For more general recommendations, give a listen to Wade and Tim’s DigiGods Holiday Special and Gift Guide Podcast, which also includes a great interview with Warren Pereira, writer/director/producer of the fantastic documentary Tiger 24, now on VOD and soon on Blu-ray.
For Christmas-specific titles… dig in:
Best Christmas 4k UHD Blu-rays:
mLess than two months ago, Jules Bass — the Bass half of Rankin/Bass — went to join his long-departed partner, Arthur Rankin Jr., to make holiday classics in the great beyond. What they leave behind is more than enough to preserve their memory. The animated holiday specials they made in the 1960s and early 1970s continue to enthrall generations, and now the three most popular Christmas specials — Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town — have at long last been released on 4k UHD with a Movies Anywhere code to boot. If there’s a drawback it’s that 4k reveals detail to the animation which Rankin/Bass perhaps never intended. But there’s a kind of back-handed joy in that as well, being able to ascertain the technique which, more than a half century ago, seemed so far ahead of its time. And the voice work and songs — memorable as always. What’s missing? The handful of second-tier titles previously released on Blu-ray — Cricket on the Hearth, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, the sub-standard Frosty Returns — but the omission of The Little Drummer Boy is a serious de-merit. The decision likely had something to do with wanting to secularize this set, thereby presumably broadening its appeal. Just the same, Drummer Boy deserves to be here, so hopefully Warner will issue a followup with the omitted titles at some point in the future. For now, grab The Classic Christmas Specials Collection while you can.
The rest of the season’s top-tier Christmas 4k releases are also all Warner titles — a claim to seasonal supremacy which is finding its way to HBO Max as well. Sadly, no, How the Grinch Stole Christmas is not among them. But four beloved holiday movies (all with Movies Anywhere codes) are: A Christmas Story, Elf, The Polar Express and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story is the undeniable champion here, a classic so beloved that its misbegotten sequel, nearly forty years later, featuring a grown Peter Billingsley, has tanked on HBO Max without so much as denting the reputation of the original. The transfer is beautiful and the commentary with Peter Billingsley and the film’s late director, Bob Clark, is first rate — though it has been released before. Elf has two commentaries — also released previously — with Will Ferrell and director Jon Favreau as well as a cute but largely superfluous fan feature called “Fact Track” featuring BTW popups — an amiably distracting gimmick which wears out its welcome rather quickly. Christmas Vacation, on the other hand, is more of an acquired taste — fans of the original National Lampoon’s Vacation will, of course, love it, despite the recasting of the children, though the image of Randy Quaid in Speedos leaves a haunting impression with which many may not wish to associate the holidays. Transfer is decent, not remarkable, and extras are limited mainly to a trailer and cast-and-crew commentary. Lastly, the oft-maligned Polar Express continues the slow resurrection of its reputation as the book’s growing legions of fans migrate to the film with a far less critical eye than those before them. Extras are respectably copious — mainly featurettes, behind-the-scenes material and an intriguing look at motion capture technology. The film’s G rating — an increasingly rare attribute for family audiences — is another draw.
Holiday Horror:
It’s a niche genre to be sure, but one with a loyal following. The handful of counter-intuitive Christmas classics which traffic more in gore than cheer tend to favor memorable riffs on seasonal aphorisms: i and SilentNight, DeadlyNight most notably. For reasons which likely have more to do with rights, the new Silent Night, Deadly Night Collection features the final three films in the series — but omits the first two. Shout! Factory released the first two films in 2017 and 2018, leaving the final three installments — Better Watch Out!, Initiation and The Toy Maker — lost in obscurity until Lionsgate resurrected them as a trilogy. Admittedly, there’s nothing in them which warrants discovery except for fans of the first two — but as part of the Vestry Video Collector’s Series, Lionsgate makes it clear that this is aimed squarely at the grind house and 80s video nostalgia crowd.
Black Christmas, on the other hand, is an otherwise unremarkable slasher-and-sorority outing noteworthy only for the fact that it was directed by A Christmas Story’s Bob Clark nine years earlier. This is also a pre-Porky’s Bob Clark, it should be noted, who was still forging a career — so it’s not as surprising as it might seem in hindsight. Still a curiosity, though, as the 4k UHD release here — mastered from the original negative — seems wholly unnecessary for such a low-budget picture. Just the same. the extras are copious and aimed squarely at the genre fan set — featurettes, commentaries, an alternate cut, documentaries and plenty more.
Christmas Cruelty, on the other hand, is the newcomer here, a 2013 Norwegian serial killer movie which might have vanished completely but for the Christmas connection. This is an abhorrent, bloody, ruthlessly gory film by any stretch and not for any but genre devotees. The extras are of interest, accordingly, only to those who may want to keep track of the talents involved.
2 for the Tikes and 1 for TeeVee :
Seasonal disc releases specifically for kids have become few and far between as most such releases move to streaming — but a pair of DVDs this year do warrant meant: My Favorite Holidays from Shout! Kids and Sesame Workshop, and the original Warner Bros. movie Tom and Jerry: Snowman’s Land. The former is a nice two-hour Sesame Street compilation centered on Christmas and the holiday season with a wonderful bonus: Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas, which for those who’ve seen it, practically justifies the purchase of this by itself. The Tom and Jerry title, meanwhile, is a rather amusingly shameless riff on Frosty the Snowman featuring a “snow mouse.” On balance, however, it’s the same story and would constitute a shocking bit of plagiarism except for the fact… that it’s just not worth it.
Adults of a certain age, meanwhile, will get a more wholesome kick out of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet – Ultimate Christmas Collection. As part of the “official restored and remastered” releases of the classic television series being released from MPI, this 70th anniversary set features fourteen Christmas-themed episodes from the show’s 1952-1966 run, all of them absolute gems. Rick Nelson’s performance of “The Christmas Song” is a highlight. A sheer delight.
Christmas Inc.:
The explosion of Christmas-themed romantic comedies and melodramas over just the past decade, nearly all made for television, VOD or straight-to-disc, is perhaps the most under-the-radar holiday phenomenon of the past 20 years. In a special two-part DigiGods podcast, our own Ray Greene attempts to get to the bottom of at least part of it. Meanwhile, we can here offer some recommendations of the more noteworthy entrants this season.
The New Line Cinema release 8-Bit Christmas is an amiable “life lesson” Christmas tale wedged somewhere between A Christmas Story and the wacky Jingle All the Way. Neil Patrick Harris stars as Jake, a
man looking back on an episode from his childhood in the 80s when he and his friends obsessively pursued a Nintendo game system against the wishes of his parents. In A Ring for Christmas is a more traditional rom-com, a preposterous premise made ultimately forgivable because it has its heart in the right place. The premise here centers on a young woman who risks being severed from here inheritance unless she can get herself hitched by Christmas. You know where it goes from there. As insubstantial and fluffy Christmas rom-coms go, Christmas in Paradise is one of the most insubstantial, but it has a wonderful cast, so it also gets a pretty easy pass. Kelsey Grammar is a single dad living it up at an island resort when his daughters — including Elizabeth Hurley — show up to rescue him from what they suspected was a post-break-up depression. Billy Ray Cyrus co-stars. Amiable fluff, nicely produced for Lionsgate by Grindstone.
Brain Power Studio may not get the attention of a Lifetime or Hallmark, but the small Canadian indie has made a real mark in the Christmas rom-com market in a relatively short period of time. Christmas in Wolf Creek builds on the popularity of Love in Wolf Creek to continue the romance between Sam (Nola Martin) and Austin (Tim Rozon) against the small-town backdrop of a wildlife reserve and all the peripheral chaos which a beautiful Canadian town can furnish. Country Roads Christmas is a mostly by-the-numbers story about a fired country music executive finding herself on a life-changing tour that might bring her both love and reconciliation with her estranged father — if she’s willing to open up her cold, corporate heart. One guess whether she pulls it off. Finally, along the same lines is Christmas in Rockwellin WWE star Trish Stratus plays a Hollywood actress whose career downturn sends her back home (naturally, to a small town) where she just may have discovered love — if she can let go of celebrity and Hollywood. Two guesses whether she pulls it off.
Lifetime has long been a dominant force in Christmas Inc. rom-coms, and this season they’ve simply jammed everything into compilations, assuming — probably correctly — that the people who watch these things prefer to binge and aren’t necessarily drawn to any individual title. It’s a good bet. For lightweights, there’s the Lifetime 12-Movie Set – A Very Merry Movie Collection: Volume 4, which includes the surprisingly good Reba McEntire’s Christmas in Tune. But if you’re really hardcore, save your shekels for the Lifetime 50-Movie Set: Ultimate Holiday Movie Collection. There’s just no conceivable way — nor much of a point — in talking about any of these films because, again, it’s about the smorgasbord more than what comprises it. but there are celebrities great and small scattered through all these films, and Miracle in Motor City and the three Merry Little Christmas films are well above average.
Is there any question, however, that Hallmark is still the king of this genre? Before moving to GAF (Great American Family) as both an actress and executive, Candace Cameron Bure was a Hallmark Christmas movie mainstay, and it’s easy to see why. Of the three Hallmark films new to Blu-ray this season, The Christmas Contest is easily the best and the best-written, a real charmer on love, reconciliation and charity. Danica McKellar and Benjamin Ayres come in second with You, Me & the Christmas Trees, a hilariously contrived story about two people brought together (wait for it) to solve the mystery of what’s killing all the trees at a Christmas tree farm. Do they figure out the mystery? Well, we won’t spoil it for you — but they do fall in love! The third and final new Hallmark seasonal Blu-ray is Five More Minutes, which some may recognize as the title of a hit song. Premised on revelations in a rediscovered diary which enables a young woman to reconnect to the late grandfather with whom she wishes she had “five more minutes,” it gets pretty syrupy, but that’s what these movies are about. Not to be outdone, however, Hallmark also keeps a presence in the compilation set market, albeit more modestly than Lifetime. This season also brings a trio of Christmas triple features of which A Cheerful Christmas / Double Holiday / It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas being perhaps the most worthwhile, thanks to the refreshing premise of Double Holiday in which an office party to celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah pays beautiful dividends. Christmas on my Mind / A Homecoming for the Holidays / Holiday Hearts and Magical Christmas Ornaments / Snow Bride / The Christmas Cottage are more routine compilations, but Snow Bride has some especially genuine moments.
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Whoever said there weren’t enough Christmas movies to go around? Clearly nobody who’s been paying attention. Go nuts. Knock yourselves out. And when you’re done, head on over to our Facebook page and follow us for news and podcasts!
In the meantime, have a great holiday season with the ones you love.
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