Christmas Post 2: Electric Christmas Boogaloo!

     Merry Christmas Eve, friends. Another year has come and gone with us still stuck inside for large chunks of the year, but we're slowly getting closer and closer to the end I hope. The latest mutation of Covid, is wreaking havoc around us, so let's stay in and talk a little bit about another of my favorite parts of Christmas, the live action movies. Last year I focused on the Nickelodeon specials as well as Arthur's Perfect Christmas, but at the end of that post, I reiterated my love of Christmas movies and talked specifically about Elf and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, though I didn't have enough time or space to get into my full thoughts about those movies. Hang the stockings by the fireplace and let's get ready for some Christmas magic.

The best way to spread Christmas cheer...

    Few movies have been quoted as often as Elf in my house all through my childhood and well into my adulthood, and there's a good reason for that. There are a lot of reasons, actually. It's legitimately funny, it's light hearted, and it's a real pick me up story. Buddy was a child in an orphanage who snuck into Santa's sack one Christmas evening, and he was raised by Papa Elf, played by the wonderful Bob Newhart. Time goes on and it becomes more and more obvious as Buddy grows up that he's much larger than all of the other elves, and it eventually comes out that Buddy is a human, much to his surprise, though to the surprise of no one else. Buddy is told that his real father lives in New York City and works for a children's book publisher. The only other thing that Buddy is told is that his father, Walter Hobbs, is on Santa's naughty list. Buddy heads off to the big city, first passing through the seven layers of the candy cane forest, then past the sea of swirly, twirly gumdrops, and then, he walks through the Lincoln Tunnel (this is a quote from the movie, don't worry about it). He proceeds to do all manner of wacky things as he tries to figure out his place in the world, for even though he isn't as good at making toys as the elves in Santa's Workshop, he's far more skilled with his hands than most average people living in a New York apartment. I won't spoil any more of the movie, but just know this is probably my favorite movie that Will Farrell has been in, including wonderful performances by him, Zooey Deschanel, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Peter Dinkledge, and the late, great, Ed Asner as Santa, honestly the list goes on and on. I love every moment of this movie and Jon Favreau really knocked it out of the park.

Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store...

    It's always a gamble whenever a live action version of a cartoon comes out, although whenever Ron Howard decided to make a live action version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, based on the Dr. Seuss original story, which had itself inspired an animated film years and years before this one, narrated by Boris Karloff, that same stigma was not around. This is in many ways a reimagining of that original story, though with enough bells and whistles inserted into the story to make it an actual feature-length film. You all know the story by now of what happens when the Grinch came down to Whoville to steal the presents, trees, and even... (gasp) the last can of Who-hash. Instead, I have to focus on all of the added morales and interesting story beats that were included in this little gem, released in the year 2000. Cindy Lou Who is tired of seeing Christmas all over commercialized, and she's sick of her mom's obsession with outdoing Martha May Who's Christmas light display, which leads to all of the lights in the house being repurposed to house decorations, getting more and more absurd as the movie goes along. Cindy Lou Who meets the Grinch pretty early on in the movie when he's messing up Christmas deliveries at the Who post office, and immediately is captivated by his intense hatred of Christmas, convinced that there must be a reason why. Shockingly, in a sharp deviation from the source material, he does actually have a back story, which we are shown through some interesting flashbacks about his youth. This movie is another more modern classic, and Jim Carrey is the star of this film for sure. He is so cartoonish in his characterization of the Grinch that he is completely unrecognizable for the vast majority of the film, and while the make up and prosthetics are really good in this movie, the greatest credit goes to Mr. Carrey's incredible control of face muscles. Anthony Hopkins fills the role of the narrator this time around and he does a great job, bringing a similar level of charm as Boris Karloff in the Chuck Jones animated version, and the child actor for Cindy Lou Who does a great job of being a cute little girl, which is the essence of the character for sure. While I think I still prefer the animated classic to this one, there is an undeniable charm here that shines through in Howard's vision of the story.

The Muppets team up with Michael Caine!

    I'm going to start this with a request, if you haven't seen A Muppets Christmas Carol and you like the story that Charles Dickens wrote about Ebenezer Scrooge, you're going to want to watch this movie. Muppets Christmas Carol has to be my favorite version of this story that I've seen, partially because I just love the Muppets, and the charm of the original story is able to shine through in a way that I've very rarely seen in any other interpretation, even though there have been seemingly infinite versions that have been put out over the years. In true Muppets fashion, they don't take the source material incredibly seriously, and Gonzo and Rizzo tag along and act as our narrators in the story, constantly breaking the fourth wall to crack jokes, even while Gonzo tries his best to play it straight in the role of Charles Dickens himself. Michael Caine is the sole human character in this movie, playing Ebenezer Scrooge who is visited by the ghosts of Marley and Marley (originally there was only one Marley, but Statler and Waldorf both are ghosts in this sequence), then the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Being a Muppets Christmas special, you can expect a few musical numbers shoehorned in along the way, and all in all, this movie is just a really great time. It gets the message of the original story across all while developing the slapstick comedy that the Muppets are known for.

    December is always my favorite time of the year, not only because my birthday is a week before Christmas, but because there are so many great holiday movies, and though I'm not going to write a lot about many other movies here, I have to give some shoutouts to some other great ones. The Santa Clause is a fun movie and I liked how they explained how Santa can do what he does, though a lot of it doesn't make sense, especially in terms of how the timeline of that movie works out. It's also fairly ghoulish for a kids movie, as the central plot of this movie involves Santa's death. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is hilarious, though perhaps don't show it to the kids, as there's a lot of bad language in there, but it has some unexpected heart throughout the proceedings. It's a Wonderful Life is a classic, and it's easy to see why. Even though this movie isn't entirely a Christmas movie, a lot of the plot occurs around Christmas time, and has always been considered a Christmas movie, though the plot is a lot more serious than some of these. Christmas movies and shows are always exciting to me, and though they aren't for everyone, I've always enjoyed getting a little dose of Christmas cheer while watching these every year.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! Do you have a favorite Christmas/holiday movie? I honestly can't pick between a few of them, but I think they're all a good time. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and I'll be back next week for the start of a Happy New Year! I'm Jonathan, your Self-Proclaimed Christmas enthusiast, and I'll talk to you again soon!