Things hit differently when you were around to see them when they were new. I'll admit, I return to this little series of commercials every year, and sometimes afterwards since COPPA didn't get its hands on the comment section. To take advantage of this one month a year, and my next semester coming two days after the new year, let's look back at a nice piece of orange pie.
Reviewing commercials everyone has covered, I need to rethink my life...
Station IDs
There's two of these. One of them is fairly standard, featuring SpongeBob and a callback to that one particular episode. The other is an odd crossover featuring Goddard and Tommy Pickles hanging lights. I don't know who did the stop motion, but for something made for a quick junction it's more technically sound than those Rankin/Bass specials, keep those in mind.
It would've been a bit too messy to have multiple Station IDs like this, because then there would've been a lot more to be accounted for, and we may never have them all, so smart move to keep it like this.
And yeah, I have no comment on the relation of Jimmy Neutron to Rugrats, but crossing over is a key to this, and given the context this makes better sense than you would think.
Plankton's Holiday Hits
I'd take this over Peter Griffin's take, but only out of principle.
Honestly don't have much to say on this one, it's a straightforward collection of parodies that don't make me as an adult cringe. For its obvious Beatles reference at the start they make up for previously with a Bruce Springsteen reference. Funnily enough the idea of Plankton singing Christmas carols lives on in some circles, though I won't say where unless you like LEGO short films.
One thing for sure, this has some pretty decent animation, that, or the fact a single character against a live-action background can be done both fast and right. This is foreshadowing.
Kinda wanna hear Plankton's take on Thunder Road and Maxwell's Silver Hammer for some reason.
Nick Holiday Party
Here we go, five or six year old me ate this up and licked the plate, seeing all the Nicktoons together. The idea of characters from different cartoons interacting always peeked my interest. It was a reason why I liked Cartoon Network at first, the idea of their originals mingling with other old shorts in their parent company's grasp, sorta like the characters of Ed, Edd n' Eddy having a snowball fight with Hanna Barbera characters... which happened by the way.
Back to this, Rosie O'Donnell, yes that's her, fresh off of Kids Choice Award and laying the grounds for a misgendering joke made by the creator of another show I just referenced before, doing Rudolph... the special Rudolph, Goddard handled the character bit, and indirectly predicted Jimmy Neutron's own Christmas special.
If you enjoy big crossovers this is a real treat, though don't expect something extravagant. We manage to get practically every Nicktoon in this... well, every Nicktoon that's Hey Arnold! and beyond. I'm just surprised CatDog made the cut, not surprised, happy. And rejoice, Zim is there. They got the references to the Rankin/Bass special down solid, well in terms of non-Rudolph antics.
But how do you feel about a grown man flirting with a teenager? (Crimson Chin and Debbie), and Plankton flirting with Helga. I feel like if the network is handling things there are bound to be some gaps and odd placements.
The model work is fantastic, though with As Told by Ginger's models I found it hard to recognize the characters used, and though they aren't seen, Cosmo and Wanda's models are kinda ugly, FOP's style's ugly, no matter what.
12 Days of Nickmas
And now everyone's here, even ChalkZone. Those of you who've annoyed to hell with the original song, they start at the 12th day, so points for that. Look there're only three Christmas songs I like, cut me a break.
It's nice to see everyone again, your entire childhood with Nicktoons summed up here, but there is one small problem. I feel like the lyrics could've been better distributed to every Nicktoon, some get more than one, and by some, I mean their cash cows at the time, well a cash cow and a cow yet to be.
I feel like Butch Hartman hi-jacked this, why else is his portrait in this? Did he commission these? Well congrats to him, he did something right for once in his life. Also Christmas Who reference at the end.
At the very least the lyrics fit the shows that name them.
A Chucky Finster Winter Chanukah Kwaanza Winter Solstice
Ever wanted to know what the Rugrats would've been like if they switched to flash late in its life?
Jokes aside, according to some insider info, this was gonna be done in a similar art style to Peanuts, but that obviously didn't go through. But that's fine, it's better to try something of your own. But look, I dunno, I'm getting tired of the usual suspects on Christmas, and with real animation-misers like Saberspark dropping his fat ass in by making fun of more quirky animation, we're gonna be stuck with the same Christmas specials every year. Fuck me, I need a change.
Back to the special, it's basically a stripped down version of... Charlie Brown Christmas whatever, but taking a stab at political correctness and our apologetic nature. The name gave that away, attributing all holiday seasons. ChalkZone's take rolled right off the tongue and it's gonna be years before I get it out of my head.
It's actually a pretty nice homage that not only fits what it's referencing, but keeps with the nature of the show that's doing the referencing. Heck, we even got some pretty obscure trivia with a little gag at the end. Did you know York Peppermint Patty sponsored the Charlie Brown special, and dare I say had a hand in the naming of one character? Well there you go, with a little cameo from Mr. Krabs too.
How the You Know Who Stole You Know What
I take it Grinch is aggressively copyrighted? Angelica is basically the best candidate for the Grinch when you take into account the candidates for it. It's a straightfoward and stripped down take on How the Grinch Stole Christmas, replacing gifts with chocolate, and having a subversive ending where Angelica doesn't mend her ways.
I got nothing, it's the same quality animation as the previous segment, I appreciate a break from the usual monotony, I feel like checking out the Grinch, the superior Jim Carrey version or Illumination's take.
They say insanity is doing the same thing more than once and expecting a different result.
The Nutcracker Suite
It's Cosmo and Wanda crunching to the Nutcracker Suite, nut and cracker to boot, somehow better flash animation than what we got with the last season, let's just move on.
Patrick the Snowman
An odd crossover between Jimmy Neutron, SpongeBob SquarePants and Wild Thornberries, but this time the hat's not stolen, just invented. Points abound in that regard. In this situation they get sick of Patrick the eponymous snowman and decide to send him to the future, it backfires.
Interestingly there's an alternate version where they freak out and attack Patrick, so if you weren't satisfied with the above ending, there you go.
Not sure if DNA Productions did this, it looks rough, even when you compare the early shorts, but it's not too bad.
Final Ranking
So I didn't have much to say on a lot of these. Guess I was vexed for ideas. With no particular reason, here's how I rank the specials
- Nick Holiday Party
- Patrick the Snowman
- Solstice whatever
- 12 Days
- The You Know Who
- Nutcracker
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