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Happy New Year, Charlie Brown (1986)
Chuck's New Year's Eve is Mostly a Drag
Due to an unfinished homework assignment over holiday break, Chuck Brown is left to read War & Peace while everyone else parties. The two songs in this special, about dancing (Slow, Slow, Quick Quick) and musical chairs are entertaining. Altogether, worth the watch if you are a Peanuts fan.
The Small One (1978)
Don Bluth Disney Christmas Classic
This animated short film by Don Bluth (of An American Tale / Feivel Goes West / The Rats of NIMH fame) before he left Disney is a touching story of love for our fellow creatures, specifically a runt donkey that must be sold as he is not useful to his owners. The young boy who is the protagonist of the film is the son of the owner, and tasks himself with finding a new owner for the donkey who will treat him right. In the end, there is an obvious Christmas connection that is well done, short and sweet, but poignant.
Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Great Santa Claus Caper (1978)
Classic 1970s Christmas Special
This Xmas TV special from 1978 starring Raggedy Ann, Andy, their dog Raggedy Arthur, Comet the Reindeer, and Alexander Graham Wolf (the Big Bad Wolf who looks a lot like Wile E. Coyote). Chuck Jones is a legend of this genre for good reason, and the special is well animated, and generally well done. The plot is pretty funny, as the Big Bad Wolf has basically taken Santa Claus hostage and set up shop as a businessman / corporate executive concerned with efficiency, and in his estimation Santa's is the least efficient operation around. So he will start new policies, including charging children for Christmas presents, and spreading Gloopstick (a plasticizing substance) over all the gifts so they'll never break (but also never be able to be played with). Some environmental criticism of materialistic culture for sure, but overall, a family and child friendly film about the magic of Christmas being love. The scene towards the end wherein the climax is reached and the conflict is resolved has a unique song that breaks the fourth wall with Raggedy Ann doing a bit of call and response song with the viewer.
The Night Before Christmas (1968)
Classic Christmas Poem in Cartoon
This animated TV special, which aired in 1968, is a retelling of The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore, and a bit meta-fictional, as the story depicts the author of this classic Christmas poem as a father looking for the perfect gift for his children, one of whom is a daughter deathly sick who had asked for a book about St. Nick. In his failure to find this sought after present, he instead writes a story for his daughter to coax her out of her sickness, and the poem is thus animated. Well done for the time, but a bit outdated and overly homogeneous in terms of the people depicted.