Christmas: Are they shoving it down our throats too early?

[The Count]

Edit: Got ziffled.

That's why I basically stick with ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas, at least there, though I think it should be better structured to avoid so much repeat airings I basically know I'm getting something I might be interested in every day.

ABC Family did air Snoopy Come Home and Bon Voyage Charlie Brown the day before Thanksgiving as part of their annual Countdown to Christmas which did surprise me.

Still waiting for the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials weekend which has become another standard of ABC Family's December programming, mainly for the big Rudolph and Frosty crossoverspecial. That and Santa Clause 2 which for some reason gets downplayed in favor of Santa Clause 1 and 3 in double-feature promotions; Olive the Other Reindeer; the animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which I love more when you learn it's being narrated by Boris Karloff to his then 2-year old daughter Sarah Jane (thanks for that little trivia goes to the BTS special hosted by Phil Hartman); and of corpse, my uverfave dual-holiday movie.

*Leaves a choc chip 7 cookie for Drtooth, 8 for D'Snowth, and 9 for BeatnikChick.
Happy holidays guys and gals.

 

[The Count]

Lady Gaga Thanksgiving holiday concert, check.
Kelly Clarkson country music holiday concert, check.
And of course, it can't be Christmas apparently without a Michael Bublé special which'll air next Wednesday.

Frankly, the only reason to watch is because not only is Mike's special concert a new 2010's tradition, but so is his having a member from the Sesame gang as a guest for a song segment. in 2011 was roped into Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, 2012 brought one of Kevin's last performances as singing All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth, and this year will drop by as well.

*Reads over the name of the concert's star performer...
Yako: Michael Bubble?
Whacko: Michael Bubbly?
Dot: Nah, Michael Booble... Michael Babble... Mr. White Christmas.

 

[mr3urious]

Celine Dion's got a concert coming up, too.

 

[fuzzygobo]

One Rankin-Bass Christmas special that seems to have fallen through the cracks is "Nestor the Long-Eared Donkey". Tale of a poor donkey who gets treated with cruelty by various masters. Escapes with his mother but gets caught in a blinding snowstorm. His mother protects him from the ravages of the storm, but freezes to death. (This scene is guaranteed to rip your heartstrings out. You should wait until you're at least in your teens before viewing this).
Nestor carries on, and eventually finds his destiny, carrying Joseph and a pregnant Mary to a stable in Bethlehem, where he gets to witness the birth of Jesus.
Nicely done, for Rankin-Bass's stop-motion, but not always the easiest thing to watch.

 

[Drtooth]

Dude, as long as it's not Frosty, Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, or Year without a Santa Claus, they all fell through the cracks. Which is a right shame, since there's some great Rankin Bass productions out there that have gone completely obscure, Christmas or otherwise. There's Mad Mad Mad Comedians... you thought you'd never see an anime featuring the Smothers Brothers, but you'd be WRONG. It was animated by Osamu Tetzuka's studio (as was a lot of Rankin Bass specials). Then there's one that was thankfully saved and released to DVD, Mad Mad Mad Monsters... the sort of sequel to Mad Monster Party oddly written by future Cracked founder Lou Silverstone (considering originator of Mad Harvey Kurtzman wrote the first film).

But yeah. I only saw Little Drummer Boy once, and apparently there's a second one. Somehow I'm much more familiar with the Disney version "the Small One," but then again I think I have that on a DVD with Mickey's Christmas Carol.

Speaking of which... never ever saw "The Stingiest Man in Town," the Rankin Bass take on A Christmas Carol either. And that one was animated by TMS. Yep... same studio that did Lupin III and animated for Inspector Gadget, Tiny Toons, Ducktales (HAH! A different Scrooge, yet!), and Animaniacs.

 

[D'Snowth]

And let us not forget to mention Rankin/Bass' feature films, like their version of THE LORD OF THE RINGS series (well okay, RB only did the first and third, Ralph Bakshi did the second), which are all but forgotten.

For we are the slaves of the dark lords war (left-right, left-right)

 

[CensoredAlso]

A crack on the back says we're gonna fight! We're gonna march all day and night, and more!

 

[Twisted Tails]

When there's a whip (whip cracks) there is a way

 

[CensoredAlso]

We don't wanna go to war today but the lord of the lash says, "nay nay nay!"

 

[The Count]

15 birds...
UD: On black burned trees.
*Both: They have no wings, they have no knees.
BTW: Last year, after Hobbit 1, my friend and I exited the screening room both singing RB's Hobbit's theme song... The echo from the acoustics left a fantastic memory.


RB Movies:
1 Flight of dragons...
Flying across the sky.
Tune, that I don't know the lyrics, stuck in my mind.
2 The Stingiest Man in Town, I think I vaguely remember that one if only for the Jiminy Cricket-like character/narrator Bah Humbug. Yes, an actual humbug.
3 Nestor and Little Drummer Boy air on ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas... You have to wake up early enough at the start of either Saturday or Sunday's programming at 7 o'clock to catch it.
Christmas in Killarny with the fight of leprechauns vs. banshee is the one they've kind of dropped from the lineup, but they do still air the one titled Christmas Cards that's my least favorite of the bunch in spite of a young blind boy orphan central character.
BTW: The Little Drummer Boy sequel is one where he has to help one of the three wise men retrieve a pair of treasured silver bells meant for ringing in the birth of Baby Jesus.
4 Mad Monster Party, I have that here somewhere... *Needs to cast a spell with my wand to organize my room. Although an RB special that I miss is the one on the story of Jack O' Lantern.
5 On the subject of forgotten/non-aired specials... If there's one Christmas movie that has gotten royally forgotten about, it's Babes in Toyland. And I don't mean the remake with Keanu Reeves. I want the original with Tommy Kirk as the Piper's Son and Annette Funnicello as Mary Quite Contrary.