Underrated Christmas Specials/Movies

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Radoslaw P

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It's been a very very very long time since I posted, but here goes: Well, I just thought I like to ask you people this: Have there been any specials that seemed very underrated to you? I know one of them: Lacewood's The Nutcracker Prince.
 
Rankin/Bass's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, a stop-motion special from 1985, based on the story by L. Frank Baum. I love how surprisingly dark this one is, and for some reason it hasn't been given a DVD release yet. Good thing I'll always have my old VHS copy, as well as the airings on ABC Family.
 
The Ziggy special directed by Richard Williams was pretty decent, surprising since it was based on a rather lame comic strip.

What I found interesting that, even though Ziggy talks in the comics, he doesn't speak a word in the special. Usually when they animate an established comic you wonder how the main characters would sound. Even when you watch the special you'll still won't know!
 
My vote goes to Olive the Other Reindeer. It's a really clever special, and I like the character designs, especially Olive's. It didn't make much of a ratings splash when it first aired, but I loved it immediately. My only criticism:

SPOILER


...involves the scene where Olive asks one of Santa's reindeer "Where's Rudolph?" and the reindeer answers "There is no Rudolph. He's just an urban legend." Now that's a good line, but...I dunno. It's a bit jarring for a kids' special. And given the fact that the show's premise is based on the song "Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer", it seems a bit...ungracious. But that's a silly nitpick, I know, and the show is charming nonetheless. And Drew Barrymore does a great job as Olive the dog. She even barks convincingly! :anime:
 
Moral Orel's Best Christmas Ever is probably the darkest Xmas specials out there (Orel's family situation gets more and more depressing by the episodes' end, and he just stands outside for the last couple of minutes, waiting for things to turn into the Best Christmas Ever, but nothing happens), and that's why I think it gets panned so much.
 
A Wish For Wings That Work. Aside from my family and one of my friends, nobody seems to know it even exists. Thank goodness it was finally released on DVD last year. Took them long enough.
 
I know how that is. I mean, there are some good Christmas specials or movies that are very underrated. I mean, the Nutcracker Prince deserves the most respect it needs. I mean, it's by the makers of the Raccoons. Not to mention WB use to distribute this long ago in the 90s. It needs some very important attention. Same thing goes to the Opus special: Wish for Wings that Work.
 
My vote for an underrated Christmas special is Nine Dog Christmas. It premiered on CN in December of 04, and I guess it never really did too well. To me, NDC is a really nice original Christmas tale, and Im lucky I have the DVD of it as CN didn't put it on the schedule last year.

My other two choices are Jingle Bell Rap and Jolly Old St. Nicholas.
 
Since judyindisguise already mentioned "Olive the Other Reindeer", I have to cast a vote for "George and the Christmas Star"; if just for Paul Anka's fantastic singing voice.
 
I will ALWAYS have a place in my heart for "The Care Bears Nutcracker Suite." I remember the day my mom bought me the VHS, and I literally played the tape until it fell apart. Luckily, I just found out that it's been released on DVD. :) Growing up, I didn't know anyone who had watched or even heard of this special; is it really that obscure?
 
Underrated?

A Christmas Story (1970--Hanna-Barbera/Avco Embassy). The song, "Who is the Real Santa Claus" was first heard here, later used in a Flintstones special.

The City That Forgot About Christmas (1975). With Charles Nelson Reilly among the voices. Local CBS affil used to run it every year without fail until sometime in the 90's, I think.

The Town That Santa Forgot (H-B 1993). It'll be on Boomerang soon enough. Narrated by Dick Van Dyke, this tale about a selfish brat's ginormous demands forcing Santa to skip the kid's namesake town was both disturbing and entertaining at the same time, and I didn't discover it until 5 years ago.
 
^ I think I remember seeing The Town That Santa Forgot on Cartoon Network at some point. Must be when they were still airing specials around this time. How I miss it :/

I'd also like to add The Great Santa Claus Caper (Chuck Jones, 1978). Sure it's not the best, but it's very cute with some funny lines. Sometimes I think Chuck Jones was trying to make fun of the very thing he was creating XD At least it was that way for the Halloween special. It's so underrated I didn't even know it existed until a few weeks ago :sweat:
 
I have, and it's a really good Christmas movie. I also have the DVD of it as well. It was syndicated to TV stations a couple years ago as I remember it airing on my FOX affiliate and Superstation WGN. However, I still remember it's premiere on the old Fox Family channel back in 1998, when it first came out.

And thanks to All Dogs Christmas Carol, I rediscovered the original All Dogs Go to Heaven and it's sequel.

As for "The City That Forgot about Christmas", it is being syndicated again, as it aired last Christmas on my CBS affiliate, at 6am Christmas Morning. Lucky I have a DVR to record it.
 
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