Mainlining Christmas

It's been a very long time since I've seen any Goof Troop, one of my least favorite series that was part of the Disney Afternoon lineup.  The holiday episode is cute, but odd, and exemplifies what I remember about the series. That means it has the strengths of the series: family stories, told with heart, with the occasional very funny line.  That also means it has the weaknesses that plagued the series: unrelenting ill luck that isn't actually funny, and an awkward mesh between the character based humor and the over-the-top slapstick. There is also a certain level of unexplained zaniness and a few really confusing cuts that made me wonder if the episode was cut down from a slightly longer special.  The ending, for example, seems to come out of nowhere and makes no sense.  I couldn't find any information about it, though.  It could easily just be poor writing. Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas gets an A for effort and a C- for execution. Skip it, unless you

Lindsay got her review in first .  Normally, we don't gang up on a movie if we both hate it, but this gets to be a special case. It's Christmas, so I'm going to start this review off on a positive note by finding some nice things to say about the computer animated, direct-to-video film, Casper's Haunted Christmas.  Give me a minute.  I can do this. Got it!  The ghosts were animated with passable CG, unlike the people (more on that in a moment).  Also, the design of the fictitious town this took place in was kind of fun. This concludes the positive section of this review. Going in, I assumed this was going to be bad.  I mean, I bought it as part of a five dollar bargain set from Best Buy - the now infamous "New Christmas Classics " - and it wasn't even featured.  I mean, this is (unfortunately) a full length movie, and the people including it in their set didn't feel like it warranted more attention than a bunch of seven minute Gumby shorts.

Oh. I feel quite unpleasant now.  This is one of the worst pieces of utter tripe that I've seen in a long time. First off, the animation is awful.  The movie is full of creepy CG people who just look hideous.  The ghostly effect isn't terrible, but everything is animated poorly. The plot is utterly arbitrary.  At the beginning it seems that Casper's uncles (aka The Ghostly Trio) are about to get in trouble for scaring a parking lot full of people... but wait, then Casper's in trouble for not scaring people?  Make up your mind. The “plot,” so to speak, is completely imposed upon the characters with utterly no rhyme or reason. They are sent to “Kriss, Massachusetts.” Shoot me now. Then we meet the rest of the characters: a family in which the parents are completely terrifying and utterly certifiable in their obsession with all things Christmas.  I kept hoping they would die horribly.  They have a daughter who starts out okay, at least she hates them.  But of cou

Oh, hell yes. Given the vast number of Christmas specials I'm sitting through, I can't think of higher praise than what I'm about to say: this hour-long special felt short. While there's certainly some bad Powerpuff Girls cartoons out there (seasons 5 and 6, I'm looking at you), the majority is very, very good.  And this represents some of the best. Even before the action picks up, just watching the Powerpuffs decorate is immensely enjoyable.  So much of what made the show a success was the contrast between childhood and super powers, and that's certainly on display. The story involves Princess, who breaks into Santa's workshop to alter the naughty/nice lists.  It's well put together and fast paced, leading up to a world-spanning battle. The end could have delivered more punch: the resolution felt a tad too easy (and nowhere near violent enough) for my tastes.  I also wasn't in love with the version of Santa used here.  Something about hi

Huh. I remember Tiny Toons being funnier than this. The Tiny Toons Christmas Special is okay, but not great by any metric.  It's cute, not smart.  The story is completely straightforward: a passable riff on It's a Wonderful Life. Where it really fell flat for me was an excess of jokes based on parodying celebrities.  I didn't get these jokes back in 1992, and now they're really dated. That said, there was a good bit of the meta-humor that Tiny Toons was known for, all based on the awareness of being in a cartoon.  The visual of Buster thinking of throwing himself "out of the cartoon" is particularly nice. His rabbity angel is named Harvey. If you're after specials from cartoons you may have watched in the 90's and you can't find any Animaniacs, or you still think Cher jokes are funny, this might warm the cockles of your heart.  If not, stick around, I'm sure I can recommend something more timeless.

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