Introduction/Context:
This was a project I did where I made a list of holiday specials and episodes to watch and tried to watch them all. Unfortunately, things didn’t go well and I only watched under half, but I think my progress is still good enough to post, so enjoy my ramblings per usual.
December 1st: The Christmas Tree, and a Bonus
And the marathon kicks off with a 42 minute special where I wonder what the production crew’s intentions were when making it!
The Christmas Tree is an average special in the paperweight book of Christmas specials. The backgrounds are fine but the animation and character designs are notoriously horrifyingly ugly. Large unnatural eyes, stilted facial expressions floating on moving heads, nonexistent lip syncing, and one shot towards the end has a background character’s outfit flash between two completely different colors. It’s a disaster, although perhaps not to the same extent as some other specials.
I was surprised by the writing. I was expecting an average children’s Christmas special with some slightly dark elements. (Most notably the whole orphanage and poor kids thing.) What I got was a lady (Mrs. Mavilda, the main antagonist) who uses the money provided by the city’s mayor all on gambling and getting drunk on wine, complete with a mention of a hangover at one point. In addition to that, there is a semi-realistic bear that lets its natural instincts roll and attempts to maul the kids, a guy (one of Mrs. Mavilda’s gambling buddies) with an electric chainsaw who almost cuts down the titular tree (and arguably Judy and the kids) and excuses that he was “just following Mrs. Mavilda’s orders”, and a Santa that doesn’t show up until the very end of the movie and turns Mrs. Mavilda ‘good’ by unleashing a lightning strike on her. The only thing that was a typical kids movie cliche was Pappy crying about his sister, Lily, being ‘gone’ rather than ‘dead’, after she slides down a snowy cliff thanks to the bear. To be fair though, the kids look to be quite young, so perhaps they don’t understand the concept of death yet.
The first fourth of the movie is exposition; It takes nearly 11 minutes to get to the ‘Christmas’ part, and as mentioned before, Santa only appears for like, a minute.
Judy and the children are surprisingly smart. They see past Mrs. Mavilda’s tricks and schemes with ease. One thing the writers got correct with this special was that they made the kids blunt and to the point. They don’t hold back with their words, and when they do, it’s usually in front of Mrs. Mavilda, for obvious reasons.
I think the line that stood out to me most was this one from Pappy;
“I don’t worry about my mother [Judy] because I know she can defend herself. But I’m really worried about Mrs. Hopewell [the tree] ‘cause she hasn’t got a chance against Mrs. Mavilda.”
I find this line interesting because it shows a clear distinction between a human and a plant. They’re both living things but in completely different capacities.
… I look into this nonsense too deeply.
Anyways, I went on about The Christmas Tree for FAR TOO LONG.
… and in my search for more things to watch, I found something that I didn’t even know existed until today.
Cranberry Christmas is a special which we have little info on, and hasn’t gotten an official release. Luckily a recording complete with credits exists from when it aired on… ABC Family?! Well, that’s a dusty name to pull out of the ‘American Cable Channels’ folder. It’s supposedly from 2008, but again, it’s impossible to find anything about this, and the credits lack a copyright notice. Made worse by how there’s also a Hallmark movie with the same name.
As I 100% expected, it starts with an Ocean Spray commercial. But it isn’t actually a 24 minute commercial for cranberry products. In fact, it had a lot of notable talent behind it. Rob Paulsen and Jeff Bennett star as main characters, and the special was produced by Film Roman (whom eventually went dormant but not outright defunct a la Klasky Csupo) in association with Ocean Spray Productions. Okay, even if that’s an in-name only company, it’s still pretty ridiculous that ‘Ocean Spray Productions’ was a real thing. And a quick search brought up nothing, so I think it’s safe to assume Cranberry Christmas was the only thing Ocean Spray Productions ever worked on. Also, this special was based on a very old (by my standards, anyway) book. Not that I would know. I hate books. Notice how I specifically said books and not reading in general.
… Magazines don’t count!
The animation is decent enough for what it is. I’ve seen worse things animated with Flash. Dan Vs. (another Film Roman project) started airing roughly two years after this special released, and I’d say they’re pretty comparable animation-wise. It helps that the special is led by a good art direction, which I guess makes sense since it’s based on a book.
The special is light on story and has a low stakes conflict. There’s only five main characters, and a few background characters for some flavor (pun not intended). There are two original songs and both are pretty good.
The special has a lot less to do with cranberries than you’d imagine. I never spotted any Ocean Spray product placement (if there was any, then it was subtle enough to miss my perception), and the cranberry stuff is mostly shoved to the beginning narration.
Our main hero and villain respectively are Mr. Whiskers, who has an absolute dumpster of a house, and Cyrus Grape (get it? cause CRANBERRIES) who at one point vandalizes Mr. Whiskers house. Alas, this is not a Brandy & Mr. Whiskers and Pokémon crossover.
Halfway through the special it’s revealed that Mr. Whiskers’ sister is visiting him for the holidays, and if his house isn’t clean when she comes over, he’s going to be forced to live with her in the city. This is treated as a fate worse than death, mainly because when you’re in the city you cannot eat cranberries ever again. I wish I was making this up. The sister is kind of made out to be an evil person because of this, although it’s still made clear that Mr. Grape is THE villain.
Other main characters include a girl named Maggie who prevents Mr. Whiskers from screwing everything up even further, and an old lady I can’t recall the name of.
If there’s one word I’d use to describe Cranberry Christmas, it’s simple. It’s not an award winning masterpiece but that’s okay. (Mainly because award shows are a load of cranberry goop anyway.) It doesn’t really do much in its runtime, but I wouldn’t exactly call it boring. I’d say it’s worth at least one watch.
… Also, Mr. Whiskers is the human incarnation of Gordon from Catscratch and almost gets crushed by a falling bed.
December 2nd: Baby Shark
Everyone’s heard of Pinkfong’s insanely popular Baby Shark franchise, so naturally it got a TV show on Nick Jr..
I’ve seen a few episodes. It’s an… interesting show. It has some of the crew behind Breadwinners, and it shows so, so much, for better or worse. Also, the show is jam-packed with aquatic puns, to the point where Paramount+ missed one in their closed captions for the Christmas special. I can only imagine the intended demographic of preschoolers getting confused at the gratuitous pun usage. Either that or excessive watching of the show will screw up their vocabulary. Or both.
… Oh, yeah. Paramount+ doesn’t have the show as a whole on there yet because they take forever in adding ANYTHING, but they did add the first episode of the show very recently, which just happens to be the Christmas special, “All I Want For Fishmas” (but listed as “Baby Shark’s Big Fishmas Special”). The show premiered in Spring 2021 but they aired this episode during December 2020 I guess because… Might as well air it now instead of holding it over until next year? They wanted to give an early warning for all the parents that despise Baby Shark? I don’t know. Come up with your own reasons.
It’s your typical Baby Shark’s Big Show (yes, that’s what the show is called) episode. It’s not really cliché in its plot but most definitely in its moral. Sure, Christ- I’m sorry, Fishmas, is all about giving, blah blah blah.
Also, as predicted, Baby Shark gives up the toy he really really wanted, and is reduced to accepting socks… despite not having feet because, you know, he’s a shark. It’s not even a special sock meant for shark fins or whatever. It’s just ordinary human socks. Made even more egregious by how usually the show pays attention to its underwater setting, puns aside. Made EVEN MORE egregious when you realize William also got the toy he wanted and never gave up his, and this is never brought up.
Overall, it’s not awful, but I’m not sure if I want to watch it again.
That’s kind of how I feel about the show as a whole. You can tell there was effort put into it, but it’s just okay. It really is the spiritual successor to Breadwinners.
December 3rd: Sonic Christmas Blast, Mickey Saves Christmas, Jimmy Neutron
The three DiC Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons are an interesting part of Sonic’s history that I’m not going to delve into because that’d take far too long. Sonic the Hedgehog (given the nickname Sonic SatAM by the fanbase) was part of ABC’s Saturday morning cartoon lineup but was cancelled by them after only 26 episodes with the ending being a cliffhanger. It was story driven and dark in tone. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (abbreviated to AoStH by fans) was an episodic slapstick cartoon that ran in syndication and lasted the typical syndication package format of 65 episodes. Sonic Underground (no special nickname for this one, unfortunately) came later, isn’t as popular with the Sonic fanbase as the previous two shows, and lasted 40 episodes. Jaleel White provided the voice of Sonic in all three shows (as well as his siblings in Underground), and this is arguably his most well known non-Urkel role. Meanwhile, Dr. Robotnik was voiced by a different actor for each show.
Interestingly, years after AoStH and SatAM had ended, but before Sonic Underground came along, a Christmas special was released. It could kind of be considered a bonus episode of AoStH. Long John Baldry reprised his role as Robotnik, Scratch and Grounder (but not Coconuts) are included, the intro sequence is a Winter-styled remix of the AoStH theme with clips from the original opening mixed in with those taken from the Christmas special (the art style in the special is reminiscent of what we would later get in Underground so the clips don’t exactly mesh in well), and the special was written by people (Bruce and Reed Shelly) who had written episodes for the original show. There are few SatAM elements, most notably Sally Acorn appearing in a somewhat important but voiceless role as Sonic’s girlfriend. I understand if they couldn’t get her original voice actress from SatAM, but her staying silent the whole time is very awkward. Sonic even lampshades this, intentionally or not; “Don’t say another word!”
Otherwise, though, there isn’t much to say about Sonic Christmas Blast. If you’re an AoStH fan, you’ll probably love this entry as much as the regular episodes. I do wish Tails got more to do, though.
Mickey has been in plenty of Christmas specials, and this year Disney has provided us with another one, Mickey Saves Christmas. Whereas Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas put Mickey and his pals in CGI, this time Mickey becomes stopmotion. The animation was provided by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the guys who did and still do Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken. Wow, what a contrast in tone. I guess it makes sense, though. They’re very talented at their craft.
It is eerily similar to the Dog-Gone Christmas segment of Twice Upon a Christmas at some points. Mickey is overly focused on Christmas decorations, and Pluto screws things up and also becomes a reindeer. It’s executed a lot better here though. Mickey doesn’t explode at Pluto, for one. (Note: I really do not like Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas, and when I say that, I mean all 5 segments. I don’t have it on my watchlist. Maybe if I finish the list early I’ll get to it, but typing about things you hate is never fun so most likely not.)
But the reindeer always seem to either be stoopid or exist to mess things up in these Christmas specials. And all I can ask is, why? It’s never funny, or charming, or whatever.
But overall, Mickey Saves Christmas is cute fun. It’s certainly better than Twice- okay, I’ve gone on long enough.
I’ll stand by my opinion that Jimmy Neutron is one of the most hilarious things out there, and so I just had to watch Holly Jolly Jimmy. The premise is interesting. Jimmy doesn’t think Santa is real because of his natural instinct to go by scientific explanations. The boys go to the North Pole (with the girls coming along by accident), Jimmy ruins Christmas, Jimmy tries to save Christmas. Oh, and Santa shows up to help when things look bleak. Also, Jimmy is a jerk, as expected, but not the WORST jerk. He’s certainly stubborn, but he does seem to feel at least somewhat sorry for making Carl cry, and he doesn’t try to pass off the REAL Santa as a hologram or a technologically advanced costume when he sees him. So in the end, yes, Jimmy believes in Santa. Oh, and Sheen correctly guessed that Jimmy was on the naughty list, we get to hear Ms. Fowl sing, and Hugh makes up a new holiday dedicated to celebrating pie.
Also, some things just get better with age in a morbid way. I’m sure Cindy and Libby exposing Jimmy for getting Christmas cancelled on local news was already funny in 2003, but it takes on a whole new perspective in the age of social media and stronger political sensitivity that I don’t think the writers could’ve ever predicted.
In the end, Jimmy gets the present he wanted while Cindy and Libby get coal. I mean, sure, Jimmy tried to avenge for his wrongdoings while the girls didn’t, but they did stand up for Carl towards the beginning of the episode, so they clearly weren’t mean just for the sake of it.
One last thing to mention. During the first song there’s a very short instance of 2D animation on Jimmy’s chalkboard, and that moment brought back horrifying memories of Nanna and Lil’ Puss Puss. DNA Productions did some WEIRD and very much NOT family friendly stuff prior to Jimmy Neutron.
December 4th: Nothing!
December 5th: Hey Arnold!
It would’ve bothered me if I had skipped two days in a row, so I managed to squeeze in a viewing of the emotional Christmas episode of the classic Nicktoon Hey! Arnold.
Arnold’s Christmas starts off like any other special. And by that I mean a character who is blatantly selfish. Seriously, Helga BOASTS about how selfish she is.
The actual plot starts when the boarding apartment Arnold lives at (no other children Arnold’s age live there, just half a dozen or so adults) sets up a Secret Santa but without the secret part. The person Arnold needs to gift is the kind-hearted but lonely Mr. Hyunh.
Things take a steep turn from there. I know I said I was going to spoil everything, but I don’t really know how to describe it. It’s best you just watch it yourself. Then again, you probably already know all about it considering Arnold’s Christmas is one of most applauded holiday episodes of a cartoon, and that’s rightfully deserved. The episode goes for traumatizing storytelling, but it is very much not done for the sake of vulgar or shock humor. It is beautifully written.
The episode isn’t perfect. There’s a sudden time skip from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, the studio that animated this episode must’ve made the characters move too fast because there’s a lot of obvious post-production slow down, especially towards the end, and to finish it off there’s a trippy sequence with Helga dancing that you think is going to break out into a musical number but only lasts a few seconds.
Nonetheless, Arnold’s Christmas, like the rest of the show it comes from, is unique in its assets, and something to watch every year. This show had so many talented artists, that I could not list them all in this short write-up. If I ever gain interest in making a full article about Hey! Arnold, though, I’ll be sure to blab about it.
December 6th: Rugrats Part 1
I’m going to try to watch every Rugrats holiday episode as part of my marathon. Note that I’m only referring to the ones intended to be watched in December. Rugrats has plenty of other holiday episodes for any time of year. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Passover, Mother’s Day… This series really was a “TV Peanuts of our time”. (Thanks not-creator of Animaniacs Steven Spielberg!) Our time isn’t MY time though. It was the millennials’ time. Whether that time was (is?) better than today’s is up to debate. I wouldn’t know because I wasn’t alive back then.
Anyways, I’m watching these Rugrats specials in order, so first up is The Santa Experience, the only one to be from the original 65 episode run. There is a lot going on all at once. Funnily enough, the most forgettable part of this whole thing is the sub-plot of Tommy and Chuckie trying to catch Santa. The main plot has its own twist on The Gift of the Magi as Angelica pulls a mean trick on twin siblings Phil and Lil and tries to undo it when she finds out (from one of Grandpa Lou’s stories) that naughty children get coal instead of presents.
In the meantime, there’s a bunch of going ons with the adults. From a trip to the mountains to dressing up as Santa to wondering if the kids will have a good Christmas, the social commentary is so on point here I’d give it a 10 if this was a game of archery.
December 7th: Arthur’s Perfect Christmas
I was going to type more about The Santa Experience but I fell asleep because I was so damn tired. Oh well, there’s another three Rugrats specials to watch, so it’s not that big a deal.
Anyways, Arthur! This wonderful show needs no introduction.
Arthur had seven TV movies; two in the early 2000s, and an additional five produced in the latter half of the 2010s towards the end of the show’s run. Arthur’s Perfect Christmas, produced alongside the program’s fifth season in 2000, was the first TV movie. (Arthur’s New Friend also seems to have been a part of the same production line.) An interesting fact is that season 5 was the final season to have Arthur’s original voice actor. This show ran for a long time, so Arthur, D.W., and several other characters went through different voice actors constantly, to the point of double digits. Of course, that only applies to the characters who were voiced by children. There were just as many characters who were voiced by adults (such as Francine) and kept the same voice actor the entire run. Then there’s George, who was initially voiced by boys, but then they switched to having an adult woman voice him.
I’ve actually never seen Arthur’s Perfect Christmas until now. I did, however, watch It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll when I was quite young, and remember NOTHING about it. That one definitely deserves a rewatch.
December 8th: Rugrats Part 2
I was very tired and fell asleep again so I’ll just describe Arthur’s Perfect Christmas a little bit here.
As expected from a title like ‘Arthur’s Perfect Christmas’, everything goes wrong but gets fixed in the end. But it’s not just about Arthur. Everyone else is dealing with holiday stress as well. A surprisingly relatable and somber subplot is how Buster’s mom keeps waking him up thinking it’s Christmas because she feels pressure to give him the best Christmas ever, as she and the dad are divorced and thus the father won’t be spending time with them, at least this year. Meanwhile, Muffy is super insensitive towards Francine, who’s celebrating Hanukkah with her family, the Brain provides some history behind both Christmas and Kwanzaa (the latter of which he celebrates), and Binky is a horrible chef.
In the end, when Arthur’s present for his mom breaks, the uncle visiting for the holidays decides to give his gift but labeled as being from Arthur, just when Arthur was about to tell the truth. This came off as weirdly immoral for a holiday special to me. Lying fixes Christmas woes, apparently.
Otherwise, Arthur’s Perfect Christmas makes great use of its 53 minute runtime with only a few moments of filler. I recommend it less for the Reads’ antics and more for the subplots revolving around the other characters.
Lastly, here are my top three favorite moments from the special:
We return to Rugrats with its Hanukkah episode, titled ‘Chanukah’.
Rugrats originally ended after the usual 65 episodes across 3 seasons in 1994, although a Passover episode was held over from airing until 1995. The show did well ratings-wise in reruns, so Nickelodeon brought it back for more seasons and even some theatrical movies. This episode, which premiered in December 1996, was the first post-uncancellation. It was followed by a Mother’s Day episode in May 1997, after which the show returned for regular episodes that August. The show was still much of the same, at least before the movie came along, but with a few small differences. Most notably, the art style has been cleaned up and made more consistent, although this episode has extremely noticeable shading on the characters that would quickly be dropped.
The episode opens with a title card that simply shows ‘Chanukah’ in the signature Rugrats font in a deep blue on a pure black background. Not only is the show’s usual title card format missing here, but there’s also a lack of an unusual/gross close-up episodes often start with. This clues in on the seriousness of this episode.
… Except that the episode is chock-full of humor. I actually think the comedy is funnier here than it was in The Santa Experience.
Similar to the Passover episode, a story is told with the rugrats in the roles. Grandma Minka and Grandpa Boris, seen in various episodes of the original run, return here, with the focus being on Boris. The conflict is that Boris is in a fight with an old friend, Shlomo. The rugrats believe that Shlomo is ‘the meanie of Chanukah’ and try to get him to take a nap while they’re at a stage play. Angelica, being evil, wants to watch the Cynthia Christmas special on TV instead of watching the Chanukah play.
I’ve always celebrated Christmas and have lived in America my whole life, so I’ve always been apart of the ‘mainstream’ cultures and don’t know much about things such as Hanukkah. But I still enjoyed the episode all the same, so I guess that’s what matters.
It’s a fun time. Great humor, great storytelling, great characters, what more could you want? I highly recommend this one.
Also, Tommy smashes a clay dreidel with his bare fist. I know it was a story, but wow. Tommy is STRONG.
December 9th: Nickelodeon’s Doug
The production company of Jim Jinkins and David Campbell, Jumbo Pictures/Cartoon Pizza, has an extra special place in my heart. I have five of their shows’ Christmas specials on my watchlist, and I will be trying to watch them all in order, just like the Rugrats specials.
Doug is one of the sweetest, gentlest of all the Nicktoons, even beating out ChalkZone and Harvey Beaks. It could be considered the first Nicktoon, as when it, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show premiered on August 11th, 1991, this show got the earliest time slot. It could also be considered the first Nicktoon to be screwed over by Nickelodeon, as while they gave Ren & Stimpy special attention despite its production issues and only lasting 52 episodes, and let Rugrats run for the standard 65 episodes before bringing it back and giving it even more special treatment than they ever did with Ren & Stimpy, Doug had its production partially outsourced to a French studio (Ellipse Programmé) starting with its second season, and then Nickelodeon cut it short at 52 episodes. Had Nickelodeon just let Doug run its course, we most likely wouldn’t have had the 65 episode Disney run of the show. 117 episodes (and a movie) is a lot.
The Nickelodeon version of Doug had two segments for each half-hour episode. There were three exceptions. One is the first episode, similar to the debut episode of Rugrats ‘Tommy’s First Birthday’. The other two were Halloween and Christmas episodes from the show’s final (Nickelodeon) season.
While Doug sometimes delved into realistic, dark issues during both its runs, Doug’s Christmas Story might just be the most depressing of them all. While the kids are skating on the frozen lake, Porkchop (Doug’s pet dog who acts kind of like a less egotistical Snoopy) bites rich girl Beebe. Everyone appropriately assumes Porkchop did this with the intention of hurting Beebe. Doug takes Porkchop home and punishes him, but while Christmas shopping with Judy, he thinks he has been too hard on Porkchop, believing he was just trying to play or something, and buys a hat to gift him. Had Porkchop actually meant to hurt Beebe, Doug actually disciplined Porkchop very fairly, making sure that he knew biting people was wrong but not yelling at or hurting Porkchop. The only thing that I think might’ve been too much was Porkchop being forced to stay inside an igloo, but he’s a dog, so he has plenty of fur, and he didn’t seem to mind playing in the snow, so I guess he’s fine.
But ‘Have you seen this snail?’, this is not. When Doug returns home, it turns out word had spread about the incident, and charges are being pressed against the poor dog. Now, Doug must clear Porkchop’s name.
This episodes shows that the upper power of the American society is corrupt, and that does not let up, even during Christmastime. The news exaggerates the details of the happenings to an extreme degree. Porkchop is being kept in a cage labeled ‘Very Very Bad Dog’ at the pound. When the court case occurs, Beebe is shown in a wheelchair and leg cast, but it turns out her injury had been greatly dramatized. When she’s called to the stand, she says Porkchop’s bite didn’t really hurt, but nobody listens despite her supposedly being the victim that must be protected. This also shows that even the smaller person can be a jerk. Initially, the community doesn’t care about Doug’s situation, and they believe the fearmongering that the police, news, former Mayor of Bluffington, Beebe’s dad, and everyone else had set up. One of Doug’s imagine spots has him in front of a gravestone with Porkchop’s name and likeness on it, implying that if Doug doesn’t save Porkchop in time, then Porkchop was going to get euthanized. For those who don’t own pets such as me, this means that Porkchop was going to be killed. That’s not just dark by Doug standards, not just by Nickelodeon standards, hell, not even by children’s cartoon standards. That is dark by anyone’s standards. I cannot believe they got away with that.
Doug’s Christmas Story doesn’t really feel like a Christmas episode at all, and you could probably get away with watching it any other time of year. Not that that is a bad thing, as this is an amazing episode.
December 10th: Olive, the Other Reindeer
That’s right. I wasn’t finished talking about DNA Productions. Here we’ve got a huge collaboration for a special based on a children’s picture book.
Olive, the Other Reindeer is a special produced by the aforementioned DNA Productions, as well as Drew Barrymore’s (who played the starring role of Olive) Flower Films, and Matt Groening’s The Curiosity Company (now The ULULU Company) for FOX, home of The Simpsons, and, at the time, Futurama. It originally aired there in 1999, and again in 2000, but after that it was shoved to cable TV. After a brief stint on Nickelodeon in 2001, it became a tradition for Cartoon Network to air it every holiday season for many years, from 2002 all the way to 2012. Due to this, many people associate Olive with Cartoon Network rather than FOX. Olive’s airings on CN haven’t become quite as infamous as their airings of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, however.
It hasn’t been seen on television since then, but it’s not hard to find at all, with releases on VHS and DVD, and plenty of fan uploads. I watched a recording of the original 1999 broadcast with commercials just because. Who doesn’t love flashy Y2K commercials during this time of minimalism so bad that even NBC’s minimalizing their already minimalistic 1986 logo.
Olive, the Other Reindeer is a story of silly misunderstandings. These misunderstandings lead Olive to believe she is a reindeer, not helped by how she doesn’t do stereotypical dog things. She still has a few doggy quirks though, as she has an excellent sense of smell and growls on occasion.
The way animals work in this universe is weird. We’ve all heard of cartoons with normal animals, and cartoons with anthropomorphic animals. The animals shown here, however, fall somewhere in between. They resemble animals moreso than humans in appearance (including the special pointing out that Olive has no opposable thumbs), they wear little to no clothing, and have general animal quirks such as the penguins liking to eat fish. They also can talk with the humans understanding their every word, and have jobs. Olive is a pet dog, owned by a human character, Tim. But then Olive has a pet herself, Fido the flea. But THEN that pet is just as anthropomorphic as the rest of the animal characters in the film. What the hell is going on here?!
The animation was done by DNA Productions. The setting and most objects are plainly shaded, mostly untextured CGI, but the characters, while CGI like the rest of the special, are flat and move like they’re made of paper, giving the impression of a pop-up book. It’s a style I wish appeared more often. It certainly made it age better than some other CGI projects made around the same time, holiday-related or otherwise. It’s like if Paper Mario 64 was given an OVA right when it came out. I love the abstract character designs too! I haven’t read the book but from what I can tell they tried to stay as close to the original designs as possible.
The characters are pretty charming if a bit simple. Olive doesn’t just believe in herself but tries to see the good in everyone. Martini the penguin grew on me as the plot progressed. A kindly bus driver takes part in Olive’s journey at one point. There’s a scene where Olive and Martini go to a bar full of cranky attendees. Aside from the explicitly evil postman, the special shows time and time again that everyone, no matter how jerkish they may seem, has a heart deep down.
This is a very cozy special. I recommend this to anyone who needs that Christmas magic rejuvenated back into their life.
There is one thing that bothers me, though, and that is that DNA Productions doesn’t have a logo at the end of the credits! The Curiosity Company has one, Flower Films has one… Come on, Helix the Cat totally could’ve, and should’ve, shown up! DNA Productions deserved so much better than it got…
December 11th through 16th: Nothing!
December 17th: Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas
I have had a lot of stressful things in my life over the past week, but I’m ready to watch more specials again. I’ve realized I most likely won’t get to all of the ones that are on my list, and that’s okay. I can still try!
Ah, yes, Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. It isn’t Mickey and pals’ first holiday outing (although Mickey’s Christmas Carol hardly has Mickey at all from what I’ve heard), but it’s certainly one for the ages. It lasts almost exactly an hour not counting the credits, and rather than being one lengthy story like movies typically are about, it consists of three segments; One for Donald, Goofy, and Mickey, respectively.
Of course, this direct-to-video special got a sequel five years later, known for being one of the first times Mickey and the gang were animated in CGI. Again, I refuse to watch it, but I think it would be interesting to point out a few differences between the two. Firstly, Twice has five segments instead of three. Second, it appears that in Twice, all the segments are connected through the same universe/setting, but this doesn’t appear to be the case in Once. Most of the characters stick to their singular story. Pete and Daisy do reappear for the Mickey story, but with different designs than how they appeared earlier in the film. The most noticeable difference is that Pete has brown-gray fur in Goofy’s segment, but black fur in Mickey’s. There’s a finale scene after the conclusion of the last story where some of the characters across all three tales sing a Christmas carol together, but again, they’re in different outfits than seen prior.
The first story is Donald Duck: Stuck On Christmas. The title is misleading in that although Donald does have a major role, the main stars and the ones who wish for it to be Christmas every day are Donald’s nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Thankfully, this story appears to (loosely) base the characters off how they appeared in either the general Carl Barks duck comic universe, the 1987 DuckTales show, or both, instead of the fairly recent at the time show Quack Pack, which has gained infamy over the years for various reasons.
Due to the nature of the plot, this story (but not the other two) has a bunch of reused animation and voice acting. Not that I’ll complain, because it’s tied up into a narrative quite well, and because the animation in this movie is gorgeous. Each movement has so much weight and character behind it. The storyboarders and animators definitely brought their A-game to this one.
Next is A Very Goofy Christmas. This is the only part to not be based on a preexisting story. It is based on Goof Troop and its movie sequels, at least to an extent. It’s a mishmash of elements. Pete isn’t shown having any family whatsoever. Max is quite young here (probably about the same age that he was in Goof Troop), in stark contrast to Twice where he’s an adult.
Assuming Goof Troop, both Goofy Movies, and both Upon a Christmases all take place in the same canon, I assume the order would be Goof Troop, Once, Goofy Movie, Extremely Goofy Movie, and finally Twice. But I haven’t seen them to be certain. Maybe there’s some super knowledgeable Goof Troop fan reading this and is scoffing at my ignorance.
It’s a simple but genius plot. Pete convinces Max that Santa isn’t real. It’s so fun, albeit also heartcrushing, watching Max slowly turn more cynical of Christmas. And then the roles reverse when Goofy loses his Christmas spirit. Of course, things turn out well in the end. This is definitely my favorite story of the three.
Lastly, we have Mickey and Minnie’s Gift of the Magi. It’s exactly what it says on the tin. Mickey and Minnie are in roles that portray them as low on cash. I can not help but think of the irony here. You know, mascot of a billionaire conglomerate corporation and all.
With the focus being on Mickey and Minnie’s romance, this segment is rather endearing and cute. Also, Pluto is actually helpful here instead of causing problems, accidental or otherwise. Gotta love that Figaro and Mortimer make appearances too.
This is another special that I give two thumbs up to! Mickey Saves Christmas was decent enough, but THIS is the definitive Mickey Mouse Christmas special. … in my opinion.
December 18th through 23rd: Nothing!
December 24th: Rapsittie Street Kids
Okay. It’s time to blow through a bunch of these in just a few short days.
Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa. Because The Christmas Tree wasn’t enough.
I made my family sit through this as punishment. Although it seems like they actually ENJOYED it, so, take that as you will.
The writing is average turned below average thanks to the excessive padding from long stills of backgrounds and such. Also the songs. There are a few writing-related quirks I’ll mention in a bit though.
But where this special gets its infamy is the poor production values. It was done in CGI in 2002, at a time where CGI had made enough advancements to have TV shows done in it (Rolie Polie Olie and Jimmy Neutron are two examples), but was still a little primitive. However, it’s really bad here to the point where it rolls back to being hilarious. The voice acting is also an oddity. Professional voice acting plus presumably amateur voice directing equal… this. Nancy Cartwright was in this, and her character (the redheaded boy) sounds just like Nelson.
And of course who could forget the Grandma. She doesn’t even appear for that many scenes, having, like, 8 lines, but she became the most famous character in the movie for her indecipherable speech. The reaction from my family upon hearing her talk was something I don’t think I’ll ever be able to replicate.
Lastly, my favorite scene in the special would be fairly early on when they go outside (during recess?) to play on the ice rink. The unfitting song and the stilted CGI shenanigans make for one narmy combo.
Overall, I think I’ll watch this again next year and I’m not really sure why. Also, fun fact, this was the first special I put on the list.
December 25th and 26th: …
December 27th: Rugrats Part 3
I don’t want to think about my Christmas. Let’s just put it at that.
We continue the Rugrats marathon with A Rugrats Kwanzaa, the show’s Kwanzaa special aired in 2001.
The special takes place entirely at the Carmichaels’ house on a stormy night. It starts off with the family being visited by the great Aunt T., who wishes to celebrate Kwanzaa with the whole family. Due to a misunderstanding (as is common in these Rugrats episodes), Susie is under the belief that she isn’t a ‘great person’ and that Aunt T. doesn’t like her.
This episode has some pacing issues. Tommy, Chuckie, and Kimi show up after some exposition, and twins Phil and Lil appear a little later on. Oddly enough, Tommy, Chuckie, and Kimi appear with no rhyme or reason, but there is a whole scene dedicated to showing the twins being dropped off, and it is mentioned Lucy is coming along with Betty to drop Howard off at the hospital. (He has his hand stuck in a ship bottle.) Lucy also shows up again with no explanation as far as I’m aware. It’s quite jarring.
The episode feels slow with little happening in the first half or so. Around the 12 minute mark is when things pick up. Aunt T. clears up the misunderstanding when she sees Susie crying, then the power goes out, and the family and the babies sit on the couch and look at Susie’s gift she received from Aunt T. earlier in the episode; An old book with many, many sentimental photos. It is revealed that Aunt T. met Martin Luther King Jr. one time, Lucy sung in a choir when she was a little girl, and shows the beginning of Lucy partaking in her doctor career. It appears that throughout her life, Lucy has had self-esteem issues, but Aunt T. helped her through them. That’s really sweet.
December 28th through 30th: Nothing!
December 31st: …
January 1st: I… can’t do this.
I’m sorry, but the holiday season is over, and I got nowhere near done with the watchlist. It just wasn’t meant to be.
I started this as a way to give Hero of Lore some well deserved new content since the last update was in July, nearly half a year ago. But I put too many things on the list, should’ve started in November, and everything was working against me. And I mean everything. (Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but still.) I tried watching something on Paramount+ yesterday and it just wouldn’t let me. It kept spitting out errors. So I took that as a sign that it was over.
But despite all my exhaustion and frustration, I don’t consider this a whole failure. Think about it. I watched over a dozen specials, described them from my own viewpoints, and even to the end, didn’t give up the project ENTIRELY. And ultimately, I still have something to post to the site.
Coincidentally, as I’m typing this, today is the first anniversary of Hero of Lore! Well, technically it was yesterday too, but whatever! So consider this Hero of Lore’s anniversary gift!
Conclusion:
I may or may not continue this where I left off in 11 months. It’s too far away to tell.
But I think I want to work on this site more this year. I don’t really have much to look forward to yet, but making updates could keep me busy. No guarantees, obviously, but it could happen.
Anyways, I hope you had a decent-enough holiday!
Because I certainly didn’t.
Page Created: January 1st, 2023
Last Updated: January 1st, 2023