Told by Art Carney
Original Airdate: December 23, 1981
Airs annually on AMC's Best Christmas Ever
Available on the Classic Christmas Favorites DVD box set
For all the creative lore this special provides about the
ways of leprechauns including the jobs they do, how they find their prized
possessions, and even the nature of their banshee enemy, Old Mag the hag, one
thing comes to mind.
What does any of this have to do with Christmas? The focus on things like leprechauns, gold,
shamrocks, and rainbows just doesn’t seem to have a good connection. Constantly mentioning Christmas when bringing those things up doesn’t really
help. It just makes the Christmas aspect
feel forced and not different
from a typical story. I can see all
these elements as a good fit for a St. Patrick’s Day special, especially since
they mention St. Patrick at one point, but not Christmas. The best bit of lore that ties into Christmas
is the plot’s inciting action where a cabin boy named Dinty Doyle pulls out a
pine tree from a leprechaun island releasing Old Mag. His intention is to use it as his ship’s Christmas tree, but it’s hardly enough.
Now, if you ignore the special’s pitiful attempt to tie into Christmas, the
story itself is somewhat interesting.
The main patriarch of the leprechaun clan, Blarney Kilakilarney, spends
his time down in the mines that store the leprechauns’ gold. It has the
misfortune of attracting rainbows to it which open the mine and make it easy
for banshees like Mag to find. As for
Mag, she spends the whole special trying to get the gold by Christmas morning
or else she’ll turn into tears, only she can’t just steal it. Someone has to give it to her. It’s fascinating lore to say the least, but
there are a lot of points of concern with the setup. First of all, Blarney isn’t all
that likable of a lead since he claims to have spent hundreds of years down in
the mine protecting the gold instead of being with his family. The reason for this is all because of a
disagreement he had with his wife. She was convinced to give up the gold to a
fairy who was actually Mag in disguise while Blarney was completely sure of the
fairy’s true identity, so the wife kicked him out. A fair reason for tension and all, but even
after Mag is trapped under the pine tree, Blarney values the gold over his clan.
He remains in the mine even though he was clearly proven right and the
conflict shouldn’t even exist anymore.
Second, Mag isn’t villainous enough to warrant a desire for her to be
defeated. She may create storms, but
from what we see, they don’t last forever.
She’s also implied to bring bad luck, but we hardly see any of
that. Even her motives to get the gold
are understandable. Like Aeon from Rudolph’s Shiny New Year, she’s just
doing what she can to stay alive, and what she does doesn’t even hurt anyone. They’re just disguises and harmless spells
and tricks that don’t leave an impact.
There’s also never any reason why the leprechaun’s need the gold. They’re willing to give it away at the end of
the special, so what’s the big deal if Mag gets it? Finally, the story ends up being majorly
uneventful for all its creative aspects.
Whenever something to work in the antagonist’s favor happens, it’s
resolved almost instantly. Mag puts a
spell on Blarney to give her the gold, but he fights through it and gives it to
Dinty. After Mag tricks Dinty into
giving her the gold, she makes him “sleep for 100 Christmases,” but he’s woken
up by a rainbow the next morning without any foreshadowing. Then, just as Mag is about to get the gold,
Christmas morning comes, and she’s turned into tears as prophesized. Any tension is always quashed before it can
give the special more appeal. At least
Blarney does see sense and make up with his wife, and Mag’s final death is
nicely constructed with a hand-drawn wave washing away her teary remains. Still, out of all of Rankin/Bass’ specials,
this is easily the most problematic one they’ve made.
As problematic as this special is, I wouldn’t say it’s a
total bust. In fact, I admire how it
gives a nice taste of Irish culture. As
I’ve said several times, the lore of how the leprechauns function is creative
and fascinating. The culture is also
immersive with how the craftsmanship of the setting and props have a lot of
detail to them and make you feel like you’re watching a real
Irish island. The songs are great
and memorable too. They have an
appealing and upbeat Irish sound to them and further get you interested in the
Irish culture and customs of the Kilakilarny clan. The songs also bring out one of the more
Christmassy moments in the special including a nice rendition of the song, “Christmas
in Killarney.” So while you won’t get that good of a story, characters, or
even feeling of Christmas with this special, as a standalone work, the respect towards Irish culture is somewhat
impactful.
The special has its moments, but it’s a Rankin/Bass special
you should look out for the least every year. It’s not bad on its own, but there are still
big issues with the characters and the story structure and how it’s hard to
make it a Christmas tradition when it doesn't feel like Christmas. It still offers a harmless look at Irish
culture, so it’s still worth viewing if you’re interested enough.
Worth a Look
The Ranking
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town
- The Year Without a Santa Claus
- Frosty the Snowman
- The Little Drummer Boy
- Jack Frost
- The Stingiest Man in Town
- Rudolph’s Shiny New Year
- Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
- Pinocchio’s Christmas
- The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow
- Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July
- ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
- Frosty’s Winter Wonderland
- The Little Drummer Boy Book II
- Cricket on the Hearth
- The Leprechaun’s Christmas Gold
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next special where Rankin/Bass presents another take on Santa Claus' origins with The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.
If you would like to check out other Rankin/Bass special reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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