A Flintstone Christmas

Premiered December 7, 1977.  

"It's my favorite time of the year

It's that magical time of good cheer

I guess part of the reason's

The heart of the season

Of Christmas is practically here."
-sung by Fred Flintstone

Christmas has come to the town of Bedrock and Fred Flintstone (Henry Corden) and Barney Rubble (Mel Blanc) are excited about the holiday season.  

Their wives Wilma (Jean Vander Pyl) and Betty (Gay Hartwig) are organizing the Ladies Auxiliary Party for the Bedrock Orphanage.  They want Fred to play Santa Claus at the party, but Fred refuses.  He says his co-workers would never let him live it down.  When Fred goes to work, his boss Mr. Slate summons Fred into his office.  Slate says his wife also wants Fred to play Santa at the orphanage party.  Fred's fear of his boss is enough to convince him to play St. Nick.  

On Christmas Eve, Barney and Fred are preparing to go to the party, when they find a man in a Santa suit buried in a snowdrift in the Flintstone's yard.  He's sprained his ankle, has a bad cold and needs help.  The man claims to be the real Santa Claus!  

Fred and Barney think he's an escaped mental patient until they see Santa's sleigh and reindeer on the roof! 

Barney suggests that due to his injury, Santa should get a replacement to deliver gifts and nominates Fred.  Using Santa magic, he creates an elf suit for Barney and puts his suit on Fred.

Their worldwide journey is going fine until they encounter a blizzard.  The storm is so turbulent that it causes Santa's bag of toys to fall out of the sleigh!  

Fred and Barney contact Santa via CB radio and he tells them to fly to his North Pole workshop to collect more toys.  

Barney and Fred meet Mrs. Claus (Virginia Gregg) at the North Pole.

At the orphanage party, the children grow restless since Santa-Fred hasn't arrived.  The kids begin to chant "WE WANT SANTA," and Pebbles worries to Wilma that Santa won't come to the party.

Can Fred and Barney deliver all the presents in time to make it to the party?  

J.A. Morris says:

A Flintstone Christmas is a good, solid, enjoyable holiday special.  I bring some nostalgia to this review because I remember when this special first aired and I was excited about it at the time.  I enjoyed it then and it's still fun all these years later.  However, there are some problems with this special.

In Bedrock, even the pteranodons are feeling the Christmas Spirit!

The plot, which involves Fred substituting for Santa and delivering gifts, is mostly recycled from "Christmas Flintstone," which we reviewed here recently.  The primary difference is that Santa injures himself at the Flintstones' home and Barney accompanies Fred in the round-the-world sleighride. 

That's not the end of the world, since many viewers probably saw this special before watching the 1964 Christmas episode (myself included).  It's also worth noting that "Christmas Flintstone" featured a sleigh driven by flying rein-dinos, in A Flintstone Christmas, it's the traditional flying reindeer.  

Speaking of recycled material, A Flintstone Christmas re-uses three songs from A Christmas Story, a 1972 animated special produced by Hanna-Barbera.  "Which One Is The Real Santa Claus," "Sounds Of Christmas Day," and "Hope" were all featured in A Christmas Story.  It also features two new songs, "A Brand New Kind Of Christmas Song" and "It's Our Favorite Time Of Year" (H-B later re-used the latter song in Yogi's First Christmas).  

The biggest problem I have with A Flintstone Christmas isn't that it re-uses songs.  It's that it contains too many songs that don't really move the plot forward.  They don't relate to the story, they just...happen. 

For instance, during a Christmas street scene, Barney and Fred notice all the Santas working on sidewalks and in department stores and wonder which one is the real Santa.  This leads into their performance of "Which One Is The Real Santa Claus."  It's not a bad song, but it leads to nothing and isn't relevant to the rest of the story.  It would have been easy to have a "call-back" to the song when the real Santa Claus shows up at Fred's house, but that never happens.  

The same can be said for the rest of the songs.  It just feels like the musical numbers are inserted to pad out the special's running time.  "Hope" is the only song that relates to the story, since Wilma sings it when her daughter Pebbles doubts Santa will come.  

Having said all that, it's still a decent special.  If you're a fan of the Flintstones, the Rubbles and their Modern Stone Age lives, you'll enjoy A Flintstone Christmas.  The voice actors all provide solid work.  Henry Corden plays Fred here, taking over for Fred's original portrayer Alan Reed.  Corden took over the role in 1977 and would continue to voice Fred until 1997.  Mel Blanc and Jean Vander Pyl were the original voices for Barney and Wilma, they're also good in this special. 

John Stephenson returns as Mr. Slate and it's always entertaining to hear him scream "FLINTSTONE!"  

Hal Smith, who voiced Santa in "Christmas Flintstone," also portrays him in this special.  

While A Flintstone Christmas is no classic, it's a light, fun and entertaining special.  Fans of Fred and Barney will enjoy watching them save Christmas (again) and the strong voice work makes it worth watching at least once.  There's a good 24-minute special here without all the songs.  The overreliance on songs that distract from the plot keeps me from giving it a higher rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5

2 and a half candy canes.

RigbyMel says:

A Flintstone Christmas is a solid enough holiday special.   It's essentially a re-make of the 1964 "Christmas Flintstone" episode with a longer running time in which the trope of helping an injured Santa Claus save Christmas is re-revisited.  

As J.A. Morris says above, the voice talent is super strong in this episode.   The songs are pleasant enough -  I like the "Which One Is The Real Santa Claus?" song in particular - but really do feel like they exist to pad out the running time so the special will fit into an hour long slot (with commercial interruptions).   

This padding is underscored by some pretty obvious recycling of animation, particularly in the Santa's workshop sequence with the elvish activity.  

I was amused by the inclusion of the 1970s CB radio fad being used as a plot device so that Fred & Barney can communicate with Santa while making Santa's Christmas Eve delivery rounds.  

It's interesting to see how things like this that were popular at the time a special was made make their way into these types of programs. 

Fun fact:  According to Wikipedia,  Mel Blanc was an active CB radio fan and would often communicate with kids in the Los Angeles area in the voices of some of his many cartoon characters. 

A Flintstone Christmas is ... fine, but definitely not a holiday classic.  Still, kids will enjoy it as will fans of Hanna-Barbera animation, so it's worth watching at least once.  

RigbyMel's rating:

 

2 candy canes.

Arthur Christmas

Released in the US on November 23, 2011.

"Oscar Takes A Holiday" continues with our review of Arthur Christmas, which features Jim Broadbent as the voice of Santa Claus.  Broadbent won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 2001 film Iris.  

Jim Broadbent shows off his Oscar at the 74th Academy Awards ceremony.

Here's today's review:

Arthur Christmas (James McAvoy), son of Santa Claus (Jim Broadbent), is responsible for answering letters sent to Santa.

He receives a letter from a girl named Gwen (Ramona Marquez) who lives in Trelew, UK.  Gwen's letter asks Santa to bring her a pink bicycle for Christmas.   

Santa Claus is actually named Malcolm, he’s the 15^th man to take on the role of Santa.  His father, known as Grandsanta (Bill Nighy), previously filled the role.

On Christmas Eve, Santa is traverses the globe on a giant high tech sleigh called the
S-1.  

Grandsanta believes that Christmas was better in the old days when he delivered toys in the traditional sleigh pulled by flying reindeer.

Santa's son (and heir-apparent) Steve (Hugh Laurie) is in command on the bridge of the S-1. 

Santa and his elves deliver presents in a manner that resembles a covert paramilitary action.  Steve believes that this will be his father’s last year as Santa and he expects to take over the role.

As Christmas Eve turns into Christmas morning, Santa and company arrive home and begin celebrating another successful night of gift delivery.

Suddenly, the elves realize that one gift has gone undelivered.  Arthur figures out that it’s the bike intended for Gwen.  Santa and Steve say it’s no bother, millions of kids got their presents, they’ll get it to Gwen in a few days.  

Arthur protests, saying every child deserves a gift from Santa on Christmas morning.

Arthur’s concern falls on deaf ears, until Grandsanta decides to help him deliver the gift.  He tells Arthur they will deliver the bicycle to Gwen, using his original sleigh (which he calls "Evie") pulled by six flying reindeer.  

They’re joined by an elf named Bryony Shelfley (Ashley Jensen), who specializes in gift wrap, but has always wanted to deliver presents.  They head off to Trelew on a journey that takes them around the world, with several detours.

Can Athur, Grandsanta and Bryony deliver the bike before Gwen wakes up Christmas Morning?

J.A. Morris says:

I liked Arthur Christmas quite a bit when it was first released and it holds up after multiple viewings.  I thought the voice actors were all excellent, but James McAvoy carries the film.  He creates a character that embodies kindness who loves Santa and Christmas more than anything.  Arthur is willing to risk life and limb in order to deliver Gwen's bike.  His love of the holiday rubs off on his older family members who feel lost in the shuffle of the "military-style" delivery of presents.

It's such a great performance that you forget this is the actor who played Professor Xavier in multiple X-Men films. 

The animation, just like other Aardman movies looks amazing.   The reindeer are absolutely gorgeous and look very realistic. 

If I have any problem with Arthur Christmas, it's that Santa doesn't immediately drop everything and get the present to Gwen's house ASAP.  In the story, Santa feels like he's lost control of the delivery of presents, so much so that he feels like an after-thought in the operation that's mostly directed by Steve.  

So I get it, but...he's still Santa Claus!  I don't think I'm spoiling too much of the film when I tell you that Santa comes around before it's over, but it still bugged me a bit.  

Arthur Christmas features great animation, excellent voice-acting and an entertaining adventure.  Recommended, but my above feelings about Santa keep me from giving it my highest rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5


3 and a half candy canes.

RigbyMel says: 

I've been a fan of Aardman animation since discovering Wallace & Gromit in the 1980s.  The level of detail in their films always manages to impress and Arthur Christmas is a lovely holiday offering produced by the UK studio in collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation.

This movie manages to find a nice balance between old and new as well as capturing the holiday spirit without being soppy in doing so.    The characters are all very well defined and delightfully quirky.  Goofy, clumsy Arthur's love of Christmas and his determination shine through (as do the eyes on his fuzzy reindeer slippers).

We have a somewhat befuddled Santa/Malcom, his hyper competent and unflappable wife (voiced by Imelda Staunton), crochety, irascible Grandsanta (voiced by Bill Nighy), and tech-obsessed elder brother Steve (voiced by Hugh Laurie), who each have their own ideas as to how things should be run. 

And, of course, we have the intrepid elf Bryony (as voiced by Ashley Jensen) who works in the wrapping department and is just as determined as Arthur to see to it that little Gwen gets her (fully-wrapped) bike! 

Bryony!

Even the more minor characters like Grandsanta's elderly, be-coned reindeer are well-drawn characters.

There are amusing gags that will appeal to both adults and kids.  My particular favorite is the accidental "alien encounter" scene when Arthur and Grandsanta land in the middle of the U.S.

The ultimate message of the film is two-fold: 1) every child deserves a present on Christmas and 2) dysfunctional families (even Santa's!) still love each other and the holidays can help bring them closer together.

Arthur Christmas endeavors to show us how exactly Santa manages to deliver all those presents in just one night, and it is also an enjoyable family comedy adventure story.  Like J.A., I can personally vouch that it stands up to repeated viewings and it can be enjoyed by kids from 1 to 92.  Recommended.

RigbyMel's rating: 

4 candy canes!