We’ll miss you, Christmas!

Due to various schedule challenges, I didn’t watch as many old favorites as usual, but that should make them more fun next year. As to what I did watch …MR. MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1962) has a framing sequence that’s always puzzled me, the short-sighted Magoo (Jim Backus) appearing as Scrooge in a Broadway musical version of Dickens (according to the New York Times, the creators were afraid casting Magoo, an established cartoon character, as Scrooge would otherwise confuse people). But that’s a small problem compared to the excellent musical score, the loneliness of Young Ebenezer (“Where is the voice/To answer mine back?/Where is the click/to answer my clack?”), and all the usual highpoints of the story (except nephew Fred, who got cut to fit the limited running time). Well worth an annual visit. “We’re reprehensible/We’ll steal your pen/And pencible!”

2005’s THE FAMILY STONE isn’t one I normally watch but it’s one of my sister’s favorites so I picked it up when I found a copy at a local thrift store. This has Dermot Mulroney take tightly wound Sarah Jessica Parker home to his family for Christmas. Parker’s insecure enough to make this tricky in the best circumstances; it gets worse when Mulroney’s sis and mom (Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton) take a dislike to her, then she puts her foot in it a couple of times confirming their take. Can Parker’s sister (Claire Danes) or Mulroney’s laid-back brother (Luke Wilson) set things to rights? Like Holiday in Handcuffs, Christmas is just an excuse to bring the family together, but the results are charming. I’m sure I’ll be watching this at a subsequent Christmas. “You’ve got a freak flag — you just don’t fly it.”

THE CLAUS FAMILY (2020) is a Belgian entry in the Santa’s Kids subgenre, as a teenager grieving his father’s death discovers who his grandfather is and that with Dad gone, it’s on the kid to inherit the mantle (Santa is passed down to the eldest child, boy or girl, much like Lee Falk’s Phantom). Can he step up or will his grief swallow him? Will Mom be able to keep the cookie maker she works at from going under? Could these two questions possibly turn out to have related answers? Decent enough. “Can someone explain what the cookie revolution is?”

Switching subgenres, 12 DATES OF CHRISTMAS (2011) is my favorite Christmas time-loop film, as Amy Smart starts looping her awful Christmas Eve and becomes convinced it’s so that she can reunite with her ex; therefore her blind date with Mark Paul Gosselar is nothing but a pointless distraction, right? A good Christmas rom-com. “The thing is, Phyliss is not coming. She is never coming.”

My goodness, judging by past blog posts it’s been a decade since I rewatched LOVE, ACTUALLY (2003) despite the fact it’s such an extraordinarily good movie. Liam Neeson helps his son deal with True Love, Emma Thompson discovers spouse Alan Rickman has a bit on the side, lobsters attend the birth of baby Jesus, Prime Minister Hugh Grant defends his secretary from lecherous American president Billy Bob Thornton, Laura Linney loses her shot at romance, Bill Nighy sings, Keira Knightley ends up torn between two lovers and Colin Firth falls in love with a woman who only speaks Portuguese. In a film with so many stories, it’s not surprising they’re a mixed bag — I don’t buy Knightley being torn with any indecision, for instance, and Thompson has a pretty miserable endpoint to her story. Then again, I don’t have the problem with Firth’s romance that some do — trying to marry someone you’ve never really communicated with is daft, but I’m willing to accept it in a rom-com. “We might want to have sex in every room — including yours.”

I loved SCROOGED (1988) when I caught it in the theater but it’s never been much fun to rewatch. For one thing, the topical jokes that made me chortle — Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton, the Solid Gold Dancers — don’t have much punch 30 years later, even though I understand them (god knows what I’d think if I were Gen Z). For another it’s surprisingly soft for such a supposedly cynical movie: where Scrooge dies alone, Murray gets mourners! While it does have some fun with the mythos, such as Carol Kane’s bludgeoning Christmas Present, I’d pick Chasing Christmas or Karroll’s Christmas for an unconventional Dickens riff. “Tiny Tom doesn’t just throw away his crutches, he vaults over a lamppost!”

CHRISTMAS WITH THE CAMPBELLS (2022) is an uninspired low-key parody of Christmas rom-coms in which a recently dumped woman winds up spending Christmas with her ex’s family anyway. Most notable for a lot of raw sex talk but that doesn’t make it worth watching.

I’m surprised the excellent CLAYMATION CHRISTMAS SPECIAL is so hard to find streaming — I have it taped off the air but the quality’s poor — but as always it’s a great fun to watch as dinosaurs debate Christmas snacks, Quasimodo leads an orchestra and walrus Margo Pontoon ice-dances with Rudolph Nerves-on-Edge. “I don’t recognize that conductor but his name sure rings a bell.”

For me, THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SANTA CLAUS (1985) is the best of Rankin-Bass’ many stop-motion animated specials (also their last). Based on the novel by L. Frank Baum (the first of many, many origins for Santa and for Christmas traditions), it tells how an abandoned baby grows up under the care of a wood-elf and a lioness, then becomes the giver of Christmas toys despite the opposition of the grotesque Agwas that drive children to misbehave and see Klaus as a threat to their power. A remarkable piece of work.

ZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY CHRISTMAS (2021) was a TV special wrapping up plotlines from Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, about a woman who acquires the power to see people’s innermost thoughts, but they’re expressed as musical numbers. Here she and her family are facing the first Christmas since Dad (Peter Gallagher) passed and most of the family are planning to go off solo — can Zoey convince them to stick around and celebrate as a family still? Pleasant enough but I have no regrets not catching the show. “Learn more about equine therapy!”

VIOLENT NIGHT (2022) is an oddball film in which a burned-out Santa stop for a nap along his Christmas Eve route. Wouldn’t you know, the place he picks is billionaire Beverly D’Angelo’s compound, where a gang of crooks seize her and her family with an eye to looting the $300 million slush fund from her vault. Not really Santa’s concern but there’s a little girl in the middle of all this and she’s definitely on the Nice list … I’m not sure I’ll watch this again “Okay, I changed my mind — shoot the alcoholic bitch first.”

As always, TYG and I watched A CHRISTMAS STORY (1984) after unwrapping presents. This year I found myself appreciating Melinda Dillon’s performance as Mom — as straight woman to the comic antics of Ralphie, his brother and the Old Man (Darren McGavin) she doesn’t get as showy a role but she does it well. I also thought about the visuals which do such a great job capturing an era gone by and wondering what viewers even further removed from that setting than I make of it. None of which musing stopped me enjoying the film, in case you were wondering. “You used up all the glue in the house — on purpose!”

#SFWApro. All rights to images remain with current holder.