Told by George
Gobel
Recited by Joel Grey
Original Airdate: December 8, 1974
Airs annually on AMC’s Best Christmas Ever
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
The classic poem by Clement C. Moore describing the joy of
watching Santa Claus deliver presents to one’s home is one of the most famous
Christmas stories ever written. For this
special, the poem is worked into a plot that makes Santa’s eventual visit
something worth celebrating.
Unfortunately, the reason the visit turns out to be more special than
usual is fueled by unnecessary harsh moments from certain characters.
Recommended
The town of Junctionville has a major dilemma when everyone
finds their letters to Santa returned because he’s decided to remove the town
from his route. What could’ve led Santa
to make such a drastic decision you ask?
A nerdy mouse named Albert wrote a letter for the Junctionville editor
saying that Santa’s a fraud. Not only
that, but when he’s confronted by his family, Albert sticks to his selfish
beliefs, not considering anyone else. As
frustrating as Albert is in the beginning, it’s just disturbing that Santa
would deny an entire town presents just because one mouse doesn’t believe in
him. Yes, his article ends with “all of
us,” but that doesn’t necessarily mean the whole town, and Albert reveals that “all
of us” meant he and his friends. Why
does everyone else from Junctionville, who showed that they themselves believe even if
Albert doesn’t by actually writing to Santa, have to suffer? While
the rejection towards all of Junctionville for one’s disbelief is hard to
stomach, at least Albert slowly grows to be more considerate. Father Mouse
shows him all the citizens distraught over Santa deciding to not come to their
town, including the adults. In fact,
adults turn out to be the biggest believers of Santa. They depend on one man, Joshua Trundle, to build a big clock that will play a song
to welcome Santa so he’ll change his mind.
That said, the claim of Albert ruining everyone’s Christmas with his opinions
could’ve been worded better. Anyway,
while Albert does show some improvement as a character, his know-it-all
tendencies get in the way of Junctionville’s happiness AGAIN. He
accidentally breaks the clock on the day of its demonstration. This mishap brings even more unnecessary
harsh moments when Joshua, the man who conceived the clock, and his family
suffer at the hands of Junctionville’s citizens. Not only do they not give him any
work, but the mayor won’t
even let Joshua try to fix the clock. That's a really stupid move because
that’s blowing off the only chance they have to get Santa to come. Do they seriously want to give up when they
clearly don’t have to? It’s also dumb
that the Trundles wait until the day before Christmas to take matters into
their own hands when there’s no reason why they couldn’t have done it
sooner.
Either way, we do get an upbeat
song about the importance of taking action while waiting for miracles out of
this.
It turns out at this point, the special really picks up when Albert fully redeems himself. With encouragement from his father, he fixes his mess and the song the clock plays successfully, getting Santa to not pass Juctionville after all. While the song itself isn’t all that spectacular lyric-wise, it, combined with the cheers of the Junctionville populace, is a satisfying payoff to everything that happened. The same is true for the recitation of the original poem as the Trundle family watches Santa make his deliveries. Rather than someone just watching Santa do his thing, the usage of the poem here stands as a true miracle of Santa coming when it seemed like he wouldn’t. This makes the poem more powerful as a result. Granted, it was needlessly harsh that Santa proposed to skip this one town because of one non-believer in the first place, but him coming at all makes up for it, to me at least.
It turns out at this point, the special really picks up when Albert fully redeems himself. With encouragement from his father, he fixes his mess and the song the clock plays successfully, getting Santa to not pass Juctionville after all. While the song itself isn’t all that spectacular lyric-wise, it, combined with the cheers of the Junctionville populace, is a satisfying payoff to everything that happened. The same is true for the recitation of the original poem as the Trundle family watches Santa make his deliveries. Rather than someone just watching Santa do his thing, the usage of the poem here stands as a true miracle of Santa coming when it seemed like he wouldn’t. This makes the poem more powerful as a result. Granted, it was needlessly harsh that Santa proposed to skip this one town because of one non-believer in the first place, but him coming at all makes up for it, to me at least.
The story is bogged down a bit by some boneheaded or overly
mean-spirited moments. However, the troublemaker does grow from his mistakes and
the original poem is put to good use in the end. Even if this is not one of
Rankin/Bass’ best specials, it works for how it shows just how special the
spirit of Christmas is.
The Ranking
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town
- Frosty the Snowman
- The Little Drummer Boy
- ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
- Cricket on the Hearth
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next special which tackles the "believing in Santa Claus" theme in a much more pleasing manner in, The Year Without a 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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