#6 - Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
I'll be a bit short on this one. I've talked about 3 other adaptations of this classic story in this list, so I don't have much more to say. This one has Disney characters portraying the characters from the story. Scrooge McDuck of course plays Ebenezer Scrooge, Mickey is Bob Cratchet, Goofy is Jacob Marley, etc. The short film is also completely animated in classic Disney style. In fact, this was the first time a Mickey Mouse short had been shown in theaters since 1953, a 30 year gap! This special short was tacked on to the re-release of The Rescuers in 1983. (Before they got into the VHS releasing business, Disney films were re-released to theaters every seven years, and 1983 was seven years after The Rescuers was first released.)
The short runs just under 30 minutes, and thus the story is very much condensed. Think of it as the cliffnotes version of the classic tale. It's also appropriately Disneyfied as it sugarcoats the more harsh aspects of the story, such as the people picking over Scrooge's house in the future or Scrooge's old relationship gone sour turning him into a crotchety old man. The short got a mixed reception when it came out. It was nominated for Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards, but was given two thumbs down by Siskel and Ebert, who thought it lacked the Disney magic and that it did a disservice to the story. (Siskel and Ebert hated Disney's output up until 1985's The Black Cauldron.)
This was always the highlight of the Christmas season for me as a kid. This and Rudolph being shown on TV were always occasions I had to be home for in the week or two leading into Christmas. I remember that they used to push this one into an hour long slot and play winter themed Disney animated shorts before starting Mickey's Christmas Carol. It may be a rather lacking adaptation, but at the time it was the only way to see the classic Disney characters in action since Disney didn't air the old shorts unless you had the Disney Channel back then, which we didn't.
#5 - Rankin/Bass holiday specials (1960s-1980s)
Some people love these, others hate them with a passion. Rankin/Bass was a company that made both stop-motion and animated shorts, mostly themed to holidays. Perhaps you've seen or heard of some of their titles. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Jack Frost, The Little Drummer Boy... All of those are Rankin/Bass productions, and you can catch most of them on ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas programming. They didn't just do Christmas stuff though. They did three Easter ones with Peter Cottontail, they did the animated version of The Hobbit from the 1970s most of us have seen at least once, they did a feature length film with stop-motion monsters called Mad Monster Party and even worked with Toho, maker of Godzilla, on a King Kong film called King Kong Escapes! The studio doesn't exist anymore, sadly. They made their last special back in 1985 with an adapation of L. Frank Baum's Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.
When I was growing up, Rudolph and Frosty came on in the lead up to Christmas on network television. I'd never heard of the other inventive specials the company had done until we got cable and some of them came on in the lead up to Christmas. I fell in love with them. My favorite then and now is one called The Year Without A Santa Claus, which is a semi-sequel to the classic Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. If any of you saw the the horrendous Batman & Robin, you may remember a scene where Mr. Freeze is conducting his group of freezing henchmen in a rendition of the Snow Miser song. It's a great catchy song, and is from Year Without A Santa Claus.
And his brother, the Heat Miser, sings another version of the song about hot weather. (It's not as catchy.)
I think that kids like the stop motion effect. It's something weird that we don't see often, especially not anymore. There's an otherworldly look to it that lends itself greatly to fantasy. Sadly, I think there's not as much fantasy in these new hastily put together ugly Christmas specials. Also, the songs were pretty great in these things. Usually they took at least one old song like Santa Claus is Coming To Town or Rudolph and built a fuller story around them. Who would have thought from the Rudolph song that we'd have a story about an island of unwanted toys, a gay dentist elf, a yeti and a gold prospector? Not I.
Now, not all the specials are great. The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold comes to mind mostly. Still, they are mainly good. If you want a Frosty sequel, the official Rankin/Bass sequel Frosty's Winter Wonderland is much better than the environmentalist/politically correct Frosty Returns from the 1990s (which was not done by Rankin/Bass either).
#4 - A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (2011)
I know this one won't be everyone's cup of tea either. However, this is my list, so there! I love the Harold & Kumar films. All three are great comedies, though very much on the risque side. And I actually think this one may be my favorite of the bunch. It's shocking, gross, obscene, and tacky while also being heartwarming, funny, cool, and an embodiment of the Christmas spirit. And of course it has NPH in it, which always makes things better... And the glorious Wafflebot that I wish were real. Pancakes suck.
Anyway, I suppose a brief plot synopsis is needed. Harold & Kumar have not spoken to each other in years. Harold now works for a big bank in New York City and is married to a hot woman. Kumar is basically the same as he was in the last two films. He lives alone in the apartment and smokes joints. Then his ex-girlfriend tells him she's pregnant and a package for Harold shows up at the apartment door. So he gets a friend to drive him to Harold's to drop off the package on the way to a party (where the friend is looking to deflower a girl). Things happen and there's drug addict babies, a mob boss, avenging robot appliances, our heroes shoot Santa, a Christmas tree goes up in flames, there's beer pong and stop motion giant snowmen chasing after them... Mass hysteria.
And that's one of the things I love about these Harold and Kumar films. They're completely insane. I mean, just look at this scene. *Warning: There's a claymation penis.*
Ah yes... This about sums up the feel of the whole film. And most of all, the movie has friggin' Wafflebot! I mean, who wouldn't want one of these things?
So what's so Christmasy about the film? Well, apart from the fact that the movie's message is togetherness and family? Apart from Neal Patrick Harris (as a straight guy pretending to be gay just to have sex with more women) doing a holiday musical special in 3D? Apart from the stop motion scene that is an homage to the Rankin/Bass specials? Apart from the whole plot being focused around finding a replacement Christmas tree so the inlaws don't kill you? Uh... I got nothing. But the movie is a lot of fun, it's very funny, and should be watched by everyone over 15 at least once. Even if you hate stoner films.
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