Season's Watchings
30/11/05 11:17![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madrobinsOn a list I'm on there's been a good deal of conversation of late about holiday TV to watch; most of the people on the list are animation fans (as am I, to a point) and this time of year is catnip to them: Rudolph! Frosty! The Grinch! Charlie Brown! To a point, I agree: I adore A Charlie Brown Christmas and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. However...Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer and all the other Rankin-Bass stop-motion animated specials do less than nothing for me*, and heresy as it might be to say it, neither The Grinch animation nor the horrid movie of a few years ago capture the book for me. I'll pass.
On the other hand, my family has a long list of things that Must Be Watched during the Holiday season, to wit:
Miracle on 34th Street -- the original, with Natalie Wood. That's taken care of, since it was on on Thanksgiving day.
A Christmas Story -- "You'll shoot your eye out!"
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol --just humming "A Hand for Each Hand" can make me teary, and the manic energy of the gravepicker's song cheers me curiously.
A Charlie Brown Christmas -- the best. My daughters sock-skate all over the livingroom floor to the soundtrack every year.
A Christmas Carol --I like the George C. Scott version; I know many people (including my Spouse) prefer the Alistair Sim, but this is the one that bit me.
White Christmas and Holiday Inn -- because one Irving Berlin Christmas musical is not enough
It's a Wonderful Life -- which is curiously marketed as a cheery schmaltz-fest. In fact, it's a very dark fantasy, and Jimmy Stewart is particularly wonderful. (I have a thing for Jimmy Stewart. I know, he's dead. Oh well.)
I will not watch heartwarming Hallmark Christmas specials. I will watch the Albert Finney musical Christmas Carol if it passes under my nose; ditto Scrooged, if only for the inspired moment when they decide to cast Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim. I tend to avoid "very special episodes" of anything.
Oh: and I used to be very fond of the Rugrats' Hannukah special when the girls were into Rugrats...
So there. Anyone have any must-watch stuff for the season?
*I grew up knowing the guy who composed "Rudolph" and many other Christmas songs. I probably heard my lifetime's allotment of the song before I was six; everything after that was just Hell.
On the other hand, my family has a long list of things that Must Be Watched during the Holiday season, to wit:
Miracle on 34th Street -- the original, with Natalie Wood. That's taken care of, since it was on on Thanksgiving day.
A Christmas Story -- "You'll shoot your eye out!"
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol --just humming "A Hand for Each Hand" can make me teary, and the manic energy of the gravepicker's song cheers me curiously.
A Charlie Brown Christmas -- the best. My daughters sock-skate all over the livingroom floor to the soundtrack every year.
A Christmas Carol --I like the George C. Scott version; I know many people (including my Spouse) prefer the Alistair Sim, but this is the one that bit me.
White Christmas and Holiday Inn -- because one Irving Berlin Christmas musical is not enough
It's a Wonderful Life -- which is curiously marketed as a cheery schmaltz-fest. In fact, it's a very dark fantasy, and Jimmy Stewart is particularly wonderful. (I have a thing for Jimmy Stewart. I know, he's dead. Oh well.)
I will not watch heartwarming Hallmark Christmas specials. I will watch the Albert Finney musical Christmas Carol if it passes under my nose; ditto Scrooged, if only for the inspired moment when they decide to cast Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim. I tend to avoid "very special episodes" of anything.
Oh: and I used to be very fond of the Rugrats' Hannukah special when the girls were into Rugrats...
So there. Anyone have any must-watch stuff for the season?
*I grew up knowing the guy who composed "Rudolph" and many other Christmas songs. I probably heard my lifetime's allotment of the song before I was six; everything after that was just Hell.