Christmas specials that deserve more attention

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katz16rool! Sups

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Which Christmas specials/movies do you think deserve more attention? Your own "misfit specials", if you will.

I'm not going to lie. I actually think that GoodTimes' 1998 Rudolph movie (that one with Whoopi Goldberg as the ice queen) is pretty good. It's not overwhelmingly original, but it has a couple interesting little quirks to it. For instance, Rudolph's nose is the result of an accident, not a birth defect; fairies are involved at various points; the antagonist is an ice queen who blocks off the only bridge leading out of the North Pole; and along the way, Rudolph meets an Arctic fox and polar bear who help him. They seemed to be trying for an alternate-universe take on the Rudolph story, and I think they pulled it off for the most part.

Also, I think that It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown gets major Brownie Charles points for incorporating the Peggy Jean story alone. Even though it's just a bunch of strips spliced together, it's still some of Schulz' best Christmas strips. (Still, I wouldn't mind seeing a whole Christmas special that was an adaptation expansion of the Peggy Jean arc.)
 
Does anyone know the last time A Flinstones' Christmas Carol aired on tv? Because I haven't seen that in years and it was one of my favorite specials, along with The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus. TLASC wasn't the best, looking back, but it does treat some of my nostalgia of watching it on Cartoon Network as a little girl.
 
I'm pretty sure that A Flinstones' Christmas Carol aired last year on Cartoon Network. I remember watching it and seeing it on the schedule during that month. I also liked watching The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. The songs, for the most part, were good, the animation and character designs were great and I just liked the overall feel of the story. It's a fun movie that I try to watch whenever it's on television.
 
Flapjack's Low Tidings: It was a great special, and only aired last year. This year it is being completely ignored while older X-mas specials are being aired (Kamp Kringle, A Johnny Bravo Xmas, etc.)
 
Since "Animaniacs" no longer airs on TV, the season 1 episode "A Christmas Plotz/Little Drummer Warners" should be recgonized.


A Christmas Plotz is a very original retelling of "A Christmas Carol", with parts of Yakko's musicial number being still stuck in my head.


And don't forget the meloncholy "Little Drummer Warners". The kids sing beautfiul nativity carols, it makes you want to cry.



I don't know if ABC Family is good about airing Little Drummer Boy (the Rakin-Bass stop motion version).




I know this is live-action, but PBS should re-run "Christmas Eve On Sesame Street" for little ones (and maybe those who's parents truly grew up with Sesame Street in their preshcool years). An opening scene (or at least a little after the beginning) where the kid and Big Bird skate to Feliz Navidad is classic.
 
It would be great to see this special again on PBS. Of course, there's two problems that may prevent it from happening:

1. The complete lack of Elmo (the cash cow of modern day Sesame Street);

2. Mr. Hooper (as this special was made before his death, which would result in a lot of explaining by parents as to who he was and why we don't see him in the more recent episodes of Sesame Street).

As for me, my contribution to this list is A Wish for Wings That Work, a Christmas special based on the Bloom County/Outland comic. A fun Christmas special with a story that would please children and plenty of humor for the adults.
 
It's a shame Billy and Mandy Save Christmas isn't more popular. It's honestly one of the funniest Christmas episodes of any kid's show I've ever seen. Billy's reaction alone to

Bloodthirsty Santa

makes me lmao everytime I see it :D
 
They usually play it at least once, along with the sequel, during their marathon of classic Rakin-Bass Christmas specials. I'm not sure if they've done that this year though since I haven't seen that much of their Twenty-Five Days of Christmas.

I didn't think of this until this morning, but I would call the Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer a bit of an underrated special. Even though it gets a few airings on Cartoon Network and I personally never liked the song it was based on, I don't think that it's that popular or well liked, possibly due to the song itself. While it isn't as great as a lot of other classic specials, the story is kind of cute, some of songs were okay, mainly "It Will Feel Like Christmas," and it is an overall fun special. I thought that they did put a decent amount of effort into the story to make it enjoyable.
 
I'm suprised nobody has mentioned the Rocko's Modern Life Christmas special.
One of my favorite Christmas specials ever.

Kinda shocking what they were able to get away with. (Ed getting hit in the shins with a hammer by an Elf, the sounds of bone-snapping is heard, then we see him screaming in agony.) There was also a scene with a pine tree (with eyes and mouth) panting like a puppy. Heffer then cuts it with a chainsaw, and it keels over, dead.
 
I just saw one last night for the first time.

Yes Virgina - I don't know how old this special is. CBS ran it as a lead into Frosty The Snowman last night. It had a simple message about the Chrismas spirit, thought it does cast science and logic as the enemy of Chrismas. A nice temperary message, but people should know logic is important.
 
Well there are a number of old Christmas specials that i felt were brilliant way back in the day that i do not think get aired anymore

"Mickey's Christmas Carol", is an old favorite. I just loved how they handled it and loved how they casted the various disney characters into the story. Goofy makes for a hilariously inappropriate jacob marely. And the scene in the cemetary is really quite chilling. Really it's one of my all time favorite incarnations of a Christmas Carol

"The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause", the old 1980's stop motion version. Really that's one that I used to watch every year. It was also one of my favorite stories about the origin of santa clause and actually got me made me love old saint nick as a character. There is a more recent 2D version that was made, but frankly i still feel like the old 80's version was a little stronger

And a very little known one Will Vinton's "A Claymation Christmas Celebration"... think fantasia but with stopmotion and Christmas Carols. I just loved the songs and the visuals that went along with them. I remember that O' Christmas Tree and Coral of the Bells were two of my favorites


I used have an old VHS with all these specials and more that we taped YEARS ago... I used to watch it every year until age finally ate the tape. Frankly i wished it could have lasted long enough for me to get to college where we had the equipment to copy a VHS on to a computer
 
I recently discovered a Christmas special called Christmas Is Here Again. It's a little known special, but it definitely deserves more attention. I admit the songs are a little on the narm side and the villain song is just straight out of place. But the acting is solid and it's a great little story. It gets bonus points in my book because they actually got Jay Leno as narrator.
 
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