Saturday, December 25, 2010

The Christmas Experiment 2010: Hours 11 & 12

Viewing Throughts: Okay, put dinner in the oven so let's watch some more animated Christmas Specials.

A Charlie Brown Christmas: I love this special. I'll just come out and say it. In fact, I think I say that every year. It's a classic for a reason. It has so much of the pathos of the season but it also has so much of the spirit as well. It's also all done without a single appearance by Santa Claus. In fact, Charles Schultz was able to get away with some very non-secular stuff in it. While some of the later Charlie Brown Christmas stuff will be less than successful, this one will always be a classic.

Operation Secret Santa: Huh. Was expecting one of the Charlie Brown spin-offs. Instead we get a CGI Disney special. Mrs. Claus sends two elves to retrieve an object from Santa's office. It's cute. Not a classic by any stretch of the imagination. Mrs. Claus is voiced by Betty White in all her glory. It's short, sweet, and kinda emotional. Worth tracking down.

Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales: No wait, they were in there. First off, Snoopy skates with Lucy. This is after Schroeder refutes her. I think Schroeder is gay. That would actually be all levels of awesome. Snoopy sits on the corner dressed as Santa. I revise my earlier assessment of this from a few years back. These are cute. Definitely some of the better of the later Peanuts Christmas Specials. Linus is later in Class and the girl behind him decides to changer her name to Jezebel. He points out the biblical Jezebel was evil and she seems kinda flighty. I like these since it's a series of vignettes about the characters.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold: I love this series. It embraces all of the silver age sensibilities of comics. The silver age was silly, fun, and nearly absent of darkness. In this particular episode, Batman Joins forces with an android by the name of The Red Tornado to fight a villain trying to steal the Christmas Spirit.  The android is trying to learn about Christmas in the process when aliens from Neptune try to kidnap Santa. Yeah, it's a Santa Claus Conquers the Martians reference. Awesome! Batman is already there  and they realize that the Neptunians aren't real. An evil toymaker name Toy Haus is behind it and he tries to kill them. Really, this episode needs to be seen to be realized. Needless to say, it's made of awesome and is also heart breaking in addition to funny and thrilling.

Notable Commercials: I see any of the commercials for the Kinect and think, "Wow that looks silly." I mean, I know the Wii looks silly but you at least never have to flail about like a crazy person. I mean seriously, what the hell?

Late Christmas Ideas: The ability to be in two places at once.

The Tally
Mountain Dews Left: 22
Energy Drinks Left: 3
Cups of Coffee drank: 0
Pumpkin Pie Left: 2/3rd of pie
Sanity Rating (1 being a glass of water, 10 being a bottle of Bawls): 4

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