CHRISTMAS IN CARTOONTOWN (1996)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

I'd never seen this 40-minute DTV cartoon until encountering it on streaming. The animation is mediocre at best, and the songs are utterly forgettable, so it's got no chance of rating with the best of the animated Xmas specials. However, even though the script's three writers don't have too many credits beyond other animated features by the company UAV, the story's reasonably original.

While Santa and his elves are gearing up production for the annual Christmas run, a mysterious conspirator causes Irv the Elf to get imprisoned in one of the toys and shipped out to a chain store. (Why does Santa even have contacts with any stores?) The conspirator knows that Irv the Elf is the only entity who can activate the flying power of the reindeer (they don't just fly on their own?), so without Irv, Saint Nick's operation is eighty-sixed.

Two good little children, brother Alex and sister Heidi, buy the snow globe toy in which Irv's imprisoned, and release him. He appeals to them to help him reach the North Pole, and they agree. Irv explains that mirrors are frozen magic the way ice is frozen water-- which is one of the script's more original thoughts-- and he uses a snowflake-amulet to pull all three of them through the nearest mirror, into Fairy Tale Land.

Well, that's what the place ought to be called. I don't think it's called "Cartoontown" in the narrative either, but maybe someone thought "toons" were more salable in the DTV market than fairy tales. In any event, Alex, Heidi and their height-challenged friend have to hoof it to the North Pole, asking for directions from such luminaries as Pinocchio, Jack (of Beanstalk fame) and his giant, Snow White, and Cinderella and her Prince Charming. (The Cinderella sequence provides one of the few jokes that works.) The trio also encounter the Witch from "Hansel and Gretel," who tries to cook them in a pot, and who is eventually revealed as a confederate of the mysterious benefactor.

Once the kids reach the North Pole, Santa welcomes Irv, and Christmas goes forward. The villain reveals himself as an evil toy manufacturer, only seen before this on a billboard, but he's defeated in jig time. Alex and Heidi return home and enjoy a Santa-fied holiday. It's an odd little confection, but if it's not among the best of its kind, it's not among the worst either.