Christmas Party: Cartoon Network's Billy, Mandy and Krypto
Today in the Christmas Party, we're going to take a peek at a pair of the Cartoon Network's series and their Christmas episodes. While I find less and less on the network to get excited about these days, there are still the occasional cartoons that get my attention, especially when the Christmas specials roll around.
Billy and Mandy Save Christmas
There isn’t a lot on Cartoon Network these days that really gets me excited, but I must confess, I rather enjoy The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. The concept of the show is remarkably simple - a cynical girl and her goofy sidekick somehow manage to corral the Grim Reaper and make him their servant. And in this special episode, they up and save Christmas.
Although Mandy doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, the trio wind up on a journey to the North Pole, where they find Jolly Old Saint Nicholas has been bitten by a vampire. The only way to save him - as they’ve seen in dozens of movies - is to hunt down the head vampire and destroy him. But that task will be easier said than done. The goofy, irreverent wit of this show is what makes it work. You’ve got to love any cartoon that actually has the temerity to include the line, “You better be grateful that Death is here to save you, fatboy.”
The conclusion, and the reveal of the “Head Vampire,” is in classic Billy and Mandy style, giving them an adversary to turn on that’s completely out of the blue but yet still makes sense in the context of the story. A Charlie Brown Christmas is in no danger of being dethroned as the Christmas benchmark, but as recent Christmas specials go, this one isn’t too bad.
Krypto the Superdog: Storybook Holiday
I’ll admit it, I watch Krypto the Superdog. It’s not exactly the greatest superhero cartoon ever made, not by any stretch of the imagination, but for what it is, it’s pretty good. I’m glad that there’s a comic book-based cartoon out there for the younger set, and Krypto is about as good as you can get for the target demographic.
In Storybook Holiday, Krypto and his human pal Kevin are planning for a Christmas with Kevin’s family when they stumble across a magic book of fairy tales. Together, they get zapped into the book and encounter fairy tale classics like the three little pigs and the Blue Fairy, trying to find a way out of the book and back home. In and of itself, the story is fine. It’s a cute tale, one that’s perfectly suitable for the kids that this show is aimed at.
The only real problem is that the story itself, the plot, really has nothing to do with Christmas. This story could take place on any given day of the year without any significant changes to the plot. I suppose the intention was to try to avoid the clichés of a usual Christmas special, but you can’t do that by abandoning everything about the holiday. You need to use the conventions of the season to tell a new story to be really successful. It was a nice try, but Krypto’s Christmas adventure left something to be desired.
Billy and Mandy Save Christmas
There isn’t a lot on Cartoon Network these days that really gets me excited, but I must confess, I rather enjoy The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. The concept of the show is remarkably simple - a cynical girl and her goofy sidekick somehow manage to corral the Grim Reaper and make him their servant. And in this special episode, they up and save Christmas.
Although Mandy doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, the trio wind up on a journey to the North Pole, where they find Jolly Old Saint Nicholas has been bitten by a vampire. The only way to save him - as they’ve seen in dozens of movies - is to hunt down the head vampire and destroy him. But that task will be easier said than done. The goofy, irreverent wit of this show is what makes it work. You’ve got to love any cartoon that actually has the temerity to include the line, “You better be grateful that Death is here to save you, fatboy.”
The conclusion, and the reveal of the “Head Vampire,” is in classic Billy and Mandy style, giving them an adversary to turn on that’s completely out of the blue but yet still makes sense in the context of the story. A Charlie Brown Christmas is in no danger of being dethroned as the Christmas benchmark, but as recent Christmas specials go, this one isn’t too bad.
Krypto the Superdog: Storybook Holiday
I’ll admit it, I watch Krypto the Superdog. It’s not exactly the greatest superhero cartoon ever made, not by any stretch of the imagination, but for what it is, it’s pretty good. I’m glad that there’s a comic book-based cartoon out there for the younger set, and Krypto is about as good as you can get for the target demographic.
In Storybook Holiday, Krypto and his human pal Kevin are planning for a Christmas with Kevin’s family when they stumble across a magic book of fairy tales. Together, they get zapped into the book and encounter fairy tale classics like the three little pigs and the Blue Fairy, trying to find a way out of the book and back home. In and of itself, the story is fine. It’s a cute tale, one that’s perfectly suitable for the kids that this show is aimed at.
The only real problem is that the story itself, the plot, really has nothing to do with Christmas. This story could take place on any given day of the year without any significant changes to the plot. I suppose the intention was to try to avoid the clichés of a usual Christmas special, but you can’t do that by abandoning everything about the holiday. You need to use the conventions of the season to tell a new story to be really successful. It was a nice try, but Krypto’s Christmas adventure left something to be desired.