I have been introducing her to the classic Christmas TV specials of yore. In my mind there are six essential ones: ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,’ ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ and the four canonical shows from Hankin/Bass: ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,’ ‘Frosty the Snowman,’ ‘Santa Clause is Comin’ To Town’ and ‘The Year Without Santa.’ Now, having viewed them all in recent weeks (and some of them over and over and over again), some thoughts (and of course, judgments)…
This is clearly the king of them all. It has everything magical about nostalgia and the holidays. The primitive stop motion technology merely adds to the charms. My daughter is obsessed with all things Rudolph, and I’ve got to say that I enjoy watching this with her every time, even if it is the 86th run through it. Part of its charm, for me, is the anachronistic attitudes and the 'Mad Men' world in which it was made (1964). Check this scene out: when Rudolph runs away, and his father Donner decides to go look for him and Rudy’s mother wants to come too, Donner says sternly “no, this is man’s work.” Another nugget, after fighting off the abominable snow monster, Yukon Cornelius has supposedly gone over the cliff with the monster, thereby saving Rudolph and his family and friends, the narrator (Burl Ives as Sam the Snowman) says that although they wanted to stay and see if they could find Yukon, they “knew they needed to get the women back home.”
And Santa is a real jerk. He comes to visit Donner and wife to meet the new baby, and once Rudolph’s nose glows Santa recoils ("Great bouncing icebergs!") and tells Donner that he needs to take care of the situation asap. Then he turns around and sings a happy song about Christmas to Rudolph. Later, when Rudolph’s fake nose pops off during the reindeer games, Santa scolds Donner “you should be ashamed of yourself.” When the elves sing their song for Santa (“We Are Santa’s Elves”), he looks visibly irritated and bored, slumping in his chair, sighing and covering his eyes, and says “oh well, it needs work” and then storms off. The song was delightful, what the f**k, Santa?
My favorite character, by far, is Boss Elf. He’s the elf overseeing the toymaking process who is always shouting orders and who gets all over Hermey the Elf for wanting to be a dentist instead of making toys. “Now you get to elf practice and learn to wiggle your ears, chuckle warmly, say ‘hee hee’ and ‘ho ho’ and important things like that!!” I shout that at my daughter at least once a day now and she enjoys it.
All of that aside, it really is the gold standard. With timeless songs, a classic story of misfits who join together and end up saving the day because of their oddities…it doesn’t get any better. The primitive stop motion techniques are strangely effective and evoke a warm nostalgia for simpler times and simple messages that are incredibly powerful (mid-60's gender role attitudes aside). And such a cultural touchstone too. I was reading the Lou Reed remembrances in Rolling Stone, and Michael Stipe references the “Island of Misfit Toys” (with no explanation). Most people of my age, I think, would instantly know what he was talking about and what he meant to say regarding Lou Reed’s appeal to outsiders.
***** out of *****
Confession: I’ve never been a huge fan of the Peanuts gang. I have never (and still don’t) get why everyone picks on Chuck. He seems a nice enough guy and tries to do the right thing, yet everyone thinks he is an incompetent idiot. I don’t get it. Even their beloved holiday specials are overrated. The Thanksgiving one is just OK, and the Halloween ‘Great Pumpkin’ sucks. That being said, the Christmas special has a real magic that is lacking in every other Peanuts special. It has a languid but pleasant pace that just couldn't be pulled off today, accentuated by the absolutely wonderful jazz score from Vince Guaraldi. The story is simple, with the only things at stake a Christmas pageant and a rather pathetic tree. But the message tries to cut through the commercialism of the holiday and find real meaning. It does so effectively.
**** out of *****
‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’
The original animated show is absolute perfection. It is Dr. Seuss at his most witty, and to have the voice of Boris Karloff as both narrator and The Grinch was a masterstroke. Other than as the iconic Frankenstein monster, it is Karloff's most lasting work. The prose is great (since it is Seuss) and the story is a wonderful lesson about what Christmas should be about. Although even my daughter has picked up on the fact that The Grinch violates multiple animal cruelty laws in his treatment of his poor dog, Max.
***** out of *****
This took a few modern viewings to click with me again, but it really is fantastic. One of the things I enjoy is that many of the voices sound like Sopranos actors. Jimmy Durante narrates, and his voice is so warm yet rough that it sounds like he is telling the story of Frosty while you are seated next to him in some mob-run bar in Jersey over some bourbons and cigars. But the story is great, the message good, and Santa is actually quite kind in this one, and disarms the villain by threatening not to ever bring him any presents ever again.
***** out of *****
‘Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town’
Like all modern comic book heroes who get the big screen treatment, Santa Claus needs an origin story. This is it. Narrated with class by Fred Astaire (with Santa voiced by Mickey Rooney), it actually presents an interesting story of Santa’s roots. But the pace is a bit slow and the music forgettable. It did not hold my daughter’s interest, nor mine.
*** out of *****
Mickey Rooney is back as Santa, and in this one the Red One has a cold and decides that since nobody remembers the real meaning of Christmas anyway, he’s done. It is up to Mrs. Claus to save Christmas, sending two bumbling elves and a reindeer down to find traces of Christmas spirit. The music sucks, and the story is slow. The only cool thing is the Miser brothers, Snow Miser and Heat Miser, who are competing with each other for global weather dominance. In doing some research, I found that the Misers have become minor cult figures. Needs much more Misers, less everything else.
** out of *****
Did I miss any crucial holiday shows?
5 comments:
This was great, Dez. I love your stuff about your family. The part about the ornaments all being in the lower quadrant was funny.
I haven't seen any of the holiday specials in a long long time, but I remember liking all the Peanuts stuff in my youth (The Great Pumpkin, especially.) Somewhat surprised you do not, given your typical love for Americana. But, on the other hand, I barely remember any of the specials.
Fantastic stuff. I saw an ad for Frosty on TV the other night, and was instantly taken back to being 8 years old.
I would have given 5 stars to the Peanuts special, but otherwise these judgments seem sound.
Also, I'm not the world's biggest Peanuts fan but your reading of it seems purposely obtuse: The fact that Charlie is a perfectly well-meaning and relatively competent guy who's nonetheless frustrated by the world is THE POINT.
Wow, I could not disagree with you more on the Peanuts specials. We have all of them on DVD, and it's pretty much the only thing we let Caroline watch except for Sesame Street. I have seen them all upwards of 50 times (even quite obscure ones like 'play it again Charlie Brown' and 'There's no Time for Love, Charlie Brown') and have come to see them as masterpieces. VInce Guaraldi's scores are part of the reason, but they repay repeated watching. Peanuts really was a genius comic strip.
Hmm. It seems that I need to reevaluate Peanuts. It is hard to explain why I am so lukewarm on them. Brown doesn't seem to do enough to warrant his treatment. I know that is part of the point, but even on the surface he is not incompetent enough to explain it. Some of the characters are mere jerks with little redeeming qualities. Perhaps I should reassess, as three people whom I respect seem to disagree.
I think my comment may have been a bit more strident than I intended. I submit to you, though, that if the test of greatness is to stand the test of time and bear repeated watching/reading/listening, then the Peanuts specials more than measure up. It's also good viewing for children (I think) because the characters talk to one another like adults and have real, emotional reactions (including sadness, which rarely seems to feature in other children's shows).There's a scene in 'Play it Again Charlie Brown,' the plot of which involves Schroeder being asked to front a jazz combo for a PTA meeting - and the internal debate this provokes - where Lucy, resting on his toy piano, ruminates about how they might get married and tour European capitals until Schroeder suffered a tragic accident and lost the use of his hands such that she had to go to work in a laundry to support them. Genius, I tell you.
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