This 30 minute animated special was shown on Cartoon Network for the cartoon Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. Surprisingly it wasn't the series finale like what most Christmas episodes are like All Dogs Go To Heaven series or Bump In The Night. I loved Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends because of the funny characters of the house and the creativity of each imaginary friend. I always wanted to have an imaginary friend coming to life as a kid like the show, so maybe that's why I loved it so much. So, does this episode manage to be as imaginative as the imaginary friends in the show, or is there no creativity in this whatsoever? Let's find out!
Story: In this episode, Mac is starting not to believe Santa Claus after many imaginary versions come to the house. He tries to keep faith in Santa by going to the shopping mall to see Santa there, only to discover it was Coco pretending to be Santa. During this Mr Herriman is a Scrooge & disallows any presents being delivered or any decorations up. This angers Bloo, so he takes inspiration from A Christmas Carol & pretends to be 3 ghosts (including Bob Marley for some reason) to convince Mr Herriman to bring Christmas to the house, which he gives in. In one last attempt to believe in Santa, Mac says he wants underwear in his stocking, only to find none in the presents he opens with his family. But, once he gets to the house...yeah you know what's coming. I actually like that Mac is in conflict with his belief in Santa at his age, I kind of did, but I always had a suspicion that he wasn't real and it never scarred me for life when I eventually realized he didn't exist (my parents didn't even have to tell me, I just knew there was no Santa) However, I like that it's good for kids to believe in Santa, it brings magic to them and that's how Mac feels during the episode, up to the point it's almost psychological! I will say it's pretty predictable, we have seen plots like this (including Recess and Rugrats) about Santa, but I think this handled it a bit better than the others.
Animation: Yeah, yeah, the animation is for a TV show, so the quality's not good compared to movies. I'm just going to quickly announce I'm changing it up a bit with the animation section depending on what type of medium it is, like TV shows, theme park rides, movies etc, because looking back, I feel I've been pretty unfair on cartoons comparing them to movies. Anyway, as this is a cartoon, the animation is pretty decent! The character designs are very creative with all of the imaginary friends of course, but especially when it comes to all of the Santas! Each one looks like a Santa you'll have seen him as, but they have individualities to make them distinguishable! The character animation is pretty good for TV as it's more flash style and cartoony. The world the characters live in is very flat and has a distinguishable look to it, especially in this as it's Christmas, so of course it's bright and colourful. So yeah, the animation isn't really that bad in this, in fact it's really good compared to other cartoons!
Characters: the main character in this episode is Mac, an 8 year old intelligent boy who's kind of the generic kid, but he can have a funny personality and is the voice of reason for his imaginary friend Bloo. You can feel for him in this when it comes to believing in Santa. Bloo, Mac's imaginary friend, is the selfish jerk who thinks he's better than everyone else, but it's good that he gets his just desserts at the end for his actions. Mr Herriman is the Scrooge in this, but it works with his strict demeanour which leads to some funny moments. Wilt is still the optimistic sporty self, Coco, I don't get Coco, I'm sorry, but she is funny with her snarky yet goofy nature and Eduardo, come on you can't help but love him being a big softie and being scared of everything despite looking intimidating! Frankie, Madame Foster's grand-daughter, is the one who has to keep the peace in the house and is sick of following orders from Mr Herriman. Even Madame Foster can be funny in this, instead of being a generic old grandma you'd expect. In fact, the characters are the strongest part of the episode!
Overall, I really enjoyed this with a great story, nice animation and memorable characters! This really gave me a nostalgic feeling when watching it and the humour is actually funny! I'd recommend this to Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends fans and those who like watching cartoon Christmas episodes cos it is very enjoyable to watch!
Story: 8/10
Animation (for a cartoon): 8/10
Characters: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
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