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

[CensoredAlso]

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.

My parents showed me how to tape that on our VCR when I was a kid in 1989. I still watch it every Christmas. Great musical numbers, always love Annette, and those talking trees have to be seen to be believed, lol.

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.

Yup, I wrote a blog entry about that one, lol.

http://herald7.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/lost-treasure-5-the-stingiest-man-in-town/

 

[Drtooth]

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.

OH SNAP!

I HAVE that one. They released Mad Mad Mad Monsters on DVD a year ago and that was the back up bonus feature. You just have to track a copy of that down.

 

[beatnikchick300]

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.

It was nicely done, but just thinking of that special gets me choked up.

 

[Drtooth]

On the subject of BAAAAD Christmas specials (cuz they're much more fun to talk about than good ones), know which one is pretty much the most pointless one I've ever seen? Sonic the Hedgehog's Christmas Blast. And it's a shame since it tried to blend AOSTH, SATAM, and the Archie comics into one episode. But other than some great hamming up by Robotnik, Scratch, and Grounder... it's just really pointless all over. The plot is nonsensical... and not even fun nonsensical.

For those who haven't seen it, essentially, Sonic gets a Chekov's Gift from a silent Sally (understandably, they couldn't get Kath Sourcie, but they could have other Darrined her with Kathleen Barr... but they were TOO cheap)... Robotnik abducts Santa and takes over as Robotniklaus (which isn't too bad, if cliche)... and to save Santa and Christmas, it would be the most RIDICULOUS buttpull ever if it wasn't related to the ring Sally gave Sonic earlier... Sonic has to randomly run an obstacle course (in some very thin association with Sonic 3-D Blast, I assume) to achieve even faster speed. Now, the rest of the special I can take, but the obstacle course?!?! It didn't need to be in there and they set it up to force it in there when it didn't need to. I guess they needed to fill out a half hour.

 

[mr3urious]

What about the Dexter's Lab episode in which Dexter is dumber than usual and shoots down Santa, thinking that it's really his dad in disguise despite flying around in a magic sleigh with real reindeer? And Santa talks like a Pokémon throughout most of the episode? And the family-unfriendly Aesop at the end being delivered without a shred of irony?

Yeah, in hindsight, it's pretty awful, and it was shockingly produced when Tartakovsky was still involved!

 

[D'Snowth]

I never saw Dexter as being dumb in that episode... it depends on the individual kid, and some kids at that age (what was he again, 8-9?) already stop believing in Santa, and it's very common for fathers to dress up as Santa to throw their kids off if they try to sneak a peak at Santa leaving presents under the tree; I think that's all Dexter was doing, was trying to prove that it's ridiculous for Dee Dee to believe in Santa and that Santa is really Dad in disguise.

As for the Family-Unfriendly Aesop, I always assumed that was something of a jab at how so many kids shows and specials always have that somewhat sugar-coated message that there's more to Christmas than presents.

 

[mr3urious]

I never saw Dexter as being dumb in that episode... it depends on the individual kid, and some kids at that age (what was he again, 8-9?) already stop believing in Santa, and it's very common for fathers to dress up as Santa to throw their kids off if they try to sneak a peak at Santa leaving presents under the tree; I think that's all Dexter was doing, was trying to prove that it's ridiculous for Dee Dee to believe in Santa and that Santa is really Dad in disguise.

Yet he believed in Dee-Dee's friend Koosalagoopagoop in an earlier episode. Why shouldn't he also still believe in Santa?

 

[D'Snowth]

It's been a long time since I saw that particular episode, but didn't Dexter actually dismiss Koosalagoopagoop altogether, until Dee Dee somehow made him real?

 

[Drtooth]

As for the Family-Unfriendly Aesop, I always assumed that was something of a jab at how so many kids shows and specials always have that somewhat sugar-coated message that there's more to Christmas than presents.

Oh YES! YES! That's what I love about that episode. That cynical, yet truthful slaughtering of how vapid that message is in certain TV specials... oft times they come from characters who only have shows to advertise their toy line or video game, and then everyone gets their presents anyway. And not like in a the Grinch is so touched that he returns them sort of way. Just some magical butt pull where everything's good because of the spirit of Christmas.

But then again, Cartoon Network Christmas specials were always off beat. From the KND X-Men parody to Sheep in the Big City's brutal thrashing of the commercialization of the holiday, to the happy Adventure Time special where we find out the dark, depressing origins of the Ice King. I'll say this though... the original Johnny Bravo Christmas Short was far superior to the full half hour special. It was cute, but it dragged on.

 

[D'Snowth]

The Johnny Bravo Christmas special was a huge deal, mainly because it marked Van Partible's return to running the show, I even remember the promos says, "Johnny is returning to Aron City!", which makes me wonder just where was Johnny living during Gary Hartle's version?. Either way, I like both of them, but the original short was a clever little spoof of Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Mama was sleeping, you could tell by the snoring,
After four time todays, Jimmy Stewart gets boring.