So I'm watching Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and it's at the beginning, on the ice planet Hoth--my very favorite part of the movie, and perhaps the whole series. Anyway, I noticed something unintentionally comical for the first time. See, Luke's lost and weak out in the ice plains, the wind swirling around him, nearly frozen. Suddenly, good ol' Ben Kenobi (That's Obi-Wan, to you and me) appears before him in hallucinatory spirit-form. Now, I understand this scene and appreciate its artfulness--the idea is, Luke is pretty out of it, his mind isn't right at all, and what with his fragile state, the line between life and death may even be blurring a little bit, perhaps allowing him to communicate with dead people. This set up was probably meant to be ambiguous--leaving the question open as to whether Luke was hallucinating or Obi-Wan had actually appeared to him--but it's clear immediately, and confirmed through later contacts, that Obi-Wan is actually appearing to him. And what has Luke's best friend and mentor crossed universes and temporal dimensions to tell his dying pupil? "Luke, you must go to the Dagoba system--there you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me" What?! Luke's lying ...

[rating: 5] If you're reading this review and expecting me to say something about Jim Carrey, you can just stop right now. The Grinch I speak of is an animated character, found in books when at his best, and when at his second best, found in animated specials which are little more than a book narrated aloud by Boris Karloff. None of that has to do with Jim Carrey. In any case, I have a theory about why this book/cartoon special is arguably the most famous of all of Theodore "Dr. Seuss" Geisel's work. The pitch and tone for all Dr. Seuss books is fairly consistent in that a strange creature usually interacts in strange ways with either A) Normal people and things or, B) other strange people and things. Either way, and I mean this with the utmost respect, Dr. Seuss books tend to be pretty heavy on the nonsense. I know, I know, that's what allows for such unique and unforgettable characters and environments--it's all part of the charm. But regardless, How the Grinch Stole Christmas became famous because it--like The Cat in the Hat, another favorite--inserts that Seussical charm into a world with which we immediately identify. The Cat in the Hat's ...

Come late December, televisions are practically filled to bursting with Christmas specials on any number of channels. But something that I don't see getting the love it deserves is "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," the very first full-length episode of The Simpsons. The show had other Christmas themed episodes, but this is the one that deserves your attention. Those others, sure they're great Christmas episodes. But this one plays like a bona fide CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (as its on-screen title, The Simpsons Christmas Special, would suggest). It's the episode where Homer doesn't get his Christmas bonus, the other Christmas money has to be spent getting Bart's tattoo removed (Ow! Quit it!), and Homer has to take a job as a mall Santa to make ends meet. The episode ultimately culminates with Homer empty-handed on Christmas Eve with no presents for anybody...until circumstances align themselves just right to leave him and his family with a new dog named Santa's Little Helper, a cute puppy who will join the family to love and be loved and share in the joy of Christmas. Whatever ineffable qualities are needed to make a classic Christmas special, this toon has them. Lessons are learned about family togetherness and love ...

[rating: 0.5] For someone like me, what we’re about to discuss is the absolute ne plus ultra of holiday specials, despite being perhaps the single worst thing to have ever been broadcast on television. Most people into the same things as I am have heard of it and many have seen it, but I’m sure even more have not. Before the Internet made everything easily available to everyone, it was awfully hard to come by, and even now it is hard to come by in a form that isn’t so full of distortion that you have to squint your eyes really hard to tell what’s going on. Of course, what’s going on is the most truly awful celebration of the holidays ever, so maybe you don’t want to squint that hard. It’s one hour and thirty-five minutes of nonsense, ranging from the mind-blowing to the gut-wrenching. It’s a travesty so atrocious that even its creator wants all existing copies destroyed. And it all happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Yes, it’s the Star Wars Holiday Special, coming in the holiday season of 1978, just after the success of the original Star Wars but before anyone knew that ...

[rating: 4] This is one of my all time favorite Christmas movies. It's on a short list of films which have inspired me during the holidays since I was in short pants, and I was watching it before I could even get most of the themes and jokes involved. Now, you may be wondering just how many adaptations of Charles Dickens' holiday classic have been made. The answer is 14,212. And this is one of the better ones. Why has the classic story been so popular among playwrights and film directors over the centuries? The answer is pretty simple, and it's because it's one hell of a fun story to adapt and make your own. The basic storyline is pretty much set in stone--a grouchy man is visited by three ghosts who show him his past, present, and future life, and it makes him rethink his morals and ideals. BUT! You can pretty much change the time period and persona of your main character--your "Scrooge"--to fit whatever story you want to tell. And once you change the identity of that main character, the whole meat of your storyline is up for interpretation. And of course Scrooged is the perfect example of this. Instead of a ...

[rating: 1] When this movie was first released, I’m sure the thought on most people’s minds was: “Bwah?” Surely it can’t be that Tim Burton who is making an animated feature, right? Animated features are for children and the filmmaking style of Tim Burton is most definitely not the sort of thing most children can handle without needing years of psychotherapy afterward. Most people probably assumed that, since stop-motion animation holiday specials are so obviously geared toward kids that perhaps Tim Burton would hold back on the dark horrifying insanity from hell he so often utilizes. But then they actually saw the movie and realized just how wrong they were. As the movie starts, the audience is treated to a musical number. Lest you think this indicates that this is to be a typical Disney style animated film, consider that the song is all about the virtues of Halloween, including all kinds of ghouls, clowns with tearaway faces (ack!) and the pointy toothed monster that hides under your bed (ACK!). The song also serves to introduce us to Jack. He's the hero of the picture and is a scrawny man with a skeleton face. After the song, we're introduced to some other ...

What if you were just a fan of something. Just a fan, who liked doing fan-like things in your own way. Things like, say, drawing the entire Simpsons cast in Manga-style Japanese animation... just for fun. And then what if it appeared on so many blogs and sites, from simple folks like us here at Melted Reel, that your very idol emailed you and asked you if you'd like to work with him? When yesterday you were sitting at home doodling. That exact thing happened earlier this year to a Deviant Art user called "Spacecoyote" (Note the Simpsons reference there). After creating the two images seen below, The Simpsonzu and Futurama: Super Happy Fun Show, just for kicks, the artist was swiftly featured on the front page of DeviantArt.com, and blogged about all over the internet. In the days that followed, Matt Groening emailed the artist and pitched an idea for a short series of Manga-style Simpsons episodes from his company Bongo Comics. And THEN, 20th Century Fox called the artist up and proposed that Spacecoyote might join the team to work on the recent Futurama relaunch. That's right. This lucky girl got to draw for ...

[rating: 1.5] Man, is this cartoon fucking weird. It's basically this kind of... elaborate presentation of a "full story" of Santa Claus, unmistakably aimed at providing an alternative to the better known story The Life and Adventures of Jesus Christ, which is often mistakenly referred to as "The New Testament." And hey, I'm all for providing secular alternatives to religious dogma. I'm just not sure that a little boy raised in the wilderness by a Lioness Queen named Shiegra and supported by a bureaucratic council of "Immortals" cuts the mustard. I'm not even sure it cuts the cheese. Still, for whatever reason, this Rankin/Bass special is one that has stood out in my mind more than most, ever since my childhood--just as much as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer did because it was awesome, and just like the The Lord of the Rings trilogy did because the part where Gollum bites Frodo's finger off at Mount Doom gave me nightmares until I was fifteen. No, seriously. That part of that little animated series had such an effect on me that I was actually disappointed by the recreation of the climactic scene in Peter Jackson's recent trilogy, all because it didn't make me shit my ...

I've known the Eartha Kitt song "Santa Baby" for a long time, but I've never particularly liked it. Okay, it's a sultry song about a woman who wants to make out with and marry Santa, plus get a bunch of expensive gifts. But I just this moment actually took note of these lines: Santa, honey One little thing I really need The deed To a platinum mineWHOA-HO! There is an extremely important pause before that last statement, you see. Innunedo like "come and trim my Christmas tree" is one thing, but man. Eartha Kitt singing about how she needs the deed? I'm ashamed to admit I hadn't picked up on it before, but I'm also glad I didn't, because it's really giving me a warped idea of Christmas in general.Thank god she never changed "hurry down the chimney tonight" to "down my chimney tonight." That way lies madness.

[rating: 4] Hey, remember that paroxysm of joy I went into over A Chipmunk Christmas? If in even my wildest dreams I'd imagined I'd get a chance to not just watch but actually own today's item, I'd have saved that reaction. That's not to take anything away from Alvin and his cronies, but A Wish for Wings That Work is just...it's just some kind of wonderful thing, it is. Before this year, I'd seen this cartoon—a Christmas special featuring Opus the penguin Bill the Cat from Bloom County—exactly once, on TV during some long ago December. After that I never again saw it on TV and was unable to track it down on home video. As the years went by, it grew in my mind to legendary status, my obsession deepening with each passing holiday season. It was like Moby-Dick, except the cartoon didn't cause me to lose my leg, nor did it dwell in the ocean's briny depths. Other than that, though, it's exactly the same. So imagine my shock when I saw the long out of print special at last released on DVD. My eyes bugged out with a resounding aoogah, my jaw dropped to the floor, my pants were filled ...