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For all the nostalgia
buffs out there anxiously trying to re-visit their youth this Christmas,
Warner has released the much beloved 1974 Christmas animated movie "Twas
the Night before Christmas" a legendary Rankin Bass holiday special that
took the classic tale quite literally by chronicling the misadventures
of a group of mice one Christmas when every letter from Santa Claus
around the world was returned to families for no reason. Father mouse
and his brood use their resources along with a human town council to
decide where Santa has gone and why he's so rudely sent the letters back
to sender. Is Santa bored with Christmas? Has he quit? Is he retired?
Has he died? Worse... is he just mad at us all?
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After
discovering Santa was sent a mean letter by someone, the
mice decide to make amends while also celebrating the magic
of holidays. Not just Christmas but St. Patrick's Day,
Easter, and Valentine all the while "Twas the Night" keeps
that same magic and sprinkle of fairy dust that kept it a
yearly fixture for so many kids in the seventies. The
animation has held up well, and while a little stiff, it's
endearing in its period charms and grants us some giggles
with pleasing characters and interesting if simple
situations involving people trying to ease affairs with Ol'
Saint Nick and bringing Christmas back to everyone in the
world. |
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It's a nice message
about how sometimes to have a Christmas miracle you have to push it
a little with your hands and help the magic. Thankfully it's a short
and sweet little piece and doesn't overstay its welcome, and the
Deluxe Edition is a marvelous re-working of the original short with
sharp and crisp animation, booming sound, and a large array of
options for subtitles and closed captioning.
It's a shame we
don't get any real special features about Rankin Bass, the voice
actors, the source of the story, or where the idea for the short
came from. Instead we only get an eight minute animated feature
about an elf explaining what Christmas is and why it's popular.
Beyond that there are just trailers. It's a shame and surprising
considering the DVD is so committed to honoring Rankin Bass, they
even feature the original company logo on the front.
In spite of the fact that the Deluxe DVD is basically void of any
special features for the respective collector of animation, "Twas the
Night" is still a fun and touching short about the power of community
and the love for Christmas touched up with a sharp definition and
excellent sound.
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