Bryan's BEARy Merry Christmas Holiday Reviews

[BEAR]

Bryan....I LOVED your review! It brought back a bunch of good memories for me. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Kathy. I'm so glad!

 

[anythingmuppet]

Hey bud, GREAT review! It brought back so many memories. I've always liked this special; I even feel like watching it again on my old trusty VHS tape. I seriously gotta get the DVD though; the tape is kinda glitchy and I noticed that the colors bleed a little bit. Anyway, cute review and I loved your cute little puns ( Treevia, lol! )

 

[Erine81981]

Loved it Bryan. Great, Awsome, Wonderful and just plain cute. That might be weird coming from a guy but I've alway been a big fan of Sesame Street speicals and this being the favoirtes of them all. You did great. I too watched this everytime it came on. I couldn't ever miss it. It was to me like a tradition to watch it everytime it came on PBS. Same here with Mr. Hopper. Everytime I watch it, it brings a tear to my eye when he gives Ernie and Bert their stuff back and Ernie's like "But we didn't get Mr. Hooper anything?" And Mr. Hooper then says, "It's alright. I already got something from ya'll." I would love to see it re-aired or something. That's one thing I don't get with PBS anymore. But keep it up and I to can't wait for more and I now will have to watch it once again.

 

[Vic Romano]

Awesome work, Bry; and very helpful as I don't think I ever saw this but now I can't wait to!

 

[BEAR]

Look for 2 or 3 reviews this week, folks! I am hoping to get the first of them up sometime tomorrow. Here is a small list of some of the things that will be up in these next couple weeks:

A Muppet Family Christmas
The Christmas Toy
Elmo Saves Christmas

 

[BEAR]

So I know this review is a little old, but it was going to go in this thread at some point anyway and I thought I'd repost it now for those of you who haven't read it or would like to read it again. It will keep you busy until I get a couple fresh ones up which I've been working on. Sorry this has been so slow. I am in the middle of teching the show that I am currently in, along with the Christmas activities, things have been crazy. In the meantime, I present you again with my review of the recent straight-to-DVD release of A Sesame Street Christmas Carol...


A SESAME STREET CHRISTMAS CAROL (2006)

Cast
Carrol Spinney as Oscar the Grouch
Joey Mazzarino as Joe Marly
Rickey Boyd (voice) as Rhubarb, the Grouch Ghost of Christmas Past
Kristin Chenoweth (voice) as Christmas Carole, the Ghost of Christmas Present
Kevin Clash (voice) as iSAM, the Robot Ghost of Christmas Future
Tim Curry (voice) as the Narrator

Also appearing in archived footage:
Big Bird (Carrol Spinney)
Elmo (Kevin Clash)
Lightnight the Reindeer (Joey Mazzarino)
Bert (Frank Oz)
Ernie (Jim Henson)
Mr. Hooper (Will Lee)
Gordon (Roscoe Orman)
Carlo (Carlo Alban)
Mr. Handford (David Langston Smyrl)
Maria (Sonia Manzano)
Luis (Emilio Delgado)
Gabby (Desiree Casado)
Bob (Bob McGrath)
Gina (Alison Bartlett)
Snuffy (Martin P. Robinson)
Telly (Martin P. Robinson)
Baby Bear (David Rudman)
Zoe (Fran Brill)
14-Karat Soul


It starts out with a Narration by the brilliant Tim Curry talking about Sesame Street and what a wonderful place it is at Christmas time. As he is talking, flashback clips from past Sesame Street Christmas specials are shown (The opening from Elmo's World: Happy Holidays, and a scene from Elmo Saves Christmas). It was nice to see Susan and Mr. Handford again even if they were in old clips. Then leading into Oscar's introduction, we see a nice quiet snow-covered evening on Sesame Street. It was such a beautiful setup, I knew it would be a great show! That feeling didn't last long.
A Delivery Man names Joe Marly comes to deliver junk mail to Oscar. It is actually an old can of baked beans which Rhubarb, the Grouch Ghost of Christmas Past pops out of. He shows Oscar old home movies of Christmas pasts. The first one was Gift of the Magi starring Bert and Ernie. They played Bert and Ernie's subplot from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street and we got to revisit an old dear friend. I won't tell you who. I'll leave you all to be as surprised as I was, though I'm sure you know exactly who I'm referring to. Along with that, it was lovely to hear Frank Oz and Jim Henson again as the 2 buddies. Gave me chills. The next homemovie features Big Bird from Elmo Saves Christmas. It's the scene where he misses Snuffy and sings "All I Want For Christmas Is You".
The next Ghost is Christmas Carole as the Ghost of Christmas Present. She is a very perky CGI Christmas Tree/Anything Muppet voiced by Kristin Chenowith. She is there to show Oscar the glory of the Christmas in the now and that Christmas is more than just decorations and Christmas trees. She shows a clip of Elmo and Santa Claus from Elmo's World: Happy Holidays. The next clip is one from Elmo Saves Christmas in which Elmo (along with Lightning the Reindeer) sings the reprise of "Everyday Can't Be Christmas". The third old clip is one from Elmo's World: Happy Holidays with kids talking about how they celebrate Hannukah and Kwanzaa. Carole then pulls out her finale with a clip featuring "Keep Christmas With You" (It is the version from Elmo Saves Christmas. (which can hardly be considered "Present" since Mr. Handford is in it.) Finally, Christmas Carole must leave because she left Christmas dinner cooking in her oven.
The next ghost to arrive is the ghost of Christmas Future in the form of a futuristic robot named Sam (voiced by Kevin Clash). He shows an new animated film showing what Christmases will be like in the future --houses that decorate themselves, weightless Christmas dinners in the form of tablets.
Oscar then wakes up and is greeted by a boy that bears a striking resemblence to the Delivery Man. This is wear Oscar's change really shows and where all this past 45 minutes makes sense. Possibly the best part of the show.
I left some details out as I don't want to give too much away for those of you who wish to watch it. My opinion, however, is that it was highly disappointing. I, who always supports and celebrates anything Sesame Street, found this program to be disappointing and a waste of time. It was cute, but really nothing but rehashing all old clips from past Sesame Street Christmas specials. There was nothing too original about this. They could have stuck Oscar in the clips from the past and had him comment on it. He didn't seem to care much about them at all. There was so much that could have been done to make it a wonderful adaptation, but it was as if they didn't even try in my honest opinion. I might as well have watched all my other Sesame specials instead. About 5 out of 45 minutes was new material and it didn't even have any other familiar characters besides Oscar.

That is my review. I give it 1 1/2 out of 5 stars because some of Christmas Carole's and Rhubarb's writing was cute. That is it though.

 

[Barry Lee]

Good job BEAR! Can't wait to see another review!
​

 

[redBoobergurl]

Thanks for reposting that Bryan. It really is a shame it wasn't any better than a basic recycling of old material. Oh well.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Yes good review! Too bad it was a clip show (and too bad they saturated the show with Elmo's Christmas special.)