Now Available - Toyland

[Pak-Man]

Toyland

Short film · 2021

Most vintage Christmas shorts fall into one of two categories: a suburban 1950s family with two kids eagerly waiting for Santa, or a demented black-and-white cartoon that seemingly came from a terr…

With Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett

See it on RiffTrax

Most vintage Christmas shorts fall into one of two categories.

One: a suburban 1950s family with two children eagerly awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus. The other: a demented black and white cartoon that feels like it came from some other terrifying dimension. For the first time ever, Toyland is both!

We start with the classic nuclear family on Christmas, notable for their small dog who sits upright in a chair. Then dad pulls out a projector and screen and forces the family to watch another film, a cartoon of the ancient variety. Complete with creepy Santa, dogs fighting over bones, and anthropomorphized household objects bouncing up and down to music. There's a parade of mediocre toys and some kids who look like Felix the Cat. Yes, Toyland has it all! 

Join the live-action kids watching the weird cartoon and wondering "Is this really all we get for Christmas? Does dad hate us?" He might, but Mike Kevin and Bill don't. All aboard the poorly animated sleigh to Toyland!

Written by Mike Nelson, Conor Lastowka, and Sean Thomason