The Twelve Days of Christmas

Let’s finish this year with The Twelve Days of Christmas; The Bear version, not the human version that came out 2 years later. No, this is not something from Gummi Bears. Yes I know this was released after Christmas, but my time is limited.

Carol Boomer (voiced by Larry “myinfamousmomentatretrocon” Kenney) has sent his squire Holly Berry (voiced by Phil Hartman) to find out what the melancholy, yet sassy and hostile Princess Silverbell loves for Christmas. Holly got the princess’ list, but little did he know it was the king’s list for a big crossword puzzle. (Hmmm, 7 words across of a synonym for stupid). The king’s list is the different nouns we know from the songs 12 Days of Christmas. On the first 4 Days of Christmas, it reveals the princess is allergic to feathers, but she likes the other gifts as she grows interest, but for who?

Look on the bright side, Holly. At least no one wished for Christmas every day, or used Mr. Burns’ 40 Days of Christmas, or Peter Griffin’s version with all 8 days are Maids of Milking.

Phil Hartman was one of the finest actors we lost. He does his high range voice he would use later in Kiki’s Delivery Service and his last vocal appearance in Silent Night. This film was the very last thing Romeo Muller wrote before he died. Some may point an error in what he wrote on certain days.

I love the princess’ design and “expression”. Story arc could have been unique, if it didn’t came out 1 year after Aladdin's Jasmine; a princess who don’t want to be marry. Silverbell is probably more defensive at the time before Jasmine throws a punch at the thief. Her timing reminds me of the King of Swamp Castle from Monty Python and the Holy Grail whenever she interrupts the entire 12 Days of Christmas lyrics by various dated singers that wouldn’t fit in the timeline, yet never said when it took place at.

Elvis Pawsley:  “Six Geese are Laying, Five Golden Rings…”

Princess Silverbell: Oh shut up!

King of Swamp Castlle: And no singing! Oh go get yourself some water.

I say expression loosely since the copy of Twelve Days of Christmas has yet to be remastered as it’s very bright to see the line work. Just like Noel, it first aired on NBC, but unlike Noel, it was reaired years later. I watched Twelve Days of Christmas on Fox Family in the same line-up with the Warner Bros’ Rankin Bass’ films. Yes, I now have to call the later Rankin Bass films that since recently AMC got them all from Freeform, all except for The Stingiest Man In Town, since no one got that.

Twelve Days of Christmas is the better latest Muller film than Noel. If Noel was to be realistic and depressing, then this film was unrealistic and uplifting. It’s a charming film I would return to in the next 12 months.

That’s it for this year for I, Retahensid to review. It’s interesting to know what other people did before and after Rankin Bass, but some of the films and westerns were a chore to go through. Now I would like to have an attention from the viewers. I’m putting up a task to you all. Should I continue reviewing here? You have until January 15 2019 to decide, and need more than two people of comments to judge. The reviewing show is in your hand.

Noel

Love birds is Noel, the angel.... wait, this is a review blog, not a music blog. Anyway, Noel.

Noel is an ornament built by a glass maker with a secret ingredient to everyone and even himself; a tear of happiness unintentionally by the glass maker. He was packaged with other ornaments including an Ice maiden, as they were bought along with a tree, lights, and tinsel by a family. Well that was a simple story at 10 and half minutes. Wait, there’s more?

As time moved on while all the Christmas decoration are forgotten in the attic, it reached to December to used once more on a new tree. Rinse and repeat throughout the years until Noel noticed the children are as big as the adults were.

More years went on, all the kids grown lives on their own, as the parents gave up on Christmas. The ornaments were left abandoned as part of the house. Things can do up for the film, but not for me.

This was written by Romeo Muller, the writer for most of the Rankin Bass. Though I swear the train is Chugs from The Easter Bunny Coming To Town. Both this film and the next film to review first aired on NBC. Seriously, NBC, why do you keep discarding mostly silver shorts and shows? Your current shows are worthless. Only It’s A Wonderful Life and How the Grinch Stole Christmas is the only films you have of worth. OK, Noel wouldn’t be one to reaired than the other film, but still. The animation was done by Pacific Animation Corporation, Rankin Bass’ go to for Thundercats and Silverhawk. The designs are overall neat. This was part of the Muller-Stratford Production trilogy, though it started with Peppermint Rose.

The first half gives a good feeling of Christmas. The rest of the film is very depressing and “realistic”, which I don’t need at need at this time or any time. I thought I was going to hate Noel the ornament, but in comparing to the entire nuisance I dealt with daily, he’s not that bad, much. I like more of the Ice Maiden ornament more, but it was more on the voice and design, which is all she can be. Charleston “I want that bear!” Heston is a nice narrator. I don’t want to bet he was warming to narrate to the big screen about a demigod.  While Noel is a decent and unique film, I can’t recommend this to anyone who has depression. Now if you’re wondering “Shouldn’t a film that gives emotion reaction always be worth it to be good?” Normally, yes, but on Christmas, the tear jerking moments usually happen at the 3^rd act such as The Snowman, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, or Christmas Carols. Now there’s rare exception when an opening warms up the emotion, but that’s very rare. How strange, a film that can do right at the right time of day, but feels wrong at the wrong time. This is one of the Christmas films I don’t intend to revisit much. Best watch Noel when you’re as happy as Noel, or you’re better off watching the next film to review.

Nutcracker Fantasy

Let’s watch a Christmas traditional story where the music is better, and this is one of them; The Nutcracker Fantasy. 

This was film that leads me to do the theme of the review of the year. The story is told by a grown up Clara (voiced by Cousin Mel from Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer)

Lil Clare has a visit from her Uncle Drosselmeyer (voiced by Christopher Lee). Clare got the Nutcracker from her Uncle, which was rejected by others. On the same night, her Nutcracker was stolen by mice, led by the Two Headed Mouse Queen, Morphia (voiced by Jo Anne Worley, who later voiced the Wardrobe in Beauty and Beast. The good one, not the soul eating one) She goes through the Father Clock Hole to The Kingdom of Dolls. The kingdom was awakening by the present of Clara, including the Chamberlain (voiced by G1 Hound, Ken Sansom) and the King (voiced by Dick Van Patten, who would later voice another King.)

King Roland: Yes, my dear. Would I lie…too you?

Clara is finding a way to bring the princess back from a deep sleep. (You sure we didn’t stumble into the other Tchaikovsky film).  The meeting fails with all the nationalities’ wisemen….

Yogurt: Wisemen. Wise Guys more like it!

Clara got the advice from the live action puppet of the Queen of Time (voiced by Ava Gabor). The advice is to use the Pearl Sword of Light to destroy the Giant Shell of Darkness to free the Princess’ curse. (Pearl from Steven Universe was nowhere to be found) Clare tells this to Fritz..I mean Franz about the Shell of Darkness as they go onward to war with the Mice Kingdom. (Not Disneyland, the other one. Franz is voiced by Roddy McDowall.)  

This was the last stop-motion to be done by Rudolph’s animator, Tadahito Mochinga. This film kinda goes full circle in both good and bad. The good is leading him to full circle with his stop motion career from Rudolph to Daydreamer to Mad Monster Party, especially working with other stop motion artists that precede him such as Ichiro Komuro, and Frosty’s Animator, Sadao Miyamoto. It has definitely more life than the other Nutcracker stop-motion film from Bura and Hardwick. The shots of traveling through the clock are amazing. The bad is the pacing. It’s shown from Tadahito’s earliest work of Sea Eagle with scenes to go on too long to go nowhere and there’s plenty in this film, but that’s often the price for some Stop Motion movies at the time. It does create a haunting atmosphere during the quiet moment since the beginning by the pointless character, the Ragman. Granted, Tadahito wasn’t the director of either film. Nutcracker Fantasy was directed by Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town’s animator, Takeo Nakamura. Maybe it’s the writers as this film has 3 others with E.T.A Hoffman’s Nutcracker story. Though there’s no point as it can be purely coincidence.

Most of the characters are decent. Christopher Lee is an enjoyable Uncle, and his songs are nice to listen. Shame we’ll never have the metal version of his song. Roddy McDowall is a good actor, but he doesn’t have much to work with, but he may got stuck in the same tone as he was voicing the robot in Black Hole on the same year. It doesn’t help the voice and design of Franz/ Fritz looks way too old for Clara, where Clara looks like she 8, as he looks 18-24. I really love the design and voice of the Mouse Queen; creepy and menacing.

I’ve seen many other Nutcracker films. The majority loves is the Nutcracker-less version, aka the Nutcracker Suite from Disney’s Fantasia. In terms of 2D animated Nutcracker film, the best got is the 1973 Russian silent version with an extent of Nutcracker Prince and Saban’s Funky Fable of the Nutcracker with Ninjor as the Nutcracker (A film I remember watching in Elementary School). In term of live-action, that’s tricky than to find the live play version. Nutcracker and the Four Realm (or as I would call, Clara in Undernaria. Featuring Godfather Morgan Freeman, Snow Miser, Micetron and the stupid surprise villain that suffer any Disney film) will never be one good live action films, but it’ll be a step up to Legend of Nutcracker. In terms of stop-motion, the Nutcracker Fantasy is the closest best we got. If you want the best version with the equal focus and music and the best in terms of CGI, then look no further than Barbie’s Nutcracker, featuring Tim Curry as the Mouse King.

Some may find it boring, but unless you suffered from watching Legend of Nutcracker and the Nuttiest Nutcracker, you’ll find the quiet moments endearing. As for me, it’s a neat version of the Nutcracker. I just wish we can have a better version with the Nutcracker.  

Tukiki and his search for a Merry Christmas

How often do you see a Christmas film starring an Eskimo? Not much from the top of the head. So we got Tukiki and His Search For a Merry Christmas.

Tukiki is a little Eskimo who lives in the tundra with the talking animals of a greedy walrus, a lonely polar bear, a depressed generic reindeer, and gossiping yaks. Suddenly, Tukiki got the plot in the form of a card that said "Merry Christmas". No one knows what Christmas is in assuming the North Pole or the empty part of Alaska. Tukiki met a magical elder named the North Wind, voiced by Sterling Holloway. (Yes. That Sterling Holloway! The same guy who voiced Cheshire Cat and Winnie Pooh. Man, I’m keep getting reviews involving Disney Voice Actors.)

                                                                        

The North Wind shows Tukiki what Christmas is all around the world. They start with assuming Germany, where they see toys come to life, and yet Tukiki is human.

“Eerie, human must never see toys come to life. Those are the rules.”

-                                                     -Toy Elephant from Cricket on the Hearth, voiced by Paul Frees.

Afterwards, Tukiki and the North Wind went to Africa to see how they celebrate Christmas from a living flute. They went to assuming Sweden to meet the Nordics elves as Tomtars. Last, they went to Mexico to meet a Chameleon.

Will Tukiki learn the meaning of Christmas?

The minor choices and words they said or show wouldn’t work well in this PC world. Reason I said “assuming Germany” because the Dutch Girl doll thought Tukiki when he was covered in soot was Black Peter aka Zwarte Piet. *tugging collar* I don’t want to touch any further detail with a 39 ½ pole. Not even the timing or the next scene I put in the summary helps make it easier for most of us. Upon realizing, one of the toys when they went to Germany is a teddy bear…

“Come dream with me tonight..”

-         -Teddy Ruxpin as he said creepily in your nightmares.

Fitting the company who did this film later did the animated series of Teddy Ruxpin.

There's a wonderful moment where Tukiki and the North Wind are flying through the landscapes of winter Christmas. At first I thought this was ripping off the flying scene from The Snowman, but it turns out both this film and The Snowman animation on this scene was done by Robin White, and surprisingly Tukiki did it first. Nice trivia, but more people grew up with The Snowman than Tukiki. If you can something beautiful, but people haven’t seen it, do it again with "We're Walking In The Air."

This is the last voice recording by Bernard Cowan. Though with research, he did the voice directing for the Tomtars. The rest was done by two other voice directors. Sterling is mostly good as the North Wind. I prefer him over the North Leno Wind in Miser Bros. Christmas and the Southwest Wind in Peter Cottontail: The Movie. While on the subject of Sterling, this is fitting callback to his earlier film, Three Caballeros and the second time I have to regretfully mention them in my review. In Three Caballeros, Panchito tells story of the Los Pasada. Despite that film wasn’t a Christmas film; it was edited down to be on for TV as Donald’s Present and the ending was used in the Sing Along Song. The piñata in Tukiki does look similar in design to the other film. Who knows if it was intentional or not?

There's one question about the film. "Where's Tukiki's parent? Are they not around, are they dead, is the polar bear his guardian, or is Tukiki the last Eskimo on Earth as he's close to a myth.

"Lisa, Vampires aren't real. They're like elves, gremlins, and Eskimo."

-         -Homer Simpsons from Simpsons Treehouse of Horror 4.

Overall, this is a cute Christmas film and education to little kids who wants to learn what Christmas is as much as Tukiki without explaining harshly. Just be aware it’s dated with some minor uncomfortable scenes as much as films in the 30s and 40s. Now that I use a scene from Cricket on the Hearth, and brought up someone from Rudolph, it’s time to review the next film to go nuts over. 

The Little Christmas Burro

 Once again, it’s December, and it’s time to review Christmas Films. However, unlike last year, I’m running out of Rankin Bass Christmas films, and with limited time and lack of interest outside of a theme, I decided to review Christmas done partly by the same people who did some of the Rankin Bass. Let’s start this month’s review with *sigh* another Christmas Donkey film called The Little Christmas Burro. 

Why was a Christmas Donkey so common at the late 70’s? This was released after Nestor the Long Eared Donkey, but was released the same month and year as Don Bluth’s Small One. No confirm on the day when it was released assuming on TV, but let’s get on topic.  

A donkey named freelance Burro, who feels worthless. (I was assuming she, but summary said it was he. The eyelash and voice threw me off.) He can’t help the people for more than a day. One day, Burro found a caravan where he meets the rat named Omar (voiced by Paul Soles. Yes, Hermy the Elf from Rudolph, as he plays another short friend) Burro has finally got a job to be with a different caravan, but was traded to a crooked man. The crooked man took Burro to the market to be sold. You can guess what happens afterward.

The voice recording was done by the same guy who recorded Rudolph, Bernard Cowan. While on the Rudolph subject, Carl Banas who voiced the Spotted Elephant and the Head Elf voiced some of the background characters in this film. The voice acting overall is decent. The animation for the time period is really good, as most of the Omar’s animation is really energized.

It’s weird how similar Burro is to Nestor. The difference is Nestor was born and raised in a farm and was on his own with a little angel to guide. Burro has been wondering in the desert for what could be days or a month. The rat wasn’t much a guide, but a friend that often split out of their control. Though the story went on does stick close to the original tale.

It’s distracting to see modern things in Biblical Times such as Ants have scuba suits before submarines were made, or Omar singing ragtime. I’ll take those details over twerking and sassy Dove in Sony’s The Star any day.

BTW, did George Lucas get inspiration of tied up camels for Empire Strike Back from this film?

It may not have a heartbreaking moments such as Small One, or a heart such as Nestor, but The Little Christmas Burro has charm as much as the previous two mentioned and more thought than The Star and Donkey Ollie’s Christmas In Heaven. If you’re interested, it’s a cute film as it won’t cost more than silver coin prop.

I guess I’ll review the next Christmas film which is also directed by Vic Atkinson, and it’s not Rankin Bass’ Return To Oz.