Tag Archives: nicktoons

Dec. 24 – The Nostalgia Spot Christmas Special Countdown #21 – 11

Welcome to Christmas Eve 2025! Christmas Eve is the party night while Christmas Day is the more low key, family, experience. For those not wanting to spend the night at the eggnog bowl, we have eleven Christmas specials here that you would do well to kick back with and enjoy. We’re into the Top 20 and these are among the best of the best. In truth, while these are all in an order of how great I think they are the truth of the matter is I consider most of these pretty interchangeable. What likely impacts you most is personal taste in Christmas specials. Do you like your special to be wholesome? Crass? Vulgar? Musical? Nostalgia plays a big role too and certainly some would view these next 11 and say “Of course, a kid who grew up in the 90s would come up with this,” and that’s probably fair. Someone who did most of their growing up in the 70s probably has a very different list. However, I’ll defend my list as being as objective as I can possibly make it. I look for uniqueness in my specials. I like to laugh, for sure, but I also appreciate those Christmas feels. This collection of Christmas specials is pretty robust. Most have those feels in them and if they don’t it’s because they found a way to subvert the Christmas special in a fun way. And we’re taking it to 11 today, so let’s get on with it!

21 – The Tick – The Tick Loves Santa!

Not many folks can say they gave Santa a noogie.

I love The Tick. When it aired on Fox Kids in the early 90s, I didn’t appreciate it enough for what it was so, in a way, there’s very little nostalgic attachment for me here. As a kid, I wanted my superhero cartoons to be serious like Batman and X-Men. The Tick wanted to lampoon such though its target was more Silver Age than modern. As an adult, I appreciate The Tick for what it is and when I did a rewatch a few years back I was surprised at how well the show held up. It’s just very funny and also clever. The Tick is a buffoon, but a likable one. He’s more excitable than anything and that is on display here in “The Tick Loves Santa.” The Tick, being a bit childlike, is the only hero who believes in Santa Claus so when a villain disguised as Santa starts getting up to no good it really messes with his head. The real deal is going to reveal himself and personally enlist The Tick in taking down this Multiple Santa and he’s more than happy to do so. It’s a tremendously fun, off-beat, Christmas special and I especially love The Tick’s interactions with the local police early in the episode. If you dismissed The Tick as that dumb show with the big blue guy all these years then I recommend seeking this out. Especially if you’re a little fatigued with modern superhero media and want to laugh at it instead.

20 – Hey Arnold! – Arnold’s Christmas

That Arnold is such a good kid.

The Christmas episode of Hey Arnold! is such a favorite of 90s kids that I kind of resisted it for a long time. I just didn’t really vibe with Hey Arnold! as a show. I wanted my cartoons to either be action-packed, superhero, dramas or riotous toons not grounded by much of anything. Hey Arnold! was not that. It was most like Doug when compared with other Nicktoons, but even Doug had a certain silliness about it via its character designs and some of the odd lore in the show. Plus, it had Doug’s over-active imagination for when it wanted to break-out of its confines. Arnold really doesn’t have that. It’s a slice of life show with a very optimistic and well-meaning kid as its lead. He’s almost too nice, too perfect, like he’s a kid created by an adult trying to find the ideal child. “Arnold’s Christmas” makes good use of such a character and puts him to work in trying to reunite a father with his long, lost, daughter. It’s a tragic tale about a refugee in America and the struggles that come with being such. It’s probably a Christmas special we need now more than ever as many individuals in a similar situation presently face deportation for the crime of not being white enough. It’s a heart-warming Christmas special that also finds a way to weave the Helga/Arnold dynamic into the plot in a satisfying way as well.

19 – Tom & Jerry – The Night Before Christmas

This one has a nice ending – trust me!

This is a pretty by the numbers Tom & Jerry short from early in the duo’s life. It contains their original designs which were maybe a touch more realistic in terms of shape, especially with Tom, while still retaining that rounded-off, cartoon, aesthetic. What makes it special is it’s the first cartoon where the two warring entities find a way to get along for the sake of Christmas. Mostly though, it’s just freaking gorgeous. MGM and the duo of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera had something to prove. This is very much on par with the best the Disney studios were putting out in terms of technical delight. The Christmas backgrounds are wonderful and inject some lovely coziness to the feeling this one brings. There’s some good gags with Jerry and the toys and even a little bit of a heart pull moment. And I just love the ending with an adorable Jerry discovering a mouse trap placed outside his little hole in the wall is actually a Christmas present. His ending smile is just so infectious and so warming. This is a fantastic Christmas short from a wonderful era of cartoon-making.

18 – Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas

It just wouldn’t be Christmas without these dumbasses.

Okay, this is quite a change-up from the prior three entries. If you’ve been following along with my rankings this year then you probably know that when it comes to Christmas specials of a decidedly different flavor I’ve been trying to group those together when it makes sense. Since we’re into the top 20 it no longer makes sense. This is truly my raw opinion and we’re just ranking these by my own personal enjoyment level. And I really enjoy Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas. It’s a subversive take on two well-trod classics: A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life. Ordinarily, I’d rail against such an approach but Beavis and Butt-Head make it work. The duo, of course, learns nothing in their Christmas adventures. Beavis sees a vision of the future where being a loser asshole causes him to go through life without ever being with a woman and his takeaway when he wakes up is that the future is cool because he has a VCR and some porn. Butt-Head gets to see how much better Highland would be if he never existed (the guardian angel is there to encourage Beavis and Butt-Head to commit suicide), but he just concludes that the world sucks, but it would suck even more without them. It’s a rare moment when I agree with either Beavis or Butt-Head, but I have to agree with his conclusion here.

17 – A Pinky and the Brain Christmas

Who knew the Brain could cry?

A Pinky and the Brain Christmas was really rewarding for me to rediscover. It was one of those Christmas specials I saw in the moment, but kind of filed away. I was too old at that point to be paying attention to the broadcast schedules of cartoons. I know I liked it, but I don’t think I really appreciated it in the moment. Coming back to it I found it to be truly delightful. I’m not as well-versed in Pinky and the Brain as others. I experienced the duo mostly via Animaniacs and probably watched very little of their spin-off. For me, this was the first cartoon featuring the two where they nearly achieved Brain’s goal of global domination. His plan worked, but his shame of being such a dick to Pinky causes him to abort his mission and it’s a surprisingly powerful moment. Before we even get there though there’s a fun mission involving the pair traveling to the North Pole, infiltrating Santa’s workshop, and making it back home disguised (poorly) as reindeer. It’s a great Christmas special that makes use of the extended runtime over a standard Pinky and the Brain cartoon that never feels long or overstays its welcome.

16 – American Dad! – For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls

I can see how some would find the portrayal of Santa Claus in this one off-putting.

Merry Wednesday, everyone! This is the first of some truly “out there” Christmas episodes from American Dad! It establishes the lore that the Smith family and Santa are enemies after Steve accidentally murders Santa. He does so because Stan irresponsibly gifts him a machine gun and has him open fire on a snowman not taking into consideration that the bullets would fly through the snowman and come into contact with whatever was beyond the target. Like Santa. Why was he hanging out at the mall? I don’t know, I guess one mall Santa is the real one at any given time because the guy needs to make some extra money to pay for all those toys. Since Santa is a magical being, he can’t be destroyed and does come back to life and opts to spend Christmas Eve seeking revenge against the Smiths. The B plot is Stan absolutely hating his son-in-law, Jeff, and the two coming to an understanding by the end. It all culminates in a bloody, massive, violent, battle between the Smiths and the army of Santa. It’s definitely not for everyone and making Santa a villain (albeit, one who had a right to be pissed at the Smiths) is certainly a choice and one that probably turns some folks off. If you like your Christmas specials on the more subversive end, this is about as good as it gets.

15 – Futurama – Xmas Story

Santa Claus is gunning you dow-own!

In 1999, Futurama showed us how horrible Xmas could be in the future. In this one, we learn that humanity created a robot Santa to essentially make Santa real, only his standards were too high and he decided everyone is naughty. Worse, going on the dreaded Naughty List doesn’t earn one a stocking full of coal. It sure seems like murder is on the table as people are forced to hide in fear for their lives. Fry gets to learn all of this the hard way when he gets caught out late on Xmas Eve out looking for a present for Leela whom he unintentionally slighted with his insensitivity. It’s the first episode that seems to bring the pair together and it will be a long time before that relationship pays off. For now, it’s sweet and not overdone and I love all of the little, funny, moments that exist in this one. And all of the casual nudity is wonderfully utilized. This should be thought of as a pretty dark sort of Xmas special, but it somehow manages to avoid feeling like such and I owe that to how funny it is. Plus, there is a happy ending unlike the follow-up Xmas special.

14 – Rocko’s Modern Christmas

Rocko makes a new friend this Christmas.

We have yet another Nicktoon on our hands and this one stars a character I pretty much loved from the start. Rocko’s Modern Life is a show that holds up remarkably well. Even ignoring the obvious adult jokes they managed to slip into the show (that have subsequently been cut, unfortunately), the humor is surprisingly wide ranging as the show sought to lampoon exactly what the title implies – the modern world. Rocko is a young adult newly on his own just trying to scrape by and he runs into all kinds of challenges along the way. The poor guy gets crapped on, but he’s so good-natured that the show manages to remain funny as opposed to abusive. In his Christmas special, mostly the same is true. Rocko tries to celebrate Christmas with a little get-together with his closest friends, but it blows up on him when Heffer’s family basically invites themselves over as well. Not wanting to let anyone down, Rocko rolls with it and prepares to host a massive party, but when Mr. Big Head starts a vicious rumor about diseased elves attending it blows the whole thing up. Rocko ends up exactly where he didn’t want to be – alone on Christmas. Moving in across the street are actual elves and a little, mute, elf takes a liking to Rocko leading to a pretty wholesome and heart-warming resolution. Along the way though there’s a lot of great gags. My personal favorite is the Christmas tree which behaves like a dog, until its murdered by Heffer when he cuts it down. A touch dark, perhaps, but totally in-line with the humor of Rocko’s Modern Life and the slightly more edgier Nicktoons. It’s yet another Christmas special I really liked as a kid, but kind of forgot about until I started doing this blog. That’s the gift The Christmas Spot has given me in that it’s brought some of these specials back into my life or introduced me to them for the first time.

13 – A Charlie Brown Christmas

I bet you’ve never heard of this one!

One special I definitely did not need this blog to reintroduce me to is A Charlie Brown Christmas. I’ve seen this one way more times than I could possibly count. I’ve been watching it (along with several others) over and over every December since 1987. It’s the first ever Peanuts special and it’s a great introduction to Charlie Brown as a character who, despite being a good kid, seems to be disliked by his peers and has wretched self-esteem. He’s a punching bag, and Christmas just makes him depressed which is certainly a relatable feeling for a lot of people. He’s given a lifeline by Lucy to direct a Christmas pageant, only no one seems interested in taking it seriously. When he produces a laughably bad Christmas tree for the pageant, everyone basically dismisses him by first tearing him down and then laughing their asses off at him. Linus then reminds him of the true meaning of Christmas and old Charlie Brown finds renewed purpose and the other kids basically come around and realize they’ve all behaved like jerks. It’s a Christmas special that captures that awkward stage of adolescence where it feels like all of one’s actions are heavily scrutinized by their peers. Linus injects a secular element as well which helps endear it to another audience since the vast majority of these specials ignore that aspect of Christmas. Due to its repeated airings, A Charlie Brown Christmas is obviously a classic and there’s no way I couldn’t put it somewhere in the top 20. Leaving it outside the top 10 is probably sacrilegious for some, but I’m content with this placement. I enjoy this one, I will watch it multiple times a year, but I definitely enjoy the 12 specials ahead of it more. And maybe even some of the ones grouped just behind it, but let’s not scrutinize the placement any further or else I’ll go back to tinkering and never finish this thing.

12 – It’s a SpongeBob Christmas

This thing is gorgeous.

This Christmas special from SpongeBob Squarepants is brilliant. Many specials that came before it have found a way to reference the classic Christmas specials, but few embraced them like this one. A SpongeBob Christmas was a network-aired, prime time, Christmas special constructed in stop-motion animation like the classic works of Rankin/Bass. Genius! And it manages to exceed the gimmick by just being a really good, fun, Christmas special. Plankton, the resident villain of Bikini Bottom, concocts a plan to turn everyone into jerks with tainted fruit cake. By doing so, he’ll seem like a saint by comparison and make it onto Santa’s Nice List to finally receive the secret formula to the Krabby Patty recipe. The only problem is that the fruit cake doesn’t work on SpongeBob, he’s just too wholesome and pure, but Plankton gets over that hurdle by unleashing a SpongeBob robot on the town that basically wrecks everything it encounters. SpongeBob has to save the day and does it through song. Corny? Of course, but “Don’t Be a Jerk – It’s Christmas” is one of the best, modern, Christmas songs around. It’s so unbelievably catchy and fun that I remain surprised it never really broke free from this special to enter regular rotation with other Christmas songs. And despite my love of Christmas specials, I’m actually not that big on Christmas music so me praising a Christmas song is actually pretty high praise. A SpongeBob Christmas is just the rare Christmas special that when I watched it for the first time I left convinced I had just witnessed a new classic and it deserves this ranking.

11 – South Park – Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo

This one could have kept it clean, up until now that is.

We round out today’s entry with one more subversive and downright disgusting Christmas special, but it’s one that mostly plays things straight. That’s the beauty of the first South Park Christmas episode. It’s actually a pretty wholesome Christmas special about a Jewish kid who feels left out at Christmas. I’m not Jewish, but I have to believe that’s not an uncommon sentiment among Jews around Christmas time. It’s basically the genesis for the Adam Sandler Hannukah song. This is South Park though, so in order for Kyle to bridge the gap with his Christmas-loving peers he needs to turn to a literal magic piece of crap. Mr. Hankey is shockingly hilarious the first time he shows up. A talking poop in a Santa hat? He carries himself in an oblivious manner as if he doesn’t understand how gross he is. Others certainly notice though and they basically just see Kyle manhandling a piece of his own excrement and rightly have him committed. The show does take some liberties with Mr. Hankey in going out of its way to play up the gross factor. He didn’t need to end up in Mr. Mackey’s coffee, and we certainly didn’t need that fake commercial where live-action actors select their best Mr. Hankey to play with, but it wouldn’t be South Park if it didn’t push the boundaries of good taste. Still, there’s a strangely heart-warming resolution to this episode and I find Kyle’s song about being a lonely Jew on Christmas legitimately sad. The combination of all of those elements basically make this the perfect subversive Christmas special. It hits all of the Christmas special bullet points, but gets there in a very non-traditional and downright disgusting way. That’s why I still think it’s the best Christmas special from South Park. And if I have one regret with my body of work it’s that I didn’t cover what is probably the second best, “A Very Crappy Christmas,” but we can’t do them all can we?

That concludes this installment of the Christmas special countdown. Tomorrow, we do the top 10 and the all-time best Christmas specials. There probably aren’t too many surprises ahead, but as I look at the top 10 I do like that it feels like “me.” We’ll talk more about that tomorrow, but for now, Merry Christmas Eve and enjoy all of the merriment, drive safe if you’re traveling, and don’t forget to leave out milk and cookies for the big guy tonight!

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

Dec. 24 – Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas

When Pixar released Toy Story in 1995 it proved to the world that audiences would accept films created entirely within a computer. Prior to that, 3D animation was thought of as a gimmick, something for commercials and video games, but not something that could carry an entire feature length film. It’s similar to the prejudices…

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Dec. 21 – The Nostalgia Spot Christmas Special Countdown #42 – 33

We’re back to the regular entries, but not for very long. Hopefully you enjoyed yesterday’s entry on old Emmet Otter, but we’re ditching the puppets today in favor of traditional, 2D, animation. Well, for the most part. We do have one CG entrant for today to wreck the party, but since we’re talking about a top 40 Christmas special I guess it can be forgiven. Today’s entrants are all of the nice, or genuine, variety as I classified them when sorting my list. It’s also a solid mix of 90s and 2000s cartoons with one extreme outlier so this isn’t a chunk of the list being driven by nostalgia, for the most part. My nostalgic attachment is mostly pre 90s with a few exceptions. In general, if I am allowed to toot my own horn for a second, I’m impressed with my own ability to set aside nostalgia when compiling these rankings. Oh sure, some of it plays a role. Is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer really as good as I’m going to rank it? Probably not, but I’m also not out here to formulate hot takes. You just have to find that happy medium between genuine quality and cozy nostalgia. With Christmas specials, it can be hard to separate the two and in some cases downright impossible. One Christmas episode that I have zero attachment to is leading us off today, and it might be the Christmas special that surprised me more than any other.

42 – Buzz Lightyear of Star Command – Holiday Time

In this episode, Buzz gets into the “holiday” spirit.

I don’t say that Buzz Lightyear of Star Command surprised me because I expected it to be crap, I just didn’t really have any expectations going in at all. I had zero interest in the universe Buzz Lightyear hailed from. Like the unsuccessful film of a few years back, this show depicts the fictional show the toy in Toy Story would be based on. I guess this is the cartoon Andy might have watched while sitting in front of the TV with his action figure. It’s a 2D animated show that actually looks pretty good for something that aired in 2000. What really works though is the casting of Patrick Warburton as Buzz and Wayne Knight as Zurg. Those two Seinfeld alum are fantastic in their roles and the show is fast-paced, witty, and full of action as Buzz and his fellow members of Star Command have to aid a guy claiming to be Santa in order to save their “holiday.” That might have been my one critique here is that the show is clearly avoiding the term Christmas which feels overthought. I get it, it made no sense for the Flintstones to say Christmas since they predate Christ, but if you’re going to replace the term then come up with something better than “holiday.” That’s a very minor complaint though as this episode was a lot of fun. It’s just a shame Disney has no interest in preserving it or making it available as in the five years since I first wrote about it the show has still not been added to Disney+. I’m blaming the failure of Lightyear for that.

41 – Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! – Scary Christmas

Shaggy and Scooby had a little trouble with the wrapping paper.

Scoob and the gang didn’t mess with Christmas a whole lot. Perhaps it was because their vibe was more in-line with Halloween, but the remnants of Hanna-Barbera started to rectify that in more recent times. Be Cool, Scooby-Doo might be the best Scooby-Doo show that’s ever been produced. I can’t really claim to be an authority on that as I have long since lost track of the franchise. The earliest works are kind of bad though, even though I watched a ton of them. I did enjoy A Pup Named Scooby-Doo as a kid and can appreciate it still on some level and through my kids I’ve been exposed to some of the movies and other modern shows. Of them all though, this is the only one I’d sit down and actually enjoy as it’s pretty funny. It’s kind of like a very tame version of The Venture Bros. as we have the usual mystery solving gang dealing with some supernatural element each episode that’s probably a robot or something. In this one, it’s a robot dinosaur that’s plaguing a town at Christmas and looking to mess up an annual celebration. The show is able to create comedy without really dumbing down the characters. Fred is a bit like the character from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo in that he’s more stubborn than dumb. The only real negative is the show isn’t as fun to look at as some others. It’s not terrible, but I’d put it on par with an adult animated sitcom like Family Guy or Bob’s Burgers. There’s a flatness to everything, but it mostly animates well. I might be ranking this one a bit too high, but it feels more impactful given that it’s a venerable franchise finally getting a good Christmas special.

40 Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Invasion of the Secret Santas

Batman and Red Tornado are teaming up to save Christmas.

Speaking of a venerable franchise getting a good Christmas episode, here’s the caped crusader himself – Batman! I dismissed Batman: The Brave and the Bold when it aired in the 2000s because I had heard it was a kid-focused show. I wasn’t mad or anything, I just figured it wasn’t for me. I may have been wrong. This is a softer take on Batman, but the show is really well-animated and Diedrich Bader is a fantastic Batman. It has a dry humor and there’s a subversive element at play and it’s on display in this episode. Especially when a robot Santa goes up in flames revealing a robotic skeleton underneath it. The show had a team-up format where Batman would partner up with another hero in the DC Universe and this one includes Red Tornado. As an android, he has to try and figure out this whole Christmas thing which is pretty humorous all the while Fun Haus is wreaking havoc on a small town and attempting to steal Christmas. There’s some flashback stuff as well to Batman being a little dick at Christmas when he was a kid just adding another layer of guilt to the trauma-laden character. The episode finds time for some sweetness at the end too, which honestly surprised me a bit just given the overall tone of the episode up to that point. More surprising, is that this is probably my favorite Batman Christmas special. It’s more enjoyable than either of the episodes from Batman: The Animated Series and I’m also ranking it above Justice League. That’s definitely not something I expected going in.

39 – Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too

Oh, you silly old bear. And pig.

As something of a last hurrah for The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh comes this Christmas special, Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too. These days it goes by a different name, A Very Merry Pooh Year, which sounds kind of gross, but the special is the same. Disney just added some wrap-around plot and a new cartoon to basically fill out an hour. This entry is just for the original though and it’s a very gentle, sweet, Christmas episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, as one would expect. The Winnie the Pooh franchise is definitely one more aimed at young children, but it’s so charming that adults can certainly enjoy it on some level. This one has Pooh forget to ask Santa for a Christmas present, but when he and Piglet try to retrieve the list it gets all messed up. They take it upon themselves to try and play Santa and make sure their fellow denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood have a merry Christmas, but they’re not exactly successful. It’s cute and has a familiar message of not focusing on the material aspect of the holiday and it’s lovingly animated. It’s very much a nice, feel-good, Christmas special you can watch with your kids.

38 – The SpongeBob Christmas Special

We all remember the time Squidward slapped his cheeks in SpongeBob’s face.

The SpongeBob generation is not one I’m connected with, but damn if that sponge doesn’t make good Christmas specials! This is the original where SpongeBob learns about Christmas from Sandy and makes it a point to share the news about the holiday and Santa with all of the people of Bikini Bottom, much to the annoyance of Squidward. He finds everything about the holiday repugnant, but when Santa passes them over the guilt of how much he enjoys their misery is too much and Squidward basically assumes the persona of Santa and gives all of his possessions away. Ordinarily, I’d be annoyed with a Nickelodeon show denying the existence of Santa Claus, but here it’s rather believable that he could miss a village of fish. Plus, he makes an appearance at the end to make things right. Though I should point out, the Santa in this one is a live-action Santa whereas future holiday episodes will make him something of an elf. It’s honestly not the most flattering depiction of the big guy that I’ve ever seen, but at least it’s unique. This one is charming and pretty funny. There’s a great musical segment in the middle and if this is a show you grew up watching you probably have it ranked higher. I’m not sure if I’m at risk of angering the SpongeBob fanbase for having it ranked behind a later Christmas special, but it’s my list and I say this is the second best SpongeBob Christmas.

37 – Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas

He’s so bad at Christmas he managed to decapitate Santa.

This Christmas episode of Goof Troop is another example of Disney using a Christmas special as a series finale. It’s considered by the company to be a stand-alone holiday special so if you go to Goof Troop on Disney+ you won’t find it. I find this extremely annoying since it means this Christmas episode has been missing ever since the service launched and it’s a damn shame. While I felt slightly let down by this one, it’s still a great Christmas episode of a solid cartoon. It’s another tale of Goofy trying to do something right, but he goes way above and beyond what he’s capable of doing when it comes to Christmas and he “goofs” it up. Along for the ride is Pete and his family who thought they were getting away from the Goofs, only to find out they rented the cabin next door for their Christmas too. This one doesn’t dive into the Goofy and Max conflict like A Goofy Movie does or even like the segment from Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. If the Goofy segment in that were a stand-alone special I’d be curious to see if I would place it higher than this one. The fact that it lacks some of that more emotional material is why I’m not as high on this one as perhaps I thought I’d be, but it’s still an annual tradition in my home.

36 – Life with Louie – A Christmas Surprise for Mrs. Stillman

Electrical cords are so hazardous in cartoons.

The first episode of Life with Louie is basically the only one I remember. Well, it and the other Christmas episode since I watched it somewhat recently. This was our introduction to the Anderson family in toon form and it’s a funny and sweet little Christmas episode about a neighborhood coming together to surprise a widow on Christmas. The humorous bit is that she’s actually Jewish, but it’s the thought that counts, right? A lot of the humor comes from the Andy character, Louie’s dad, who is the one most put out by helping the old lady out, but despite his grumbling we get to see he’s actually a good guy. Louie, for his part, provides a dry wit and there’s plenty of physical comedy as well as situational comedy like when a pair of cops mistake Andy for a prowler. The Fox Kids shows produced some good Christmas episodes, and this is one of the better ones.

35 – Olaf’s Frozen Adventure

Olaf brings the feels when others do not.

For a time, Disney’s Frozen was inescapable and the company wanted it that way. The 2013 film was a bit of a surprise hit. I’m sure the company expected it to do well, it just was so big that such success could not be predicted or counted on. To keep the franchise in the cultural zeitgeist, Disney commissioned a pair of theatrical shorts. One was indeed short while the second was certainly not. Olaf’s Frozen Adventure was clearly developed as a network special because that’s what the runtime would indicate, but that didn’t stop Disney from attaching it to the Pixar film Coco. Sure, Mickey’s Christmas Carol had the same runtime and was released in the exact same manner, but it was attached to a re-release of The Rescuers, not a completely new film going for a very different vibe. Some found it annoying, but remove it from that context and this special starring the world’s second most popular snowman is quite delightful. At least, when he’s allowed to be the star, but in order for Olaf to go on his quest to discover new Christmas traditions we first have to deal with the lack of them in the castle. Elsa has to make every problem all about her so she goes back to being mopey and blames herself for their family’s lack of holiday traditions. It’s a stretch and something the special didn’t need. She and Anna could have just said “Oh yeah, we don’t really do anything, do we?” and left it at that for Olaf to make a big deal out of. As a result, this is the one I’m sure to question my placement of on this list for years to come. And like it or not, this is one of the few Christmas specials that receives an annual showing on network television thanks to Disney owning ABC.

34 – Tweety in “Gift Wrapped”

Come on, Sylvester, kiss the little birdy!

Here’s a nice, simple, cartoon from the golden era. It’s a Sylvester and Tweety short where the cat is out to eat the little, yellow, canary, only this time it’s set at Christmas. That’s it. And you know what? That’s all it has to be. Adding Christmas to the usual dynamic is enough to spice up the old formula and make this a fun viewing around the holidays. Tweety is a gift from Santa for Granny, but Sylvester gets to the tree first on Christmas morning so he tries to swap his gift (a rubber mouse) with Granny. She, of course, catches him which sets the stage for more attempts at the bird. Unfortunately for Sylvester, Granny also got a dog from Santa so we get to add a big bulldog into the mix (he’s basically Hector from The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, but I don’t know if he actually had a name in 1952). There aren’t a lot of Christmas cartoons in the Warner library from this era and this one is the best one. We would have to wait many years for Warner to top it.

33 – Taz-Mania – No Time for Christmas

The rest of his family may let him down, but Taz can always count on the love of his turtle.

51 years to be exact! That’s how many passed between the release of Gift Wrapped and this episode of Taz-Mania, the Fox Kids show starring everyone’s favorite devil from down under. I didn’t watch a lot of this show growing up. I don’t know why, but it just didn’t appeal to me. I found it a little slow as the episodes felt like they went on and on. I think I was just at an age where I was losing interest in comedies and was ready for a show like Batman to come along. When I returned to this one in 2018 I wasn’t expecting much, but damn did I enjoy it! This episode centers on Taz who is really excited for Christmas only no one else seems to share in his enthusiasm. Or, they’re more concerned with their own selfishness. As the title implies, all of the characters just don’t have time for Taz and his Christmas. He interacts with a lot of the cast of the show and they’re all preoccupied with something else. Some try to use Taz for their own needs while others just kind of ignore him. It wares down the devil and we even see him have a sad cry. The town rallies in the end as they realize what’s been going on and it’s a nice moment. Did I cry? I might have, it was seven years ago that I watched this thing. I’d love to watch it some more, but Taz-Mania is a hard show to track down these days because the Warner company absolutely sucks. If you do put in the work to find this one I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.

That does it for today, but even though we just returned to the countdown format tomorrow we’re switching it up again! For the final time in 2025, we will be doing a traditional write-up of a holiday classic. And tomorrow’s entry is unique in that it’s actually the one redo I mentioned way back in November. What special is it that I felt was so important that I needed to expand on what I wrote back in 2014? Well, you’ll have to come back tomorrow and find out.

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

Dec. 21 – TaleSpin – “Jolly Molly Christmas”

Kids who did a lot of their growing up in the 90s likely have fond memories of The Disney Afternoon. There were a lot of programs competing for eyeballs in the weekday afternoon timeslot and Disney put forth a pretty compelling block of animation, even though the actual launch wasn’t that exciting. It included two…

Dec. 21 – RoboCop: Alpha Commando – “Oh Tannenbaum Whoa Tannenbaum!”

It’s been said that the 80s were pretty wild, and it’s not much of an exaggeration. At least where children’s media is concerned. After years of the government getting involved in what was okay to broadcast to children, the Reagan administration basically said “Eh, kids deserve to have everything and anything marketed towards them.” There…

Dec. 21 – A Muppet Family Christmas

This year we’re celebrating two things at The Christmas Spot. Well, 3 things if you count Christmas by itself, which I suppose you should. Every fifth day, we’re celebrating the best of the best which is why yesterday was A Charlie Brown Christmas. If you read the feature on December 1st for this year, then…


Dec. 19 – The Nostalgia Spot Christmas Special Countdown #53 – 44

We’re sending out the signal!

Today our countdown enters the top 50 when it comes to Christmas specials. If it wasn’t apparent before, it should be now, that we’re well into the cream of the crop. The best of the best. And this collection of specials comes almost entirely from the world of kids or general audience television shows. There’s one outlier which gave me pause on just where to rank that one. If I were to bump it to the next big chunk then it would just be the same situation then as it is today. At any rate, it’s not a big issue as I don’t think it’s a particularly “adult” television show or one that’s raunchy or anything. And when it comes to Christmas episodes of this show it’s one of the most family friendly episodes anyway. We’ll get to that one as I’m actually going to place it at the end of this post, but first we’re going to start things off with a cartoon I tend to forget was part of the Disney Afternoon, but stars a character who is pretty damn popular these days.

53 – Lilo & Stitch: The Series – Topper: Experiment 025

This is the kind of chaos one expects out of Stitch.

Lilo & Stitch is a pretty fantastic movie and modern day classic. 2025 also brought with it a live-action remake that’s…fine, but it’s not nearly as good as the original. Stitch proved to be a popular character, and I’m sure kids like Lilo well enough too, so the movie was extended as both an animated series and via direct-to-DVD sequels. The format of the show was like an alien of the week via the many experiments the character Jumba created which have a tendency to get set loose on the world. In this one, Stitch gets introduced to the Christmas holiday, but things go awry when Stitch sees one of these experiments get placed in a Christmas present. This causes him to undertake a Grinch-like plot to round up all of the gifts in town in an effort to find the one with the experiment in it. Even though Stitch was revealed to be able to speak at the end of the movie, he’s not very adept at it in the series. The show also has to find ways to essentially silence him to work around this detail. Things do work out in the end, as they so often do, and the charm of this one comes largely from the characters. They’re just so well developed in the film and the series gives them a chance to go even further with some of the side ones and villains. Plus we get lots of Christmas attire for the regulars and I just found the whole thing pretty charming. It’s a show that came well after I lost interest in the Disney Afternoon and it’s one that makes me feel like I might have missed out on something.

52 – Rugrats – The Santa Experience

This image of Angelica with a ninja turtle-like smile is the most enduring image from this episode for me.

Rugrats was a pretty big hit for Nickelodeon as one of the original three Nicktoons. Aside from SpongeBob, I would guess it’s been the most successful Nicktoon of all time leading to movies, spin-offs, and even a modern update (that has apparently been wiped from existence in one of those oh so popular tax write-off moves). Since it’s a show that centers around an adolescent cast, it’s no surprise that the subject of Christmas was tackled. And since the protagonists are all babies, it meant they could partake in the festivities while also being pretty ignorant of the whole thing. “The Santa Experience” sees the main cast of families all take a trip into the mountains for a holiday getaway. There, Tommy and Chuckie try to figure out a way to capture this Santa guy, Phil and Lil struggle to come up with a gift for each other, while noted brat Angelica finds herself on Santa’s Naughty List and needs to get off – pronto! There are some small plots in the adult world as well, though the most notable is Chaz and Drew both trying to inject some Santa into the festivities which is what the title refers to. I know I’ve been hard on episodes of children’s shows that play it pretty loose with the whole Santa thing, but with Rugrats I’m less bothered since there’s a clear distinction between the adult and the kid world in the show. And they do fix things with the ending, as so many cartoons often do.

51 – Invader Zim – Most Horrible X-Mas Ever

That’s a pretty horrifying Santa.

A Nicktoon that came well after Rugrats is Invader Zim and the two could not be further from each other in terms of tone. Invader Zim centers on an alien, Zim, sent by his home world to conquer Earth, only he’s supremely incompetent. He is poorly disguised as a human child, but no one notices save for one boy by the name of Dib. It’s a very cynical show and the Christmas episode puts that on full display by having Zim disguise himself as Santa, poorly, and use his influence to get society to board prison ships where they’ll be sent off to be slaves or something. Only what undoes his scheme is, per usual, his own incompetence. Or I suppose in this instance, his hyper-competence? The Santa suit was built too well and it basically turns Zim into the real deal and Santa isn’t going to enslave all of humanity now is he? The best episodes of Invader Zim show Zim get close to achieving his goals only for things to blow up in his face which helps to make this Christmas installment not just an interesting and offbeat Christmas special, but also a pretty good encapsulation of the larger show.

50 – The Flintstones – Christmas Flintstone

Fred really gets into the act.

The original prime time animated sitcom also delivered what is perhaps the origin of what I call The Santa Clause plot. This episode has Fred Flintstone take a part time job as a mall Santa in order to earn more money for the holidays, only he winds up being so good in the role that he attracts the attention of the real deal. Santa doesn’t fall off the roof and die in this one, but he is sick and needs a replacement. Fred is up to the task and together with a pair of elves helps to make sure that the people of the world have a merry Christmas even without Santa. Like a lot of episodes of The Flintstones, it’s a little slow and there’s a liberal use of the old laugh track, but I find the plot so enjoyable that I don’t mind. I was tempted to rank this ahead of the pseudo remake that would follow years later because this one is a bit more tidy, but it also lacks the bells and whistles that make A Flintstone Christmas feel a bit more special.

49 – DuckTales – How Santa Stole Christmas!

The rare episode that solves mysteries and rewrites history.

The 2017 edition of DuckTales delivered not one, but two Christmas episodes during its run. This one happens to be the second and sets out to explain why Scrooge McDuck has a vendetta against Santa Claus. He hates the big guy so much that he arms his mansion with numerous traps to keep him out which just confuses his nephews. His surrogate niece, Webby, on the other hand is all-in on the Santa hate. When Santa shows up injured at McDuck Manor it falls on Scrooge and Webby to help the big guy with his deliveries, even if they don’t want to. And during that night we’re treated to numerous flashbacks to show us just why Scrooge dislikes him so much and the revelation is not shocking because it makes perfect sense. Scrooge, a savvy business man who believes in the value of hard work, can’t wrap his head around a guy who just wants to give stuff away for free. Santa’s generosity blows up a business plan they concocted where Scrooge would utilize Santa’s transportation to deliver coal and thus make money. He agrees to help him in the present only because he intends to sabotage him. It’s a particularly villainous look at Scrooge, but things find a way to a happy resolution because a children’s show can’t have its protagonist be at odds with freakin’ Santa Claus. There is a bit of a “lore gone wild” element to this one, as in, did we really need this story told? It doesn’t work in my head, but every time I come back to it I walk away impressed. It’s not as good as “Last Christmas!,” but this is a damn fine entry into the pantheon of Christmas specials which is why it gets the honor of being just inside the top 50 on my list.

48 – Animaniacs – How the Brain Thieved Christmas

Pinky kind of steals the show in this one.

Every one is out to steal Christmas these days, though having Brain of Pinky and the Brain fame be involved is hardly much of a surprise. It’s actually not really one at all which is why I had a hard time ranking this one. This episode from the Hulu run of Animaniacs has Brain invent a toy based on Pinky that he intends to use to take over the world in a roundabout way only for the magic of the holiday to cause him to change his mind. It’s very entertaining on its own and there’s some great banter with Pinky, but it doesn’t exist all on its own. The main takeaway for me is this is way too much like the first Christmas special. Even that one involved the use of a Trojan Horse toy that was modeled after the Brain and the magic of Christmas caused him to basically abort his plan. It’s basically the exact same plot save for the toy Brain was a direct way to take over the world while this one was to ruin Christmas and thus make the world more susceptible to Brain’s efforts. The good news is that first Pinky and the Brain Christmas episode is fantastic which is why we haven’t encountered it yet on this countdown. If you’re going to rip yourself off then it makes sense to rip-off one of your best efforts. Sandwiched in the middle is a musical segment where the Warner siblings visit a roided-out Santa to encourage him to do his thing. It’s amusing and probably the best Christmas segment starring the trio going back to the original series, but the majority of this episode centers on Pinky and the Brain. If the original A Pinky and the Brain Christmas didn’t exist, I’d probably have this one ranked higher.

47 – The Town Santa Forgot

This brat needs to learn the true meaning of Christmas.

Hanna-Barbera has made many contributions to the world of Christmas, but one of the most overlooked is the 90s production The Town Santa Forgot. This one is about a spoiled, selfish, kid by the name of Jeremy Creek who sends Santa a list so long that he assumes the name Jeremy Creek belongs to a town and not some kid. Turns out, there is an actual town by that name that Santa has somehow overlooked all these years so he’s able to visit for the first time and deliver presents. Jeremy ends up with nothing which ticks him off, but when a news broadcast relays what happened he finally has a realization that maybe it is better to give than receive. The special has a fun way of telling the story that helps the rather simple message of the standalone special land a little harder. And it’s narrated by Dick Van Dyke who just turned 100 so happy birthday, Dick! The animation isn’t amazing, but there’s an energy to it that I enjoy. It feels like a precursor to the What a Cartoon era for Hanna-Barbera as it doesn’t really resemble any of their preceding cartoons. It arrived a little late to feel like a true Hanna-Barbera original, but if we’re considering it one then I do have it ranked higher than a lot of their other stuff and that feels appropriate.

46 – We Bare Bears – Christmas Parties

The holidays sometime bring about a need to navigate awkward social situations.

We Bare Bears is a fairly lowkey cartoon about cultural assimilation. Driving the point home is we have a group of actual bears trying to fit in with society and the awkwardness that arrives from making social commitments. The bears basically spread themselves too thin at Christmas trying to make it to everyone’s Christmas party, only they prioritize attending the big, popular, one being thrown by someone they don’t even like while spending little time with the people that actually matter to them. Even though there’s an obvious message here and the bears are acting in a semi-selfish manner, it is relatable to find yourself with many social obligations all at the same time. How does one politely decline an invitation? It can happen where you make plans only for a better opportunity to surface later leading to a temptation to break those plans in favor of something else. I know it’s happened to me, though I can’t recall ever going through with breaking my original plans. I have been on the other side and even when the situation is understandable it still really sucks to have a friend basically tell you “I’d rather do something else than spend time with you.” Even though we’re dealing with bears, this one is extremely relatable and it’s also really sweet. The show handles these social settings really well so that even a kid understands what’s going on and it never makes its characters appear unlikable. That’s a hard trick to pull-off with this type of plot, but We Bare Bears manages it very well.

45 – The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police – Christmas Bloody Christmas

Sometimes we just need a little toilet humor.

Sam & Max seemed like a bit of an odd fit for Saturday morning TV, but The Adventures of Sam & Max did a fine job of adapting this odd pair for television. Sure, they couldn’t have their guns, but that didn’t stop the cartoon from being able to make prison rape jokes! This is a pretty offbeat Christmas special where the titular duo infiltrate a prison to basically stop a prisoner revolt at Christmas. The Sam & Max brand of humor is on display and surprisingly intact with this show aimed at children. I probably didn’t laugh out loud when I watched this for the first time, but I think it was a chucklefest which took me by surprise. It’s a genuinely funny episode even if it’s meant for kids and if you’re someone who dismissed this version of Sam & Max because it was made for Fox Kids then maybe reconsider that stance.

44 – Bob’s Burgers – Father of the Bob

Bob and his dad have some issues to sort out this Christmas.

Our lone entrant today from the world of adult animation comes courtesy of Bob’s Burgers. Unlike an episode like “Christmas in the Car,” there’s no worry about the Santa thing being spoiled for your kids if you choose to watch this one with them. This is a pretty simple tale about Bob being uncomfortable around his dad as he’s never felt much affection from the guy. Each Christmas brings a Christmas party thrown by Big Bob that Little Bob dreads, but he sucks it up and attends after getting wife Linda to agree on a short visit. Only that goes out the window when it’s apparent that Big Bob is shorthanded at his own restaurant which is where the party is being held forcing Bob into the kitchen with his dad – the last place he wants to be. There’s flashbacks in this one to show us just what happened between the two when Bob refused to be a partner with his dad at the restaurant because their ideas for how to run a restaurant just don’t work well together. All the while, the kids get into all kinds of stuff in the basement trying to find a present for their dad. It’s definitely more of a Christmas episode that just happens to take place at Christmas without necessarily needing it to be Christmas. Since Christmas does sometimes bring about awkward encounters with relatives though, it works. There’s also a really nice portrayal of gay culture in this one that I appreciate. The show didn’t have to include it, but I like that it did. This one is not as funny as other Bob’s Burgers Christmas episodes, but it’s a bit more introspective which makes it more satisfying than some of the other ones. Don’t sleep on it this Christmas.

That does it for today. The next installment of the countdown is coming your way on December 21st which means tomorrow is another traditional installment of an all new (to this website) Christmas special! And it’s one that I think has a lot of fans, and since I’m ranking it at number 43, obviously I think pretty highly of it as well. Just what is it? Well, you’ll have to come back tomorrow to find out!

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

Dec. 19 – Life with Louie – “Family Portrait”

If you were a mid-tier comedian in the 90s looking to breakthrough into television then Fox was the network for you. Whether it was via sitcom or cartoon, Fox seemed to think this was a winning strategy which is apparently why comedian Louie Anderson got his own show called Life with Louie. Life with Louie…

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Dec. 19 – Aaahh!!! Real Monster – “Gone Shopp’n”

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…

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Dec. 19 – American Dad! – “Minstrel Krampus”

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…

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Dec. 15 – The Nostalgia Spot Christmas Special Countdown #93 – 84

Yesterday’s installment of the countdown trended more adult. Lots of cartoons not for the kids, but today’s list definitely is more general audience. I like the spread today. It’s dominated by animation, as it so often is, but we also have a live-action, puppet, type show. We have weekend cartoons, and week day cartoons. There’s shows from Disney, shows from Warner Bros and it’s almost all entirely dominated by 90s properties. I haven’t really been keeping tabs on the decades as I go through this list, but it makes sense that the 90s would be heavily represented all throughout. That’s when cable really exploded and we had a whole bunch of cartoons with massive episode orders and throwing a Christmas one into that mass of stuff sure makes things a whole lot easier. Networks originally were said to dislike holiday episodes, but I think they changed their tune when they realized they could program an entire day, or even week, around a holiday like Christmas or Halloween. Even the prime time shows tended to do this sort of thing. Anyway, I feel like I’ve talked about all of this before so let’s cut the preamble and get to number 93:

93 – Dinosaurs – Refrigerator Day

It pretty much looks like Christmas, but with a fridge instead of a tree.

Dinosaurs was a real treat to come back to when Disney+ launched a few years ago. I watched it as a kid when it was airing on ABC, but kind of lost track of it. I think it got shuffled around some, or maybe my family latched onto something else in the same timeslot. I don’t know. What I do know is the show is great. It holds up very well in basically all respects. The satire it went for is still biting and relevant today, which is both a good and bad thing. Dinosaurs never technically did air a Christmas episode, but instead we got “Refrigerator Day” which is basically their version of Christmas. Since there is apparently no dinosaur Jesus, they worship at the altar of the refrigerator which changed their lives so completely. It’s a society that’s very consumer-driven, if you couldn’t tell. Despite that, the plot is pretty conventional and, for some, may be a tad too much like The Simpsons since Earl’s horrible boss foregoes Christmas bonuses and things get tight for the Sinclair family. However, they stumble upon a million dollar idea, the concept of store returns, and in exchange for making a huge company even more wealthy they get a few measly gifts and their repossessed appliance is returned. It’s a bit dark, but pretty funny. If you haven’t checked out Dinosaurs in a long time then do yourself a favor and go back to it. I promise you, it’s not as dominated by the baby character as you may remember.

92 – The Looney Tunes Show – A Christmas Carol

It’s a weird environment for Bugs and pals, but it also kind of works?

The Looney Tunes Show is perhaps a more interesting concept than show, but the little I’ve seen is honestly not bad. It’s basically a sitcom starring the cast of Looney Tunes. Bugs Bunny is dating Lola Bunny and is roommates with Daffy. Foghorn Leghorn is the mayor, and Yosemite Sam is more like a rich Texas guy than an outlaw. This Christmas episode of the show involves Lola directing a play, the titular A Christmas Carol, while Foghorn and Daffy head to the North Pole to try and find a way to make their local climate cooler. Their adventure is a bit more madcap, while the story with the play is more grounded. Lola turns out to be a very interesting and funny character. She’s very self-confident without any reason to be and a lot of the characters in her orbit are too polite to tell her when she’s making a bad decision. The play is basically terrible and goes way off the rails, but also the real Santa shows up for it which I honestly didn’t expect. I can’t figure out what the audience was supposed to be for this show, but I do know I was entertained by this more than I was the conventional Looney Tunes Christmas specials and that sure surprised me. It’s still not the best Looney Tunes Christmas special though.

91 – The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries – It Happened One Night Before Christmas

The folks over at Warner Bros. got a lot of mileage out of this bit.

Our second look at The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries is the stronger of the two Christmas episodes. It’s a sort-of parody of It’s a Wonderful Life, only instead of focusing on the George Bailey character it centers on a stand-in for his drunk uncle. If you’ve never seen the movie, what sets the plot in motion is George’s uncle Billy losing a deposit of money that their savings and loan business was to make that night. Essentially, they lost the money of a bunch of people and would have probably been arrested for theft or misappropriation or something. For this cartoon, Granny and her animals are going to help her brother find the money he lost by retracing his steps from the prior night. They do a solid job of tiptoeing around the whole alcoholic aspect of the Uncle Billy character to keep things PG, and we do get a Potter stand-in to act as the villain. There are some solid gags throughout and none of the characters really dominate the episode, which is a full-length one as opposed to the half-length one we looked at days ago. It will amuse you if you’re familiar with the movie, but also you don’t have to be in order to be entertained. And it even one-ups the movie by having the Potter stand-in actually face some consequences for his thievery.

90 – CatDog – A Very CatDog Christmas

It’s kind of weird that they can’t share the same tree.

The Nicktoons tended to have solid Christmas episodes, few great ones, but most of them are fine. CatDog was one I had ignored for a long time because I simply wasn’t watching Nickelodeon when it was airing. I knew it had a Christmas episode and it was on my list for years until I finally sat down and watched it just a year ago. And you know what? It’s fine. I liked it more than I expected and I’m even ranking it ahead of shows I did watch a ton of like Doug and The Ren & Stimpy Show. I’m not elevating it to the level of Rocko’s Modern Life or even Rugrats, but this episode is fun enough. It’s almost a little like Mickey’s Good Deed in that CatDog essentially sells itself to a wealthy family as a Christmas present, but then has second thoughts. It’s the Christmas special that taught us being a whore isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Everything works out though and even the bratty kid that bought them comes around. It has a pretty straight ending where everyone learns something, but it’s not too syrupy sweet or anything. If you’re like me and didn’t really give CatDog much of a chance then you may want to reconsider this Christmas.

89 – Bonkers – Miracle at the 34th Precinct

The best duo in the episode.

I still can’t believe I enjoyed an episode of Bonkers more than Darkwing Duck – and a Christmas one at that! Bonkers is the character no one wanted. He should have been Roger Rabbit, but that just wasn’t possible so we got this weird bobcat character. At least he’s better than Bubsy. This episode is a solid one though and it actually doesn’t feature a ton of the titular character. It’s centered more on his partner Lucky and an amnesiac Santa Claus. Poor Santa got knocked out of the sky and stuck with the character Fall Apart. Since no one can find him, the elves turn to the police and Lucky is chosen to basically be a stand-in. His motivation to help out is his daughter’s belief in Santa Claus. Pretty conventional stuff, but it all wraps up nicely. The animation is also gorgeous as it often is for the Disney Afternoon and the antics between Fall Apart and “Jim” are pretty funny. This also is just a fun world and the premise of the show is terrific, it just rarely came together to form a cohesive half hour of entertainment. For Christmas though, it nailed it.

88 – Batman – Christmas with the Joker

Maybe this is why Batman doesn’t seem to like Christmas?

This Christmas episode of Batman: The Animated Series is fine. It’s funny, the Joker is a good villain for this type of thing, and I usually watch it every year. It’s also an episode that I just wish was better and that’s because of the show it hails from. Batman is the greatest superhero show to ever come around. I say that as a lover of X-Men, but the quality was just so much better. The writing was tighter and the budget greater so it looks terrific. It also helps that the cast was small and that’s one reason why I just can’t get into shows like Justice League following this one. This episode is a fairly standard Joker plot where he’s kidnapped some people and there’s a bomb or something. It just happens to be at Christmas so we get some Christmas puns and festive attire out of the Joker. It unfortunately doesn’t look as good as some episodes and there’s some awkward shots in here. Maybe it was rushed so there was no danger of missing the holiday? I don’t know, I just know it’s a pretty even episode of Batman, but not one of the show’s best.

87 – It’s a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special

You just know they’re going to spoof some holiday classics.

Batman’s network-mates the Tiny Toons got to make a contribution to Christmas. Unlike the more seasoned Sylvester and Tweety, their It’s a Wonderful Life parody mostly plays it straight. In the role of George is Buster Bunny who is questioning his own worth. Not to the degree that George was, but maybe he’s just not cut out for the life he wants? Through the magic of his guardian rabbit, Harvey, Buster is going to see what life would be like had he never been on Tiny Toons. Plucky is the star, Montana Max owns the Looniversity, and Babs is a humorless solo act. Naturally, Buster has a revelation and has his life restored where he’s able to help the other toons put on an entertaining Christmas show. It doesn’t do anything to upend the framing device, but the humor of Tiny Toons is able to carry this one. Tiny Toon Adventures is a show I can only handle in small doses, but when done well it’s usually pretty rewarding. This one is animated well and there’s some easy Christmas special gags to be found as well which are real crowd pleasers. I tend to lose track of this one among the many other Warner Bros. Christmas episodes and specials, but it’s worth returning to.

86 – TaleSpin – Jolly Molly Christmas

I can’t believe those jerks made Molly cry!

TaleSpin, like Bonkers, is another Disney Afternoon show I didn’t really care for in the moment, but it has a good Christmas episode. This one centers around the child character Molly, who is the daughter of Baloo’s boss, Rebecca. She’s having a bit of a Christmas crisis where her belief in Santa Claus is in doubt and it’s mostly all because of Baloo. He, with the help of Louie, tries to stage a North Pole to trick Molly into believing, but when Louie’s bar is closed for way too long on Christmas Eve the local drunks overrun the place and blow the whole thing. Now, this episode does fly too close to the sun for me when it comes to whether or not Santa Claus is real. I don’t particularly like it when a show aimed at young children places too much doubt on his existence, but they do rectify it at the end (as if there was any doubt). And that’s really my only complaint with the episode. It otherwise is pretty entertaining and it’s very well animated and heartbroken Molly worked on me so when her moment of triumph came it also affected me in much the same way. TaleSpin isn’t reinventing the wheel when it comes to Christmas episodes, but it brings the feels.

85 – Life with Louie – Family Portrait

And that’s not even close to capturing the whole Anderson family.

Life with Louie is one of those forgotten Fox Kids shows. The network never celebrated its works like a Disney or a Nickelodeon would. They kind of just paid for them for the moment, then sold them off when it no longer suited them. As such, I think this show is owned by Disney who bought most of Fox Kids if not all. The company kind of treated most of these shows the same way Fox did using them to pad out expanded, digital, cable channels until it was no longer profitable. Some shows saw DVD release, and many did not. Life with Louie was supposed to according to series creator Louie Anderson, but it never happened. It’s too bad because Life with Louie is a sweet coming of age cartoon. There’s not a ton of stuff like that, especially from the 90s, and it managed to be plenty funny too. In this Christmas episode, Louie basically finds out a kid he thinks is the greatest is actually an orphan and it forces him to reexamine his own relationship with his family. It’s all heartwarming stuff and we get to see Louie’s dad be forced to play Santa which is where a lot of the comedy comes from. I prefer the first Christmas episode from this show more, but this is a worthy (if unexpected) follow-up.

84 – Animaniacs – ‘Twas the Day Before Christmas

Come back next year!

Sing it with me, “It’s time for Animaniacs!” Yes, the first of three entries for the series is “‘Twas the Day Before Christmas.” In 1993, Animaniacs did the odd thing of releasing two Christmas episodes. I guess when you’re a weekday afternoon program you can afford to do that. It also helps that Animaniacs was a pretty large ensemble so giving everyone their own Christmas arc was just not possible in a single half hour episode. Maybe they first envisioned an hour long prime time affair? I don’t know, but this is the lesser of the two despite the other one being a parody of A Christmas Carol. I know – shocking! And the main segment is basically designed to squeeze most of the cast into one short as Aunt Slappy relays the story about the day before Christmas on the Warner lot. It’s the strongest segment across both specials, but it’s not very substantial since its just Slappy reading a parody of A Visit From Saint Nicholas with some funny stuff animated to it. The second segment is Chicken Boo who is playing a mall Santa. One kid sees the character for what it is, a chicken, but no one else does and he freaks out. It’s pretty damn funny, but also brief. The third segment is just the Warners in a toy store after hours where the toys come to life. It’s pretty weak and drags this one down, but it’s not terrible. It’s still an entertaining 25 minutes and most of these characters work best in quick bursts anyway, but there’s better stuff ahead. Especially for a couple of laboratory mice.

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

Dec. 15 – Popeye the Sailor – “Seasin’s Greetinks!”

When it comes to Christmas themed cartoons featuring Popeye, I’ve somehow managed to work backwards. We’ve looked at two previous Popeye cartoons that center around the holiday, but today’s Christmas short is Popeye’s very first. It comes to us all the way from 1933 where it premiered as just the fourth Popeye cartoon. I don’t…

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Dec. 15 – Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas

Today we continue our lookback at the best holiday specials ever sent to television and today’s subject is everyone’s favorite pair of Gen X deadbeats Beavis and Butt-Head. Beavis and Butt-Head were created by Mike Judge and the pair got its start on MTV’s Liquid Television in 1992. There they were a cruel, destructive, pair…

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Dec. 15 – South Park – “Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo”

Today we are continuing our look back at the best of the best when it comes to Christmas specials and today’s entrant comes from the quiet, mountain, town of South Park. South Park burst onto the scene in 1997 and basically transformed the Comedy Central network from the get-go. The show about four foul-mouthed kids…

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San Diego Comic Con 2025 is in the books!

San Diego Comic Con is always an exciting time of year for toy collectors. Even for someone like me who has never considered actually going to the event, I get up for it because I know the coverage is going to be coming fast and furious. Some years are bigger than others, but for me I think I can say that the 2025 edition has been the most surprising. I went into it with certain expectations some of which were met, but some were not and that’s not unusual. What was unusual for me is that some of the things I basically considered a “lock” did not come to pass and I left the event being perhaps most excited about a company and a product line I definitely didn’t see coming. Let’s start with the familiar though and my bread and butter franchise: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

TMNT

NECA is heading down the 2012 TMNT rabbit hole this fall.

As has been the case most years, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had no shortage of coverage this year at the convention. There was even a dedicated brand panel that covered releases from several companies. We still have Playmates for vintage re-releases and some modern takes, NECA is hitting on the toon, Archie, and Mirage, Super7 has the 2003 edition of the show, and now we have Mondo doing sixth scale stuff. Mondo’s line is their own take on a post 1990 film franchise and it looks interesting, but isn’t really on my radar for the time being. I don’t have the space or funds for another Mondo sixth scale franchise. Super7 also reaffirmed its commitment to 2k3 by unveiling silhouettes for the next wave which will include Hun, April, and a motorcycle Raphael and Shell Cycle. This would seem to be the nail in the coffin for the vintage inspired figures Super7 started off with which is really frustrating considering the figures missing (topped by Heavy Metal Raph). I’m done with the 2k3 series after Shredder, and possibly done with Super7 after that as well.

NECA has been the company at the forefront for TMNT the past several years, but their showing was surprisingly light. They did announce a line of turtles based on their appearance in the game Fortnite, but that might have been the most noteworthy. There was a leak the week before SDCC of one of their reveals for the toon line, granny Bebop and baby Rocksteady, though that release wasn’t going to blow anyone away (even if it is entertaining). The only new figure shown for the toon line otherwise was a beach Slash. There was also no big display with dioramas and such, just figures in a case. It’s pretty clear that NECA wasn’t going all out for SDCC. Is that a shift in strategy? It certainly costs money to put these big displays up and staff a booth plus rental space isn’t cheap. Are they going to pivot more to social media for reveals? Is New York Comic Con considered their flagship event? Or did the reappearance of Toy Fair earlier this year just mean all of the stuff that would have been revealed at SDCC was instead shown there?

NECA didn’t have a lot of surprised in their booth, but this certainly was the most standout one.

I don’t know the answer to any of those questions, but I was very surprised at the lack of Tempestra. She has become the biggest missing piece for the toon line, even if she is very much a B-tier character in her own right. I’m not sure why they’re slow-walking that one. They mocked up an arcade cabinet accessory for a still unreleased movie April variant more than two years ago that most assumed was really made for a Tempestra. What I did like, even though none of the figures shown were new reveals, was how the 2012 TMNT line is shaping up. The sculpts look fantastic and they’re all dated for this year and will be sold as single releases so no four or two packs. I don’t think it’s been confirmed where we’ll be able to buy them, but they’re among my most anticipated releases for the second half of 2025. The only other showing that excited me was Garfello, i.e. Garfied cos-playing as a ninja turtle, which was unexpected. It looks great and comes with Odie and is the sort of silly release I’m very likely to get.

As for the rest, there wasn’t much to be excited by. Playmates is re-releasing its remastered turtles minus the bumpy texture a lot of people didn’t like. We actually knew about that going into SDCC, but that was basically the official launch. Mezco also showed off 1990 movie turtles for its One:12 line. They look worse than the NECA releases (which are coincidentally being re-released in single packs this year), but will probably cost more than twice as much.

Mondo

No one does animated X-Men better than Mondo.

We’ll pivot from an IP to a company here as Mondo had a lot to show off. Perhaps more than any other company, though I confess I’m not interested in everything they do (like Masters of the Universe and ThunderCats). What gets my attention first and foremost when it comes to Mondo are their plans for their X-Men animated line of sixth scale figures. It’s a line that is becoming much harder to collect because of the tariff situation in the country, but I’m in too deep to dump it. Heading into the event, we knew the next figure to be solicited was likely to be Mr. Sinister who had already been shown. There was also the reveal of an event exclusive Savage Land Rogue which went up for preorder before the show. They were both at the event along with the next figure: Storm. She looks awesome and was my guess for next up. It didn’t end there though as we also got to see concept art for the next figure and it’s Beast! I’m glad he’s a little ways off since he might be an expensive one. Perhaps things can improve economically before going up for order, though there’s always the chance things get worse. Little is likely to change before Sinister goes up though which is happening in August. I love the look of the figure and he’s an A-list villain from the show, but I do not look forward to the sticker with that one.

That was a hoot!

That’s the only sixth scale line I’m in, but Mondo did reveal more Marvel and DC figures (Superman, Two-Face, Dr. Doom, Lizard) in their other lines which all seemed solid. What really caught my eye though were their Mondo Squads which are more statuesque figures with swappable parts and sold in bundles of characters. Previously, they had done a set of characters from the Nicktoon Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and now they’re moving onto Rocko’s Modern Life. I love Rocko and this set of the titular character plus his mates Heffer and Filbert is pretty much an automatic buy from me. We don’t have a lot of Rocko merch out there so the scarcity will help. Also shown is a squad of Beavis and Butt-Head with their couch and the four fellows from King of the Hill (Hank, Bill, Dale, Boomhauer). Similar to Rocko, I may have to get King of the Hill since there’s so little out there for the franchise that I have really grown to love in recent years after previously dropping off around Season 5. Mondo also teased future squads based on Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show.

The last of the real Ghostbusters makes his debut in Ray.

Mondo is also heavily invested in The Real Ghostbusters, which was probably the biggest reveal of the 2024 show. We’re still waiting on the first release to drop (once again, thank you tariffs), but we have now seen all four of the busters and their companion ghosts. And, to no one’s surprise, everything looks great. I still have reservations about the price, but it is what it is and we’ll talk more about that when Peter finally arrives (hopefully sometime in August). Mondo also revealed that Janine will follow the boys and she’ll be in her more traditional secretary attire. To sweeten the package, she’ll come with her desk and an alternate lower half for a clean cross-legged sitting position. I’m guessing all of this extra stuff means she’s going to retail for $202 like the Ghostbuster + Ghost package we’ve seen up until now, but maybe that won’t be the case. That will be a tall ask and is probably something I won’t be interested in.

Marvel Legends

It’s all X-Men ’97!

I knew Hasbro would have some X-Men ’97 stuff for us, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much and how much I’d like it. We learned what wave three will be and those figures were all on-hand for folks to gawk at: Morph, Jubilee (final suit), Sunspot (final suit), Emma Frost, Cable (first outfit), Wolverine (classic civilian clothes). All of them looked pretty damn good. I’m mostly looking to supplement my ’92 display with these so Cable and Wolverine were locks. My dissatisfaction with the ’92 Jubilee puts the ’97 one on my radar, though I’m disappointed she’s in her black jumpsuit. Maybe I’ll swap heads with the ’92 one? Maybe even arms and coat? Emma just looks great though a classic take on the White Queen was enough to get me to put in a preorder and I love Morph so I’m in for the ’97 version. The only one I didn’t preorder was Sunspot. Nothing against the figure, I just don’t really care about Sunspot.

Gambit, what did they do to you?!

That wasn’t all though as we got a nice look at the made-to-order Sentinel which went up last year and there were some two-packs announced. We can look forward to a finale Cyclops and Jean (Marvel Girl), finale Wolverine and Storm, and a pairing of Rogue and Gambit from their basketball scene in the first episode. None are essentials for me and I don’t think I’ll be getting any, but I love to see how all-in Hasbro is with X-Men ’97. The one set that I would have had the most interest in is the basketball two-pack, but it is unfortunately the worst looking set of the two. That’s because it looks like Hasbro repurposed its Starting Lineup body of NBA players for its shirtless Gambit. That sculpt has a very unpleasant looking ab crunch in the middle of it. It worked okay for Starting Lineup because all of those figures had a jersey. Gambit doesn’t have that luxury and it looks terrible. It’s honestly one of those “How did this get approved?” moments that comes along once in awhile.

Aside from that, I had little to be critical of with Hasbro’s panel. They also revealed their next made-to-order figure: Mephisto. Mephisto was previously released many moons ago by Diamond in their Diamond Select line. Marvel Legends has not touched him though because he’s basically Marvel Satan and not afraid to show it. There was going to be one attached to the Engine of Vengeance HasLab if it hit a certain number of orders, but that product didn’t even fund. The Legends team had previously stated Mephisto could not be released any other way, but there was almost certainly some gamesmanship in those statements. Something obviously changed and now Mephisto is on the way, though he won’t be showing up at Walmart or Target. He is coming with his own throne and this thing sure looks familiar.

Hey! I know that skull!

Crystar fans can probably spot where this thing is from and the Legends team was not shy about stating it’s based on the cover of issue 8 by artist Michael Golden. We’ve covered that issue here and that’s because it’s also the cover musician Glenn Danzig stole from to come up with a logo for his band Samhain which then became the logo for the band Danzig. The Legends team, once again, was not at all shy about pointing that out and might even be hoping for some cross-sale appeal with that fanbase. As for Danzig, no comment has been made. The item was shared in the official Danzig fan group on Facebook and has since been removed so either he’s not happy or the moderators for that group think he would not be happy to see it. Fans have frequently traded and sold issues of Crystar there so it’s not like the group hides from the connection, but maybe he’s salty that he won’t get a cut? He probably thinks he made the image famous, and he probably did, but he has also made a lot of money off of art he never owned so I think we can call it square on this one, Mr. Danzig. Especially if Marvel never came looking for a cut of those t-shirts. Either way, the throne looks awesome and yes, I’m buying it. I don’t even care about Mephisto, but this thing looks too good to pass up. It’s an open preorder that closes August 26th and will set you back $80 when it ships next year.

As for other odds and ends, I continue to be impressed with the offerings from Jada Toys, even if the IPs they traffic in have little or no appeal to me. Except for Frosty the Snowman, I will get that. Big Bad Workshop had a variant of its upcoming action figure of The Tick on display and he might already be my most anticipated for next year. I love The Tick and it’s been at the top of my most wanted for a few years now and I hope the line is a success. We also know who will be the next character: Chairface Chippendale. The Naughty or Nice collection is also continuing and we’re finally getting a Mrs. Claus. I assume she will go up for preorder around Christmas time and hopefully will fund. She’s not the design I would have gone with, but I’ll be happy to have a Mrs. Claus join Santa on my shelf some day.

And that’s a wrap! Thanks to all of the people who cover this event every year and whose videos I snipped screen grabs from: Pixel Dan, Toy Anxiety, Robo Don’t Know. Toyark.com also has some great coverage if you prefer still shots. All of the folks involved help people like me who can’t make it to the con enjoy from my home or wherever I happen to be.

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After taking a trip to the past with Rocko’s Modern Life during the spring, it seems only fitting that I also take a look at the Rocko’s Modern Life movie from 2019: Static Cling. To be fair, the term “movie” is definitely used loosely when applied to this piece of media. Static Cling was originally…

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There’s been a hole in my Danzig collection for quite some time. It was a hole that was easy to fill and actually quite cheap considering most Danzig records fetch well over $100 these days, but an important piece was missing. And that piece is not what one would necessarily expect, but I would assume…

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Dec. 23 – CatDog – “A Very CatDog Christmas”

Original air date November 30, 1999.

Last year, I made it a point to go through the vast majority of the Nicktoons Christmas specials I was at least somewhat familiar with. My cut-off was basically 1996 which coincided with the premiere of Hey Arnold! That was when I started to fall off of Nicktoons and Nickelodeon in general. I was entering my teen years and other things took priority. Plus, my preferred Nicktoons were more of the gross-out, slapstick, sort of toons like The Ren & Stimpy Show and Rocko’s Modern Life which Hey Arnold! did not resemble at all. However, upon reflection, I would have to say that my real Nicktoons cut-off is CatDog.

CatDog debuted in early 1998 right after that year’s installment of the Kid’s Choice Awards. I had basically long since aged out of that show, but I was at least still watching Nickelodeon enough to be aware of CatDog‘s existence. I’m going to blame that on a crush I had on Summer Sanders, host of the gameshow Figure It Out which I would check out after school. CatDog was something that was heavily promoted, as most new Nicktoons were, and I can recall at least having some interest. By the time it was airing in a more normal timeslot though I had basically checked out. I know I did watch at least an episode or two, but my determination was “This isn’t for me.” And it probably wasn’t nor was it supposed to be.

All that being said, CatDog could possibly entertain me as an adult. I don’t know. It’s basically another take on The Odd Couple. Here we have a paring of naturally opposite animals in Cat (Jim Cummings) and Dog (Tom Kenny) with the wrinkle thrown in that they’re physically conjoined at the hips. Or spine? They don’t really have rear hips. They’re the super pet Bart Simpson created in Fly vs Fly with a cat on one end and a dog on the other. How they poop is anyone’s guess. They both eat so I guess there’s a two-way street running through them which sounds unpleasant. There’s certainly room for humor though, Arnold this is not, and did you see those names in parenthesis? Talk about a cartoon superstar pairing of Jim Cummings and Tom Kenny. I honestly can’t recall ever hearing Cummings on a Nickelodeon show, he was more the domain of Disney and Warner Bros. He’s also been around forever so I’m sure I heard his name on Nickelodeon before (and it looks like I probably did as he did do some work for Aaahh!!! Real Monsters), but it’s interesting to see. Sort of like finding Mel Blanc on a list of Disney credits – it’s not something that happened very often.

There’s two of them so they need two tree, right? That’s why my family of four has four trees in the house. Wait…

The Nicktoons were hardly the equal of the Disney Afternoon when it came to opening numbers, but CatDog begins with one of my least favorite songs out of them all. It’s this country number that just sounds so generic. We’re not off to a great start. When that intro is through, we get a rather simple title card before we’re taken to the home of the titular character, CatDog. Duality is the name of the game here and it informs a lot of the style surrounding CatDog. The house is basically a giant fire hydrant on one side and a dead fish on the other. Inside, it looks like a pretty normal house so I guess that fish isn’t an actual decaying corpse. The two (one?) characters are decorating their Christmas trees. It’s basically two trees in one with one side covered with fish and the other steaks. The two have just finished decorating and now it is time to place their gifts for each other under this double tree. Dog goes first and places a wrapped gift while Cat closes his eyes. We can hear him hoping it’s a sports car (I wouldn’t get my hopes up). When it comes time for Cat to do the same, he has nothing. He fishes around in his “pockets,” which is mysterious fur pockets that appear when the need arises, and comes up with a single jellybean. That would seem to be these two in a nutshell, Dog is the caring and considerate one who is held back only by his lack of intellect. Cat is selfish, like most cats are perceived to be. It’s the inverse of the Ren and Stimpy pairing.

It’s the only way to travel.

Despite Cat’s gift for Dog being an unwrapped piece of candy, he doesn’t take notice and instead is eager to head off on another Christmas tradition. The two put on scarves and Dog adds a stocking cap as they fly out the window. To travel on the snow, Dog basically becomes a toboggan with Cat grasping hold of his hands. As they travel, Dog begins to sing, but his song only has one line, “The best part of Christmas is being together.” After his one line, the scene fades out and then comes back in on a mall shaped like a pig’s head. I guess that works as an analogy.

Via the process of elimination when looking through the credits it would appear that this guy is called Mr. Sunshine. I appreciate the irony.

The camera moves inside the mall where we get a closeup on a Santa figure that appears to be doing The Macarena (remember that?). It’s followed by quick cuts of other cheesy merch and fists full of cash as they fly off the shelves. There’s a snowman that appears to be capable of dropping its pants (it’s wearing jeans for the sole purpose of removing them, resembling one of those novelty Seymour Butts dolls people would have affixed to their rear windshield), a boxing Santa, Mean Bob action figure, dinosaurs in festive attire, and so on. When the cuts are finished the camera lingers on a star atop a massive tree. The star is emblazoned with a dollar sign because this is a mall, after all. The camera pans down this massive tree and a very unenthusiastic individual dressed as an elf moves into frame to say, “Imagine the thrill of meeting Father Christmas,” in a very even, flat, tone of voice. I think it’s Billy West using a similar voice to the one he used for the ghost in the Ren & Stimpy episode “Haunted House.”

Cheer up, Santa, I have a feeling that Dog is your kind of guy. Err, dog.

We then find Santa (Brian Doyle-Murray) seated at the base of that tree with some monkey kid on his lap. He asks the lad what he wants for Christmas and he responds that he’d like a Kung-Fu Kenny with real blood and hands you can slice off into death rays! Santa is not impressed despite the kid standing in his lap and jumping about. When the kid leaves Santa remarks to himself, “So much for the Christmas spirit.” Enter CatDog, who comes sliding up the stairs out front and then rolls through the mall like a runaway tire. The duo soar into the air only to land directly in Santa’s lap. Despite the pair obviously cutting the line, Santa asks Dog what he’d like for Christmas and assumes it will be something expensive with a death ray. Dog sort of chuckles at the suggestion and then, once he confirms that Cat isn’t trying to eavesdrop, whispers in Santa’s ear that all he wants is for Cat to like his present from him. Santa is taken aback, pleasantly at that, at Dog’s selfless desire. The feeling is short-lived as Cat and Dog switch places with Cat, rather loudly hoping that Dog will hear (he’s too busy playing with an ornament), informing the big guy that he’d like a sports car.

Such a lovely little girl.

Santa has no reaction to Cat’s selfish want and Cat doesn’t seem to be at all interested in getting his approval anyway. The two depart, but a call to “Make way,” is soon heard. It’s coming from the mall owner, Rancid (West), who is a big, ugly, green, rabbit that looks like some sort of cross-over between an Arthur character and something from Life in Hell. He wants everyone to move out of the way so that his niece, Rancine (Maria Bamford) can tell Santa what she wants. She’s about as ugly as him, just smaller and in a dress, and she does not look happy. Santa goes through the whole routine with a look on his face that suggests he knows that this kid isn’t going to ask for something selfless. She at first can’t even think of anything since her rich uncle buys her whatever she wants, but then she lays eyes on CatDog.

CatDog is not for sale!

Now, this gets pretty bizarre and also pretty horrific because Rancine informs Santa that she wants to own CatDog. This is a world inhabited entirely by animal people, from what I can see. Santa is a human, and that flat-speaking elf is humanoid, but green, while everyone else appears to be an animal person. Like CatDog. This is like a kid in the real world sitting on Santa and pointing out at a pair of conjoined twins and saying “I want to own them!” Obviously, totally illegal and morally reprehensible. Any parent who raised a kid who thinks they can own another person or persons obviously failed. Naturally, Rancid tries to “buy” CatDog from itself. Themselves? Whatever. They are not for sale and tell Rancid that in no uncertain terms. Santa seemed a bit worried that they’d go for it, but upon hearing that he basically breathes a sigh of relief. What a weird way to have one’s Christmas spirit reenforced. Rancine screams in protest, but surprisingly that’s as far as she goes.

This is unsettling to me for some reason.

In another part of the mall, Cat is admiring himself in a mirror when they’re approached by a gang of dogs. These are the Greaser Dogs and, since they’re dogs, they seem to enjoy picking on Cat. Cliff (Kenny), the leader, is singing Dog’s Christmas song as they come upon the pair. Immediately, they desire to kick the crap out of Cat so the pair have to split. As they run, Cat drops the mirror he had been looking at and all three members of the gang step on it, cracking it. That’s 21 years of bad luck right there. CatDog ducks into a store display Christmas tree to avoid the dogs and lurking inside is their neighbor, Winslow (Carlos Alazraqui), an ugly, blue, mouse. Cat doesn’t ask him why he’s in a tree and instead asks him if he knows what Dog got him for Christmas. When he tells him he hopes it’s a sports car, Winslow gives him a reality check on that one. Cat tries to reassure himself that it would take a Christmas miracle to get such a gift, but Christmas miracles happen all the time! Winslow informs him, “Not to you, they don’t.”

There aren’t enough scenes set inside Christmas trees. Someone needs to make a special that takes place inside a tree the whole time.

Winslow ducks inside the tree which has its own infrastructure, it would seem. It’s not as nice as the tree Chip and Dale take shelter in for Pluto’s Christmas Tree, but it still looks like a place I want to visit. When he emerges from the tree it’s beside Dog. He tells Winslow that he hopes Cat likes his present – a popsicle stick house boat. Winslow tells him there’s no way he’s going to like that, but Dog thinks Cat likes all of his gifts from him. Despite Cat always throwing them away (he thinks he does this to entertain the kids who live at the dump). Winslow breaks the news to him that the only way Cat will like the gift he got him is if it’s a sports car, and he’ll never, ever, be able to get him one. He walks away chuckling to himself how he loves messing with these two on Christmas while Cat and Dog are both left feeling pretty down about Christmas.

Oh Cat, you are wrong to focus only on the material stuff at Christmas. Haven’t you seen any Christmas specials?

We next find the pair exiting a store called Soap Dish. Dog is enjoying a bar of soap which he thinks is delicious. I have no idea if this is a one episode thing or if he always eats soap. As he chews and swallows it, bubbles come out of his mouth. When Cat speaks, bubbles also come out of his mouth thus proving my theory that whatever Dog eats Cat “shits” out his mouth and vice versa. What a horrible existence. Cat is pretty down thanks to Winslow and doesn’t see how their Christmas can possibly turn out well. Dog falls back on what he perceives to be their great traditions like putting up their double star. We just cut to the pair doing so in the past which results in Cat getting flung into a wall which he dubs the “Double Scar.” Dog then tries to cheer him up by talking about how they have their friends and family to spend the holidays with. Cat reminds him that they are their own family and all that happens on Christmas is Winslow, Eddie the Squirrel, and the Greaser dogs all show up uninvited, but Dog considers this a major compliment. Cat, on the other hand, wants stuff (specifically citing a golden toaster oven which seems extravagant) and directs Dog to a display of dog bones. Cat appeals to Dog’s stomach and asks him if he’d like a nice, new, bone. He responds in the affirmative, but in a very plain manner like, “Sure, I wouldn’t mind a new bone.” Cat, on the other hand, really must have that sports car. He has an idea, and he indulges himself by asking Dog the old “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Dog is thinking about drinking out of a toilet, but Cat is most certainly not. He has an idea to get stuff for Christmas, but all he does is laugh. It’s a chilling, evil, sort of laugh and Dog seems rightly unnerved. Until he starts laughing along.

Santa isn’t going to like this.

We return to Santa and Rancine is still on his lap screaming. CatDog comes waltzing up and Rancid remarks, “Look, it’s those freaks you wanted.” Cat has come to make Rancid an offer. He is willing to go along with this proposal and be his niece’s new plaything if it comes with full access to all of Rancid’s stuff. Rancid is in agreement, but what about Dog? He doesn’t like that this deal makes him feel sort of cheap. Cat reassures him by saying this deal gets him access to a sports car and Dog all the T-bones he wants! Rancid then asks him if he likes T-Bones in a suggestive manner indicating that Cat is right. Dog cheers up and says “T-Bone was my nickname at fat camp! Where do I sign?” Santa had been staring at the group with bated breath while Francine rubbed her hands together like an evil sort of person. Rancid tells Dog there’s no signature needed, they’ll shake on it. And they do.

CatDog is one gift among many. That hardly seems special.

Outside a massive, stone, mansion rests a rather cruel and inelegant looking Santa robot. It’s a decoration for Rancid’s home and everything has a very cold presence. The limo pulls up carrying the crew, but only Rancid and Rancine emerge. Rancid has a large, wrapped, box in his arms and once he enters the mansion he chucks it towards a giant tree. As it hits the floor we hear CatDog groaning in pain from inside. The gift comes to rest at the base of the tree as Dog remarks there’s only a few more hours until Christmas and access to all of Rancid’s stuff! Cat is just as giddy and remarks that this is an idea with absolutely no downside. We then cut back to the mall to find Santa seated on the stairs outside looking downright miserable. Mrs. Claus (Bamford) is there beside him trying to ease his mind, but he can’t get over what he saw. CatDog sold itself to Rancid as a Christmas present! That would seemingly make CatDog a prostitute in the eyes of Santa and he just can’t get over that. Meanwhile, that even speaking elf is just flabbergasted that this Santa is the real deal. He asks if that means the Easter Bunny is real too and Santa remarks “He better be, he owes me sixty bucks!”

That’s one cold looking Christmas.

Dog was Santa’s only hope for Christmas spirit in this world, but now that belief has been shattered. Santa feels that he has no other choice: he has to cancel Christmas. The world is no longer deserving, and as Santa flies off in his sleigh with four reindeer (he’s a fake!), Christmas basically just disappears. Lights, decorations, trees, all vanish before our eyes. The giant tree in Rancid’s mansion? Stripped of even its fake pine needles leaving behind a cold, monstrous, spiked, metal contraption. All of the gifts beneath it have vanished, all except the one containing CatDog. It’s been stripped of its festive color, but at least they weren’t wiped from existence too like all of the other stuff.

That must have been a comfortable experience. At least they’re used to being close together.

With Christmas gone, we cut to a news broadcast. The anchor (West) informs the viewing audience that Christmas has been cancelled and that their sources out of the North Pole have indicated it’s all the fault of CatDog! Winslow is shown watching the broadcast from CatDog’s couch and he’s pissed. The Greaser Gang then barges in looking to murder CatDog, but Winslow has no idea where they are. We then return to Rancid’s mansion where Dog is ancy to be opened. And with good reason, that box is way too small to comfortably house a CatDog. Rancine approaches and opens the box and acts surprised it’s a CatDog! The pair flop out and seem oblivious to how empty the place is. Rancine informs them she got screwed this Christmas and warns them that they better be good! Dog happily tells her they’re the best and don’t even require batteries. I’d be wary of this Rancine girl if I were you, CatDog.

Cat got what he wanted. I guess the story’s over.

Or perhaps not? We next find Dog and Rancine having a tea party. Only, instead of tea Dog is being served bones. Rancine looks like her usual, miserable, self so I wonder if she’s capable of experiencing any joy? Cat is eager to take Rancid’s sports car for a drive though so Dog must go too. As he pulls Dog away, Rancine replaces him with a large, green, stuffed, dinosaur with a message of “I Heart You” on its chest which makes me think this is a Barney reference. CatDog goes racing around the interior of the mansion with Cat declaring he’s king of the world, a Titanic reference because it’s 1999. Cat is feeling pretty good about his decision to sell themself for Christmas and Dog appears to be in agreement as he consumes his bone. They then come to a stop beneath the giant, metal, Christmas tree. Dog leaps up to embrace it, but is turned off to find it smells of sweaty metal.

Rancine is not the sort of person one should expect caring or understanding from.

Now, Dog starts to miss Christmas and their usual traditions. Even Cat is in agreement as he reflects upon their double star and the way it caught the light. They both want to return to their old Christmas, so they race back to Rancine in the sports car to inform her of their decision which she will undoubtedly take well. When they initially pull up indicating they’ve made a terrible mistake she’s in agreement for they left giant skid marks in the hall. Cat then informs her they made a different mistake and that they need to go home. Dog tries to bid her farewell, but Rancine clamps onto his snout and informs him that the last person who tried to welch on a bet with her had his shins turned into a coffee table. She then gestures to a table where there’s some guy laying on his stomach with his ankles going through a table surface so the transformation was less gruesome than it sounds. The message is clear though, Rancine isn’t letting the pair leave, and to make sure they won’t she drags them to her room and locks them in a bird cage suspended from the ceiling. As Dog yells to her that she’s a very naughty child, she returns to the room to agree with him and add that she’s proud of it. She’s definitely going to be one of those girls that wears the sweatpants that says “Juicy” across her ass cheeks when she gets to college.

She deserves this.

In the streets of town a mob has formed all demanding an end to CatDog. We see the Greasers, Eddie, and presumably other recognizable faces amongst this crowd with murderous intent. Eddie (Dwight Schultz) is particularly aggrieved since he was supposed to get a Jet Ski this year. Back to CatDog, and Dog is laying at the bottom of the cage with foam coming out his mouth while Cat calls for help. Rancine enters annoyed that all of her toys break on Christmas. She ascends a ladder to the cage and we can see that Dog has achieved this state via another bar of soap. Cat pulls the old switcheroo leaving Rancine dangling from the cage as they make their escape. Dog, always the nicer of the two, tells Cat they can’t just leave her like that. He agrees, and sets the ladder back up that she used to reach the cage. CatDog climbs up and shoves Rancine into the cage and shuts the door. There, problem solved!

Rancid has such a massive ego that his doors and windows are shaped like him. I’m trying to imagine my house if every opening was shaped like me.

CatDog now must escape the mansion, but to do so they need to avoid Rancid. As they creep through the halls they spy the rabbit coming their way. He has his head buried in some paper though and could hardly be bothered as he walks by. They pretend to be one of his many statues anyway and in the process reveal that they can change color like a chameleon. Was this done for comedic effect or is this something they do often? Regardless, with Rancid avoided the pair make their way back to the main living room with the big, metal, tree. There’s a window high up on the wall and Cat takes over to climb the tree to the top. The window is still a ways away, but there’s a chandelier above them and Cat still has his scarf. He twirls it over his head like a lasso and successfully ropes the chandelier. The duo swing for the window…and slam into the wall. He missed, and CatDog falls to the floor, but worry not! The front door is unlocked, so that was a lot easier than expected. Too bad about the pain and misery that was all for nothing.

Free at last!

CatDog goes belly-whopping out the door just like Frosty himself! They slide over the hillsides all the way to their home. They seem completely oblivious to the lack of Christmas decorations in town and on their house, but Cat is just relieved they still have five minutes of Christmas left. Then they enter their home to find no tree. That’s the least of their worries for soon the Greaser Gang shows up with Eddie the Squirrel and Winslow. They’re still pretty pissed about the whole cancelled Christmas thing and are looking to exact a bit of sweet revenge by wailing on CatDog. Well, Cat more than Dog it would seem as old habits die hard. This is also when CatDog finds out that they’re the reason Christmas is cancelled, but before the gang can wail on CatDog, Rancine shows up. She declares CatDog her property (disgusting slaver!) so she gets to wail on them first, followed by Rancid. Cat then breaks down declaring it all his fault, but they just reply with “We know,” and prepare for a beating!

It’s like the reason for the season. Or something.

It’s Dog who cries out for everyone to be quiet. It’s time for a speech. Dog declares they can still have a Christmas even without all of that usual stuff. He then grabs a bunch of junk from around the house, fills a punch bowl with water from the sink (gross), and assembles it all into a double junk tree! He’s pretty proud of himself, but it’s Cliff who points out that it’s just a pile of jump and disgusting dish water. Eddie gets in the best line calling Dog a Noel Nincompoop, but his gesture worked on Cat. Or maybe Cat just doesn’t want to get beat up? Dog points out they’re together just like every Christmas and even Shriek (Bamford) the poodle is forced to admit this is what they do every Christmas. Cat even goes so far as to call them all a family. Sort of. Winslow still thinks they’re stupid, but when Dog takes his picture of a steak and bites it into the shape of a double star and places it on the “tree,” everyone is overcome with awe.

I assumed this would happen at some point.

The room is filled with a wondrous glow. The new double star works just like the old one and finally everyone seems to agree that Christmas is possible even without all the “stuff.” Dog says they didn’t cancel Christmas and Cat adds “Because no one can.” He indicates that Christmas “is in here,” though he can’t quite decide just where in here as he moves his hand around his chest until he finds just the right spot. Now we get the required “Merry Christmas, Dog,” from Cat followed by a “Merry Christmas, Cat,” from Dog as the two embrace. Winslow, overcome with emotion, says “That’s the most beautiful thing I ever saw. With the possible exception of some stuff I saw when I was in the navy.” Is that a gay sailor joke in a children’s cartoon?!

So, wait, we’re just going to let the slavers in on this group hug?

There’s no time to contemplate that one as Winslow says “Merry Christmas, CatDog,” and goes in for a hug too. Then the rest of the gang does the same and we have a big group hug. Winslow adds that now it’s just like that stuff he saw when he was in the navy, except everyone’s clothes are on. Okay, he didn’t really say that, but imagine if he did. This warm, happy, moment is broken up by the sound of a crash outside, followed by laughter. The kind of laughter that can only come from one person: Santa Claus!

You can’t pay Brian Doyle-Murray to play Santa and not have him show up again at the end.

Santa comes in and a more natural light does with him. We were in kind of a cool blue and black environment, but now it’s positively bright. Cat immediately goes to Santa to apologize for what he did. Santa counters that he should apologize to CatDog, even though what they did was among the most vile acts imaginable. He’s really laying it on thick. He definitely equates this whole thing with prostitution. Imagine the naughty stuff Santa must see and he found that to be the most vile? Maybe this world is just way cleaner than I could imagine? Dog accepts Santa’s apology and Christmas is back on, baby! All of the stuff returns and Cat and Dog are each left holding presents from each other. Or Santa. I don’t know anymore.

Now, everybody sing!

Santa departs leaving CatDog to open their presents. Cat gets the popsicle stick house boat he always wanted while Dog gets a delicious bar of soap. All that’s left now is to hang the stockings and sing. It’s an original song, and during it the Greasers get to rough up Cat a bit and Winslow hits him in the face with a snowball. He hands Cat a snowball of his own to basically rub on his head, so I guess this is as nice as he’s going to get. Everyone is then surprised when the quietest, and tallest, Greaser, Lube (Alazraqui) breaks into a lovely solo. Everyone gathers round, well, everyone except CatDog. They’re singing about nothing being better than Christmas with CatDog, but CatDog isn’t around.

Looks like the house is backing to looking nice.

And that’s because they’re with Santa! We cut to an external shot of the house all covered in snow and lights. There’s a magnificent full moon in the sky and Santa’s silhouette goes passing by. There’s four reindeer, and something peculiar leading the team. It’s CatDog, or more like Dog, who is basically a reindeer while Cat is holding on for dear life. He urges Dog to get them down in one piece, but Dog sees a garbage truck. This is bad for Cat, and Santa, as Dog lunges for it taking them with him as we fade to black on this holiday special.

I feel like we’ve had a low number of Santa Moon Shots this year.

That was certainly an unusual Christmas episode. CatDog needs to learn a pretty conventional lesson about how it’s not the material things that make Christmas so special. Well, Cat more than Dog needs to learn that, but it comes via the duo prostituting themselves to a rich, spoiled, kid. Santa reminds us several times that CatDog sold themselves for Christmas and that it’s a truly vile act. It’s so bad it shatters his belief in Christmas which is pretty wild. Maybe you don’t like the prostitution analogy, but the only other one would be CatDog selling themselves into slavery which is pretty abhorrent. I’d argue even more so as that’s really selling one’s dignity. Sex work is just work, selling one’s actual being is something only a desperate person should even consider, not someone who just wants a sports car and bones.

At least it’s an original tale and I only felt semi-lost by the inclusion of recurring characters whom I had no knowledge of. I don’t really need to know why a pack of dogs delights in beating up a cat, especially one who probably lies and cheats his ways out of problems like Cat. Winslow seems like just an asshole and no frame of reference needed there while Eddie is…well, he’s just there. I’m surprised they didn’t use him to make a Cousin Eddie reference. The look of this one passes the Christmas test as there was plenty of that present, until it wasn’t as part of the plot. Rancid and Rancine are as ugly as their names imply which I assume is intentional. Same for Winslow and the gang. There were plenty of not ugly character designs so it’s clear that the ugliness is a choice in places. This isn’t a Klasky-Csupo joint where just everything and everyone is unpleasant to look at.

They certainly have the Christmas spirit so you could do worse than watch CatDog.

Is this episode CatDog good? I don’t know. I felt pretty indifferent about CatDog when I was younger and the show was just starting and I suppose I still feel that way. I get the whole point of the show and the whole opposites attract kind of thing makes sense conceptually, but I mostly felt nothing. Maybe that would come from watching more episodes? Cat seems like he’s mostly intended to be unlikable while Dog is cheerful and sweet. He’s almost too cheerful and sweet here as he’s oblivious to how shitty a friend Cat is to him. I don’t worry about them getting beat up, I’m not begging them to not sell themselves for Christmas, and I’m not really invested in their Christmas experience. I kind of wish the episode went all-in on its messaging and just ended it on the group hug. They didn’t need stuff, so why bring the stuff back? Maybe just cut to Santa flying overhead and looking on with an approving smile? The final visual of CatDog pulling the sleigh was fun, but the special didn’t need it either.

I guess this one gets the absolute lightest of recommends from me. It’s a Christmas episode and there’s some value to be found here. I didn’t hate it, I wasn’t bored, but I don’t anticipate watching it again unless one of my kids suddenly acquires an affinity for CatDog. It’s pretty low on the list of Nicktoons Christmas episodes for me, but I suspect people younger than me who may have been the right age for CatDog when it aired feel different about it. And that’s fine, different strokes and all that. If you would like to check this one out then the easiest way is via Paramount+. There you will find this episode along with every other episode of CatDog waiting for you, should you wish to view them.

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

Dec. 23 – Bugs Bunny’s 24-Carrot Holiday Special

Let’s try this one more time for 2023 – can we find a good Looney Tunes Christmas special? And more importantly, a good Bugs Bunny one? We’ve looked at two already that were merely okay. Nothing terrible, but hardly holiday classics. For our final go at this, I’m feeling a little more optimistic and that’s…

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Dec. 23 – Bluey – “Verandah Santa”

When it comes to The Christmas Spot, I have very few rules. I definitely favor animated Christmas specials, but that’s not some rule I’ve created for myself. The programs don’t have to be all ages, they don’t have to be “nice,” and they certainly don’t have to be any good as I’ve looked at an…

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Dec. 23 – DuckTales – “How Santa Stole Christmas”

One of my favorite modern Christmas specials is the DuckTales episode “Last Christmas.” I feel like anytime I talk DuckTales I have to specify which era, though in this case I really shouldn’t since the original DuckTales never did a Christmas episode. To make up for that, the 2017 edition of the show did two…

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

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

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

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

Pretty much everyone is back with only a slight redesign.

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

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

That’s a pretty good Grinch parody.

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

Doug?! As the Grinch!

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

That’s more like it.

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

Doug gets meta on ABC.

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

I wonder how long he’s had this book?

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

They still fight like kids. That must be exhausting.

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

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

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

Doug finds nothing funny about the Funnie family Christmas tree.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time to meet the little Dirt Bike.

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

I’m more than done with this B plot.

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

“It’s not such a bad little tree.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Dec. 4 – The Pups’ Christmas

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

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Dec. 4 – Family Guy – “Christmas Guy”

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

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Wolverine and the X-Men

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:

X-Men: The Art and Making of the Animated Series

A few years ago, I talked about my love of X-Men, the animated series, via a book review of Previously…on X-Men by Eric Lewald. That book chronicled the development of the 92 animated series that helped propel the Fox Kids Network to the top of the Saturday morning leaderboards through notes from the author and…

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Mondo X-Men TAS 1/6 Scale SDCC Exclusive Logan

Mondo has been absolutely killing it with its sixth scale line of action figures based on the now classic animated series X-Men. The company also really ramped up production in 2023 on the line by soliciting five new figures during the year. At over 200 bucks a pop, it was quite the hit to the…

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X-Men: The Animated Series – The Adaptations

Halloween 1992 was when things really changed for the X-Men. A high-selling comic book was about to blow open and enter the mainstream with a hit new Saturday morning cartoon series. Spearheaded by Eric Lewald for Saban Entertainment, X-Men would become the highest rated children’s program on the Fox Network and the overall highest rated…

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Dec. 19 – Aaahh!!! Real Monster – “Gone Shopp’n”

Original air date December 11, 1994.

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:

Dec. 19 – American Dad! – “Minstrel Krampus”

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…

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Dec. 19 – Krazy Kat – “Krazy’s Krismas”

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…

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Dec. 19 – Christopher the Christmas Tree

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…

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Dec. 14 – All Grown Up! – The Finster Who Stole Christmas

Original air date December 7, 2004

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:

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