Gift of the Night Fury

If I can be very honest, I'm pretty surprised out of all the Dreamworks franchises, they gave a Christmas special to the How To Train Your Dragon series! Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just that the world of Berk. Still, it could be pretty creative given that they did that Legend of the Boneknapper Halloween special. One thing I was surprised with in this is that they got all of the original voice actors back to do this (I know Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse & TJ Miller have done everything including the TV show & specials) including Gerard Butler, Jonah Hill, Craig Ferguson & Kristen Wiig. Anyway, can this special soar high like an angel, or is it too much to handle like a giant Christmas dinner? Let's find out!

Story: In this one, we get to see the teens preparing for their version of Christmas, Snoggletog, as the dragons begin leaving Berk. However, Toothless can't because of the tail Hiccup built can only be controlled by him, so he ends up making another one so he can leave whenever he pleases. It's then revealed that they left to lay eggs & take care of their babies, with hijinks ensuring when Astrid comes up with the idea to put them in Viking's houses as presents. That's all I can really say for the plot, but one part I'm glad about is it focuses on the relationships between the teens & their dragons, as it shows that they are all affected when the dragons fly away during Snoggletog (especially Fishlegs out of all the characters) also showing how used they are to the dragons in their everyday lives compared to the first movie. Another thing that is interesting to see is more on the dragons & what they do during winter along with what happens with their babies. I also particularly enjoyed how they gave equal screen time to all the teens instead of just Hiccup because he's the protagonist, & they all get an opportunity for comedic moments (i.e 'THE EGGS EXPLODE!!!')But easily the best part about the special is the heart of it. Now, I know that's not very shocking considering the How To Train Your Dragons franchise is pretty notorious for pulling on your heartstrings, but it's especially shown with the reason why Toothless returned after all of the other dragons (I won't say why, but it's pretty heartwarming along with the ending despite it being pretty predictable) Overall, this is a very sweet & funny special & a great addition to the How To Train Your Dragon franchise!

 

Animation: Considering How To Train Your Dragon is known for it's gorgeous animation, it's pretty solid in this (much better than the TV series anyway). The character designs of course keep the Chris Sanders style since they haven't changed at all compared to the first film, but the designs of the baby dragons were pretty well done with looking cute with their large puppy dog-like eyes (which makes sense since the dragons in general act like cats & dogs). As for the backgrounds, Berk's interpretation of Christmas/Snoggltog is pretty creative & oddly funny like drinking yak eggnog, and it oddly does put me in that Christmas feeling thanks to the colourful lights & lighting & atmosphere along with the snow.  If there is one thing I'd critique, it'd probably be the texturing on things like snow isn't as defined compared to the films, & the character animation isn't really as polished. That's just nitpicking from me because the animation is pretty great for a 22 minute special from Dreamworks Animation!

 

Characters: Even if all the characters are pretty much their same selves, it's for the better this time round! Hiccup & Toothless are still the same being best buds while the former learns more about dragons & the latter still being as loyal as ever (especially during the end) & they are both easily the heart of the special. As for the rest of the teens, it's nice to see them be given more attention as they plan to help Berk during Snoggletog with Astrid when their dragons have disappeared, with Fishlegs being my personal favourite since his friendship with Meatlug is surprisingly sweet, and Astrid finally knows how Hiccup feels whenever he inadvertantly screws up. Ruffnut and Tuffnut are still their same funny selves along with Snotlout still being pretty cocky & now fawning for Ruffnut. It's also nice to see a first glimpse of how much Stoick embraces dragons in Berk compared to the first film & his friendship with the eccentric & funny yet good hearted Gobber is also nice to watch. Even the dragons the teens own like Meatlug, Stormfly  & Hookfang are memorable thanks to their fun personalities & distinguishable designs! It's so nice to see all the characters I love with their personalities intact because they're easily the best part of the franchise next to the heart put in!

 

 

Overall, this is a very heartwarming special (typical in the How To Train Your Dragon franchise) with a sweet story, amazing animation from the best & the same loveable & funny characters we know & love. This is easily a must watch for How To Train Your Dragon fans during the holidays because there's no doubt that they'll love this immediately as the same amount of effort put into the movies is the same as in this!

Story: 9/10
Animation: 9/10
Characters: 8/10
Overall: 9/10 

The Christmas Tree

Now, I know a certain Doug Walker (The Nostalgia Critic) reviewed this last Christmas & that I know people are going to say I'm only doing it because he did. Yeah, that's true I'll admit & & I needed 25 movies/specials to do the Animation Advent Calendar again. But I was genuinely interested in watching it after seeing his review & I wanted to share my personal thoughts on it & don't worry, I'm gonna copy exactly what Doug said since I don't like to copy other people & be seen as pretentious as a result & the sole reason for this blog is for me to express MY thoughts & nobody else's. Anyway, released in 1991, it has been regarded as possibly THE worst Christmas movie/special of all time mostly thanks to the, let's say, 'subpar' production values & very nonsensical & convuluted story. So were all of Doug's criticisms right now that I've finally seen it one year later, or is it just a misunderstood gem that's so bad it's good...? Let's find out!

Story: Going into this, I thought it was just going to be a generic Christmas story. Oh boy, was I wrong! It's literally insane! There are scenes/plots which go nowhere, it surprisingly gets dark thanks to the third act when the kids try to get to the North Pole & the fact they're abused in the orphanage the first place just leaves this horrible taste in my mouth given it's meant to be a Christmas special of all things! The biggest issue I have with this along with the nonsensicality of it, is the fact that there's absolutely no heart put into it with viewers getting nothing in return other than their time being wasted. The message 'You always win when you are good' just comes right the hell out of nowhere since there was never any indication of that being the so called 'moral' in the special because of how little effort was put into it! However, I oddly found it so bad it was hilarious. There were several moments which were so so awful or poorly executed that I couldn't stop laughing.But besides that, the fact that it puts absolutely no heart put in just makes this really unpleasant to watch (besides the horrid animation & voice acting)

Animation: Yes, as everyone will know, the animation is absolutely atrocious! It all looks amateur (not even direct to video quality) with no lighting, a very rough quality & very VERY stiff character animation. The character designs are very creepy & it doesn't really help they use the exact same character models on the children but with different hairstyles/colours & clothes. Another huge problem I have is that they tend to loop or reverse bits of animation when the characters are talking in the exact same scenes or later on or sometimes they freeze bits of animation whether it's at the start of a scene or at the end of one for awkward timing purposes. And this doesn't happen from time to time, this happens quite frequently in the movie. But wait! There's more! There's also a huge problem with the editing with very awkward transitions from scene to scene or sometimes they'd play 2 separate scenes at the same time which end very abruptly & end up going nowhere. I don't think there's anything else to say, but looking at these screencaps, you know you're in trouble when. And it's not even that charming rough animation quality like in other Christmas specials, this is the lazy kind with no effort put in!

Characters: I don't even think I can describe the people in this as characters because every single one is as, if not more, wooden as Mrs Hopewell! Judy is the 'kind hearted' assistant/mother to the children in the orphanage & is bland, Mrs Mavilda is the generic evil & strict governess, but is downright abusive to the children, the Mayor is a huge idiot, Judy's husband has no personality (I'm convinced he's a robot, that's how monotone he sounds) & Mrs Hopewell, the titular Christmas Tree is just a tree animated by a load of trees pointlessly cut down to make this crap. As for the kids, none of them have personalities at all, with Pappy & Lily being Judy's kids who live with the other children while the other orphans had never even heard of Christmas. In fact, the only 'character' worth liking in this is Licquorice, the neigbourhood dog, & even then he can't really count cos, well, he's a dog who does nothing to contribute to the plot. But the biggest problem I have is the horrid voice acting! It's all so monotone & deadpan that it felt like it was all done in one take & that they were just reading the script for the first rather than actually acting! The child actors are especially the worst since half the time, you can't make out what they're saying, there's awful autotune put on one kid that makes him sound like an alien & another that sounds more like a teenager than a kid & none of them put any effort in whatsoever! This could be the worst thing about the film! It's not that they're just a group of undeveloped generics, but that they're a group of MONOTONE, NOT CARING generic characters!

 

The best way to describe The Christmas Tree is that it's messed up in the worst way possible! There is absolutely nothing redeemable in this. Honestly, I'm insulted by this movie cos of the poor production values & the time I wasted watching this crap when I could've spent it on something actually worth watching! I definitely can understand why Doug Walker considers it the worst Christmas special because of the lack of effort put in, but I have seen much worse animated films in my time, but this stands as the worst animated Christmas special I've seen so far next to A Swan Princess Christmas!
Story: 1/10
Animation: 1/10
Characters: 1/10
Overall: 1/10

Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse

As a kid, I freaking loved the House of Mouse since it was the biggest Disney crossover ever at the time (before Disney Infinity, Epic Mickey & kinda Once Upon A Time since ABC is owned by Disney & has numerous Disney references) with characters from films like Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio, Aladdin, Hercules, Winnie the Pooh, Pocahontas, Dumbo & even the penguins from Mary Poppins as the waiters! Heck, even the classic characters from the 30s & 40s cartoons made prominent appearances! Anyway, this was released in 2001 for the Christmas season. I never had the DVD growing up, but I did used to watch it when it came on Disney Channel (which since has gone pretty crap in my opinion) or Toon Disney (which has since gone defunct) at Christmas. Anyway, can the House of Mouse make Christmas feel more at home or is it as bad as getting snowed in? Let's find out!

Story: Obviously, the premise is everyone being snowed in at the House of Mouse thanks to a snowstorm, but there is another plot where Donald doesn't have any Christmas spirit as everyone attempts to lift them up by showing cartoons, giving out hot chocolate & Disney characters expressing their wishes for Christmas & what they're thankful for. And thanks to Mickey wishing on a star, that happens & everyone happily celebrates Christmas with no mention of the snowstorm again & Donald is happy again for no reason. The special has many old cartoons which in a way try to connect to the main plot like Donald on Ice which is pretty funny with Huey, Duey & Louie trying to outdo Donald in ice skating, the classic Pluto's Christmas Tree one (one which I shall review separately next year), Mickey's Christmas Carol (I already reviewed it last year so I don't need to go any further into my thoughts on it) & a brand new cartoon based on Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker with Minnie as Marie, Mickey as the Nutcracker, Donald as the Mouse King (yeah, stick by me with this), Ludrick von Drake as Uncle Drosselmeyer & Goofy as a Sugar Plum Fairy with John Cleese narrating it. It is pretty funny with the fourth wall jokes since Donald is dissatisfied with playing the villain & the narrator lying to him that he'll win but other than that, it's pretty much the same as other The Nutcracker adaptations. Honestly, the plot is pretty generic & predictable & most of the time the scenes are filler like the cartoons (which I ironically enjoyed more than the special itself) & it feels like not a lot of effort was put in other than trying to add a lot jokes in & a lot of Disney cameos (seriously, even llama Kuzco from The Emperor's New Groove makes an appearance) It just feels like one of them crappy direct to video movies that plagued Disney at the time which had shorts which you can just watch on Youtube & it feels like a contracted obligation rather than something someone wanted to make. So yeah, not exactly on par with Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas (which remains as my favourite Mickey Mouse Christmas movie)

 

Animation: Yeah, it's pretty obvious that the animation isn't the greatest. It has the same quality as the TV show & it feels inconsistent thanks to the constant use of stock footage & the cartoons made between many years from each other! Anyway, I'll just be going over the House of Mouse scenes & it is easily the worst! The character designs are off model & rubbery except for the main characters, the backgrounds feel repetetive since we're stuck in one room & the roof & rooftop of the place. It doesn't really help the lighting is off as most of the time the characters look completely flat & when there are scenes using spotlights, they don't add much depth to them. And the nutcracker scenes are also flat with the lines being much thicker for the characters but I found it to be much better in terms of character animation & the awareness of being more cartoony. Although it is really colourful & attempts to be Christmas-y to make it feel more holiday-ish, it can't do jack to hide the quality is not the best. Honestly I can't find much else to say about the animation other than that it's direct to video standards with nothing new & does nothing to put me in the holiday spirit!

 

Characters: One thing's for sure, the characters in this are exactly the same, but it's not that bad! Except for the other Disney characters! Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip & Dale, & Daisy are pretty much exactly the same which is fine for them, Donald is a grumpy Scrooge ala A Christmas Carol (seriously, they reference it by showing all of the Mickey's A Christmas Carol cartoon) & his 'development' is unusually fast & feels tacked on thanks to the deus ex machina wish upon a star. Heck, we don't even know why he's feeling down about Christmas at all! Anyway, as for the rest of the Disney characters from the movie, they're all stereotypes of themselves like Cinderella being bland, Eeyore being sad & gloomy, Belle & the Beast talking about love all the time (yeah, I'm mad they ruined their characters), Kuzco (I'm not kidding) being a whiny brat, Jiminy Cricket giving advice & to wish upon a star (of course!) & oddly everyone is fine with the villains being at the House of Mouse for no reason whatsoever even though it's obvious they're still evil! Anyway, the main characters are fine despite no development at all & the othres are one dimensional & bland! In fact, the best one I could relate to was the John Cleese narrator!

If I can be honest this was a huge disappointment for me after seeing it from years ago. The story is cliched with filler, the animation is pretty cheap & the characters are either one or two dimensional. And as for the song at the end...oh God, it's unbelievably cheesy & corny! Kids may like it & it kind of has a positive message, but it just made me cringe so much! This just feels heartless & my only recommendation is staying away from this & watching Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas & Mickey's Christmas Carol separately because this movie is not worth it if you want to watch Mickey's Christmas Carol!
Story: 3/10
Animation: 4/10
Characters: 3/10
Overall: 3/10

Beauty & the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas

I know I reviewed this last year when I did the Disney sequels, but looking back at the review & seeing the movie, I realized I had more to say & some of my thoughts had changed. Anyway, released in 1997, Beauty & the Beast would be the next Disney classic to be butchered with a sequel after Aladdin (even if King of Thieves was actually good) & this would be the first infamous midquel Disney would make (a movie taking place during the events of the first film, not before or after besides the beginning & the end in this case) & would be a pretty bad formula with a lot of disregards to the continuity of the first film, which is definitely the case here! Anyway, with all the original cast returning along with new ones like Tim Curry, Bernadette Peters & Paul Reubens, can a bit of DisneyToon's magic make Christmas more enchanting, or is it as beastly as a getting food poisoning after Christmas dinner? Well, considering my last review of this, I seriously doubt the former!

Story: Yes, my biggest criticism was the plot since it butchered my all time favourite Disney movie, and it still stands but I'll explain more! Not only is there hardly any continuity between this & the first film due to the timeline (this takes place after Beast saved Belle from the wolves & they started to warm up to each other), but the whole thing feels unecessary as it does nothing to further the story from the first film or say anything new about the characters besides giving them a 180 & making them almost unrecognisable in terms of personality. As for the comedy, most of it is just bad puns (i.e. 'Don't whine glasses'), annoying slapstick (i.e. the 'clockboarding' scene) & Fife doing crazy shenanigans to avoid Belle & Beast from getting together. OK, some bits made me chuckle a tiny bit, but the comedy still doesn't work as a whole. Another issue I have is the awful & stupid dialogue along with scenes & musical numbers which have little to no purpose to the plot in either this or the first film. Oh yeah, and Forte's plans or even addition to Beauty & the Beast make no sense for very obvious reasons if you have seen the first film as, well, we knew the characters wouldn't die & the spell would be broken by the end of the first film!  But the worst part would be that there's hardly any heart! The fact that the side characters are now forcing Belle & the Beast to get together while Forte is trying to avoid the spell from being broken just takes away from the fact that they fell in love on their own terms & what made the first movie really work as a romance as it now feels forced & unatural! Oh yeah, and the fact it's a Christmas film doesn't do it justice even if it tries to give you that warm Christmas feeling & kind of succeeds because of the animation! OK, I know I'm really smacking this film considering Belle's Magical World is a bajillion times worse when they put no effort in at all, but what I'm trying to say is failing to live up to the heart of the first film, the continuity being all over the place & you're pretty much left with a turkey of a Christmas film!

Animation: Yeah, looking back at my review, I was definitely too harsh on the animation & I hardly looked into it, because watching the movie again, the animation isn't all that bad! It's definitely a step up from the Aladdin sequels, but it doesn't come close to the quality of the original either (I know, it's dependant on budget, but still) Even if the character designs are more polished, at times they can look off model & the facial animation can go crazy for no reason, making them look & feel a little but too cartoony. Also, for some strange reason, it changes from really good to really rough in terms of quality thanks to the thickness of the outlines & the colouring done being pretty basic along with the inconsistency of the lighting & shadowing, with them looking flat for quite a lot. The character animation isn't all that bad despite it not being as fluid as the first film, but at times the facial animation can go all over the place & look over the top & cartoony (especially in the scene where the Beast wants to get a gift for Belle). One thing I do like is the animation in the Stories sequence, with a very stylized look from an old fashion book & is actually the best part of the animation in the film along with the backgrounds! They actually do look nice in the castle & it can look very colourful with the Christmas mood it goes for along with the black forest. However, then comes the big elephant in the room: the CGI on Forte. It is so blatantly obvious & phoned in that it was as if they didn't want to hide the fact he was CGI & his design looked creepy in a bad way (not in the way we were meant to see it) I definitely have seen much worse works in the direct to video department & it is a rather nice attempt given their last sequels' animation, so I'm not gonna say it's that bad!

 

Characters: One thing's for sure, these are not the same characters I absolutely love! Belle this time round for some reason believes she can change the Beast by giving him a present despite the only nice thing he had done for her prior was save her from a pack of wolves! Yeah, she definitely isn't the same eccentric, smart & woman from the first film & has now been reduced to a two dimensional despite trying to rebel against the Beast's thoughts on Christmas! And Beast has turned into an angsty yet goofy idiot who hates Christmas because the script says so! As for the rest of the characters, they're all pretty much watered down from the first film. Lumiere is now trying to pursue Angelique (wait, I thought he was in love with Fifi the featherduster) & is all ecstatic about love except is now more forceful with Belle & the Beast, Cogsworth is just the stuck up butt monkey that wants order in the castle & doesn't want Christmas in the castle until mentions of Christmas dinner, Mrs Potts & Chip (played by Haley Joel Osment in this) are pretty much useless, Maurice never appears or is mentioned at all & then there's the new characters...where do I begin? May as well start with Angelique, voiced by Broadway legend Bernadette Peters, the bossy & cynical castle decorator appropriately turned into an angel ornament. Honestly, although Bernadette Peters is really good with her voice acting (much better than the recent Legends of Oz film), the fact that we know Angelique is going to change her mind over Christmas doesn't really make her that well developed despite the fact it's clear that's what they were trying to do with her. And then there's Forte, the villain of the film that doesn't want the spell to be broken because he thinks he's more useful as a pipe organ & the Beast needs him more than ever...honestly, he's a terrible villain despite his interesting if not creepy design & Tim Curry's really really really hammy & entertaining voice acting! He comes nowhere near close to Gaston & is pretty much useless considering we already knew the spell would be broken despite the fact he actually tries to kill Belle & the Beast in the climax to avoid them falling in love...anyway, his henchman Fife is an annoying & superfluous comedy sidekick despite Paul Reuben's acting, there's a random Jewish axe voiced by Jeff Bennett who's pretty much useless & all the other household objects are either annoying or useless. To sum up, with butchering the characterisation & turning them into a group of generics along with inferior new ones, this pretty much leaves me wondering if the writers actually saw the original film they're trying to do a follow-up to!

 

Songs: Remember the classic Howard Ashman & Alan Menken songs that you still get stuck in your head today? Hope you've said goodbye to them because it's a completely different story here! The first original song is Stories, which isn't bad by all means in terms of melody or Paige O'Hara's beautiful singing, but the lyrics really bother me as they're about Belle wanting to get through to the Beast & change him even though like I mentioned, she got round to him when he started being nice. As Long As There's Christmas is just stupid & easily the worst song with nonsensical & generic lyrics, hardly any melody, & is pretty much all about the commercialisation of Christmas instead of what it's really about & it just made me cringe so much! OK, the reprise is actually really good because of the quieter & softer tone & Bernadette Peters' & Paige O'Hara's singing together is very very good! That & Don't Fall In Love is one of the most forgettable villains songs ever despite Tim Curry's very hammy singing & the bizarre imagery with the weird lazer cupids. There's hardly any melody, it doesn't show Forte's motivation besides his weird obsession with the Beast & it's so obvious he's the villain, they're not even trying! Oh yeah, and somehow they got away with the line 'If you're turned on then just turn off', what a great way to have something for the parents in a family film. A Cut Above The Rest is the most useless song ever as it does nothing to progress the plot or character development & is just there for the obligatory comedy sidekick song! Despite a few nice melodies here & there in the score, most of the songs are useless, the lyrics are ridiculous & they are nowhere near as memorable as it's predecessor!

 

Beauty and The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is an example of the quintessential midquel: it has no regards to continuity, the characters are backwards, the story is cliched, unecessary & uninteresting & there's hardly any heart put in. This was more painful to me considering Beauty & the Beast is my all time favourite Disney film, but if you don't care for it, you may like it & the animation is admittedly not all that bad despite it's obvious glitches. But it's clear this is when they were starting to not care about Disney sequels/midquels & why they shouldn't have been made in the first place!
Story: 3/10
Animation: 6/10
Characters: 2/10
Songs: 2/10
Overall: 3/10