1113 - The Christmas that Almost Wasn’t - Spoiler Thread

[Edward J Grug III]

[ihavemyreasons]

Will be the one episode I won't watch again until Xmas, but just cause it's a Xmas episode. Was very happy to see the terrible slide show presentation from the movie made fun of in a host segment- one of the best host segments of the season. Probably my third favorite new episode after 2 and 7.

[linszoid]

This episodes contained the best Dune riff ever

[Iron Curtain]

Personally, I don't think the riffed movie was that bad of a movie, especially when you put it up against Santa Claus Conquers The Martians and Santa Claus. SCCTM had a ridiculous premise for a movie and Santa Claus had really weird and creepy lore in it (e.g. all the world's kids working for Santa and Merlin working for Santa and not King Arthur), but the ridiculous premise in this movie is that Santa is in debt (which IMHO is not that ridiculous compared to the other two). There were also some genuinely heartwarming moments in this film, such as when Santa receives all the change from the children and Phineas Prune receiving a toy sailboat from Santa Claus. So I don't think this movie was that bad.

[Johnny Unusual]

I, on the other hand, found it pretty hard to watch.  The songs are REALLY bad, the lead character (the non-Santa one) is incredibly repellent (and is the original author!) and it had zero charm in its attempts to be whimsy.  I... I found this one REALLY rough.

Iron Curtain, I certainly like those things you mentioned in theory, but in practice, it mostly didn't land for me, especially the latter.  Still, I do think it is a better heel turn than James Caan in Elf (which is a great movie that has a particularly weak ending).

I will say I liked that it started with a cartoon.  So that was nice.

[Iron Curtain]

I, on the other hand, found it pretty hard to watch.  The songs are REALLY bad, the lead character (the non-Santa one) is incredibly repellent (and is the original author!) and it had zero charm in its attempts to be whimsy.  I... I found this one REALLY rough.

Iron Curtain, I certainly like those things you mentioned in theory, but in practice, it mostly didn't land for me, especially the latter.  Still, I do think it is a better heel turn than James Caan in Elf (which is a great movie that has a particularly weak ending).

I will say I liked that it started with a cartoon.  So that was nice.

To each one's own. Oh well!

[Darth Geek]

So is this a prequel to Rent?

[Pak-Man]

Personally, I don't think the riffed movie was that bad of a movie, especially when you put it up against Santa Claus Conquers The Martians and Santa Claus. SCCTM had a ridiculous premise for a movie and Santa Claus had really weird and creepy lore in it (e.g. all the world's kids working for Santa and Merlin working for Santa and not King Arthur), but the ridiculous premise in this movie is that Santa is in debt (which IMHO is not that ridiculous compared to the other two). There were also some genuinely heartwarming moments in this film, such as when Santa receives all the change from the children and Phineas Prune receiving a toy sailboat from Santa Claus. So I don't think this movie was that bad.

I saw it last night and was prepared to say the same thing. So help me, I enjoyed the movie on its own merits. Sure, the plot doesn't hold up to even the tiniest amount of scrutiny, and the performances were goofy, but it's a Christmas movie, so those things get a pass. It played like Rankin Bass stop-motion special with live actors.

And the riffing was fantastic. "You know the drill."

[WhyDontTheyLook]

Not bad, as far as riffing goes, but also not great, either.  Maybe it's because I was watching a riff of a Christmas movie in May--and one that's not terrible, at that--but it never really seemed to spark with me, even sporadically.  The only one of the 14 I can say that of.

[Darth Geek]

Watching it again last night, I realized why they did the ending with the kids giving Santa their money. It's because Santa "taught them to give", which is what he says are his intentions earlier in the movie. For a message in a kids movie, it's a good one. It's just not executed very well, since I didn't even realize that's what they were doing at first. It just seemed like Santa was freeloading.

[Pak-Man]

Jonah's panicked "I don't know!" in response to "Why does Christmas only come once a year?" won the night for me.

[losingmydignity]

I thought this was one of the better ones. The Italian stuff is always so weird, was really happy they did this one.

The best parts were Santa's song--the riffs had me in tears--and the rapid riffs during the children all get up to help Santa scene. Both were fantastic as were most of the host segs. The last one, shot in the photo-shot way of the film was probably my favorite seg of this season. Reminded me a lot of when they imitated the tacked on opening credit sequence in what I believe was Cave Dwellers in Season 3.

That said this could have been a classic ep but there were still too many times they hyper-riffed. It works in aforesaid children rising scene but you can't try to keep up that pace through half the riff. Dang it. If there is season 12 they gotta work on the pacing.

[losingmydignity]

And, Jesus, those reindeers. Hilarious.

[Darth Geek]

And, Jesus, those reindeers. Hilarious.

Yeah, it reminded me of the windup toy reindeer from Santa Claus.

[losingmydignity]

And, Jesus, those reindeers. Hilarious.

Yeah, it reminded me of the windup toy reindeer from Santa Claus.

Indeed. And their groans of horror sounded genuine.