Nickelodeon's Thanksgiving Fest is considered Nickeloedon's first foray into original animation. However, their first original production came a year prior with this special.
History
Christmas in Tattertown was created by Ralph Bakshi, who's work needs no introduction. While he's better known for his work on Felix the Cat and Coonskin, he had also worked with children's animation, only other animator I know of with a similar genesis is Charles Swenson. This was intended to be a pilot for a full series, and had he got his way, this would've been the first Nicktoon. Bakshi pitched the show to Nickelodeon and a pilot was produced around that time, it becoming this.
While it seemed like the pieces were coming together, Bakshi was promptly given the boot due to his involvement in the controversial Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures cartoon, itself infamous for how much they pushed the boundaries of network standards and practices. Since Nickelodeon were left with a Christmas special in the can they figured it was best for them to not let some holiday fodder go to waste. This had remained in circulation up until 1992. Well before Nickelodeon became more protective of their property, Bakshi was able to re-secure the rights to this special.
The special made use of mostly familiar actors. A pattern I noticed with some is that they did or went on to do voice work in anime. But of these the only ones I recognize are Keith David, who's best known for his work in the grand fuck-up that was Tales from the Hood 2, Charlie Adler who's the epitome of "works for peanuts.", and Arthur Burghardt, who had appeared in a little bit of everything, being a voice actor in various Nicktoons and other cartoons, some Disney games where he played Pete, some Disney cartoon which shares a director from Teen Titans so I feel inclined to hate it, before retiring in 2010.
So anyway, let's get this show on the road, it's only a month until Christmas.
The Gist
The film has a rushed feel to it, and it's exemplified in the intro. The idea behind this is that a girl named Debbie is taken into a world populated by trash. I'd say it'd be more interested if it were "Tatertown", but Potato Head Kids would technically be it.
I imagine this would've been part of an intro had this become a full series, but as a standalone special we're left with a rushed course of events, and Debbie's toys coming to life. The narrator saves this, as his satisfied demeanor keeps it from a certain corny level. I'm not gonna act as though I need a textbook on how everything works in this special, all I want is a decent flow, and all I got out of it was an implication of why one of Debbie's dolls turns evil, even if it's expected, but a small footnote is better than a moral dilemma caused by a doll wearing an easily removable wig.
I do feel that Muffet (the evil one) lays the seed for an interesting plot point that's otherwise glanced over. Now that Debbie's in a world where dolls can come to life when they're discarded, she can get a glimpse on how the dolls feel about their treatment, and others which she may have cast aside years ago. There could be a corny moral in this, or at the very least substance. I'm just saying the route they go leaves very little to go off of, and strangely enough with the raw footage of the copy I found, they somehow managed to barely scrape over 29 minutes.
Had this series been picked up, the supposed intro went on for nearly two minutes. This is followed by expositional dialog by the narrator (who turns out to be Keith David's role.) Some details could've been pieced together beforehand, and I feel he overstays his welcome in explaining it. It does leave one question. This world can apparently be accessed through a magic book, yet the world contains real world objects that come to life. How does that work? I guess it just happens.
After a cameo from Yakko Warner, we get a glimpse into one of my bigger pet peeves with most cartoons, indirectly making the antagonist more sympathetic than the protagonist. Muffet wasn't sentient before coming to Tattertown, obviously, but apparently had a conscious and recalls Debbie forcing her into often ridiculous outfits and relationships (going by the doll's perspective.), so yeah... RUN MUFFET RUN!
This kind of pet peeve also occurs in some of the better loved Christmas specials, namely Olive the Other Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, yes the hat brought Frosty to life, but it belonged to Professor Hinkle, and honestly I'm at a pretty big moral crossroad with Olive. I prefer Frosty Returns and Legend because the former didn't demonize its antagonist and the latter can be used as an allegory for fighting against oppressive moral figures. Heck, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer made it clear Cousin Mel was too malicious to feel bad for.
The dog's pseudo-retarded crack did make me laugh, no wonder my taste is so bad.
We then see a character played by a child actor who could give Emily Hart a run for her money as the most apathetic child voice actor. Adrian Arnold, to give him his full name, would have one other voice role in an animated special relating to divorce, with his last role being in a few episodes of Wings. I have a feeling the recording sessions occurred on weekdays, plus curfew, so they could only do with what they got. I can forgive him for that, whereas Hart was in a show created by her mother, so she could've gotten away with it.
Apparently Debbie knows who Harvey is (that's who the child plays in this.) and just like that, basic logic is thrown out the window. This is apparently Debbie's first time going into this new world, yet she knows a native's name (and Harvey didn't say his name out loud during his first scene so there goes that excuse.) If this was later on, Muffet wouldn't be around, nor would she acknowledge she was now sentient. Plus this can't be considered a lucky guess as Harvey goes to he as if he knew her.
As this is a free for all, or going off of a rushed script, Harvey knows about Muffet already. If I had to guess... the chase has been going on for quite some time, well after the entry into Tattertown, but even that sounds confusing. Along with the big question on who the true villain is, with Debbie's ignorance over how what she considers nice for Muffet can be considered demeaning vice versa, we get the special's so-called plot.
Tattertown doesn't know what Christmas is.
By the way, some scenes feel like they're randomly spliced together, and the ticker on top gives away that it was how it was on the recording.
So anyhow, since learning about what Christmas is would be like suicide to staying power, Muffet teams up with Sidney the Spider to destroy the place out of sheer malice... and there goes the merits of a pretty good tangent. But know this little plot holds little power.
The only thing this special has to go off of is humor, which frankly isn't the best, just a few gags, raspberries and reminders of things you've seen before. It culminates in Muffet attempting to destroy Tattertown, but her air raid is distracted by a rendition of White Christmas and Muffet is thrown in jail outright, where she can enjoy more painful days that led her to the road of villainy.
Debbie never gained any dimensions and they didn't even learn the true meaning of Christmas, we got nothing.
Animation
If I had to give this special one takeaway, the animation is... okay. Characters and environments look good, though the movement is dippy when it comes to quality. Sometimes it's good enough, other times it feels stiff and recycled.
Overall
While this is technically the first original Nickelodeon animation, it is never considered as such. Though the Thanksgiving special released the following year isn't as known, it is still considered the genesis of Nicktoons. Maybe it was because this wasn't produced directly by Nickelodeon, who knows?
Interestingly enough, but then again people already know about it, there have been other pitched Nicktoons back before they became official, each by Cosgrove Hall, and each too bland to lift. I have a feeling they share the same spirit as Christmas in Tattertown.
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