A television Christmas special released in early 90’s, and
narrated by Charlton Heston of all people.
This made for television movie tells the story of Noel, a
Christmas ornament that has a happiness.
It opens as Herman the glass blower receives news that he has become a
grandfather, he cries at the news and his happiness becomes part of Noel, the
glass ornament he is making. I have to
say that I like that this special opened with the music of 'God Rest Ye Merry
Gentlemen', because the Christ story will be one of the themes of the
movie. This is shown in how Herman’s
happiness becomes part of Noel, in essence giving him a soul.
Then Noel meets Ms. Freezenda, who will be the literal ice
queen of the story, though not a villain this story doesn’t have one, and
becomes part of a dozen that are put up for sale at the Five and Ten cent store. And considering the dozen ornaments are being sold for
a dollar, thus more than the advertised price given the name of the store, it’s
just like being in a modern day dollar store.
Now having Christmas be seen through the point of view of an
ornament is interesting, but I don’t get why Noel is the only one who doesn’t
know anything about the world and all the other ornaments, which were made at
the same time, do. A reference to
childhood innocence at Christmas perhaps?
If it is then they did a good job of capturing both Noel’s childlike excitement
and the minor annoyance of having to answer a hundred and one questions about
everything.
Another interesting thing I spotted in my latest viewing is something
that makes this Christmas special unique among those that I’ve watched in my
life. This is the only one I’ve ever
seen that dispels the Santa Claus myth.
They don’t come right out and say he doesn’t exist, but the children,
voiced by bad actors, do talk about him.
After he is mentioned though the audience is shown that the parents are
the ones who decorate the tree, and put out the presents, the train, and the
toy stable; making it clear that they play the role of Santa to the children,
just as their parents did before them.
Actually considering this is a story about a Christmas ornament
there’s actually a lot of dark undertones in here, like the fact that children
grow up and live lives of their own, that people grow old and die, and that life
changes as a result of all that. Then as
I mentioned there is the whole birth of Jesus theme. After the one family grows up and the parents
die a new family moves into the house and puts Noel on their tree. Because he is now a decades old ornament he
falls off the tree and breaks, but when he does he is able to see inside the toy
stable that was under the tree, and that he was told was the meaning of
Christmas. When he does he sees the
figurines in the stable and that happiness that he had in him is what he
becomes. It’s a metaphor for the rebirth
of the spirit from the death of the body.
That through Jesus we are granted eternal life. Deep for a children’s movie isn’t it?
But then comes the ending.
Oh, we were doing so well up to that point and then I think
it completely goes to crap. The animation
for the film while it was not perfect it was at least consistent and the
transitions, where the images looked like pictures from a story book, were very
nice looking. With the ending the
animation switches over abruptly to show over-sized children, in stereotypical
outfits, standing on the world, and Noel looking like a deformed sun as he rises
up behind him. We get told that Noel
becomes the pure joy of Christmas, living on in the hearts of all mankind, even
though we were also told two seconds before that there are those in the world who
don’t celebrate Christmas. Showing how Noel
is now an expy for Jesus and honestly I think it’s anvilicious and mildly
creepy. For the whole rest of movie it was
nice and subtle. The audience is told
that the stable with people in it, a reference to Jesus’ birth, is what
Christmas is all about, whether we agree with that or not. That the warmth and happiness of the season
always goes on, and then the audience gets dumped all that in weird rhyming dialogue
at the end and it jolts me right out of the movie. Really it’s like getting a burnt piece of
chocolate for dessert after a perfectly cooked dinner.
To sum it all up the film is still quite good over all. The animation is okay by television
standards. While character designs were
clearly reused and some of the mouth movements don’t match the dialogue, the
colours have a nice Christmas feel and the movements are pretty realistic. Heston is a surprisingly good narrator, the
actor playing Noel is very good, and the rest of the voice acting is a mixed
bag. The child actors I’m sorry to say
are all grating, but the adult voices are far more bearable and distinct. The story was creative, the music was well
placed, and there were some interesting themes and ideas explored in something
that’s not even half an hour long. The ending
is really the only part where I feel the film really falls flat and so I
recommend watching until the point where Noel is put on the tree by the new
family and calling that the ending. I
personally enjoy the message of enjoying Christmas with friends and family, and
remembering that the joy of the season lives on as the take away thought for
the Christmas season, rather than Noel as the giant spirit of Christmas looking
like a big red bubble over the world.
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