As Good As It Gets

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Mind you, Cricket on the Hearth (1967) is no Rudolph either, but it's not unwatchable or a train wreck as these other reviewers would have you believe. It's actually a little better than I expected it would be: as maddeningly average as most of the film is, there is a darkness to it that gives the whole thing flavor.The animation is standard 1960s television fare: limited, stiff, and awkward at moments. The character design is mostly uninspired, but sometimes appealing. None of the songs are memorable, though the voice actors perform them well. Unfortunately, most of the songs do not move the story along and bring the special to grinding halt (I'm looking especially at that brief number in the bar... just why?).The one thing that stands out about this special is not its animation or songs, but the poignancy of the story. There's a lot of dark subject matter here: grief, poverty, blindness, kidnapping, exploitation, and even murder (yes, murder; three henchman get capped in one infamous scene). There's an undercurrent of despair that makes this rather pedestrian movie memorable, though of course there's a happy ending, this being a Rankin-Bass special after all.In the end, this is a decent Christmas special. I doubt most of today's children would go for it, but if you have nostalgia, then it should serve you well. It's certainly not incompetent, as others argue.

Just watched this gem for the first time and understand why it's not aired every year with the likes of Rudolph, Frosty and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Very depressing and a bit disturbing too. This good luck cricket seems to have brought nothing but ill will to the father/daughter it finds. Sudden blindness. Banruptcy. Kidnapping and cold murder. Dirty old man with warts and no teeth. Not the things I really want to share with my kids. Ever. I suppose its OK because both Jesus and the Pope due make an appearance. However, my husband and I were laughing so hard by the end due to it's utter ridiculousness that I think it will be a holiday tradition in our household for years to come. From now on our motto is: cricket on the hearth, take that horseshoe off the door, with a cricket on the hearth, you can leave that lucky penny sitting on the floor. Deep.

I love animation from Rankin/Bass, ever since I have first watched Rudolph and Frosty, as a kid at Christmas. This special is one of those Christmas specials that I have never even heard or seen. I have recently bought in on DVD, and after I have watched it, I absolutely love it, it almost made me cry, like the romance between Bertha Plummer & Edward Belton and the tender moments between Bertha and her dad. Except when Crockett and his mates put stuff (walnuts and pepper) in Mr. Tackleton's tea to prevent him from proposing to Bertha; now that made me laugh.Yes with these beautifully animated specials and the film "The Last Unicorn" it make me wish that Rankin/Bass would have been around longer, along with Fleischer's.

Like most people I'd never seen this special (though being a Rankin & Bass fan I knew of it) and as it was included in the collection I was finally able to see it. I have to say though, that it's not difficult to understand why it has rarely been seen since it's release. Unlike the rest of the Rankin & Bass specials, this one somehow looks dated and doesn't quite have the charm of the rest of their efforts. I don't think the character design was the best they'd ever done either. It was good up to a point and had some good music for the kids so I won't give it a zero but I didn't find it all that interesting and what happened next totally turned me off to it forever. ***SPOILER WARNING***The biggest shocker came about halfway through. There is a scene (which I can't understand why it wasn't cut or wasn't changed in some way) that I was very, very disappointed to see. At one point the cricket is kidnapped by the typical bad-guy henchman and delivered to a sea captain and when they ask to be paid the sea captain says "I have your payment right here' and pulls out a gun and murders them!!! Bang! Bang! Bang! Are you kidding me??? I couldn't believe what I was seeing!!! They don't actually show it but you see a long shot of the boat and the flashes from the gun muzzle. Unbelievable. I don't have to tell you how uncomfortable it is on Christmas Eve trying to explain what just happened to your two young children who were expecting to see a nice Christmas video with their parents. If you like that sort of thing then give it a look but we won't be watching 'The Cricket On The Hearth' in our house anytime soon.