, not her words exactly, but they sound good to me. Everyone seems enthusiastic at the idea, which is always weird for me since my Christmases always involved going to the homes of grandparents and the idea of just dropping everything to do something else is completely foreign. Didi runs to call a travel agent (and renting a cabin should probably be an impossible task given their proximity to Christmas ) while Stu, who is a bit of a techie, declares he’ll get some lights while Grandpa Lou vows to drink a couple of quarts of eggnog and fall asleep in front of the TV. Now that’s my idea of Christmas!
Angelica is an ungrateful brat, but she is right to complain about getting a Reptar Space Helmet and no Reptar doll.
We return to the living room where Angelica is still upset with the quality of the toys she was given for free. She draws particular attention to a pack of crayons and a Reptar Space Helmet, an accessory for a Reptar doll and not a role play toy, which she tosses aside. In the playpen, Chuckie is playing with some blocks and Tommy his favorite ball while the two resume their Santa conversation. Chuckie stacks the blocks up and then knocks them over to punctuate his description of Santa as someone who breaks into your house while you’re sleeping. Sadly, the blocks do not appear to contain any hidden messages via their orientation. Tommy is still firmly in camp “Santa is Good” and the camera pans over to a dejected looking Phil.
Angelica is so cruel here.
Angelica comes along dragging a massive box of toys and asks Phil what’s up with him? He says he can’t figure out what to get his sister Lil for Christmas, which is a lot of pressure for a toddler. Angelica suggests he get her some crayons for her favorite coloring book which strikes me as a dumb suggestion since I’m sure they already have crayons, but we need this to happen for plot purposes. Phil thinks that’s a great idea, but then gets sad again because he doesn’t know how he can get ahold of a new box of crayons. Angelica is there to wave the box she just got form the store, but when Phil comes running over to grab them she pulls a “Not so fast!” on him. If Phil wants the crayons, he’s going to have to trade his Reptar doll to her for them. He resists at first, but when Angelica declares no crayons for him then, he relents and hands over the doll.
There’s a lot of mopey faces in this episode so far. Didn’t they ever hear “You better not pout”?
Now, you may have thought Angelica just wanted a Reptar doll for that new Reptar Space Helmet she just got, but Angelica is a very cruel child and has other ideas as she spies Lil. In the kitchen, Didi is on the phone with a travel agent and having little luck finding a cabin, which as I pointed out, makes sense. Outside, Drew and Chas are moping on a picnic table as both try to find solutions for their anxiety, Drew wants to restore Angelica’s faith in Santa while Chas just wants Chuckie to have a nice, memorable, Christmas. The two jump up at the same time declaring they have an idea and the gag is they’re supposed to have come to the same conclusion. And they did! Sort of. Chas goes first and says he can dress up like Santa to surprise the kids on Christmas. Drew enthusiastically declares he was thinking the same thing, only when a surprised Chas asks “You were?!” he shoots down the part about Chas playing Santa in favor of hiring a professional actor. Chas seems hurt by this and reminds Drew he played the lead role in their fourth grade rendition of The Wind in the Willows. Drew deadpans, “Chas, you were a tree,” and he points out “I was the willow!” I guess they’re both right.
Not only does she know that she’s a bad kid, she revels in it. Hard to come back from this one, Angelica.
In the living room, Angelica comes upon an unsuspecting Lil and asks her what she’s doing. She’s just sitting on the floor with that coloring book she apparently loves looking a little sad. Angelica confirms that she’s thinking about what to get Phil for Christmas, and Angelica tries to help her think of something by asking what his favorite toy is? Lil then lists off a series of three items starting with blocks and ending with a stuffed alligator that has a missing eye. Angelica says “No” to each one and yells at her after the third suggestion that his favorite toy is his Reptar doll and Lil just smiles and says “Oh yeah!” She’s adorable. Angelica then asks Lil what she could get Phil to go with his doll and we go into the same routine again ending with Angelica calling her a dummy for suggesting a bunch of other things and telling her a Reptar Space Helmet is what she needs. Lil, completely unphased, just smiles and thanks Angelica for the suggestion. We skip the bargaining routine this time and we just see Lil hand over the coloring book in exchange for the space helmet. As Lil walks off, Angelica grabs her Cynthia doll to fill her in on her doings. She outlines this Gift of the Magi scenario and punctuates it with a villainous laugh before confirming out loud “I’m bad, Cynthia, real bad!”
It’s story time with Grandpa!
This is then carried over to Chuckie who insists “He’s bad, Tommy, real bad,” as they’re apparently still debating the merits of Santa Claus. Tommy still insists he’s nice, then Chuckie wishes that he could catch him and show Tommy how bad he is. Tommy thinks that’s a great idea and declares they’ll simply catch him, but Chuckie doesn’t actually want to catch him because that would be scary. They’re interrupted by Grandpa who gathers the kids to tell them about Santa. He gives them the usual rundown, but ends with a dramatic description of what happens to the bad kids: a great, big, lump of coal! He then dismisses it by declaring none of the kids present have anything to worry about, but Angelica looks a bit distressed. Didi then shouts out they got a cabin!
Now she’s having second thoughts.
Later that night, Drew is tucking Angelica into bed, but as he walks out of the bedroom she asks him if it’s true that Santa brings coal to bad kids on Christmas. Drew confirms that’s the case for her without much of a thought as to why she’s asking as he turns off the light and walks out. Alone in her bed, Angelica pulls out Cynthia and tells her she doesn’t care what the grownups say and tries to reassure herself that there’s no way Santa could possibly know about the trick she played on Phil and Lil. Insisting it was a great trick, she drifts off to sleep.
Here comes the coal!
Smash cut to Angelica waking up in the morning. It’s Christmas! She bolts from her bed and runs down the stairs to find her tree loaded with gifts. Her dad appears and assures her they’re all for her and she dives in, but as she rips open the first one she finds a box with a lump of coal in it. She rips open another one: coal! And another: coal! Coal! Coal! Coal! Nothing but coal in each box! Angelica insists that this is impossible and that Santa can’t know about her trick because he’s just a smelly old guy in red pajamas! Santa (Tony Jay) then appears, laughing, but we only see him from a low angle never getting a good look at his face. He tells her that he knows everything and then details that Phil got a new Reptar doll and Lil a new coloring book, and for her he dumps a sack of coal over her. This causes Angelica to wake up from her nightmare screaming. Drew enters to check what’s wrong and she demands he tell her if it’s Christmas. It’s not, obviously, and when she says she needs to see Phil and Lil he sleepily tells her she’ll see them later on at the cabin and urges her to go back to sleep. He shuts off the light and Angelica confesses to Cynthia that she needs to trade Phil and Lil their presents back before it’s too late!
Not pictured are Chas and Charlotte, so are they driving up together with the rest of the kids? That’s an interesting pairing.
That’s normally where the first segment for an episode of Rugrats would end, but since this is a double episode our story continues. They didn’t want it to feel too different though so we get another title card that this time reads: Later That Day. We get a shot of the clan driving up to the mountains. I think this show is supposed to take place in Arizona so I have no idea where they’re actually going or how long of a ride it is. Geography is not my strong suit, but I feel like the implication is they’re heading to Colorado? If so, that’s quite the ride! The adults are singing “Jingle Bells,” and in a sign of the times Tommy is in the front seat of his parents’ mini van. Seemingly all of the adults are in the back, including Phil and Lil’s dad Howard who is making his first appearance of this episode. Missing are the other kids who apparently had to hitch hike their way to the cabin.
No one in their right mind would come down a chimney? Hah! Stupid babies.
Everyone enters the cabin and it sure looks pretty. Angelica immediately goes for Phil and Lil, but before they can talk Betty scoops them up to tell them they’re going to go cut down their first Christmas tree. Grandpa is shown hanging a wreath and manages to strike his thumb with a hammer, which only seems to happen in cartoons, while the dog, Spike, runs past him causing him to fall off a stepladder. Chuckie is still fretting about Tommy’s plan to trap Santa and Tommy reassures him it will work. They then survey their new surroundings to check for all of the places Santa could enter. As Tommy calls them out, like door or window, Chuckie responds with a “Check.” He gets to “chimly” (sic) and Chuckie responds “Chimly?!” and, for once, Tommy agrees with his friend and says “Yeah, no one in their right mind would try to come down a chimly.”
That looks like a standard cordless phone meaning it likely belongs to the cabin. Charlotte must be racking up a massive long distance bill then!
In the kitchen, Chas is show preparing a turkey while we hear the unmistakable voice of Charlotte, Angelica’s mom (voiced by Tress MacNeille) as she’s on the phone with her assistant Jonathan while apparently making cranberry sauce. Angelica interrupts her to ask if it’s okay for her to go chop down a tree with Aunt Didi and Charlotte pauses her conversation to tell her it is before getting right back into it. Stu then interrupts her by saying it’s nice she could join them for Christmas and Charlotte remarks how she loves Christmas for being the season of hope before returning to the phone to shout in a stern voice “We have to crush the competition! Crush them now!” She’s a bit intense.
This sudden sense of conservation on the part of Didi kind of came out of no where.
Betty is shown helping Angelica get dressed for the cold with Phil and Lil as Didi shows up with the axe. Betty confirms she has the permit to cut down a tree while Angelica assures Phil and Lil they’ll have time to talk on the sleigh. We smash cut to Angelica on the sleigh and her scarf has been wrapped around her mouth preventing her from speaking. Betty points out trees to Didi who shoots them down for one reason or another before enthusiastically pointing one out as the perfect tree. When Betty goes to chop it down, Didi jumps in the way as she seemingly has had a change of heart about tree slaughter. Angelica uses this as an opportunity to explain the concept of gift-giving to Phil and Lil with a phony history of how the whole tradition started. As she starts to ramble about the Easter Bunny getting slapped with a lawsuit by Santa over the whole thing, the sleigh she’s standing on starts to slide backwards slowly. Soon it’s soaring down a hill with Angelica screaming, her plans foiled again.
They either got a terrific deal on that tree or were raked over the coals with likely no in-between.
We cut again quickly to a new shot inside the cabin of Stu and Betty setting up a fake tree. It would seem Betty was unable to convince Didi to permit her to chop down a tree, but they all look pretty happy so I guess it’s not a big deal. We then see Tommy and Chucky pushing a log in front of the doggy door, seemingly to thwart Santa, while we see other shots of Didi and Chas decorating the tree. It’s sort of a montage in that the characters are speechless save for the low murmur of Charlotte talking on her cell phone. Angelica approaches the twins, but Betty intercepts them and scoops the pair up. Tommy and Chuckie wrap popcorn garland around a doorknob as another trap and seemingly no adults take notice, while Angelica continues to pursue the twins, who are now in jammies. It’s all broken by the sound of Grandpa howling in pain, for as he went to hang a stocking, Spike barked causing him to strike his finger once again with a hammer. Didi then can be heard calling out “Dinner!”
This looks unsafe.
At the dinner table, all of the adults are chatting and it’s like a dull, indecipherable, roar. Tommy and Chuckie are seated together on a chair and further boosted by a pile of newspapers. Apparently, there was no room in the car for high chairs. Chuckie asks Tommy if he thinks the traps will work while Tommy just tells him that he worries too much. Spike barks at Grandpa, who scowls at him likely still angry about the hammer incident. Spike lowers his head submissively while Grandpa smiles and hands the dog a big hunk of turkey. Charlotte is still on the phone and has a fun slip-up where she instructs Jonathan to add a “Santa clause” to a legal document, but catches herself as she meant to say “Sanity clause.” Angelica asks her Aunt Didi if a hypothetical child tried to make up for a bad thing, but was unable to do so in time for Christmas, if Santa would still bring her coal. Didi just dismisses the concern Angelica has by wondering why she’s so consumed with asking about bad kids when she’s such a good girl. She sounds genuine, which just makes it extra sweet since you know she and Stu probably talk about how spoiled that kid is when she’s not around. Stu then points out that Tommy and Chucky are yawning and Betty declares it’s time to put the “young’ens” to bed which causes Angelica to look dejected and say “Oh no!”
Deck the Malls?!
The parents put the kids in cribs, Tommy and Chuckie in one, Phil and Lil in the other, and leave them. Right as they do, Tommy reminds Chuckie that they have to stay awake. Chuckie clearly would prefer to go to sleep and Phil and Lil already have. As he lays back down, Tommy decides he can rest a little while as he waits for Santa to spring one of their traps and he too falls asleep. In the living room, the adults are singing “Joy to the World” and that’s probably the last thing a group of adults in my family would do after putting the kids to bed, but it’s their party, who am I to judge? Charlotte is still on the phone and she’s basically just boasting at this point about her accomplishments and I question if she’s doing any real work. Chas slips away and goes into another room with a Santa suit as Angelica just walks by without even noticing him because she’s still upset about what she did to Phil and Lil. Chas them emerges giddy and dressed as Santa as he takes off somewhere.
I feel like that is supposed to be a Coke can, but they made it coffee for some reason.
Drew is shown on the phone calling The Santa Experience (how did he get Charlotte off of the phone to make a call, there’s no way this cabin has two lines) which is apparently a company that specializes in doing the whole Santa thing. He’s able to confirm that the Santa act he booked is still on. We then find Grandpa doing what Grandpa does best: sleeping in front of the TV. Angelica is there as well, but she snaps out of her funk when she hears a commercial for a seasonal depression hotline encouraging folks to call-in to talk to someone who cares. Angelica draws an odd conclusion from this and dials a number, the wrong one as she just presses “5” over and over, which gets her connected with Cogs Unlimited which is some guy with what looks like a bunch of film canisters behind him, but I assume they’re supposed to be cogs. Angelica demands to speak with Santa Claus, because apparently he’s someone who cares, which confuses the man on the other end. He tries to tell her she has the wrong number, but Angelica being Angelica, screams and demands he let her speak with Santa. The guy then decides to pretend he’s Santa and asks Angelica what she wants. She says that she’s just calling to confirm whether or not she’s on The Good List or The Bad List this year. The fellow, seemingly still a little salty about her screaming at him decides to tell her she’s on The Bad List before thanking her for calling. Angelica buys it and declares her future as a kid is over, which seems rather dark.
It’s not that Santa is in good shape Chas, it’s that you’re in bad shape. You’re climbing up a ladder, for God’s sake! Not a rock wall!
Outside, Chas is struggling to climb onto the roof, but he gets there and remarks that Santa must be in good shape. The background music seems to play this off like a joke on Chas since everyone knows Santa is a fat guy. Is he actually going to go down the chimney? Hasn’t he seen Gremlins?! Stu is then shown opening the front door with a stack of presents in his arms which causes him to not see one of his son’s traps. He trips over the popcorn string and tumbles over the sound of which causes Tommy to wake up and call to the other babies “Our traps!” They effortlessly free themselves from their confines and race out into the living room, but are disappointed to see it’s just Tommy’s dad.
That would make me scream too. I’m surprised the other adults are so nonchalant about Chas’ little stunt.
Chuckie is relieved to find it wasn’t Santa as the four stand around the fireplace. That’s the cue for Chas to come down the chimney and the sight of him in his Santa costume covered in soot causes Chuckie to scream. Tommy reacts quickly by grabbing a fire poker and laying it across the glass door on the fireplace effectively trapping his buddy’s dad who is now screaming in a panic. This is going well. Stu comes over and frees his misguided friend which causes the babies to all run away screaming. Chas comes out calling to Chuckie that he’s not Santa before sadly adding “It’s just me,” as he removes the hat and beard. Chuckie then stops cowering in the corner to look at him, smiles, and runs over to him embracing his leg. Chas picks him up and now a smile crosses his face as the other adults all say “Aww.” I’ll always have a soft spot for old Chas the single dad just trying to get things right and often screwing up.
Well look who showed up. Why doesn’t this ever happen at any of the Christmas parties I go to?
The other babies then come out of their hiding spots relived it was only Chuckie’s dad. Angelica declares there is no Santa and that she’s saved! You know we can’t leave it at that right? Of course not, which is why the doorbell rings. Grandpa answers it and it’s Santa (Neil Ross) who informs the crew there’s a problem with the chimney. Angelica gulps while Drew comes over to welcome Santa into their cabin, clearly thinking this is the guy he hired, but is it?
What a good shot, the wholesomeness here is causing me to melt!
Santa immediately walks over to Tommy and calls him by his name handing him a present. He does the same for Phil and Lil, but when he gets to Chuckie he asks him “Still think I’m so scary?” Which brings him to Angelica, who greets him with a wide smile and thumb’s up. He hands her a pretty large box and she tares into it to find a Deluxe Cynthia Beach House with real working hot tub, satellite dish, entertainment center, and attached garage! She shouts “I didn’t get a lump of coal!” and Santa responds with a chuckle, then adds “Sometimes trying to be good is as important as being good in the first place.”
I don’t know how I feel about Angelica getting a happy ending, but I am glad Phil and Lil got one.
His task done, Santa bids them all farewell as he exits through the front door. Didi declares it’s almost morning and suggests they all open gifts. I’m guessing she means it’s almost midnight, because it would be pretty ludicrous if they all had stayed up all night singing carols. This also only needs to be said so that Phil and Lil have a reason to exchange gifts. How they got them up there wrapped and all is a mystery that still confounds us all to this day. They’re obviously disappointed when they open their gifts for each other, but once the realization hits what each gave up in order to get the present for the other, they smile and hug. It’s at this point Angelica enters the picture with presents of her own. It seems she finally figured out that trading back with Phil and Lil was pretty stupid and still selfish on her part, so she just gifted them back the things she took. They run over and give her a big hug, and even though Angelica cries out “Eww, baby germs!” she does it while looking pretty happy.
Well, on the bright side Barney, I don’t think you have to suffer through many more Christmases given how you live.
Chuckie then finally admits to Tommy that he was right all along and that Santa was a nice guy. At the same time, Chas admits to Drew that he too was right to hire a professional. Drew agrees and is more than willing to give himself credit for the idea, but a phone call interrupts him. It’s some gray-bearded guy named Barney (Tony Jay) and we see he’s in a bathrobe in his home fetching himself some milk and cookies (he lives his gimmick). He says he’s calling from a car phone and tells Drew his vehicle skidded off the road and asks if they can reschedule the Santa thing? We just hear indecipherable screaming on Drew’s part from the other end as Barney hangs up the phone and says “I hate Christmas,” as he sinks into a lounge chair.
It’s impossible to draw a lump of coal and not have it look like a turd.
Drew angrily hangs up the phone as Chas asks him who that was. He starts to complain that the guy he hired to play Santa just cancelled, but as he says it out loud he realizes just what that means and looks shocked. Chas then asks “…who was that?!” as the two look confused on the couch and we hear the sound of sleigh bells in the background. We then find Angelica seated on the floor gushing over her new toy. She wonders aloud if there’s a car in the attached garage. She opens it and there’s something in there all right: coal! Didi even walks over and asks, “Angelica, is that a lump of coal?” Which just leaves Angelica to look stunned.
We then move to an exterior shot of the cabin and pan up into the sky as Santa flies by, with all eight reindeer, laughing “Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!” and the trail of stardust he leaves in the sky actually spells out the words “Merry Christmas.” And that’s the end of this one. Of course he’s real!
I’m actually a little surprised that Rugrats went full “It’s Santa!” I suppose they had to given they made it seem like he was fake all episode.
“The Santa Experience” is a bit of an odd episode of Rugrats because it’s light on babies, heavy on Angelica. Angelica has other episodes centered around her, but it’s a little surprising that a big double episode like this one would choose to follow her. And in a way, it makes sense that Angelica, who is famously spoiled, would play a big role in an episode about a holiday known for toys. She’s not the nicest kid, and even Arlene Klasky kind of hated the character, and most probably would just assume she’s going on The Naughty List. That would seem a bit mean-spirited for a cartoon though, so we need to get the full Angelica experience here so we can see what makes her bad, but also what makes he redeemable. Placing her in the center of The Gift of the Magi as the reason for why the sympathetic characters are in the predicament they wind up in and giving her the power to make it right is a rather creative solution. Though I don’t know about that conclusion from Santa. Is simply trying to be good equivalent to just being good? Especially when the good deed Angelica is trying to do is really just corrective action for something awful she did. In that, the episode tries to have its cake and eat it too by giving Angelica what she wants, but slipping in a lump of coal that’s really inconsequential.
Chuckie and his dad are so likable, maybe they should have leaned more into this relationship at the expense of some of the other stuff? As an aside, have you seen the Mother’s Day special? That’s a real grab the tissues watch.
The angle with the adults plays about as big of a role as Tommy and Chuckie’s quest to trap Santa. Neither is that interesting as the Angelica plot takes center stage, but it at least leads to the satisfying conclusion with Santa. The cabin was basically just the easiest way to get everyone under the same roof, and honestly, it’s kind of sweet to see this group of friends be so close that they want to spend Christmas together. It’s also rare to see adults openly talk about Santa as if he isn’t real in a show that is unquestionably meant for young children. This episode might have caught some kids in that sweet spot where they still believe, but are also questioning things, and that ending feels like a reassurance. On the other hand, it probably found just as many kids who weren’t yet in that questioning stage and now suddenly are. If I sound a bit obsessive or nitpicky here, it’s because this is the type of stuff I’m careful to avoid with my kids, especially my youngest. I guess what I’m asking is does it make it okay for a kid’s show to present Santa as fake, only to reveal he’s real in the end? That’s something I personally grapple with, but I could be in the minority.
As for other Christmas stuff, there actually isn’t a lot. Most of the adults just sport their regular attire and the same is true for the kids. It would have been nice to see the babies in some ugly sweaters, but I guess they blew the budget on the new backgrounds for the cabin, mall, etc. I like that the episode’s title ties into The Santa Experience of the show and the final reveal of Barney is pretty comical, and also pitiful. Barney’s not long for this world. The bit with Angelica calling the fake help line feels almost cruel, and yet a touch satisfying since for once it’s Angelica who is having the tables turned on her. How much you enjoy that scene of the guy telling her she’s on The Bad List might be a litmus test for how you’ll respond to her actually getting a present in the end. As for that guy, man is he something. Even if a kid was rude to me on the phone, I don’t think I’d have the heart to play Santa and tell them they’re not getting any presents this year.
Note that there’s only one car, the mystery of how the babies got here deepens!
“The Santa Experience” ends up being a solid episode of Rugrats. I don’t think it’s the classic it could have been though. Klasky-Csupo was right to dedicate a full 22 minutes here, but it still feels a little too unfocused. There’s little riding on the non-Angelica stuff, and while I love the Chas/Chucky embrace and the Santa payoff is nice, getting there just seems to take longer than it should. It just needed a jolt of excitement and that’s really obvious when doing a write-up like this as we keep just returning to Tommy and Chuckie having the same conversation scene after scene. Those two never even talk to Phil or Lil in this episode, or Angelica, which is bizarre. Still, if you like Rugrats and you like Christmas shows then this is probably worth watching each year and it’s pretty easy to come by. It’s streaming on both Hulu and Paramount+ and it’s been released on DVD several times which are probably fairly cheap at this point. And you might as well pair it with the other Nicktoons Christmas specials from the 90s. I guess that means I’ll have to do Doug some day.
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
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The Ren & Stimpy Show burst onto the scene as part of the original trio of Nicktoons in 1991. The other two, Doug and Rugrats, were fairly gentle cartoons. Rugrats could sometimes get a little blue since the main characters were all babies, but the occasional poop joke was hardly something to get offended by. The Ren & Stimpy Show, on the other hand, was far more crass. It felt like a throwback to the days of Bob Clampett and Tex Avery with its manic pacing and outrageous character animations. It also had its own flair in the form of gross, disgusting, humor. It’s hard to imagine another cartoon in the 90s being more influential on what followed in the world of animation than The Ren & Stimpy Show.
This also came with its own set of problems. Certainly, Nickelodeon had to deal with more letters and phone calls regarding the show’s content than it did probably any other show on its network, but it also had to deal with series creator John Kricfalusi, or John K. The less said about him the better, but suffice to say he was very much a demanding boss and a bit of a perfectionist when it came to the show. This meant the show frequently missed deadlines and John K. also frequently ignored suggestions, or mandates, from the network when things got too risqué. I’m all for standing up for your artwork, but John K. agreed to make a show for kids and there’s some battles worth fighting and some that are not. There’s also been plenty of other things shared about him over the years that are not very kind that I don’t want to get into. At the end of the day, I do think he is a talented cartoonist and without his talents The Ren & Stimpy Show likely wouldn’t be what it was, but there were also lots of other talented people involved in the show’s production and without the likes of some of them the show also wouldn’t be what it is.
This very episode captures some of the dance the creators and Nickelodeon entered into with seemingly every episode of the show. The network wanted something heartwarming, I’m not sure if it necessarily wanted a Christmas episode, and John K. was willing to give them one so long as it was done his way. Hence why we have an episode about a fart. The original title is just “Stimpy’s First Fart,” but the network changed it to “Son of Stimpy.” Television networks have long had an adversarial relationship with the word “fart.” I don’t know why, but it is a thing and that’s why it still surprises me to this day that Salute Your Shorts got to have the word appear in every episode via the opening song. In this case though, I think the network was right as the “Son of Stimpy” title is a bit more mysterious and helps the fart joke land a little better.
“Son of Stimpy” is the first Christmas episode from the show and has the distinction of being done with digital ink and paint. Most of the show was animated with traditional ink and paint, but maybe the Christmas deadline forced the show to move a bit faster. The show was also transitioning from Spumco to Games Animation and that is said to have played a role. The content of the episode actually did not please Nickelodeon so it first premiered on MTV instead. It would eventually be run on Nick, but sometimes in an edited state. I can remember catching the first broadcast purely by accident. I was channel surfing in my bedroom and found it on MTV. I was super surprised to see an episode of the show I had never seen airing on the network and I was so excited that I recall telling my mom right away (who probably didn’t care). And it was a Christmas episode too! The episode also uses the full running time to tell its story without any other inserts, another rarity for the show, and contains several callbacks to the first episode either deliberately or to save time.
That was a juicy one.
This episode begins with an exterior shot of a house inhabited by Ren and Stimpy. A voiceover, John K., tells the audience that this is a story they just made up. Inside, Stimpy (Billy West) is watching TV and the sound effects sound exactly like the ones coming from the TV of the very first episode. He’s motionless except for his eyes dancing around as they take-in some cartoons. Then we get a shot of Stimpy’s butt and it’s done as a still image so it’s rather lovingly painted. Stimpy has a nice, well-rounded, set of buttocks in this episode to likely make them appear inviting, which is important to the plot (trust me). We then hear a noise, a gurgling kind of noise, and Stimpy looks at his butt with some confusion. The still image of the butt returns only now the image is shaking as a rumbling is taking place which leads to a very satisfying fart sound. It has a lot of bass and as far as fake farts go it’s quite lovely! It’s followed by the sound of a balloon letting out air as Stimpy looks satisfied and a puff of greenish-brown smoke emerges and then disappears. Some ominous “Dun! Dun! Duuuuun!” music plays as we get another shot of the the butt, this time with some skid marks added to the floor. Stimpy notices an odor in the air and is soon running in place calling for Ren.
There’s a pretty clear juxtaposition being portrayed between Ren and Stimpy here.
In another part of the house, Ren (John K.) is seated in a lounge chair in a bathrobe and fez hat reading from a book. The juxtaposition of the naked, cartoon-watching, farter and this very dignified Ren is obvious. Stimpy excitedly tells him in a quiet voice that something happened while he was watching TV. Ren can’t even begin to act like he cares, but he asks Stimpy what happened. Stimpy proceeds to tell him that something came out of his butt, it made a sound, and it smelled funny. Ren repeats everything Stimpy told him as if he’s gathering an understanding of the situation, then deadpans “You’re an idiot.”
You can’t force these things, Stimpy.
Stimpy is distressed that Ren doesn’t believe him, but then decides to just make another one! He moves into the center of the room and starts trying to push something out of his butt. There’s some groaning and obvious straining as Ren even moves into the danger zone to see what happens, but Stimpy’s butt just ends up deflating. Ren kicks at the remains of Stimpy’s cheeks, then tells him he has an overactive imagination and to leave him out of his stinky fantasies! It’s an interesting approach to the situation as when Stimpy originally approaches Ren we think he’s calling him an idiot for not knowing what a fart is, but now it seems clear that Ren too has never farted. I should point out for you continuity nerds, Stimpy did fart in a previous episode when they were in the bathtub together during “Big Baby Scam,” but this is a show that really has no continuity.
The absurdity of boogers being freaked out by Stimpy talking to farts is not lost on me.
As Ren leaves Stimpy to his stinky fantasies, Stimpy claims to himself that Stinky is real as he has apparently named his fart now. He then perks up as he declares he’ll find him! Stimpy then walks around the house calling out for Stinky in an operatic voice. He giggles with embarrassment seemingly acknowledging that we’re watching him act a bit silly – it’s cute. He checks in a few places before getting the idea to consult his Magic Nose Goblins he leaves under the bench for the piano. If you’re unfamiliar with the show, Magic Nose Goblins are Stimpy’s boogers. Before this episode, I don’t think they were ever personified, but here Stimpy is able to ask them if they’ve seen Stinky. When they press Stimpy for info on who Stinky is, he describes the fart as he did to Ren. One of the “goblins” figures out what Stimpy is looking for and whispers to the others “He talks to farts,” in a manner that expresses he views this behavior as extremely odd. The other boogers then just tell Stimpy they haven’t seen Stinky as they seem eager to get rid of him now. He leaves, but in doing so sits up and slams his face into the underside of the bench seemingly killing his booger buddies by mistake.
It’s not often we can say this, but here Ren does mean well.
Unable to find Stinky, Stimpy slips into a depression. He’s just seated in a darkened room as Ren tries to cheer him up. He pulls out a TV Guide-like magazine and reads off some of the programs Stimpy usually likes only for Stimpy to reply sullenly with an “I don’t care.” This setup is very similar to how the Commander Hoek and Cadet Stimpy cartoons begin, only Stimpy doesn’t get excited about that show or Muddy Mudskipper. Stimpy and Ren’s eyes then well with tears as their mouths quiver with sadness. Ren emotes frustration, and even anger, to the camera, but approaches Stimpy in calm, measured, tones about snapping out of this funk. We find out he’s been moping for 3 years now, which is certainly a long time to miss a fart.
The poor guy just wants his fart back, how can you not relate?!
Ren then dangles a new catnip mouse for Stimpy who makes an “Ehhh,” sound of annoyance that’s amusing to me because he sounds like future Billy West character Zap Brannigan. Ren tries cheering him up by jumping into his litter box and encourages him to drop a big, stinky, one into it. Hearing the word “stinky” causes Stimpy’s eyes to fill with tears again as he says “Stinky” in a longing tone. He then wails and starts sobbing forcing Ren to march over angrily. “So that’s it, you’re still crying about your imaginary butt stinkiness!” Stimpy insists in sad tones that Stinky is real and Ren tries, once more, to be supportive. He tells him he needs to get over this fantasy and says he’ll help him and that they can do it together, but Stimpy just replies once more with “I don’t care.” That’s the last straw for Ren, who has been uncharacteristically supportive and understanding throughout the scene. He stamps his feet and shouts at Stimpy. He tries to muster up one of his usual go-to insults for the cat, but he’s basically choked with anger and can just get out “stupid” over and over. Declaring “Who needs you!” he storms off leaving Stimpy alone and sad.
It’s oddly inviting.
It’s nighttime. Stimpy is laying wide awake in bed staring at the ceiling while Ren is on the other side asleep, his back towards Stimpy, with a smile on his face (this brief shot of Ren is cut from the DVD release, presumably because the DVD uses the Spike TV tapes which probably cut it for time). We move to a close-up of Stimpy’s eyes which once again fill with tears. He lets out a sigh and rolls over giving us a nice shot of his round buttocks covered in a purple blanket. The camera pans over to the window where someone is watching. It’s Stinky! He’s a brownish puff of gas with a face and arms. He’s looking through the window with longing and the camera zooms in on Stimpy’s sparkling butt cheeks. Opera-style chanting fills the soundtrack and Stinky looks so very sad. He lowers his head and drifts away as the snow begins to fall.
Ren’s trying everything to get Stimpy “in the mood.”
We cut to Stimpy in the doorway of the house calling out for Stinky. He has a scarf wrapped around his head and his face and hands are blue from the cold. Ren comes out to urge him to come inside. He says that Stimpy has been out there for months and tells him to come help him with the tree, our first hint at Christmas. Ren suggests he can string the dingleberry garland (gross), but Stimpy gives his “ehh” response again and Ren switches tactics by pointing out the mistletoe over their heads. He leans into Stimpy with a flirty, expectant, expression which might be the pair’s most gay portrayal up to this point in the series. Stimpy doesn’t react at first, and then his eyes widen with surprise. Did Ren maybe touch a sensitive area? Stimpy then explodes at Ren, “Gosh darnit, Ren! Is that all you can think of?!” He lectures Ren further saying that Stinky is lost out in the cold and finishes with a “He needs me.” And Stimpy leaves Ren, who cries for Stimpy to come back, but is ignored. Falling to his knees, he utters a prayer for Stimpy telling a higher power he can hold off on the pectoral muscle implants he presumably prays for usually, just bring Stimpy home!
It certainly would be a festive place for a fart to live at Christmas.
We’re then taken to The Naked City. Stimpy is roaming the streets calling out for Stinky in the dark and cold as the snow continues to pile up. We get a shot of Stimpy’s feet sporting crude shoes as he walks through the snow. A Santa on a street corner cries out “Ho ho ho,” as he rings a bell looking for donations. The cadence of his call changes abruptly like he stepped on something, or maybe someone placed a cold hand where he wasn’t expecting. We then see that Stimpy is behind him checking the fat man’s buttocks for Stinky, but finding nothing, he walks off.
This won’t end well.
Stimpy’s feet are shown again only now his shoes have been worn revealing purplish feet, one toe has a nail sticking out of it. Stimpy has posted signs reading “Have You Smelled Me?” with an image of Stinky on it, which is odd since he never really saw him. We cut back to his feet, now blocks of ice, as he continues his search. He tries filing a missing persons report at a police station, but the cop just throws him out. He smashes into a brick wall, but the scent of something stinky wakes him (this sequence is missing from the Paramount+ version). We see him again clawing his way down the sidewalk towards the smell, but it’s just a manure salesman (Mr. Horse) and Stimpy drops to the ground. A car parks on his head for good measure, and then lo and behold, Stinky shows up! He takes a seat on Stimpy’s ass and wishes he never left home, but Stimpy doesn’t hear or smell him since he, you know, has a truck parked on his head.
It’s tough being a fart.
Stinky then moves on and squeezes in between two guys seated on the ground sleeping back-to-back. One is just in a coat and underwear and they’re clearly meant to be un-housed individuals. One of them notices the stench of Stinky first, then the other who cries out for someone to light a match. They both stand up and start waving a lit match and poor Stinky is terrified. He lets out a tiny scream and is forced to flee to a sewer as the two men give chase.
There’s a lot of sad crying in this episode.
Back at the house, Ren is singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” through tears as he digs out Stimpy’s present from under the tree. He then goes to give it to Stimpy and we see his face, but it turns out it’s just a picture of Stimpy (the DVD version cuts out the tease and jumps straight to the gift next to the picture frame). A ring of the doorbell gets Ren’s attention and on the other side he finds Stimpy, only he’s completely encased in ice. They go into their reunited routine from the very first episode, only Stimpy can’t respond to Ren’s cry of “Pal” because he’s frozen.
It’s our first Christmas miracle.
Ren brings Stimpy into the living room and sets him up by the fire. The ice is gone and Stimpy is shivering in a blanket with his feet in a bucket of hot water. Ren has decorated for Christmas and he’s done a rather admirable job as he looks on Stimpy with glee in his eyes. He tells Stimpy to relax and kisses his forehead as Stimpy’s tongue pops out of the blanket. A ring of the doorbell causes Ren to leave and, at first, it looks like no one’s there. Then a familiar odor wafts into Ren’s nostrils. At first he’s repulsed, but then smiles as he reaches down off camera for something.
Take a big whiff, Stimpy.
Ren returns to the living room to tell Stimpy he has a visitor. Stimpy responds with his now customary “I don’t care,” forcing Ren to thrust his finger under his nose. As he sniffs Ren’s finger, a look of recognition crosses his eyes. The brown cloud then appears and Stimpy is on his feet crying out in joy “Stinky!” Stinky returns the cry with a “Dad!” and the two embrace to some uplifting music the show is returning to from the first episode, only the embrace is punctuated with a fart sound.
The moment we’ve been waiting for?
Stimpy, through happy sobs, declares that now he and Stinky can be together forever. Stinky’s face hardens and he pulls away from his father’s embrace to tell him, “No, dad, we can’t.” He explains that he’s a man now, and a man has needs, but when he asks Stimpy if he understands the cat just angrily shakes his head “No.” Stinky then gets an idea and tells him to wait here. He goes to the door and opens it and tells Stimpy he wants him to meet his fiancé: Cora.
She’s quite a…catch.
The bride to be is a rotting, mostly decomposed, fish. Stimpy takes one look at her though and declares her beautiful as the fart and garbage embrace, I guess. Ren and Stimpy embrace too and cry out “Memories!” We cut to a wedding, where Stimpy is marrying Stinky to his fish bride. For the first time, he uses the word fart when addressing Stinky so at some point he learned what he is. The two kiss, then head inside Ren’s nose for their honeymoon hanging a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door that suddenly appeared on Ren’s nostril. The camera pans out and Ren looks pretty unhappy about this arrangement, as Stimpy tosses cat litter at his face in place of rice and tells the camera that he just loves happy endings!
“I now pronounce you fart and wife!”
And that’s the end! Nick wanted a heartwarming tale and it got one, albeit a subversive one that only could come from The Ren & Stimpy Show. Stimpy searches for his missing son so the two can be reunited for Christmas. It sounds like a nice and pretty standard holiday premise when you ignore that his son is a literal fart. It’s a bizarre and crazy premise that really puts Stimpy’s stupidity on full display. I suppose, in a sense, it’s funny to think about how we create and pass gas that vanishes quickly and for an idiot like Stimpy he might not comprehend that. Mostly, it feels like a challenge from the show to see if the audience can be moved to feel empathy for an actual fart and the one who dealt it.
A fart is having sex with the corpse of a fish in Ren’s nose right now. That’s a lot to process.
As is customary for the show, there’s tons of visual gags and gross images. There’s numerous shots of nice, round, butts that do look inviting given the cold climate throughout. The show almost made me want to climb in between those two gentlemen in the alley as Stinky did, but not quite. Ren and Stimpy’s relationship is also really interesting here. Ren is shown to be far more understanding and permissive of Stimpy’s depression when normally he’d just lash out with anger. He eventually gets there to a point, but it’s actually depicted rather well as it’s very easy to grow frustrated when trying to talk someone out of a funk. We all try our best not to act like Ren did in the end, but it can be trying. And then we have the obvious romance angle. The show flirts with that here and there before and after this episode, but the depiction of the pair under the mistletoe is definitely the most obvious call out to the two being a romantic couple that we’ve ever seen. Of course, the sequel show would make that plainly obvious to mostly disastrous results. Don’t confuse me for saying Ren and Stimpy being out of the closet is disastrous, that show just happens to be not funny and isn’t worth watching. The fact that it isn’t cut from the episode is rather brave on the part of Nickelodeon considering this debuted in 1992. Not on Nickelodeon, but that’s even pretty brave for MTV. And it would eventually jump to the kid’s network.
Watching Stimpy suffer is not really a whole lot fun, but then he’s also suffering because he misses his fart. It’s hard to know how one should feel, but I think that’s the point.
Ultimately, this episode leans so far into telling it straight that it’s not as funny as it perhaps could be. There are funny moments, for sure. Stimpy describing a fart without knowing what one is works as probably the best scene in the whole episode. The dismissive nature of his booger friends and some of the closeups definitely warrant a laugh. After that though, once Stimpy slips into depression, it’s fairly short on laughs and is really committed to telling this sad story that ultimately has a happy ending. Only I don’t think it succeeds in actually getting the viewer to care about Stinky. I think I identify more with Ren’s frustrations than Stimpy’s depression, which is probably not what the episode wants. Though I do think that aspect of it exists because the staff must have known there would be viewers like me and at least we have something to latch onto via Ren. Because of that, I never know how to feel when this one ends. Am I happy for Stimpy? For Stinky? I guess. I’m relieved it’s over because I don’t enjoy seeing Stimpy suffer like this, but the payoff isn’t there. I think if this one wasn’t as long as it is then it would work better because at some point it just feels sadistic with how it treats Stimpy. Stimpy is a character easy to laugh at when the pain inflicted upon him is physical, but not emotional.
There’s really not a ton of Christmas in this episode, but I think there’s enough.
“Son of Stimpy” is not the only Christmas episode the show created as there is also “A Scooter for Yaskmas.” That one is actually very similar in tone to this one as we basically just see Stimpy suffer, though in that one he creates some of that suffering by desiring a physical object. Both have their moments, but also neither one is a Christmas special I feel required to return to every year. I think others feel differently as “Son of Stimpy” seems to be well-received by the fanbase, so what do I know? If you want to embark on a journey of father and son reuniting for Christmas then this one is available to stream on Paramount+ and was also released on DVD many moons ago. That set is very easy to acquire and contains some classic episodes so even if your response to this episode is tepid like mine that DVD is still a worthwhile purchase. Unfortunately, both versions are edited to some degree. The one on Paramount+ omits the sequence where Stimpy enters the police precinct and gets thrown out, while the DVD version cuts out a shot of Ren sleeping in the bed and his giving a gift to a picture of Stimpy. For the DVD, I think both edits were just made for time as the source video is from Spike TV and their broadcast. With Paramount+, I think their version is the one Nickelodeon aired which apparently didn’t like featuring a cop assaulting Stimpy. Given the two choices, the DVD version is superior, but it continues to be frustrating how hard it is to find truly uncut episodes of The Ren & Stimpy Show.
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
Well fellow cartoon Christmas enthusiasts, we’re in a new and interesting place today. We’re coming in for the second part of a two-part story we started looking at yesterday. In the first part of “The Bleakening,” the Christmas special from Bob’s Burgers which originally aired in 2017, the children of Bob and Linda Belcher were…
Five years ago The Christmas Spot did its first advent calendar countdown to Christmas and the theme was “The 25 Greatest Christmas TV Specials.” With that list, my approach wasn’t entirely forthright. I really had a list of 20 specials that I deemed worthy of such an honor and I devoted the back five to…
Christmas has a number of characters that instantly come to mind at the mere mention of the holiday. The big man, good old S. Claus, is likely number one. Whether you know him as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, or something else, Santa Claus has dominated the holiday for decades now. Other characters commonly associated with…
I guess it’s been a long time coming that I touch some 2012 TMNT action figures.
Playmates Toys has been the master toy license holder for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for as long as I’ve been aware of TMNT. In the 80s, the toy line produced by Playmates was excellent: fun sculpts, imaginative characters, crazy set pieces, and tons of vehicles. It was a great companion to the animated series airing on television five days a week and it was a huge reason the TMNT franchise became as big as it did. As the property cooled off and moved on from the old show, Playmates was the one constant that remained. When the turtles jumped to live-action for The Next Mutation, Playmates went with them. When they came back in 2003 with a new animated series, so did Playmates. And it’s been that way for over 30 years now with no end in sight.
Right now in 2022 we’re living through a dry spell for TMNT multimedia. The comics are still going strong, but there are no new episodes of a TV show airing on television and no feature film is set to hit theaters this year. Often times when a toy maker enters into an agreement to be the master license holder for a property there are various stipulations in the agreement that need to be satisfied in order for the agreement to remain valid. One such common stipulation is that new product has to be shipped at set intervals since whoever actually owns the property (in this case, Viacom) stands to make money on units sold and wants its property to remain in the spotlight with consumers. I don’t know if such a clause exists in the license that Playmates holds, but it would certainly explain the vast amount of reissues that have been shipping over the past two years. Rereleases of the vintage figures showed up at Walmart last year while new variations on the Classic Collection figures from 2012 have been available at comic shops and as part of some bizarre two-packs with Cobra Kai. For fans and collectors, some of these reissues have been welcomed, but some have not. The quality has been suspect at times while other releases have left fans scratching their heads wondering just who actually wants some of this stuff?
If you like gimmicky packaging then Playmates has you covered.
I’m mostly in the camp that doesn’t place much value in the recent Playmates releases, but one such bundle did finally get me to pull the trigger. The 2012 animated series that aired on Nickelodeon is one of the blind spots for me as a toy collector. Prior to that series, I had dabbled in basically every line Playmates released. I also watched that 2012 series as it aired and really came to love it. I saw the toys on shelves at various big box retailers and I thought they looked fine, but I just never felt compelled enough to pull the trigger. It was a line aimed at kids, and the Classic Collection did arrive that same year and largely scratched my itch for new TMNT product, so I felt comfortable passing on it. Now though I’m re-watching the series with my kids and I’m being reminded how good it is and Playmates made it really easy to grab some of what I had missed.
6 figures for 50 bucks – can’t argue with the value!
The latest bundle of figures from Playmates centers on the 2012 series. For 50 bucks you get a fancy box decked out to resemble the Shellraiser from the show that contains six, carded, action figures inside. If you’ve been following the Playmates reissues this kind of packaging has become common as they’ve done movie turtles, toon turtles, and even sports turtles in this same style. Once I saw these sets arriving in the hands of collectors I felt comfortable to grab one myself. Some of the others have been rather lackluster, like Bebop having solid black legs and the movie turtle reissues lacking the soft, rubbery, form of the vintage versions so it was hard to predict just what the 2012 reissues would look like. And in general – they’re fine. They’re pretty standard reissues and largely get the job done, but they do have their issues as well.
First of all, the box is pretty neat. It comes in a rather plain, white, slipcase with green font and a Playmates logo on it that basically just exists to protect the inner box. The interior box is fairly sturdy and the art looks great. There’s a turtle on 3 of the sides while Donnie is on top in the gunner position. The turtles are designed to resemble the toys and not the show and there’s even a handle on top of it should you feel the need to bring this to your buddy’s house. Each end is taped closed so you’ll have to break out a knife to get into it if you don’t want to rip tape off. Once opened, the figures can be found stacked 3×3 with some tissue paper wrapped around them. All 6 cards arrived in good condition. They’re the standard blisters from the line sold at retail only the cross-sell on the back has been updated to feature just the six figures in this set: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, Splinter, and Shredder.
While I had to warm up to the look of the CG in the show, the actual designs for these turtles clicked with me right from the start.
Let’s talk about the turtles first. They were the main reason why I decided to grab this as the other two figures were almost irrelevant to me. Like past Playmates lines, these turtle figures are more inspired-by the show they hail from and are not aiming to be true recreations. They’re all generally much rounder in appearance and each turtle is a unique shade of green, as Playmates often does. Leo strikes me as the most neutral as far as his shading goes while Raph is definitely the darkest of the four as his shade of green skews more blue. Michelangelo has a lot more yellow mixed into his coloring while Donnie comes across as more pale. Each turtle has their own unique mask with the traditional color assignments while the kneepads and elbow pads are brown. There is an ever so slight variation to the shade of brown for each turtle and each one also features athletic tape around the wrists, hands, fingers, and feet. Leo’s tape is an off-white while the other three brothers all have brown tape, except the hand tape which is the same across all four. Raph and Mikey’s tape is a pretty close match in shade to their knee and elbow pads, while Donnie’s is noticeably lighter. Each turtle also has a unique belt for storing their weapons with both Leo and Donnie having a shoulder strap.
I’m not going to display them with the box, but I suppose I could.
These versions of the turtles are actually not the 2012 releases, but the updated 2016 reissues. The main difference between the two is that Playmates re-sculpted the feet to resemble the show. These turtles have the all-white eyes of the 2012 release, but the eyes are painted to be much larger and extend outside of the actual sculpted portion. They don’t look as clean, and the paint in general isn’t great. There’s a lot of slop around the masks on my Leo and Donnie while Mikey’s doesn’t appear to be painted all the way to the edge of the sculpted part of the mask. Mikey also has some of the white from the teeth on his chin. Donnie is by far the worst of the four though as his mask was not painted well at all. The rear of the mask is almost all green plastic with much of the purple applied to the top of his head by mistake. It’s a bummer. To my surprise, the gold on his belt buckle is rather clean so he at least looks passable from the front.
That is a brutal attempt at painting Donnie’s bandana.
I never expected the paint to be much to write home about as it’s the sculpt that interests me most with these guys. It’s a very fun look for the turtles and it’s a look I much prefer to that of the actual show which tended to give the characters these blocky looking muscles. Each turtle is individually sculpted which is actually pretty standard for Playmates. They probably expect to sell so many of the base turtles that they’re willing to sink more money into each one. The texture of the turtle flesh is well done with some featuring bumps, scaling, and cross-hatching to add a touch of realism to otherwise unrealistic designs. Somewhat unique to this iteration of the turtles at the time is the fact that each turtle had a distinct shape. Donnie is the tallest at about 4.625″ with Mikey the shortest at an even 4″. Donnie’s head also has an egg shape to it (fitting) with Raph being close to his shape while Leo and Mikey have comparably wide heads. Raph also has a unique crack in the plastron of his shell near his left shoulder. Donnie is the only turtle with a closed mouth expression which is a bit of a surprise since his model in the show had a gapped-tooth smile. They’re all good sculpts and I’m very charmed by them. The only thing holding them back is the paint and some of the materials as the belts have a very plastic look to them and the accessories do as well, which we’ll get to.
I would caution against storing Mikey’s weapons in such a fashion.
One thing Playmates has never been known for is articulation, and these guys are mostly more of the same. They’re certainly more articulated than some of the past iterations of the brothers, but obviously way less than the Classic Collection. Each turtle has the same articulation: ball-head, shoulder ball-hinge, elbow hinge and swivel, wrist swivel, thigh ball-hinge, knee hinge and swivel. What is present at least works all right. The elbows bend about 90 degrees while the ball-hinges at the shoulders and thighs allow for a wide range at both. The only thing I don’t like is the peg in that shoulder hinge which is pretty ugly and really odd. I also wish they had articulation in the ankles as that would really help in posing, but I’m also not surprised to see such a thing missing.
Everyone comes with extra, unpainted, weapons because that’s how Playmates likes to roll.
The accessories for these guys are also pretty standard. Each turtle comes with his signature weapons: swords for Leo, sai for Raph, bo staff for Donnie, and nunchaku for Michelangelo. The weapons are cast in colored plastic. Leo and Raph’s weapons are gray while Donnie’s is brown and Mikey’s is a more orange-brown. They look okay, but it would have been nice to see some paint. Mikey’s ‘chuks are also all plastic, and while they are flexible, stress marks will quickly form on the chain portion if they’re bent and stored in his belt. All four turtles store their weapons on the rear of their shell and it works fine excepting the issues with Mikey’s ‘chuks. Raph’s right hand also features a wider gap between his fingers so he can do the sai grip with the blade between his fingers just fine. In addition to the standard weapons, each turtle also has a weapon rack with extra stuff. Leo has a much longer, tachi-like blade here while Mikey has his chained sickle offshoot which his nunchaku basically transformed into in the show. Donnie has the bladed variant of his bo here as well and Raph has some strange, broken, sai where each is missing one of the side points. Raph also has some hooked weapons, Donnie a chained weapon, Leo various kunai, and Mikey multiple styles of shuriken. The other three also have their own shurikens and Leo also has what looks like a chisel or something. I like the variant weapons that Don and Mikey feature, while the extra large sword for Leo is cool too. Mostly though I assume people display their turtles with their traditional weapons and that’s probably what I will do as well.
Oh yeah, can’t forget about the other two…
If this contained just the four turtles, I’d be fine with it. 50 bucks for four figures in a specialty box is a decent value in 2022, but we do have two other figures to talk about. First up is Master Splinter. Unlike the turtles, he is a straight re-release of the 2012 figure and he basically looks the same. He’s about 4.5″ tall so he’s a little shorter than Donnie despite being taller in the show. He’s also pre-posed like the classic figures with knees bent so he’s actually taller, but functionally not. He’s also way more basic than the turtles. Remember how I said Playmates seemed inclined to sink more money into their turtles? Well, they’re definitely not for the supporting characters as Splinter is barely more engineered than his vintage counterpart. He just swivels at the neck and elbows with ball-hinges at the shoulders and thighs. There are no knee or elbow hinges or even wrist swivels. He does have one additional point of articulation and that’s a swivel at the tail which comes unassembled in the box.
I guess he’s just always going to be looking up.
If Splinter is to be a statue then he’s going to have to make up for it with the paint and sculpt, and unfortunately that’s really not the case. The paint is fairly clean on this guy, but I’ve never liked the mix of white, brown, and black on his face. His legs and body are also gray which seems odd, but they’re not really visible so I guess it doesn’t matter. His left eye doesn’t appear to be aligned properly so he’s a bit goofy looking. I also wish Playmates used a different shade of white for his exposed teeth as they just blend in with the white fur around his mouth. He does have wraps on his forearms which are gray while the exposed fingers and tail are pink. He has one arched foot which is annoying, but he at least can use his tail as a third leg. The kimono is soft plastic, but aside from the black buckle there’s no paint on it which is a bummer. He looks like a toy wrapped in a fruit rollup. His lone accessory is his walking stick which is cast in a semi-translucent green plastic so it at least looks interesting. Otherwise though, he’s a dud and not something I would have bought outside of this set.
Eh, I guess he kind of scales with the turtles.
Our last figure is the sworn enemy of Splinter and the turtles: The Shredder. He’s better than Splinter, but not as good as the turtles. Like Splinter, he’s a 2012 reissue which is a bit of a bummer because Playmates would do a version 2 that was much better. He is at least sized appropriately at a tick over 5″ and his chest is broad and barrel shaped. He’s also fairly on-model with the show. Like the rest, the paint isn’t great. The chest, sleeves, thighs, belt and part of the boots are painted and it’s all fairly uneven. His eyes are also painted white and look pretty terrible. The armor bits not painted are cast in gray plastic and they look fine. The forearm blades are retracted and Playmates declined to include an extended variation which is also a bummer, but true of the 2012 release as well. I do like this look for Shredder as he’s quite menacing, this just isn’t a great interpretation of it.
Shredder at least has some size, but those statue-like legs are just so bland.
The articulation for Shredder is also lacking. His head is locked down to just a swivel while the shoulders and thighs are the same ball-hinge joint the turtles have. He also has hinged elbows and a swivel at the wrist and waist but nothing at the knees. It’s odd to not have at least have a boot cut and I feel like with better articulated legs I could deem this one acceptable. I do applaud Playmates for putting the shoulder pauldrons on hinges so that Shredder has more range at the shoulder, but that’s about it. He doesn’t make up for the lack of articulation with his accessories either as he just comes with a sword and a pair of shuriken. The sword fits rather loosely in his hands which drives me nuts, plus I don’t know if he ever used a sword in the show. I’d much rather he just have extendable blades for his forearms. The updated Shredder Playmates released had a removable helmet, cape, and hinged knees and the forearm blades were sculpted to be extended. He couldn’t retract them, but I’d rather they be extended than not.
Let’s sneak in a comparison before we put a bow on this one. Everyone likes to compare to the ’88 figures, so I’ll switch things up by comparing 2012 Leo to 2003 Leo (left) and 2007 Leo (right). It’s a shame that when Playmates added painted weapons to the 2k3 line that it didn’t become standard for all future lines.
This boxed set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures mostly does what I want it to do. I don’t particularly care for Shredder and Splinter, but at least Shredder has decent shelf presence. I mostly just wanted the turtles and I do like these sculpts and designs, I just wish my Donatello in particular had been painted better. I’m torn on if I prefer the 2012 versions to the updated 2016 ones too. I like the new feet, but dislike the wider eyes on these ones. Still, it probably would cost me more than 50 bucks to acquire a set of 2012 releases so I’ll take the trade-off. By getting these I’m also more likely to dig out more of my vintage stuff to better display my collection. As for the rest of this line, I don’t know if I’ll add to it. I do like the Metalhead that was released, but nothing else comes to mind. Maybe I can talk myself into that 2.0 Shredder. Otherwise, I’m content to let it be unless NECA or someone else wants to take a whack at the 2012 series with more of a collector mindset. I would certainly welcome an alternative to the Revoltech releases, but for now, this should suffice.
Original air date December 24, 1990 (IMDB) or December 26 (Wikipedia)
In the 1980s, Nickelodeon didn’t have a lot of animated content. That’s probably surprising for today’s adolescents, but that’s how the network was in the old days. That was due in large part to the network first prioritizing educational content, and then wanting to make sure whatever it aired couldn’t be found on another channel. And if you’re going to produce original content, live action is often far cheaper than animation.
Things would obviously change, and one of the first animated shows Nick would air was Danger Mouse. The British import satisfied the network’s desire to have something that couldn’t be found on broadcast, but it didn’t really satisfy the desire to have an actual, good, show. Sorry Danger Mouse fans, but I don’t like your show. Danger Mouse eventually got the boot, but network president Geraldine Laybourne was still interested in working with Cosgrove Hall Films on a new show. That show would be Count Duckula.
Duckula is a vampiric waterfowl who happens to lack teeth.
The character Count Duckula first debuted as a villain in Danger Mouse. That character had a fun design, but would not be suitable as a lead for a children’s show. In order to lead his own show, Duckula would have to be toned down a bit. As the lore goes, the Count Duckula from Danger Mouse was basically killed off somewhere. His servant, Igor, then needed to create a new Count Duckula through an elaborate reincarnation process requiring blood. He ended up being a vampire created not by blood, but by ketchup as the opening song covers leading to him being a vegetarian vampire who shuns his teeth by literally tossing them out. Since he doesn’t have a thirst for blood, Duckula is instead motivated by a relatable item: money. As well as fame. Despite living in a castle with servants, he’s apparently broke and is forced to travel the world in his teleporting castle seeking out get rich quick schemes and such. His adversary, Dr. Von Goosewing, is basically a vampire hunter that either doesn’t believe that Duckula is harmless or he doesn’t care: a vampire is a vampire. He’s out to destroy him, but frequently is thwarted.
The intro to every episode makes sure the audience knows that this isn’t your typical blood-sucking vampire.
Count Duckula would last about six years from 1988-1993 and totaled a syndication-friendly 65 episodes. Despite it actually overlapping with the original Nicktoons, I can’t remember actually watching Count Duckula past 1989 or so, nor can I recall what timeslot it occupied. And even though it was co-produced by Nick, it’s not a Nicktoon and I assume that’s because it preceded the Nicktoons concept. There was no need to grandfather it in since Nickelodeon didn’t own the rights to the show or character as once their broadcasting rights expired at the end of 1993, Count Duckula was gone from the network. Apparently, despite being gung-ho for the show initially, Laybourne ended up not liking the cartoon. It ended up being a testing ground of sorts for Nick when it came to original animation and I presume had the network president liked the show then the network probably does more to keep it around. Maybe then it would have been a true Nicktoon. As far as I’m concerned, it basically is the first Nicktoon which makes it a rather important piece of cartoon history.
As part of the broadcast third season, Count Duckula celebrated Christmas. Even though a show starring a vampire duck that also incorporates other famous monsters into it feels more like a Halloween thing, there’s still room for Christmas. And since the inhabitants of Count Duckula’s world all appear to be birds, we get to see what Santa would like if he had feathers and a beak.
Santa appears to be an eagle or a buzzard, which begs the question, “If Santa were a bird, what kind of bird would he be?”
The episode begins with a festive title card that dissolves into an actual moving picture. “The Nutcracker Suite” is played as narrator Barry Clayton does his best Vincent Price impression to welcome us in. We look at the cold castle home of Duckula and find Santa Claus (Jack May, I think, only the main cast is credited to their main characters) getting ready to go down the chimney. He mostly looks the part, but he has a crooked beak extended from his face and over his beard. At first glance I thought it was a nose and that Santa was actually human. He’s accompanied by one, lone, reindeer who appears to be Rudolf given that he has a round, red, nose. He kind of looks like Brain from Inspector Gadget, only brown and with antlers.
He may be dressed like Santa, but Duckula embodies the “receiving” aspect of Christmas and not so much the giving.
Inside the castle, Duckula (David Jason) is excited about Christmas and is roaming the halls as Santa. His faithful servant, Igor (May), is doing the same though with much less enthusiasm as he lets us know he much prefers Halloween. Igor is basically the show’s killjoy as he intended to resurrect Duckula as a bonafide vampire and resents this vegetarian lord he got instead. In the bowels of the castle, Santa is seen crawling around. He remarks that every year he spends a few hours delivering presents to the whole world, then the remainder of the night trying to navigate Castle Duckula in order to deliver presents here.
The birds of this world are apparently of the Donald Duck variety in that they can’t fly, as this is surely not the quickest (or safest) way to the top.
Outside the castle, the crow brothers are shown scaling the wall dressed as little Santas as well. These guys are often shown trying to break into the castle, only to rarely succeed. They think there is treasure inside and are apparently unaware that the castle’s owner is broke. Or Duckula is ignorant of actual treasure somewhere inside. They’re singing “Jingle Bells” until one crow brother (Burt, I think) remarks to the lead crow (Ruffles?) about this bringing about warm, fuzzy, feelings inside. It would seem our dim-witted bird thinks they’re bringing presents to Duckula, while the lead brother has to remind him they’re just dressed as Santa to sneak in and steal everything. Once the dimmer brother understands, they resume their scaling and their song.
In this show, the vampire hunter is actually the bad guy.
Flying nearby is Dr. Von Goosewing (Jimmy Hibbert). He’s flying a blimp and also dressed like Santa (everyone is just so festive) and butchering “Jingle Bells.” Most of the lyrics he makes up are borderline unintelligible. He’s in a festive mood though because he has a present for the “wampire” inside and he’s pretty proud of himself for coming up with some ingenious plan. He doesn’t explain it for our benefit, but obviously this isn’t a sincere Christmas gift. He exits the blimp and decides to enter the building as Santa would. In the background, we see the lone reindeer working on a snowman while he waits for his master’s return.
So many Santas…
Elsewhere in the castle, Duckula is marching along and singing “Jingle Bells” as well. We then see Nanny (Brian Trueman), Duckula’s massive, hen, caretaker, also dressed as Santa and also singing along. We then pivot back to Igor and he’s just muttering “Bah, humbug.” All three characters collide at an intersection and Duckula is confused to see they too are dressed as Santa. It would seem one of them plays Santa every year, and all thought it was their turn this year. Nanny confirms for Duckula that Santa is expected soon while the crow brothers outside pause at a window thinking they had been spotted. They weren’t, but Santa opens the window the lead crow was beside which knocks all of them from the castle wall. Santa, thinking he had finally found the exit, sees that he was wrong and resumes his journey oblivious that he just murdered a murder of crows. Inside, Duckula asks Igor what that sound was as the crows crash down to Earth, but soon decides he doesn’t really care.
He does look cooler with fangs.
In the living room, Duckula is bored waiting for Santa so he proposes to Igor they exchange gifts now. Igor is happy to oblige, strangely, and Duckula is happy to receive a present. Until he opens it, that is, and discovers Igor got him new vampire teeth. He’s disappointed, but Igor requests he oblige him this one time since it is Christmas and Duckula tries them on. Immediately he starts talking like a normal person would with those cheap, vampire, teeth found at stores around Halloween and he’s none too pleased. He does wish Igor “Happy Christmas,” and makes the old buzzard quite happy. He hands over Igor’s gift as well, an obviously wrapped axe, which Igor seems pleased to receive or he’s just still beaming about the teeth.
In case you’re wondering, Nanny’s arm is always in a sling. I remember zero plot details from this show despite watching it as a kid, but I did remember the sling thing for some reason. Probably because it bothered me as a kid not knowing why her arm (wing?) is in a sling.
Duckula then picks up another gift that’s intended for Nanny. When he calls for her to enter she comes crashing through the wall, which is kind of her thing. She then scolds Duckula for speaking with his mouth full, on account of the teeth, so he spits them out and ends that little piece of amusement. She’s elated though to receive a gift from Duckula, making it seem like this isn’t a regular thing, and is so excited she almost forgets to open it. Duckula has to encourage her a bit, but when she does she seems disappointed. It’s a book, and she declares she already has a book (she’s not very bright), but Duckula tells her this is a great one and tells her to read the title. It’s actually a comic book about a character named Tremendous Terence. It’s actually The Very Big Tremendous Terence Adventure Book and Duckula tells her she’s very lucky. It soon becomes apparent that this isn’t really a gift for Nanny, as Duckula takes the book from her hands and enthusiastically declares he’s Tremendous Terrence’s number one fan. He then declares she’s too busy to read it now on account of having to prepare Christmas dinner so he’ll just borrow it for a bit. What a jerk? We then get a quick glimpse at Von Goosewing as he tries to navigate the same tunnels as Santa. He remarks to himself that his Christmas gift is at risk of becoming an Easter Egg if he can’t find his way out of this place soon.
This better not lead to a bad case of amnesia.
Back in the den, Duckula is reading the book aloud to a very enraptured Igor. As he reads it, we see the pages of the comic as the camera pans over the panel and Duckula provides narration. He reads the characters in voices, which is a nice touch. It’s a generic story of a space ace thwarting evil aliens, but Duckula is entertained tremendously while Igor is most certainly not. Nanny then enters the room to share some pudding she’s made, only it falls off her plate and bounces across the floor striking Duckula in the head. It continues on and smashes through a window, which the crow brothers had reached and soon take another terrible tumble.
Like many toothless cartoon characters, Duckula gains teeth whenever he smiles.
Following his little bump on the noggin, Duckula is apparently in a daze. He starts to imagine himself in the Tremendous Terence book where he needs to help his hero save Santa from some aliens. The visuals become a comic book with only Duckula partially animated. This must have really knocked down the cost of this episode. As the story moves along though, other characters start to animate. Either this is intentional or they just kind of lost track of the rules. The camera does shake a little as it pans across the page, which is a nice touch since it does make it feel like someone is just holding a book in front of it.
This corny finger pointing joke might actually be my favorite part of the comic sequence.
While Igor and Nanny argue over who is responsible for Duckula’s concussion, the story of Daring Duckula and Tremendous Terence is laid out. Duckula is a space pilot in this story as they go after some aliens who have abducted Santa. Daring Duckula navigates a swarm of pudding, the same that concussed him, and is quite modest when taking praise from Terence. Despite making himself a rather talented pilot, Duckula narrates that he crash lands on the home planet of the Dribulons, the evil aliens they’re pursuing. Once there they find themselves trapped in a net and are to be sent to the Igulon, the most feared being this side of Betelgeuse!
This passage is just fantastic to hear. Print does not do it justice.
The heroes are taken to the Igulon, which is Igor in purple pajamas with yellow polka dots. Duckula remarks he looks familiar, but is apparently unable to make the connection in his present state. They then go into a schtick as Igulon states they’re just in time for dinner and Duckula is eager for some grub. When Igulon tells him that he is on the menu, Duckula is at first fine with that until he realizes what this means. The only thing missing is an incredulous, “WHAAAAT?!” Igulon recites a bunch of fancy dishes that are fun to hear and read (this is presented as a comic book, after all, complete with word bubbles) concluding with duck a la orange (he also intends to consume Santa and Terence). Duckula then tries to convince Igulon that he’d taste lousy, and Igulon surprisingly seems agreeable to this notion. He then suggests a pre-meal bit of entertainment, and Duckula whips out a banjo and starts seeing his own rendition of “Camptown Races.”
The artists really did a great job making this entire section look like a print magazine.
Igulon is not amused and corrects Duckula. He intends for the entertainment to be their battle with the Nannoxx! At this point, almost everything is fully animated as Igulon explains that if they survive the Nannoxx he’ll allow them to be cooked before he consumes them. What a generous guy? A gong is sounded summoning the horrible Nannoxx, which as you probably guessed is just Nanny only she’s all green and polka-dotted as well. She surprisingly enters through the door and immediately scolds Duckula for calling her horrible. Igulon orders her to kill the heroes and she marches over and places all three of them, Terence, Santa, and Daring Duckula, in a giant bear hug.
Sleep reading is a thing, right?
The bear hug is the catalyst for snapping Duckula out of his pudding-induced coma. He has apparently been reading the book, but in a concussed state, or something as he’s holding it and readying it frantically while Nanny squeezes him. Duckula soon notices he’s not in the story anymore and reacts with confusion. He rambles to Nanny and Igor about what had happened and thinks they saved him. Igor is thoroughly confused and as Duckula comes to realize it was all some weird hallucinatory episode he starts to laugh like a mad man. I mean, duck.
Santa and Goosewing being lost in the bowels of Castle Duckula probably could have chewed up more screen time than it did.
In the chimney system, or wherever they are, Santa is peering down another chasm unaware that Goosewing is right behind him. He bumps into Santa and both fall down the chute only to find it ends in the fireplace. At long last, they’ve located the exit! Their falling down the chimney stirs up quite a bit of dust and soot, and when the smoke clears Duckula is happy to see Santa, and surprised to see Goosewing. When they question what he’s doing there, he states he’s there to deliver goodwill since even a creature such as Duckula deserves something at Christmas. Santa seems to take this at face value as he laughs and declares that he’s happy to hear that from Goosewing. Goosewing hands over a present for Duckula and Santa declares he brought some too. Duckula is happy, because he’s like a child and loves getting presents, but Goosewing is frustrated when Duckula turns his attention to Santa instead of opening the gift he brought.
At least they managed to find their way out.
Santa then pulls out a gift for Igor, which is clearly another axe. The old bird doesn’t seem to mind. Nanny gets a big box, which she doesn’t open, and then Santa asks if Duckula has been a good boy this year. He says “Yes,” and Igor sneaks in “Mmm, ’tis a pity,” which is a good line as Santa hands over a gift for Duckula. He rips it open only to find it’s the same Tremendous Terence book he bought for Nanny. Most episodes of this show feature Duckula doing something self-serving where he gets his comeuppance in the end, and the Christmas episode is no different. Santa is confused that Duckula doesn’t seem to want his gift, but before Duckula can figure a way out of this awkward situation Goosewing rips open the gift he brought and asks if anyone wants Christmas crackers?
Duckula does speak with an American accent so that might explain why he doesn’t know how to properly tug on a Christmas cracker.
Nanny is excited to see the crackers so Duckula offers to pull one with her, but he makes it clear that he gets the present inside. The two then try to pull it apart, while Goosewing plugs his ears, but the thing won’t “crack” since Duckula is gripping the middle portion of the cracker and not the end. Frustrated, Goosewing grabs and yanks on the sides causing it to explode rather predictably. The explosion sends Goosewing rocketing through yet another window, where once again the crow brothers lurked and are soon knocked from the wall.
I think we all knew this was coming.
Duckula remarks that was one crazy cracker as Santa announces it’s time for him to go. Duckula wishes him a “Happy Christmas,” as Santa walks away. Apparently he wants nothing to do with the chimney of Castle Duckula. Nanny wishes him the same while Igor sneaks in one last “Bah, humbug,” for good measure. The scene pivots to outside as snow is falling. Santa drives away in his one reindeer sleigh as the narrator returns. He implores us to have “A very, merry, Christmas out there. Whatever you are!” The only surprise is there’s no moon in sight for Santa to fly in front of.
And Santa flies away with nary a moon in sight.
“A Christmas Quacker” is definitely a mixed bag. I enjoy the look of this series and I think the animation is rather well done, even if it’s sometimes minimal. And by minimal I don’t mean the comic book portion as that is certainly not the usual for this show. That whole section though felt like filler. There were a couple of decent and funny lines during that segment, but it was also pretty dull. Apparently there just wasn’t enough material to mine from the awkward gift exchange inside and Santa’s journey through the complicated chimney system of the castle. I like the recurring gag of the crow brothers, but I feel like more could have been done with Goosewing. They also could have just brought in more recurring characters from the show to pad this thing out, rather than roll with the comic thing. It just felt out of place in a Christmas episode because, other than the goal being to save Santa, that portion of the episode was pretty much devoid of Christmas.
The main cast is what makes this show work with Igor being my personal favorite. Look at his little hat, he’s got the Christmas spirit after all!
What this show does offer is British humor and a wonderful cast. Jack May is especially impressive as Igor (and I think Santa) as I loved pretty much every line that character spoke. Nanny is charming as well since she never misses a chance to reprimand Duckula for doing something wrong. Our title character is almost the least interesting since he’s basically just a spoiled child at Christmas, but I do love his design. The scenery is also rather lovely and we get some snow and even a decrepit Christmas tree. There’s no Christmas message really, other than I suppose those who give gifts with the wrong intentions come away with nothing in the end. Well, I suppose Duckula did still get a book he liked, he just wound up with two.
“The Christmas Quacker” is not an easy thing to come by these days. If you live outside of the UK then it’s not even available on DVD and it’s not syndicated on any US channels. It is, however, streaming for free on YouTube via the official Count Duckula channel. If you remember the show from when you were a kid, or are just curious, I actually do suggest you give it a look. These free channels on YouTube feel like they’re not long for this world as various streaming platforms hungry for exclusive content keep cropping up. For now, it’s there, but who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
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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 they were basically the same from channel to channel as the networks battled over the youth market while confining it to just a small portion of the schedule. Nickelodeon basically ditched all of that as it would aim its programming at children from 6AM to 8PM every single day. The problem though, was there just wasn’t much programming out there that wasn’t already locked into an exclusive deal on broadcast. That’s why, in the early days, Nickelodeon relied a lot on syndicated and outdated shows like Lassie, Dennis the Menace, and Flipper. The network didn’t have the resources to produce it’s own content or compete with the broadcast networks for the latest and greatest, but as it’s profile grew so did its coffers.
In the late 1980s, Nickelodeon explored the idea of doing animation. And when it did so, it decided to go after a guy who knows an awful lot about animation: Ralph Bakshi. Bakshi had established himself as a director of feature-length animation in the 60s and 70s with an adult audience in mind and was probably best known for Fritz the Cat, the first X-rated animated film. An X rating back in the 1970s didn’t mean what it does today as Fritz the Cat is actually more like an R-rated film, but that fact didn’t stop some of his detractors from calling him a “pornographer.” He directed several other features and had basically established himself as the anti-Disney of animation.
What you were originally supposed to see alongside a Nicktoons logo.
In the late 80s, Bakshi was overseeing the animated series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, and it was likely his work there that caught Nickelodeon’s eye. Nickelodeon had been acquired by Viacom in 1986, which itself had been spun-off from CBS as part of a mandate from the FCC banning networks from owning syndication companies, but it’s probably no coincidence that Mighty Mouse was a CBS show and likely helped get Bakshi into talks with Nickelodeon. Bakshi pitched Junktown, later changed to Tattertown, which was an idea he had been sitting on since he was a kid. The network liked it enough to commission a pilot and would from there offer him a deal for 39 more episodes. Then Bakshi got into trouble with Mighty Mouse as a sequence in an episode where Mighty Mouse snorts a flower was accused of being a reference to cocaine use. It made enough noise that it’s alleged Nickelodeon got cold feet and backed out of the deal and the pilot for Tattertown, which was re-titled Christmas in Tattertown, is the only remnant of the deal.
Tattertown was supposed to be about a girl who gets sucked into another world inhabited by garbage that walks and talks.
Tattertown should have been the first Nicktoon and would have launched in either late 1989 or sometime in 1990, which would have been before the eventual launch of Nicktoons in 1991. The irony in all of this, is that the sequence in Mighty Mouse that caused so much trouble can be traced back to a director on Bakshi’s staff: John Kricfalusi. Kricfalusi was adamant the sequence not be cut from the cartoon and Bakshi eventually sided with his decision. That decision obviously backfired, and Mighty Mouse ended up getting cancelled eventually. Kricfalusi would then go on to found Spumco, and his first major project would become one of the original three Nicktoons: The Ren and Stimpy Show. Obviously, Kricfalusi couldn’t have known at the time how lucrative a decision that would be for him to defend that one scene in a cartoon, but it sure did work out pretty well for him in the end. Now lets never speak of him again.
Likely what would have been the show’s logo.
Christmas in Tattertown aired in December of 1988 and was re-broadcast around the holidays into the 90s. Despite Nickelodeon having the broadcast rights to the pilot of its would-be Nicktoon, it doesn’t own the production outright. Bakshi retained ownership of it and either had a deal in place each year with Nick for it to air, or their original agreement provided the rights for a time that likely no longer is in place. Because it is a single, not particularly well-remembered, holiday special, it hasn’t been officially made available. The only way to see it is either via an original tape or via someone’s own recording made with a VCR. Geoffrey Darby, who was a screenwriter at Nick on You Can’t Do That On Television and the original host of Double Dare, has a YouTube channel with just five videos. One of those five though, is Christmas in Tattertown. It sounds like, based on his write-up with the video, he just found a copy of the special in his home or office and put it up for people to see. It has a counter running at the top of the screen for the entire duration and there are even blank spots in the video, presumably for commercials. There is also, on occasion, tracking info from the VCR he likely used to upload this thing which just makes it a really interesting viewing experience. There are other versions on YouTube that are of better quality, some even with commercial bumpers, but there’s a certain time capsule aspect to the one uploaded by Darby.
Miles the sax, voiced by the always awesome Keith David.
Christmas in Tattertown begins with an introduction. Keith David is our narrator and he introduces us to Debbie (Sherry Lynn), a little girl who found a strange book in her attic and got sucked into Tattertown along with her stuffed dog and dolly Muffet (Jennifer Darling). This either would have been the intro for all of the Tattertown shows, or it would have been livened up a bit, maybe with a true theme song or something. The origin is told through stills during the opening credits, and if you’re into animation you may see some familiar names in the credits here and at the end. When Debbie gets pulled into her book is when the actual animation kicks in. Tattertown is an animated world full of discarded items. Once an inanimate object is brought to Tattertown, it becomes sentient and personified. Most of the designs have a very classic, animated, style to them. We’re talking noodle limbs, big eyes, and constant motion. The jazzy soundtrack befits that style as well and this is a world where Bosko would fit right in.
Muffet is a character with some unexpected complexity.
Once Debbie arrives in this new place, she is dismayed to find her dolly has run away. Muffet is a baby doll that bizarrely seems to have a five-o-clock shadow. She basically has a Homer Simpson mouth. She’s also the bad guy of our tale as we find out she basically hates everything that has to do with being the doll of a young girl and Tattertown is a world of new beginnings for Muffet. Upon realizing she’s alive, she begins to cry with joy which is a nice touch to add some sympathy to this character who will be a bad guy, in the end. Debbie chases after her, and some puppet characters welcome us to Tattertown as a title card drops down.
After all of that, we officially meet David’s character, Miles, a saxophone. He gives us a rundown on Tattertown and we get to see some of the occupants until Muffet and Debbie go racing by. Muffet wants nothing to do with Debbie now that she’s alive, but Debbie still wants her to be her dolly. Muffet tries to clear a plank fence, but can’t leap over it allowing Debbie to grab her by the ankles. She pulls, causing Muffet’s legs to stretch and the fence to bend until Debbie eventually loses her grip. Since this is a rubbery, cartoon, world, Muffet behaves like a rubber band that was stretched and released and goes soaring through the night sky towards a far off city.
There’s something suggestive about that look Debbie is giving Harvey here. This is a Bakshi cartoon, after all.
Debbie takes a seat on the sidewalk to lament how Muffet “got away again,” which serves to remind us that this was a pilot and we’re probably to assume that Debbie has been in Tattertown awhile. Or has been here before. She scolds her dog companion and then sees her friend Harvey (Adrian Arnold) picking a fight with someone much bigger than he. Harvey is basically one of those non-descript animal characters from the 1920s the Warners from Animaniacs would be based on. Is he a bear? A dog? I don’t know. He’s mostly black with a red nose and big eyes. He also has a busted arm as he shadow boxes until one rips off. Debbie calls him over so she can sew it back on and he chats her up about Muffet. This leads to a story from Debbie about how she got Muffet for Christmas, or it would have gone into a story if Harvey knew what Christmas was. Debbie is shocked to find out this fact as she assumes there must be some Christmas stuff amongst the denizens of Tattertown. With Harvey’s limb re-attached, the trio set out to see if they can round up some old Christmas junk.
This spider probably makes people much younger than me think of Cuphead.
Elsewhere, Muffet is enjoying herself and going a little nuts until a stray alarm clock smashes her in the face. She looks over to a nearby building where a bunch of characters are just throwing stuff around. A spider named Sidney (Charlie Adler) is descending from the ceiling with another dolly in his clutches. Strangely, he only seems to have six limbs, but I bet he’s based on some cartoon from the 30s that looked the same. He apparently intends to eat this other dolly and that’s why the other creatures are throwing stuff. Muffet enters and screams for them to stop and to let the spider do his business. When they ask who she is, Muffet refers to herself as Muffet the Merciless and declares that she’s taking over Tattertown. She’s pretty convincing too as all of the other characters flee, except Sidney who seems to take a liking to Muffet. He drops his prey and follows Muffet out the door, while the dolly that was to be eaten is able to dust herself off and blow a defiant raspberry at his back.
Does Muffet symbolize America or something? Interesting framing device.
Outside, Sidney expresses interest in Muffet as he’s always wanted to take over Tattertown. Muffet asks for more clarity on just what this place is, and Sidney suggests he take her to The Deadster Zone. Miles chimes in to tell us that the Deadster Zone is a place for war toys and televisions, basically unsafe stuff, and it’s represented as a giant drummer soldier with other toys zipping around it. Sidney introduces Muffet to “the guys” and asks her what she thinks, seemingly proud of himself. She is unimpressed and declares she’s seen gelatin with more backbone than these guys. Most of the stuff appears to be discarded ammo, there are personified rockets or something, as well as Frankenstein-like devices that appear to be a mish-mash of various appliances. Muffet goes into a speech/slash rant about taking over Tattertown and finds herself on a stage in front of an American flag. The other beings are shown cheering for her, some falling apart as they do, while Sidney literally melts onstage he’s so impressed.
Back in Tattertown, Debbie has everyone searching high and low for Christmas stuff. Harvey runs across an individual that looks a lot like a Christmas wreath and is hawking cigars on a street corner. Harvey takes exception to someone selling cigars in his town and is ready to throw down, but Debbie sees the wreath-guy and snatches him up in a hug, accidentally separating Harvey’s head from his body. She runs off overjoyed to have found a Christmas item, while Harvey pops his head back on and does a stylish pose to show everyone he’s okay.
She found some Christmas.
Debbie takes a seat and remembers how at Christmas her family would hang a wreath on the door and how the snow would flutter off of it whenever they opened and closed the door. She gets a little emotional, which confuses Harvey. He then asks her to tell him just what Christmas is and Debbie soon has an audience to listen to her tale. She explains the gist of the holiday, mostly as a kid interprets it, which means she mostly talks about presents. The other characters like this story (who wouldn’t?) causing Debbie to declare that they’ll have a Christmas of their own!
I wish there was more from this pair in this cartoon.
Nearby though, a fly spy for Muffet is watching and he takes off back to the Deadster Zone to inform his new boss of this development. Muffet is shocked and enraged at the idea of Christmas coming to Tattertown and throws a mini temper tantrum over the idea. She then summons two of her lackeys, Tad and Wendell, to spy on Tattertown. Tad is voiced by someone doing a John Wayne impression and he is some sort of device with a machine gun for a nose. Wendell is voiced by Charley Adler doing an effeminate voice. He looks like a blue desk lamp attached to a car battery and he’s plugged into Tad so they have some kind of co-dependent relationship. Is this Nickelodeon’s first unofficial gay relationship? I suppose these things technically lack a gender, but they sure seem like a couple.
This guy may not be much of a tree, but he’s still better than Christopher.
Harvey is shown leading Debbie to a comic and book store in search of some old geezer named Tannenbaum. Once inside, they’re accosted by a book of the 1930s, with NRA emblazoned on the cover, that opens up and a bunch of 30s era gags are allowed to jump out. They soon find Tannenbaum, who is a pathetic looking, potted, evergreen tree with a bowler hat and the voice of an old Jewish man. It’s pretty weird to give such a voice to a Christmas tree, but Bakshi or someone must have though it was a funny thing to do. Debbie wants him to be their Christmas tree, but he wants no part of it, until Debbie mentions there will be no competition so he’ll essentially be the best tree in town. That’s apparently all it takes to get the tree interested, which is a bit odd since he was ranting about needing to run his store. It makes me wonder if she was supposed to whisper something to him about compensation, which would fit the mouth flaps just as well as competition, and someone nixed it since that would be a bad look for this seemingly Jewish character to want to get paid.
Wreath boy here is acting like he doesn’t want in on this, but you know he does.
Tad and Wendell are making their way through Tattertown when Tad is forced to stop abruptly because Wendell stopped to admire a flower. He declares it beautiful, while Tad is annoyed and accuses Wendell of somehow blowing their cover before annihilating the flower with his machine gun nose. Wendell sheds a few quiet tears and then simply places a new flower in its place. They then come upon Debbie instructing the townsfolk on how to decorate a tree. Tad tells Wendell he’s going to waste them right here and now, but Wendell gets one look at Tannenbaum with the wreath guy attached to him and falls in love. He starts running towards the tree while Tad warns him he’s going to overload him since he’s apparently gushing with power now. He does indeed overload, causing the two to go spinning into the tree where they become entangled alongside the wreath. They provide a warm glow though and the townsfolk are transfixed. Meanwhile, the wreath hopes the other tough guys don’t see him like this further implying my suspicion that Tad and Wendell are to be read as gay.
Gross.
Muffet is then showing getting ready to enjoy her favorite dish: tobacco pie. She retrieves it from a safe, and it’s disgusting looking. It’s basically a pie slice with brown filling and cigarettes poking out of it. She gets startled by her fly lackey though and drops it near some creature that looks like a pellet stove. He eats the pie, then squirts out a gray liquid, as Muffet looks ready to cry. The fly comes baring bad news, which only fuels Muffet’s rage and sadness. The news is presented in the form of a Christmas card from Tad and Wendell showing them on the tree. Muffet needs a minute to pout and despair about how exhausting it is to be surrounded by all of these “lower lifeforms.”
Muffit Claus.
Sidney sees and hears Muffet’s tantrum and scoffs at it privately. He decides he would be a better ruler of the riff raff and puts on a crown and robe that apparently belongs to Muffet. She sees him, and suddenly he’s not so confident any longer. She shoves him into a bathtub full of…yellow water…and speaks down to him in a threatening manner. She then pulls him aside and slaps a new outfit on him. It’s clearly a reindeer outfit, though Sidney doesn’t know that, and when Muffet disappears behind a sack of clothes she’s reaching into there’s no surprise when she emerges as Santa Claus. Muffet intends to bring destruction to Tattertown disguised as Santa, and Sidney shall be her mount. She rides him off the roof, and thanks to the fly character holding onto his costume, he floats! Then he does not as flies are not known for their strength, and the trio plummet towards the ground as Sidney screams and Muffet appears delirious. She rounds up the other junk and beckons them to join them on their flight to Tattertown, as Sidney seems to fly just fine now, declaring that Muffet Claus is coming to town!
There’s a dark side to Debbie.
In town, Debbie is trying to teach the others about Christmas carols when some lumberjack robot walks up to their tree intending to chop it down. Debbie stops him, much to the relief of the old tree, and laments how they still don’t understand what Christmas is all about. Through tears, she describes Christmas as a day when people basically stop working and being bad, and set everything aside for the good of the day. The robot somehow sheds a few tears himself, and then when Debbie finishes resumes the cutting down of the tree causing her to smash him with a fist!
She may be new to playing Santa, but she knows what’s expected of her.
The townsfolk then see all of the commotion up in the sky. Debbie, naturally, thinks it must be Santa, but Muffet soon corrects her. As Muffet launches her attack, the beings of Tattertown are actually excited and Debbie is so happy to see her dolly coming back to her. This just makes Muffet even angrier, and as she directs her forces to rain destruction upon Tattertown a red blur crosses her path. It’s the real Santa! He doesn’t appear to be showing up with any purpose in mind, except to wish everyone “Merry Christmas,” but Muffet takes it as a challenge. She turns around and instructs her minions to target Santa, but when one dumb missile smashes into another, a plane assumes that Muffet wants them to attack each other! They’re not very bright, so that’s what they do essentially putting on a fireworks show for all of the onlookers. Everyone loves it, including Santa, but he has work to do and tells Muffet he can’t stay and play with her and takes off leaving Muffet alone with Sidney. She decides she doesn’t need any help and plans to resume her assault on Tattertown solo.
I’m not really sure why the big guy showed up.
On the ground, Harvey is really impressed with the dogfighting he just witnessed above. He tells Debbie that Christmas is quite a show, and then asks when they can eat? Debbie, frustrated that she can’t convey what Christmas is all about, channels her inner Charlie Brown when she declares “It’s all wrong!” She marches over to a big phonograph and makes a last ditch effort by playing “White Christmas” as sung by Bing Crosby. It’s a bit shocking they had enough money in the budget to license this recording, but it has the desired effect Debbie was looking for. Characters are shown crying and embracing as Crosby’s gentle croon fills the air. It even gets to Sidney, who puts on the “brakes” causing Muffet to go crashing through the roof of a nearby jail. He pulls out boxes of soap flakes and starts spreading them from up in the sky mimicking snowfall.
It may not be real snow, but it gets the job done.
In the jai cell, Muffet angrily sits. She pulls out a stocking and empties its contents on the ground, it doesn’t appear to have anything good in it, but when she holds it up it soon magically fills with presents. A tear comes to her eye as she appears close to breaking, until Debbie looks in on her from outside the cell and declares she can be her dolly again! This makes the grumpy expression return as we freeze on this moment for a beat. Miles then comes in to wrap things up as a literal curtain closes on the special with Muffet’s curses ringing loudly in the background.
And that’s how Christmas came to Tattertown. It’s a special that certainly has style and is very evocative in both looks and sound with classic animation. The actual sound quality isn’t great, but that likely has at least something to do with how this special has been preserved these past 30+ years. It would have been interesting to see how this series would have looked once it moved past the pilot. I imagine it would have had to have become a bit more static than what is presented here, but I assume it would have been able to keep enough of the charm it was going for. I also assume Nick would have made Bakshi drop the tobacco references. They’re a bit weird to see, and even though it’s only the bad guys who glorify it, I doubt the censors at Nick would have left it in. It’s the type of thing they won’t pay to have removed from a pilot, which is likely why it’s here.
Muffet left feeling miserable on Christmas.
The actual story and characters though leave a lot to be desired. The pacing of this thing is just odd. It’s trying to hit conventional Christmas special beats, but with little or no setup or transition. It’s just one thing after another and comes across as very disjointed. Debbie is quite bland and most of the scenes featuring her were pretty dull. There’s a little something to Harvey at least, but his character isn’t explored enough in this one pilot episode to leave a mark. Muffet certainly dominates to both the benefit, and detriment, of the episode. She’s very over-the-top, and Jennifer Darling’s performance is part of that. I think she does a good job developing Muffet, it’s just that there’s too much of her and by the end the character has been stretched way too thin. The character is turned up to 10 too often, so the final few rants have no impact and the character becomes annoying. It’s also just a weirdly imagined character – a doll that doesn’t want to be a toy and just wants its own autonomy. That sounds like a noble cause, but the special needs the character to be a villain so it then just makes her evil thus destroying any sympathy the audience could have felt for her. Muffet should be the protagonist, but Bakshi apparently wanted to just toss a curveball at us for the sake of doing so, or he’s just a bad story teller.
At least we got to listen to Keith David.
Christmas in Tattertown is definitely an interesting relic and a fun exercise in “what could have been?” Being the first Nicktoon would have been huge for Tattertown, regardless of how successful the actual series ended up being, but apparently it wasn’t meant to be. As a Christmas special, it’s not very good. It’s interesting to look at, but hardly remarkable. It’s story is nothing new and no one ends up learning anything about Christmas in the end. As mentioned earlier, the only way to see this is to find it on YouTube or in other places online. There’s no official release and there likely never will be at this point. I suppose it’s a shame there isn’t a high quality version readily accessible, but it’s also not a great loss either.
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
The Flintstones have a well-established relationship with Christmas at this point. There have been a few specials, some even prime time, and plenty of home video releases. For that reason it’s a bit interesting that the show actually waited until its fifth season for its first Christmas episode. At that point, the show had been…
Yesterday, we took a look at the so-called Pokémon killer, The Weekenders, so today we’re going to look at Pokémon itself. The Weekenders earned that nickname because it was the first to knock Pokémon off the top of the ratings charts for Saturday morning television after it had reigned for a year. The victory was…
Goof Troop was part of that next wave of Disney Afternoon shows following the likes of DuckTales and Rescue Rangers. And unlike those shows, this one starred one of the original Disney cartoon stars from the company’s early days – Goofy. Following a career in short films, first as part of Mickey Mouse cartoons and…
The Nostalgia Spot 