Category: Short Film

Growing up in Chicagoland, these three shorts heralded the Christmas season, airing on The Bozo Show every year. Watching now is just full of nostalgia. The mid-20th century plastic-aluminum Christmas aesthetic is one of those that I really dig and these are brimming with it. The story of Hardrock, Coco, and Joe is told through a jaunty, yodely tune about a Chinese Santa Claus and his three little helpers. Suzy Snowflake is a more haunting song about the fairy who brings winter to us all. The well-known story of Frosty the Snowman is presented here with a be-bopping, bouncy flair. The first two are rendered in wonderful, simple stop-motion, while Frosty is traditional animation that isn’t all that far from the popular Rankin-Bass version. 

As with most Rankin-Bass specials, I had seen this a number of times in childhood, but mostly forgot about it except for its hauntingly catchy clock song. I was delighted to rediscover it a number of years ago as a bonus to the much inferior Frosty’s Winter Wonderland DVD. Nestled into the well-known Clement Moore poem is a tale about two families sharing the same house, a human one and its mouse counterpart. After a letter to the editor angers Santa to where he refuses to deliver presents to the town, the human clockmaker builds a clock in hopes to entice the normally jolly fellow back. It’s a spry 25 minute short, drawn in colorful traditional animation, with catchy songs, and told succinctly by a duo of narrators, George Gobel’s Father Mouse and Joel Grey’s human father.    

During a farmhouse raid, Timmy the little sheep is lost in a gift box, first finding himself under the tree at the community bazaar and then in the hands of little girl who believes he is her Christmas present. The rest of the flock with Bitzer in tow must rescue Timmy before it’s too late. You can’t go wrong with Shaun the Sheep and there’s special hilarity with the little girl’s parents who are so obsessed with their technology and internet presence that they don’t even notice a flock of sheep invading their house. It somehow manages to feel modern and quaintly timeless simultaneously.   

The classic Dr. Seuss television special continues to both provide a fine representation of his work and also inspirational Christmas fodder. The misanthropic Grinch’s only understanding of Christmas is by watching the Whovian celebrations each year, thinking that it’s all about the things that encompass Christmas traditions instead of the internal shared feelings that the holiday brings to the Whos. On a large, new television, the fluorescent colors are almost lurid in their boldness, but the simple classic animation and memorable songs remain indelibly ingrained in the mind. As a related aside, I shout mental expletives to all who were involved in the 2000 live-action abomination, but more importantly to all those who think it’s a good idea to ‘arrest’ the Grinch during community holiday celebrations, clearly people who never actually read or watched the tale nor understand the concept of a redemption arch.    

I pair these two because I’ve watched them together every year since they first appeared on Prime. They are both delightful adaptations of well-known children’s picture books. While they are both enjoyable, I love Snowy Day more. It perfectly encapsulates Ezra Keats’s beautiful illustrations and urban setting with an excellent voice cast that includes Regina King, Angela Bassett, and Laurence Fishburne. As a bonus, it contains a new Boyz II Men song that serves as a soundtrack through the entire short. If You Give a Mouse a Christmas Cookie focuses solely on the animal characters, really stretching the story of them trying to fix the school holiday pageant that they almost ruined. It’s a cute and inoffensive diversion that also captures its book inspiration well. 

Another contender for my favorite version of A Christmas Carol that maintains its Victorian setting, this one could possibly push aside the competition just because of its much more appealing runtime. Like the Muppet version, the Disney characters are almost perfectly assigned to each of their roles. Though Goofy is a somewhat weird choice for Marley, the ghosts are great this time around. But really, this story doesn’t need more than 30 minutes to tell and I love classic Disney animation.