Pretty Good

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 300 HOLIDAY FILMS & SPECIALS. I HAVE NO AGENDA.Mickey Rooney and George S. Irving reprises their respective roles as Santa Claus and Heat Miserat ages 88 and 86 Snow Miser, originally portrayed by Dick Shawn who died in 1987, was voiced by Juan Chioran, while Mrs. Claus, voiced by Shirley Booth in the original, was portrayed by Catherine Disher (because Booth had died in 1992). The movie aimed to emulate the Rankin/Bass animation style. This is the last Christmas special to feature Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus, as he died in 2014, as well as the last time George Irving voiced Heat Miser, as he died in 2016.The plot is that the feuding Miser Brothers attend their family reunion with Mother Nature and their fellow siblings North Wind, Earthquake, Thunder and Lightning, and the Tides. North Wind passively asks Mother Nature what might happen if Santa would be unable to complete his duties on Christmas. She responds that North Wind would take control instead. Self-absorbed and vain, North Wind becomes fixated with the idea of replacing Santa Claus as a way to achieve personal glory.This special was made because over the years the original "The Year without a Santa Claus" had become very popular. The original songs from that special "The Snow Miser Song" "The Heat Miser Song" are so popular that they were re-worked into this special. Now this lacks the charm of the original. That film made the viewers that they were part of the plot. This special isolates the viewer so you have no connection to the outcome. If you love the original then watch this but don't expect lighting to strike again.

I'd give this a eight and a half out of ten. Pretty good actually. Or maybe the haters are louder than the lovers (or likers?) Hmmmm.... where can i start? If you hadn't seen the first one, you wouldn't think this was too bad. But the music is pretty bad. The one and a half point for me is taken off from the new character North Wind's song and Mrs. Claus's song. And the fact that in this, Snow miser seems more PUSHY AND SARCASTIC and not so much with the ridiculous PUNS AND RANDOM BURSTS OF LAUGHTER. And why'd Snow Miser get the new haircut and lose his hat? But I do like (better than the original) X Snow Miser's new SINGING voice- Juan Chioran (because when you listen to Dick Shawn's, it sounds a bit choppy) X Heat Miser's new clothes X when they show the flashbacks of the childhoods Overall, it's okay. But it will never beat the original. But I love the original.

The bickering brothers are back, this time called upon to save Christmas as Santa Claus suffers from a minor back injury incurred when flying between the feuding Miser Brothers.While the premise has potential, the execution was faulty. It was a mistake to reintroduce these characters for this special, because it invites comparison to their original appearance in "A Year Without A Santa Claus," and between the two Christmas specials, it's no contest."The Miser Brother's Christmas Special" opens with Tinsel, Santa's chief mechanic, working on a new Super-Sleigh for Santa to use, which Santa intends to test.Mother Nature meanwhile is holding an annual get-together with all of her children (and apparently has a very large number). One of her sons, North Wind (whom both Miser Brothers actively dislike) has learned that if something were to happen to Santa Claus, then he himself would take over Santa's business.Unlike any of the characters in the previous special, North Wind discloses an unsettling duplicitous nature. Seemingly doting and adoring of his mother, he is actually vain and narcissistic, possibly even sociopathic. He has become obsessed with the idea of taking over Santa's business for his own personal adoration and seemingly has no compunction whatsoever about eliminating Santa Claus permanently to accomplish this.He dispatches his minions to sabotage the Super-Sleigh, which forces Santa to crash land between the feuding Miser Brothers, causing them to be blamed for his injuries. North Wind is ready to assume Santa's duties, but Mother Nature has decided that the Miser Brothers should fill in for Santa Claus this year.Operations in Santa's workshop stagnate as the brothers continue to battle. Thanks to Mrs. Claus's delicate touch, the Miser brothers are finally persuaded to put aside their differences and cooperate. The history of the Miser Brothers is revealed at this point (and it may be apocryphal), as we learn they have been on Santa's "naughty" list for mutual bickering since infancy. This is inconsistent with what is known for about them in "A Year Without A Santa Claus," since they refer to each other as "step-brother," but this special suggests that they're actually fraternal twins.I guess we're to assume that Mother Nature is not bound by normal human laws of gestation and can have step-children obviously very close in age, if not the same age.North Wind has not stopped his machinations and has attached heating and cooling units to the bottom of Santa's sleigh, apparently capable of heating and cooling vast regions of the planet. The Miser Brothers are convinced that the other is responsible in a plot to heat or cool the entire planet, and they resume feuding. Santa, despite his injuries, decides to do the route himself, and the North Wind attacks, cutting Santa's reindeer loose and conjuring up a vortex to consume Santa forever.The brothers, who have learned that neither is to blame for Santa's injuries and that Santa was the victim of sabotage by the North Wind, come to the rescue and through some tricky maneuvering, manage to pull Santa out, although nearly becoming swallowed by the vortex themselves. But all are rescued and North Wind has been captured. The Miser Brothers have made Santa's "nice" list for the first time, and North Wind is consigned to doing chores for Mother Nature for the next several thousand years.Where this special fails is the introduction of malice. The Miser Brothers had a mutual animosity, but this special takes it too far. Where they were once content to annoy and frustrate each other, even to causing minor injuries in the style of slapstick comedy, they have since escalated their hostility and seek genuine harm. And even more disturbing is the North Wind's apparent amorality. Mother Nature's sentence of doing chores, even for a few thousand years, seems rather lenient for someone who tried to murder Santa Claus.Were it not for the repeated reuse of the Miser Brothers' ragtime song from A Year Without A Santa Claus, the songs would have nothing to redeem them. In contrast with the dynamic styles used in "Year," such as the Dixieland-style "It's Gonna Snow-Ho-Ho Right Here in Dixie," and the poignant numbers, such as "Blue Christmas" and "I Believe In Santa Claus," the new songs for this special are vapid. It gave me the distinct impressions that they were written at the last minute.It is indeed regrettable, because the Miser Brothers are worthy characters and deserving of their own Christmas special. Sadly, this special has failed them miserably, and it would have been better for this special had they not been used for it. I'd prefer to remember the Miser Brothers as they were in "A Year Without A Santa Claus" and forget this special even exists.

As with practically every TV show and movie, when you try to resurrect characters years later, the efforts are usually pretty pale imitations of the original. Some examples are the new Indiana Jones movie, the latest Star Wars films and attempts to revive the TV show "The Odd Couple". If I really thought about it, I am sure I could create a very long list of such misses--and you could as well.Well, in this same tradition, two somewhat obscure characters from the Rankin-Bass special, THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS (1974) debuted--the Heat Miser and Snow Miser. They were great characters for kids and when I recently saw this old TV special again, I still enjoyed their antics. When my daughter found out that these two guys were returning for a NEW special, she insisted we watch it.The show is once again nominally about Santa Claus and through some intrigue that I could care less about, the evil North Wind is intent on destroying Santa and it's up to the two feuding Misers to make up and work together for the good of Christmas. In addition there are a whole host of immortals who control earthquakes, nature and head lice (I made that one up). This is all rather odd, I grant you. The problem is that not only are these new characters rather boring, but as a result of all this silly mumbo-jumbo, this hardly seems like a Christmas special at all! Additionally, the old Rankin-Bass stop-motion style has been replaced with a nice looking but noticeably different CG animation that is meant to mimic stop-motion. So, in other words, they deliberately made the characters move in a jerky fashion to imitate the old film. But, try as they might, it didn't look like the old film but this wasn't nearly the problem that the insipid story posed to the production.As far as the voice talents go, most of the original cast had either died or perhaps weren't interested other than Mickey Rooney who once again plays Santa. You can't blame them for not getting Shirley Booth or Dick Shawn since they were dead, but it was terribly obviously different if you watched this immediately after seeing THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS. Mrs. Claus, in addition to a different voice, has been replaced with a younger and sexier new Mrs. Claus! The bottom line is that a bad story and too many changes result in a movie that the kids might like but parents will find tough going. Watchable, but just barely.