Christmas Specials!

[LD1984]

It's that time again people! Chestnuts roasting, icy cold weather and hour after hour of Christmas specials!

Christmas specials are the BEST. I personally like them more then any kind of tv special. It's all about christmas.

- I ALWAYS watch the Grinch, Charlie Brown Christmas, Garfield's Christmas and Mickey's Christmas carol (These are classics!)
- I ALWAYS watch the ENTIRE Cartoon Network Christmas Party (the 24 hour one)
- I watch every Christmas cartoon movie on CN and Fox Family (ABC family now?)
- I watch EVERY Nickelodeon Christmas Special.

So far, I've seen Jack Frost, Frosty the Snow Man, Rudolph the Red nosed Reigndeer (sp?), The Little Drummer Boy, some long movie about a donkey with big ears, Rudolph Saves the newyear, The Brace-face X-mas special, Annabelle's Wish (Watchin' it right now).

My FAVORITE of the newer specials is the Hey Arnold Special (not that new, but new enough). The music and story are the best!

My LEAST FAVORITE is Scooby Doo's Nutcracker.
"I LOVE YOU UNCLE SCOOBY!"

The WEIRDEST special I've ever seen is Pac-Man saves Christmas.
Santa is so lazy that he has to rely on a big yellow sphere to save Christmas!

What's the point of this?...I have no idea. Talk about what you watch around Christmas and what your favorite animated Christmas specials are!

[Sharklady]

Here's my Top Ten list (remember those?) of my personal Favorite Christmas Cartoons:

10. 'Olive the Other Reindeer' (decent title pun, a spunky sweet-voiced protagonist, and I appreciated the confirmation that Rudolf is an urban myth.)

9. 'Little Drummer Warners' (gotta admire their balancing act; they behaved just irreverently enough to be in-character Warners, without crossing into Disrespect.)

8. That 'Simpsons' ep where Bart tried to shoplift a video game, and discovered that some misbehaviors really do have consequences.

7. 'Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol' (the scowliest Scrooge and cutest Tiny Tim on record, plus some memorable songs.)

6. 'Simple Gifts' (a PBS offering comprised of twelve holiday-themed shorts. Most moving was the true WWI account of German and British soldiers taking it upon themselves to declare a holiday truce.)

5. The Chuck Jones version of 'A Christmas Carol', drawn in the style of Dickens' time, and with the script lifted straight from the book.

4. 'The Snowman' (more a Winter story than a Christmas one, but with beautiful graphics, an exhilerating flying sequence, and wonderfully expressive musical score.)
3. 'A Pinky And The Brain Christmas' (one of P&tB's finest eps; includes several of Brain's funniest one-liners, and an ending guaranteed to generate those warm-and-fuzzy feelings.)

2. 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Seuss at his best, Boris Karloff in fine voice, & one of the most exuberant resolutions in TV-animation history.)

And my Number One Favorite Christmas Cartoon is:

1. 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' (what more needs to be said? It a Classic!)

[LD1984]

I just saw Nut-Cracker Scooby. How in the heck can a little girl have a dog for an uncle? Soo...dirty..

I also saw the Grinch. I think I melted.. :)

[RockItShipper]

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Electric Soldier Porygon", everything Christmas-y from South Park, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (yay nonconformity!)... Um, does Nightmare Before Christmas count?

[Anthonynotes]

>>>It's that time again people! Chestnuts roasting, icy cold weather and hour after hour of Christmas specials!

Christmas specials are the BEST. I personally like them more then any kind of tv special. It's all about christmas.
<<<

Or Hanukkah, or Ramadan, or the winter solstice, or Kwanzaa, or...well, you get the idea :-)

>>>
- I ALWAYS watch the Grinch, Charlie Brown Christmas, Garfield's Christmas and Mickey's Christmas carol (These are classics!)
- I ALWAYS watch the ENTIRE Cartoon Network Christmas Party (the 24 hour one)
- I watch every Christmas cartoon movie on CN and Fox Family (ABC family now?)
- I watch EVERY Nickelodeon Christmas Special.

So far, I've seen Jack Frost, Frosty the Snow Man, Rudolph the Red nosed Reigndeer (sp?), The Little Drummer Boy, some long movie about a donkey with big ears, Rudolph Saves the newyear, The Brace-face X-mas special, Annabelle's Wish (Watchin' it right now).

My FAVORITE of the newer specials is the Hey Arnold Special (not that new, but new enough). The music and story are the best!

My LEAST FAVORITE is Scooby Doo's Nutcracker.
"I LOVE YOU UNCLE SCOOBY!"

The WEIRDEST special I've ever seen is Pac-Man saves Christmas.
Santa is so lazy that he has to rely on a big yellow sphere to save Christmas!

What's the point of this?...I have no idea. Talk about what you watch around Christmas and what your favorite animated Christmas specials are! <<<

Christmas specials I like include: the various Rankin-Bass animated specials, "A Charlie Brown Christmas", "A Garfield Christmas" (note that Jon's Grandma mentions "Green County", IIRC a real Indiana count, where Muncie is located I believe...Muncie being "Garfield" creator Jim Davis' hometown), the animated "Grinch" (saw the live-action movie version this past week....ick.).

Others I've watched in the past include the four "Flintstones" Christmas specials, summarized as such:
- the Christmas episode from the half-hour original series. Fred, working as a "Macyrock" dept. store Santa, is asked by the real Santa (in bed with a cold) to take his place that year. Liked the singing bits, and the part where the elves take Fred to their workshop (and Fred's reaction)

- "A Flintstones Christmas": the late 70's Christmas special, an hour long this time. Fred is once again asked by Santa to take his place. Oddly enough, the two don't recall their previous meeting from the original series---perhaps since this Santa (unlike the original episode's) is drawn (reindeer, workshop and all) modern-looking, rather than Stone Age-looking. I know, it's the Flintstones, continuity seems to be considered (even for cartoon standards) as really optional, etc. etc. Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are shown here as grade school-aged children. Other notes: the size of the earrings Fred gave Wilma at the end of the episode (guess Stone Age women had strong earlobes or something :-) ; the 70's-style "digital" watch Wilma was wearing (it using Roman numerals was the "stone aged" gag here); the various countries and peoples of the Flintstones' "modern-Stone Age" world are shown (the Eiffel Tower's made of wood, Dutch denizens wear ice skate blades strapped to their bare feet, etc.)...


- "A Flintstones Christmas Carol": Fred acts as "E-bone-ezer Scrooge" in a neolithic version of "A Christmas Carol". Sign of it being made in the 90's is seen with the various Bedrock denizens coming down with a flulike illness (sounds of barfing noises heard off-screen); otherwise, fairly entertaining, and somewhat faithful to the original story. Gadgets seen here: a "silent alarm" (a bird in a dept. store making a "ssshhhh" noise, then flying off to the police station) at "Bloomingshale" dept. store, a pocket (sundial) watch. Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm here seem to be toddlers once more. We also hear the sounds of Fred's two feet while driving down the road in one scene. "Flintstone Kids" alert: an adult version of Philo Quartz is seen here (as a policeman)...

- "A Flintstones Family Christmas": Fred helps some homeless kid named "Stony" in this special. The adult and married Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm (complete with their two infant children) are seen here (though IIRC snowed in at an airport). Revealed here: the Flintstones have cable (though apparently they weren't paying for the HBO-type pay channels).

Also as a kid recall looking forward to watching "Yogi's First Christmas" (some early 80's Hanna Barbara special), and recall seeing "A Pac-Man Christmas". Not only did St. Nick apparently need some pixel-formed vid-game character's help, but he also had never heard of the place where Pac-Man and his brood lived (must've dozed off in geography class or something :-). Then again, Pac-Man & co. said they never heard of Christmas, so I guess they were even (and for Paccy & co.'s case, presumably not Christian to begin with, but I digress... :-)

Plenty of other specials to list (the first "Simpsons" one will always be their "Christmas special" to me...still like the line [when Bart wanted a tattoo] by Homer: "if you want one you'll have to pay for it out of your own allowance!" heh... ), which I'll probalby think of later...

-B.

[Thad Komorowski]

My favorites would have to be the Garfield special, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales.


-Thad

[Colin]

I always look forward to:

Charlie Brown Christmas
Garfield Christmas
Emmet Otters Jug Band Christmas
Muppet Family Christmas


...sadly, the latter two don't get as much airplay as the bigger christmas specials... but they are great nonetheless...

...and watch out for the icy patch!

[Captain Caps]

too (bleep)ing depressing, and he still can't escape being called a "blockhead", even at the end when they're supposedly talking nice about him. What I'm looking forward to:

Christmas episodes of live-action sitcoms.

Nick At Nite airs "Family Ties", and if hearsay is correct, they did some terrific Christmas specials during their run. I'll also see if they have any Christmas episodes of "Cheers", "Three's Company", et al. Also, if TV Guide notes it, hopefully I'll be able to catch that episode of "Just Shoot Me" that spoofs "The Grinch" (with Kelsey Grammer narrating and singing a spoof of "You're A Mean One, Mister Grinch").

Sincerely,

John "Captain Caps" Kilduff...

who, if he hears correctly, has heard that on the soundtrack to the live-action Grinch, hardcore rapper Busta Rhymes samples "You're A Mean One..." for a song.

[DanniB]

Here's my list of holiday faves

5. South park Mr. Hankey special; at first I didn't know what to think about a talking holiday poo, but it quickly grew on me. (I even wrote an extended version of it for a play including additional songs that my friends and teachers all found amazingly well done. :D )

4. All the Animaniacs christmas specials, They all rocked!

3. Muppet family christmas; Seeing all the JH chars in one place always makes this one special

2. The classics: this includes Rudolph, all the "christmas carol" parodies, and any other cute claymation goodies they show around this time of year and rarely any time else

1. A Pinky and the Brain Christmas: ok I'll admit it, I cried at the end

[The Mad Hatter]

And yet again, no network will be showing that Opus and Bill masterpiece, A Wish For Wings That Work. Heresy, I tell you!

[Singin' Stray Cat]

Originally posted by The Mad Hatter
And yet again, no network will be showing that Opus and Bill masterpiece, A Wish For Wings That Work. Heresy, I tell you!

(snf) You said it! Now I'll never get to see it! :(



Thus saith the Sharklady:

'Little Drummer Warners' (gotta admire their balancing act; they behaved just irreverently enough to be in-character Warners, without crossing into Disrespect.)



Ooh, thanks for reminding me...I've been meaning to write about that for some time now... I love 'Little Drummer Warners' too, though I didn't know what to think of it at first. :cool: