Holiday specials are a funny thing, especially ones aimed at the whole family. You can love a Christmas special to pieces when you are young, but as you grow older and look back, you notice odd hidden lessons. I never saw ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas when I was young. All I can speak of is my impression watching it as an adult, and I found it amateur in its execution with some troubling messages about magic over logic and the consequences of thinking for yourself.
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas is about a small town whose letters to Santa Claus have been returned unopened. Why would Santa return the letters of good boys and girls? Well, it turns out that a brainy little mouse named Albert wrote a letter to his local paper questioning the existence of Santa Claus. Immediately, the whole town is in an uproar, and Father Mouse and the whole mouse family wants to know why he won’t just play along and believe in magic. Meanwhile, a local clockmaker has hatched a scheme to earn back the love of Santa. He will construct a giant clock tower that will play a children’s Christmas song at midnight on Christmas Eve when Santa is flying over the town with his reindeer. The town thinks it is a fine idea, and they ask him to build the clock tower. Unfortunately, Albert inadvertently breaks the clock, and everyone thinks that Christmas is ruined. If you can’t figure out how the rest plays out, then you haven’t seen enough Christmas specials.
I was pretty optimistic about ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. I dig old-fashioned animated Christmas specials, and as a musical theatre nerd, I appreciated that Joel Grey did the voice of Joshua Trundle the clockmaker. To be honest, though, I wasn’t a fan. I thought the clock tower song was unmemorable, Santa was animated weirdly, and I thought the overall message was, to be frank, not all that positive. When Albert argues logically that he doesn’t see how Santa could possibly exist, Father Mouse tells him to just believe in magic because Albert is ruining everyone else’s Christmas. I don’t understand how this is a positive message to kids. Don’t bother with math or science. In fact, don’t bother thinking. You know why? You will end up ruining everyone’s Christmas. Also, how petty is Santa that he refuses to visit an entire town because one little mouse doesn’t believe in him?
I think that ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas on DVD will only appeal to people who enjoyed it when they were growing up and love it for sentimental reasons. I would recommend it to folks who want to upgrade their old VHS copy and don’t expect anything as far as special features. There are only 2 special features on the DVD which are a trailer for the Lego Harry Potter game and a cartoon about Christmas traditions around the world.
"'Twas The Night Before Christmas" is on sale October 4, 2011 and is not rated. Animation, Children & Family, Musical. Directed by Arthur Rankin Jr, Jules Bass. Written by Jerome Coopersmith, Clement Moore. Starring George Gobel, Joel Grey, Tammy Grimes.
