Last week in the Think About It Central Christmas Party, we talked
Classic Christmas Movies. I always get my DVD player spinning in December to help get me in the right mindset for Christmas, and I’ve got a lot of favorite movies. Based on the e-mails I got after the column went up, so do you. So let’s get a move on and start talking about some of my favorite contemporary Christmas movies, those that have been released since my birth in 1977. And if I’ve left off one of your favorites - well, feel free to hit the reply button and set me straight.
Any discussion of great Christmas films of the past 28 years has to start with Bob Clark’s 1983 masterpiece A Christmas Story. Based on the writings of Jean Shepard, this was a simple little tale about a boy (Peter Billingsly) who desperately wanted a BB gun for Christmas, a father who fell in love with the ugliest (and coolest) lamp in history, and a period in time we all look back on with a wistful feeling this time of year. Shepard, who also narrated the film, was one of those rare writers who could really capture a slice of Americana, and somehow Clark (whose previous success was Porky’s of all things) captured that flavor perfectly on film. A few years ago, on a lark, TBS showed the movie 12 times in a row - “24 Hours of A Christmas Story” was how they billed it. To their shock, it was a smash hit, and they’ve been showing the movie for a solid day every year ever since. So if you’re one of the three people on Earth who has never seen A Christmas Story, you’ll have plenty of chances to do it this year.
A scant 20 years later, a truly wonderful movie hit theaters. I was stunned in 2003 when I walked into a theater showing Love Actually and came out completely in love with the debut directoral effort of screenwriter Richard Curtis. This British ensemble piece is a love story. No, actually, it’s 11 love stories. A newly-separated writer falls for a woman who doesn’t speak the same language, a newlywed tries to understand why her husband’s best friend doesn’t like her, a woman pines for her dashing coworker, a married man is tempted by a seductive employee, a widower tries to connect with his orphaned stepson who has love problems of his own and the Prime Minister finds himself head over heels for a woman on his staff. It also, naturally, has an enormous cast, including Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Keira Knightly, Alan Rickman, Laura Linney, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy and Rowan Atkinson. This is one of those movies with dozens of characters, but it’s never hard to keep anything straight. The stories are so simple, so pure, that I can’t imagine anybody watching this movie without seeing themselves in it somewhere. Who among us hasn’t had a crush on someone unattainable, struggled to hold on to a relationship that’s lost its zing or marveled at the excitement of finding someone new just when you thought you’d never have love again? What’s more, with so many stories it’s possible not to give them all a storybook ending. Some do, yes, but he never sacrifices the realism of some of the stories. It’s a beautiful movie, and it’s already a Christmas must for me.
Then, smack in the middle of those two films came the year 1993, and one of my favorite Christmas movies, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. A few days ago my sister Heather told me she’s never seen this movie. I was dumbstruck. How could she have missed it? How have I never strapped her down and forced her to watch it? Done in good old-fashioned stop motion animation, this is the story of Jack Skellington, the King of Halloweentown, whose eternity of creating the spooks and ghouls of that Holiday was beginning to grow tedious. By accident, he stumbles into Christmastown, home of Santa Claus, and is so enamored of this new holiday that he tries to take it over for himself. Jack’s heart is in the right place, but Halloween spooks were never meant to run Christmas, were they?
Aside from beautiful animation (for which I credit director Henry Selick) and the amazing imagination of Burton, from whence the story came, there is a third person that deserves real credit for making this film a classic - Danny Elfman, who composed the music and performed the singing voice of Jack, the Pumpkin King. Songs like “What’s This?” and “Kidnap the Santy Claws” have become as identifiable as “Holly Jolly Christmas” from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Thurl Ravenscroft’s inimitable “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” Not only do I watch this movie every year, but I put the soundtrack on my iTunes rotation to get me into the spirit.
Last week I mentioned all of the many, many versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol there have been. Even after 1977, there have been many, many more: George C. Scott’s version in 1984, Patrick Stewart’s version from 1999, Kelsey Grammar’s musical version from 2004… there have even been versions with the Flintstones and the Jetsons. But there are three versions that I enjoy above all others. In 1988, Bill Murray was featured in Scrooged. Directed by Richard Donner (the man who brought us Superman, Lethal Weapon and Goonies), Murray plays Francis Cross, a cold-hearted television producer whose life is turned around by visits from a group of spirits on a magical Christmas Eve. This movie uses the basic framework of the Dickens novel, but unlike most adaptations it tells an entirely new story with a very different character than Ebenezer Scrooge. It’s a wonderful movie in its own right, but I don’t quite count it as an “adaptation” the way I do the next two I’m going to mention.
In 1983, Disney turned out one of their finest short films ever, Mickey’s Christmas Carol. This movie featured the screen debut of Scrooge McDuck, a character created for the Donald Duck comic books by the immortal Carl Barks, and it cast him perfectly as Ebenezer Scrooge, voiced wonderfully by Alan Young (whom you may remember as Wilbur from Mr. Ed). Mickey himself played Bob Crachit, while the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future were taken up by Jiminy Cricket, Willie the Giant and Mickey’s old enemy Pete, respectively. At only about a half-hour in running time, it’s one of the shorter versions of the story, but it’s also one of the most beautiful and most effective, plus it tells the story to kids using characters they already love. To this day, I still watch this version every year.
But my favorite version? The version I watch over and over? Yeah, go ahead and laugh, but The Muppet Christmas Carol gets me every darn year. With Michael Caine as Scrooge, Kermit the Frog as Bob Crachit and - in a stroke of genius - Gonzo the Great as Charles Dickens himself, narrating the tale, this is one of the best adaptations of the story I’ve ever seen. In addition to wonderful visuals and fine characters, it’s a surprisingly faithful adaptation. I would notice this in later Muppet versions of Treasure Island and The Wizard of Oz as well, but despite all of their jokes, parodies and screwball comedy, when they tackle a work of literature they stay closer to the source material than most filmmakers would - the scene where people try to pawn the dead Scrooge’s possessions, for example, is one that is frequently omitted from film versions, but the Muppets did it. Plus it’s dead funny and the music, by Paul Williams, is beautiful. Like the music from Nightmare Before Christmas, I listen to Kermit and Company every year. This was also notable for being the feature film debut of Brian Henson and the first major Muppet project after creator Jim Henson’s death. Brian did his father proud.
The Muppets have a few other films worth mentioning - 1987’s Muppet Family Christmas and 2002’s It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. The former is notable for being the only time (to my knowledge) that the classic Muppets, the gang from Sesame Street and the gang from Fraggle Rock all appeared in the same movie together, and the latter is a fun piece with a lot of movie and TV parodies and a great closing number. I watch those each year as well. There’s also their 1979 TV special The Muppets and John Denver: A Christmas Together, 1977’s classic Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas and 1986’s The Christmas Toy, a favorite of my nine-year-old self when it came out. And you know what? If it hit DVD today, I’d be the first one in line to buy it.
There have been many Christmas specials over the years, and while none may have reached the status of the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas or How the Grinch Stole Christmas, a great many of them are worth mentioning. The year 1987 brought two that I’ve loved for years. First, A Garfield Christmas brought the ever-popular cat to Jon’s family’s farm for the holiday. This is back in the day when Garfield was still funny (let’s face it, the comic strip ain’t what it used to be), and the subplot involving Grandma’s old love letters and Odie’s quest to give Garfield a present all tie together into a really heartwarming package. That same year we got Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas, a special that brought together several of his popular characters to sing Christmas carols animated in Vinton’s classic style. Herb and Rex, his dinosaur stars, served as the hosts, and the film featured a classic version of the California Raisins singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
In 1985 Rankin and Bass, the company that gave us the original Rudolph and Frosty specials, along with dozens of others, turned out one that I think has been unjustly forgotten: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. Based on the novel by Wizard of Oz creator L. Frank Baum, this film has a unique telling of the legend, how Claus was a mortal raised by fairies, invented the toy, faced fierce monsters who hated his mission of gift-giving, and was given an incredible gift. It’s not the most well-known version of Santa Claus’s story, but it’s one I have always liked and one that’s quite different from any others you may know of.
And finally, let’s have a moment to mourn the career of Chevy Chase. Looking at his filmography on the Internet Movie Database, I realize that, clearly, the reason he hasn’t made a decent movie in over 15 years is because the last time he was funny, he used up a lifetime of talent. Yeah, I’m talking about 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It was the third Vacation movie, but to my way of thinking, it was the best… and it was the last time Chevy Chase was really any good. Chase, again, plays the hapless Clark Griswold, a family man who just wants his family to enjoy the season together. As always, though, a combination of crazy relatives and overzealousness on his part collapse in on each other causing chaos and misery. And it’s all darn funny along the way. This is one of those movies that you can just keep watching and - even better - keep quoting year after year. From little lines like “I don't know what to say, except it's Christmas and we're all in misery” to the full-blown rants that Chase goes off on as things have completely fallen apart, this is a Christmas must-see.
I love these movies I’ve mentioned. I love them wholeheartedly, and I hope you do too. Of course, chances are I’ve forgotten a dozen movies that you think should be on the list. Well then, tell me about it. Maybe I’ll check out your suggestions and do a full-blown review of my own. Maybe you’ll help me find a Christmas classic that, miraculously, completely escaped my notice. Or maybe we’ll just have a little fun sharing memories of some great movies. What could be more Christmasy than that?
Blake M. Petit is watching one of the various Peanuts specials right now. No matter what time you’re reading this. Contact him with comments, suggestions or forgotten films at
BlakePT@cox.net, visit him on the web at
Evertime Realms and view the Evertime Realms Livejournal,
blakemp