The Bottom Line
- Classic Christmas cartoons as you remember them, all in one place.
- Includes CD with holiday songs, like Burl Ives singing "Holly, Jolly Christmas."
- What the heck is [i]Cricket on the Hearth[/i]?
Description
- Seven Christmas TV specials.
- Music CD of songs from the TV specials.
- Limited keepsake edition.
Guide Review - Original Christmas Classics
First is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, a stop-motion animated special. This is my favorite Christmas TV show of all time. It's funny that I remember it being so much longer when I was a kid. I still love listening to Burl Ives. I still get scared of the Abominable Snowman. And I still well up when we visit the Island of Misfit Toys.
Next is Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. This, too, is animated using stop-motion. The special tells how Christmas traditions came to be. This classic show includes classic actors, with Fred Astaire as the storytelling postman and Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle.
Frosty the Snowman is a cartoon featuring characters with extraordinarily large teeth. Regardless, the TV show is based on the Christmas song, and plays out pretty much how you think it would. Jimmy Durante's gruff voice somehow has the right warmth to narrate this tale. Frosty isn't as beloved to me as the first two I mentioned, but it's still a must-see during the holidays.
Other Christmas TV specials included on the DVD are Frosty Returns, The Little Drummer Boy, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol and Charles Dickens' Cricket on the Hearth, starring Roddy MacDowall and Marlo Thomas.
