Posted on 12/18/2006 7:42:45 AM PST by qam1
I’ve heard all the talk about the “War on Christmas” and the battle of “Happy Holidays” vs. “Merry Christmas.”
All the while, the real war on Christmas was going undetected. I’m talking about the war on classic Christmas specials.
This year’s victim: “The Year Without a Santa Claus.”
MODERN SCHLOCK
On Monday, NBC aired a live action version of the 1974 stop-motion animated classic. The story line was basically the same: Santa gives up on Christmas, thinking kids don’t care about him anymore, while his elves, Jingle and Jangle, set off to find kids full of Christmas spirit. The elves are nearly thwarted by warring brothers, Heat Miser and Snow Miser. In the end, a boy named Iggy rediscovers the magic of Christmas, and Santa finds out people love him after all.
That’s about where the similarities end.
The show was billed as “a holiday family event” and rated “G,” yet one scene depicts a video game battle where a man gets his arm and his head ripped off, complete with spewing blood. The dog warden offers Iggy a beer. Jingle eyeballs a female gym teacher and is told by Jangle that it’s no time for a “booty call.” Heat Miser and Snow Miser’s back-up dancers are no longer smaller versions of themselves, but women in tight metallic tank tops and miniskirts.
Throw in that the movie was two hours long and started at 9 p.m., and you can’t tell me this was made for children — and especially not for us kids-at-heart who grew up with the holiday staple.
LET IT BE
Sure, holiday classics have been redone for years. But changing a black and white film to color or adding a few modern touches to the story line doesn’t ransack the fundamental feel of those beloved films, as it did this time. The original “Year” delivered more heart and soul in an hour with its low-tech animation than this yawner could muster in two hours with an all-star cast.
With this remake, the network basically stole the proverbial candy from the babies of my generation. Much like the now-available chocolate-coated Pop Rocks, a true classic has undergone a painfully unnecessary makeover that renders its fans baffled and disgusted.
Don’t believe me? Go to any Generation Xer and say “Heat Miser” and see if they don’t start singing “I’m Mr. Green Christmas, I’m Mr. Sun.” Then tell them those favorite Miser characters — who make this a classic in the first place — were reduced to bit players in bad stage makeup and see what happens.
The bottom line: Don’t mess with the animated classics. There’s a reason they’ve stayed favorites for decades, and it has nothing to do with being “modern.”
First we had Jim Carrey in creepy makeup for Ron Howard’s version of “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Now, this.
Someone needs to tell Santa’s favorite reindeer he’d better “run, run, Rudolph” or he could face a worse foe than the Bumble.
Yep. What the aim was, I'm sure, was to grab Xers who loved the original. My wife and her friends used to sing the Snow Miser and Heat Miser songs on the schoolyard, and she's 40. She's hardly going to be traumatized by a booty call reference.
What?! Why, if I followed that advice, I'd never have seen Superman carrying Richard Pryor.
Yeah, you know, that ruined my whole day. NOT! Who the heck cares, if you love the original, watch it on ABC Family tonight or get it on DVD.
"BTW, don't waste you $$$ on the third installment of the Santa Clause."
I won't! They left Bernard out of the whole movie!! Can't believe it.
Am confused . . . Peter Jackson's version was the first full adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings".
(One does not count the Saul Zaentz monstrosity, since it was only one book of the three.)
Point of order . . . "Return of the King" is Part 3 of one otherwise-very-long movie. It is not a sequel-to-a-sequel.
"The show was billed as “a holiday family event” and rated “G,” yet one scene depicts a video game battle where a man gets his arm and his head ripped off, complete with spewing blood. The dog warden offers Iggy a beer. Jingle eyeballs a female gym teacher and is told by Jangle that it’s no time for a “booty call.” Heat Miser and Snow Miser’s back-up dancers are no longer smaller versions of themselves, but women in tight metallic tank tops and miniskirts."
This is not shocking, at least in this day and age. At the very least, I find every "G"-rated piece in the last 10-15 years as including obnoxious material that children shouldn't be replicating (nor should adults, really, but let's at least keep children, children, as long as possible without the corruption of age). That includes potty humor (gas-emitting both ends is very much the rage these days as just funny), as well as those types of things mentioned here.
One has to wonder, why are they harshing my Harvey? These folks seem to be divided into two camps: Those who think my faith as a whole is as stupid as a belief in Harvey the Rabbit and those who think that only about my belief in the Bible as the real Word of God. But it never seems to occur to them we Harvey the Rabbit types (over 90% of Americans) have built the freest, most prosperous nation in history. So why mess with our delusions? Why don't they just sit back and enjoy the ride?
My wife was watching the National Geographic show on Mary Magdelene last night, and they were pretty straight at first (they even treated her presence at the Resurrection as a fact), but then they started talking about how "other gospel writers" had "shaken the very foundations of Christianity" by writing more about her, and this was said over footage of actors portraying Jesus and Mary kissing. I turned to my wife and said, "The idea here is that the disciples were willing to suffer horrible deaths for their risen Lord and were gaining thousands of converts, but they couldn't let any of the faithful hear about how Jesus liked chicks and married one, because that might ruin the whole thing." Yeah, right.
I knew what was coming though, because like every other NG and HC special, they only had theologians from Harvard and other lefty divinity schools on. Like G.K. Chesterton said, some ideas are so stupid only an intellectual can believe them.
Scrooged is such a laugh riot, and the best stuff is the stuff with the Christmas special.
What do you think Dr. Suess would have thought about the Whos in the movie vs. the Whos in the book?
ABC didn't make the 2nd Charlie Brown Christmas (titled "I Want a Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown"). The same group (Mendelson, et. al) who have made all the Charlie Brown cartoons made it.
It came out a few years ago at least because I have it on DVD. The script is based mostly on actual Peanuts comic strips from the 1990s. I believe it was animated after Schulz died, so by using many of his comic strips as the script, they could still list Schulz as the writer. The effect is that the show consists of many small segmented "comic strip-length" gags.
I didn't catch the whole thing because I already have it (as well as many of the other Peanuts animated specials that are available on DVD), but I don't remember Linus without his blanket. I guess I'll have to re-watch.
No, they are just (as a generation) negligent and expect us to pay for their party. Enemies are people you kill.
"story of Santa's origins where he takes on the Burgermeister Meisterburger"
Santa Claus is Coming to Town!
"But the biggest offense was this. They failed to give Linus his blanket. My wife and I debated about whether this was simply an oversight (since I'm sure the 25 year olds who wrote the piece of crap did not grow up on Peanuts) or if it was some sort of PC "message" that indicated Linus' new "empowerment"."
I didn't watch these last night, but it sounds like an exact repeat of the Peanuts shown several weeks ago. My husband is something of a Peanuts-nut (I am not). He said this is NOT Linus, but his younger brother (Lucy's youngest), don't know his proper name. I think he had some cutesie nick-name to reflect that they are so much alike.
There. Fixed it for you.
Oh, I don't know. I liked all five of the "Thin Man" movies. :)
"have built the freest, most prosperous nation in history"
But, these commies HATE the USA and don't believe it's "freest" or "most prosperous" or anything else, so your argument is useless.
;-)
Keep in mind that Shultz gave aBC the basic plotline for that special before his death. I hate to say it, but I think the last few years of the strip were funny only inside his head, and the special may reflect that the strip had lost its way.
Oh, apparently (according to wikipedia) the basic plot had also appeared in the strip at some point, and Schulz worked on the script some before he died.
The kids name is Rerun, but I think Linus was in the special for a bit at the beginning. Can't remember.
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