Yogi's First Christmas (1980)

I love Hanna-Barbera cartoons. So seeing all these characters together as almost one big family, and in a movie centered around Christmas, just makes me feel warm inside. It doesn't hurt that this is an excellent film in it's own right.

The songs used in this film were used in previous Hanna-Barbera Christmas themed work.  The songs Christmas Time is Here Again, and Making Much Ado About This Christmas both come from the TV special Casper's First Christmas, while the song Hope was previously used in both A Christmas Story (Not to be confused with the popular live action movie) and A Flintstones Christmas, however here they do work much better. They fit in the movie perfectly and only enhance the audiences enjoyment in the film.

The film's director was Ray Patterson, who had worked as an animator for William Hanna and Joseph Barbera since the days of Tom and Jerry. He became one of the first non-William Hanna and non-Joseph Barbera directors for Hanna-Barbera cartoons. He directed many other made for TV movies for the studio, and even the theatrical feature GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords. Nearly all of the already existing characters were voiced by their original voice artists Daws Butler and Don Messick.

This film is fantastic. The characters are very lovable. The writing (by Willie Gilbert) is great. The humor is quite good. However it does have faults. For instance The villains are not that interesting, and feel like they have been done before too often. However the rest of the film is so good that any problem won't get in the way of you enjoying the movie a lot. Overall this is an excellent film and a Christmas tradition for me.

Well this is it for this season of Michael's Christmas Movie Guide, but I still have many more Christmas movies to write about (including many more really good ones), so wait to see more next Christmas season. Thank you for reading and hope you join me next Christmas season.

-Michael J. Ruhland

A Flinstones Christmas (1977)

This is a charming little film. The characters are just as likable as ever and it is always great to see The Flintstones again. This movie also has a nice, warm Christmasy feeling to it. On the downside this film does lack the amount of laughs the TV show had, and the songs come out of nowhere and don't fit in well. Though this may not be the classic that the Christmas episode of the TV show, or A Flintstones Christmas Carol were, it is fun, and that is just what you want from The Flintstones.

The movie's director was Charles A. Nichols. My fellow Disney buffs might reconize his name because he directed a lot of Pluto cartoons. Charles A. Nichols had also worked as the animation director for the original TV show. Mel Blanc and Jean Vander Ply repise there roles as Barney and Wilma. Jean Vander Ply even is still the voice of Pebbles, even though Pebbles is older and can talk now. However Fred and Betty's voices have been taken over by Henry Corden, and Gay Autterson, both would voice the characters many more times in the future. This film even features some of the original Flintstones animators like Ed Barge and Hugh Fraser.

-Michael J. Ruhland

It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

Possibly the greatest Christmas film ever made, and a classic on every level. The Characters and situations are very relatable. The writing directing, and acting, all come together perfectly.  A must watch every Christmas season.

It's A Wonderful Life was the first film to be made for Frank Capra's Liberty Films studio. The original first film for the studio was going to be another Christmas themed movie called It Happened on Fifth Avenue. However Capra fell in love with this story and gave It Happened on Fifth Avenue to the Allied Artists studio and to director Roy Del Ruth.

It's A Wonderful Life started it's life as a short story called The Greatest Gift written by Philip Van Doren Stern. RKO had bought this story in 1944, and showed it to Cary Grant's agent, to turn it into a vehicle for the actor. However they could not come up with a suitable script. So they sold the rights to Liberty Films.

This film was also important because it was the first film Frank Capra directed after WW2. During World War 2, Capra had not been making his usual films. He instead was enlisted by the army, to make films for the army, and these became the classic, Why We Fight series. So the director had been absent from public light for a few years. While other directors who were enlisted in the army such as John Huston, William Wyler, and George Stevens, had begun making films that related to their war experience, Capra's film hardly changed and rarely reflected his war experience.

Capra had trouble casting many of the parts, and went though many people, but for George Baily, he knew the actor had to be Jimmy Stewart from the beginning, and he was right, Stewart was perfect.

Oddly enough when this film came out it lost money at the box office, and received mixed reviews from critics. Not quite the welcome back Capra was expecting. However through various TV showing this film has earned it's rightful place as a classic.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resoures Used
Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide by Leonard Maltin

The Night Before Christmas (1913)

Wladyslaw Starewicz is one of the greatest pioneers of stop motion animation, and one of the most important animation directors (and I'd argue directors of any kind) to come out of Russia. He was also one of the first film makers to prove that animation could be art, and he was a co-director, co-writer, cinematographer, art director and animator on the first feature to be done completely in stop motion animation, The Story of the Fox (Which by the way is a masterpiece). He also directed many of the best stop motion animated short films of all time, such as The Cameraman's Revenge, The Frogs Who Wanted a King, The Mascot, and The Insects Christmas. What is interesting about The Night Before Christmas though is that it is one of the director's very few forays into live action film.

The Night Before Christmas is a very charming film. The humor is spot on the acting is good, and the whole film has a unique charm to it. However this film at a mere 41 minutes (two minutes less and it would have been a short instead of a feature) feels like it should have been longer to flesh out the characters, and story more. The look of the film is more dated than the director's animated films, but it still does feature some amazing animated effects, that are the visual highlight of the film. This is a very good film that despite not being quite up to the standard of his animated work is still well worth watching.

The critics of the time praised this film, some calling it one of the great works of the Russian cinema.

-Michael J. Ruhand

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Excellent, warm, silly Christmas romantic comedy. This film doesn't aspire to be anything more than a fun silly comedy that takes place at Christmas time, but it exceeds extremely well at being just that.

This film was directed by Peter Godfrey, who was a prominent B movie director at Warner Brothers during this period, he would later be a fairly prolific TV director. Peter Godfrey would later direct this movie's leading actress, Barbra Stanwyck, in Cry Wolf, and The Two Mrs. Carolls, but this was the first time they worked together.

Barbra Stanwyck was best known as a serious actress, and today is best remembered for a role she played one year earlier in Billy Wilder's classic film-noir Double Indemnity. However she loved being in comedic films like Christmas in Connecticut. She often felt that doing films like this was a great way to wind down after doing a serious film.

Peter Godfrey became good friends with two of the movie's stars, Barbra Stanwyck and Sidney Greenstreet. Godfrey and Greenstreet were said to keep the rest of the cast in crew and hysterics, between shooting the film.

The film was rightfully beloved at the time it was released, and remains a classic with classic movie fans. This is a great watch that I really recommend.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/611/Christmas-in-Connecticut/articles.html

A Christmas Carol (1951)

There have been many, many film versions of A Christmas Carol, but this 1951 version may be the best one. One of the main reasons for this is Alistair Sim's excellent performance as Scrooge, but there are many more reasons to recommend this great movie including the rest of the cast. Brain Desmond Hurst is the perfect director for this film. The look of this film is perfect as well, and it is hard to imagine this film with out the work of Art Director, Ralph W. Brinton and Cinematographer, C.M. Pennington-Richards. Everything comes together to make this a classic, and probably the best film version of A Christmas Carol.

Much of the art direction was heavily based off of John Leech's original illustration for the book. According to the audio commentary on the DVD version, one of Charles Dickens's Grand Daughters visited the set, and said it looked just the the book installations to life (Another visitor mentioned was one of my favorite actresses, Bette Davis, who was a big fan of Alistair Sim)

This film has two titles in Britain, where it was made, it was called Scrooge, however in the U.S. it was called A Christmas Carol. It's U.S. Premiere was meant to take place at New York's Radio City Music Hall at Christmas time, however the theater management was not happy with the film as they felt it was too dark and grim, and therefore not good entertainment for a family audience. The much more lighthearted 1938 MGM version did premiere there by the way.The film's actual U.S. Premiere was at the  Guild Theater on Halloween Night. It did not do very well in the U.S., but was a huge hit in it's home country of Britain. Despite this it would still as the years went by grow into being considered a classic in the U.S. as well.

The editor for this film was Clive Donner, who would later direct the 1984 film version of A Christmas Carol, that starred George C. Scott. Two of the actors in this film, Alistair Sim and Michael Hordern would reprise their roles as Scrooge and Marley for the 1971 animated version, directed by Richard Williams (best remembered as the animation director for Who Framed Roger Rabbit).

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/70899/A-Christmas-Carol/articles.html
DVD audio commentary by Marcus Hearn and George Cole
DVD introduction by Leonard Maltin

Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962)

What is bizarre about this film is besides for very short scenes at the beginning and the end, there appears to be very little of what we except from Mr. Magoo here. Mr. Magoo plays Ebeneezer Scrooge in a Christmas play and he is so good at this with the exception of about three jokes, during the play scenes his eyesight seems to get better. Though in the two short scenes before and after the play he is a more typical Magoo, unlike in A Flintstones Christmas Carol, these scenes play a very small part. This is mostly a straight adaption of A Christmas Carol. However it works quite well as a straight adaption, and is well worth watching. Though this must be distinctly understood our little magic can come out of this story.

The UPA studio started because of the Disney strike in 1941. Though this strike was mainly done for finical reasons, many took this as an artistic opportunity, Some where tired of doing animation the Disney way and wanted to do it their own way. They didn't like how realistic looking much of the Disney animation was and they wanted to do something different. The wanted to do something much more stylized, experimental, and something further away from live action. Part of this was inspired by Walt insisting that his animators have a class teaching about fine art. This backfired when it came to the artists that formed UPA, because the art they were inspired by was the ones that were the most different from the traditional Disney style. They were also inspired by the work of Chuck Jones and John McGrew on a Merrie Melodies cartoon called The Dover Boys, a cartoon that was definitely quite different from the norm at Warner Brothers. Chuck Jones would in fact direct the first UPA film Hell Bent For Election. This was a campaign film for FDR. Some of the men working at UPA at that time included, John Hubley, Steven Boustow, Zach Schwartz, and David Hiberman. These four were the founders of the studio. They followed this up with some films made for the army , and an anti-racism short directed by former Chuck Jones animator, Bobe Cannon. It was around 1948 that they signed a contract with Columbia Pictures (who were very unhappy with their animation department). Before they distributed UPA's own characters (of which they had none), they had the studio work with former Columbia stars, The Fox and the Crow. After these cartoons were finished a new star arouse. UPA wanted to work with human characters, and despite the popularity of Popeye, Columbia was reluctant to let this happen. So they got around this by making a cartoon called Ragtime Bear, which despite the bear being the title character, the main character was Mr. Magoo. Magoo hit it big with audiences, who couldn't get enough of the near sighted stubborn old man. UPA made many more experimental films such as The Tell Tale Heart, and The Unicorn in the Garden, however their main bread winner was Magoo.

It is important to note that little of the people who worked on those classic shorts were working at UPA when this film was made. The director of this film was Abe Levitow. Levitow was a former Chuck Jones animator, and even  directed some Looney Tunes cartoons (okay techinacaly one Looney Tune (A Witch's Tangled Hare) and one Merrie Melody (Really Scent)) , taking over Chuck Jones' unit after he left the studio. The song writers for this film were Julie Stine and Bob Merrill, who were also working on the live action Funny Girl at this time. The film's writer Barbara Chain had worked on Jay Ward's Crusader Rabbit TV show. The animator included  Tom McDonald, Casey Onaitis, Hank Smith, Ed Solomon, John Walker, and Xenia. Of these only Tom McDonald and Casey Onaitis worked on the classic Magoo theatrical shorts.

This film is quite entertaining and a well done adaption, of A Christmas Carol. Though it could have easily benefited from more time, as the whole movie just feels rushed. Surprisingly it can be quite touching at times. The songs  The Lord's Bright Blessing, Winter Was Warm, and Alone in the World are excellent songs by any standard and deserve much more attention. These are the emotional highlights of the film. Unfortunately the song We're Despicable, should have been left out to make room for more emotional depth, or funny humor. This film does have humorous moments, but very few really funny moments that were prevalent in the classic theatrical cartoon shorts. The film sometimes captures the great graphic design of classic UPA, and at other times just feels stilted. While the design work doesn't always work when it does it reminds one of how great UPA can be. This is not my favorite film version of A Christmas Carol (that would be the 1951 version), or even my favorite version where classic cartoon characters are put into the famous story (that would be A Flintstones Christmas Carol), but it is still a well made movie, that I really like a lot.

This film was first released as a made for TV movie, however it was so popular that it later recieved a theatrical release. It was also the first made for TV animated Christmas special, something which you might have noticed has caught on.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
DVD Commentary by Darrel Van Critters

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

One of the most popular and influential Christmas movies is also one of the best.

This was the fourth film from director George Seaton, at least as a director before becoming a director he had been a writer at MGM than Fox. He had written for such films as The Wizard of OZ, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, and The Song of Bernadette. Before this film he had directed  Diamond Horseshoe, Where Do We Go from Here?, Junior Miss and The Shocking Miss Pilgrim. Though on Where Do We Go From Here? he was an uncredited co-director, Gregory Ratoff was the credited main director. Seaton also wrote this film.

Edmund Gwenn was not only a convincing Santa Claus to the audience, but also to then child actress, Natalie Wood also believed him in the part. She believed he was the real Santa Claus, and who can blame her. She didn't realize she wasn't until she saw him out of costume at the wrap party. Not surprisingly Edmund Gwenn won a well deserved academy award for best supporting actor.

Maureen O'Hara was forced into this movie. She had in fact returned to Ireland, before being called to come back to America to play the role of the mom. She however fell in love with the script.

Despite the fact that this is obviously a Christmas film, Fox studio head, Darryl F. Zanuck felt the movie should be released in May, instead of at Christmas time. His reasoning was that people don't go to the theaters at Christmas time. Because of this most of the film's advertisements avoid saying this film had anything to do with Christmas or Santa Claus. Even the original title of the film, Christmas Miracle on 34th Street, was changed to Miracle on 34th Street.

Zanuck even felt this film was too cheesy for audiences. Boy was he wrong this film grew to become a classic, and boy is it. This is an excellent movie by any standards. The cast is perfect. The directing great, the writing top notch and everything comes together perfectly. This is not one of those movies that's beloved because it's considered a classic, but a classic because it is rightfully so beloved. This is a must watch. Highly recommended.

This film is one of only three Christmas films to ever be nominated for best picture. The others were The Bishop's Wife (released the same year), and It's a Wonderful Life (released the year before).

This film also has appearing in the toy department Warner Brothers cartoon characters despite this being a Fox film. This is odd, but perfectly in line with the film's message.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/83570/Miracle-on-34th-Street/articles.html

Mon Oncle Antonie (1971)

This film has been voted by critics as the best Canadian Film of all time at Toronto International Film Festival for three decades in a row. Is it deserving of this praise? Well I have not seen every Canadian film ever made, but I can perfectly believe this praise. This is a masterpiece.

The original title for this film was Silent Night. This referred both to the story's Christmas setting, but also to the time period it takes place. It refers in part to life in Quebec before The Quiet Revelation. This was not a happy time, and unlike many Christmas films, this is not nostalgic in the least.

This film is directed by Claude Jutra, who is one of the most respected Canadian directors, having directed such films as Take it All. He spent a while in France earlier where he worked with such great French directors as François Truffaut (one of my favorite filmmakers of all time) and Jean Roach. Truffaut had even produced Jutra's short film Anna la Bonne. Jutra co-wrote this film with Clément Perron.

This film is a great work of art. It is much deeper, more complex, and thought provoking than it's seemingly simple story would have think. Many critics and audiences still argue about what the film is truly about. Rather than give you a detailed analysis of what this film is about I will rather let you watch it for yourself. I do this not because I don't have my own theory (which I do), but because I think that coming up with your own interpretation, while watching this film will enhance your movie watching experience. Also what has to be mentioned when talking about this film is Michel Brault's excellent cinematography, which is just incredible. This is an art film, so some might be turned off by that, but I recommend giving it a try anyway, because there are much worse things you can do with your life than to watch a great work of art like this.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/84416/Mon-Oncle-Antoine/articles.html

The Bishop's Wife (1947)

This film did not come about easily. The original director was William A. Seiter, who my fellow Laurel and Hardy fans might know as the director of the classic Sons of the Desert. However Samuel Goldwyn did not like how the film was progressing and replaced him with Harry Koster as the director. The angel was originally going to be played by David Niven, and the Bishop by Dana Andrews, and Tersea Wright as the wife. However Tersea Wright had to leave due to pregnancy. The wife was to be played now by Loretta Young. However she was under contract to RKO. Dana Andrews was traded to RKO in order for MGM to get Young. The Bishop part was given to Cary Grant. However it was discovered that Grant would work better as the angel, so Niven and Grant traded roles. On top of all this the preview did not go well. Goldwyn was unhappy with Leonardo Bercovici and Robert E. Sherwood's script, so Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett were hired to refine the script, both without reciving credit. The film did well with critics, but less so with an audience. Because of this the title was temporarly changed to Cary and the Bishop's Wife. Adding Cary Grant's first name to the title somehow did increase the box office results somewhat.

This film is a classic. It has a great cast, who are at the top of their game. Greg Tolland's cinematography is excellent as always (he also did cinematography for such films as Citizen Kane, Grapes of Wrath, and Song of the South). The script is fantastic. It is hard to believe, this film once had script problems. Most of all though this is just a very charming movie full of great heart and Christmas spirit. A must watch every Christmas season.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/68818/The-Bishop-s-Wife/articles.html

Santa and The Three Bears (1970)

This film may not be a classic, but it is a sweet little movie, that deserves a watch. It is simple, charming, and warm, but lacks that certain something special that makes a film a classic. However it is well worth watching as long as you aren't expecting a classic.

One thing that works well in this films favor is the work of Tony Benedict. Tony Benedict was one of the directors and the sole writer on this film. He had been a writer at Hanna-Barbera, and had written for such shows as The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and The Yogi Bear Show. There he had learned well how to make cartoons on a very low budget. This is important because this is an animated film on a very small budget. He was able to make it work despite the small budget, hugely because of his former experience.

This film starts off in live action with a Grandfather (played by Hal Smith, who also voices the park ranger and Santa Claus in the animated majority of the film) telling two kids the story of Santa and the Three Bears. This opening was directed, oddly enough by Barry Mahon, who mostly did exploitation films like  The Beast That Killed Women, The Sex Killer, Sex Club International, and Naughty Nudes. Barry Mahon also was this movies producer as well. An interesting person to work on a family friendly Christmas movie to say the least. This opening however is pretty pointless and could have been dropped, as the animated story is quite a bit better.

Overall this is a charming little movie. It may not be classic, but sometimes we just want to watch a film like this and when we do this is a good choice.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
The Animated Movie Guide by Jerry Beck

It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

Very charming and quite funny Christmas themed comedy.

It Happened on 5th Avenue started life as an idea for a film for Frank Capra's production company, Liberty Films. It was going to be directed by Capra himself, but Capra found a Christmas themed movie he liked a bit better, called It's a Wonderful Life, a film he wanted to make much more. So the film was given to producer/director Roy Del Ruth. It also became the first film made for the Allied Artist company.

This film is a very charming Christmas classic that deserves to be better known. It is very funny, the characters are quite likable, the story is good and most of all it just has a great charm to it. It is a very happy feel good movie that just feels so naturally happy and never forced. On top of that is is just perfectly cast.  Victor Moore, Don DeFore, Ann Harding, Charles Ruggles and Gale Storm were all just perfect, and really don't feel like actors, but rather the characters they are playing. Also very charming in a brief role is Edward Brophy, who my fellow Disney fans may recognize as the voice of Timothy Mouse in Dumbo. This is just a Christmas classic that deserves to be much better known.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/274279%7C0/It-Happened-On-th-Avenue.html

The Night Before Christmas (1951)

The Night Before Christmas was made for  Soyuzmultfilm, probably the most important Russian Animation studio, which has produced The Snow Queen, The Humpbacked Horse, and Nu, Pogodi!. It was directed and written by the Brumberg sisters (Valentina and Zinaida), who have been called the Grandmothers of Russian animation, and had directed the films The Lost Letter and It Was I Who Drew the Little Man.

This film is an example of the Socialist Realist movement in Russian Animation at this time. This movement was heavily inspired by both Disney animation of 1930's and 40's, and socialist realist painting. This movement was characterized by realistic animation and folk-lore. It is also represented by heavy rotoscoping (tracing over live action film) which is very prevalent in this film.

This film is not based off the popular poem, but rather Nikolai Gogol's story. So there is no sign of Santa Claus here. It is rather just a story that takes place on the night before Christmas.

This film is very charming. The backgrounds are downright amazing, They are simply great to look at. The story is very good. The characters all quite likable, if underdeveloped. The animation of the characters is stiff at times, but still works quite well. While the rotoscoping is obvious and kind of dates the film, it still works just fine. The character designs are quite well done. However most of all this is a film just filled with wonder, and is quite a joy to watch. While it falls short of the Disney films that inspired this movement, it is still very good, and highly recommended.

This film has fallen into the public domain, and can be found on various public domain DVDs and easily on the internet.

-Michael J. Ruhland