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.