Once again the masters of making fun of movies over at Rifftrax have put together a special screening to delight and entertain. The trio of Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett, and Michael J. Nelson showcased a plethora of different forgotten Holidays specials and by mocking them, made it an incredibly entertaining night. As always, if the description of the specials sounds weird and obscure it means more jokes were able to be made at their expense.
The first short of the evening was Santa Claus’ story. In it Santa Claus talked about monkeys while the movie flashed to nature films of monkeys in human clothing, which really has no point except to show monkeys in human clothing. Then Santa tries to do the legendary “Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus” article but sadly the impact is lost by the fact the audience is still laughing about Santa talking about monkeys while the children on his lap gave him weird looks as if to say “What is he talking about?”.
From their they showed, The tale of Custard the Dragon which looked liked it was film in a Saturday afternoon with the director’s kids. The original story they narrate was written by Ogden Nash, a children’s storybook creator many may not have heard about before. Watching this short won’t create any new fans of his work from the audience.
Next there was Santa’s Enchanted Village where the audience visits one of Santa’s many offices (Yes, they say office in the special) where they watch a Wolf Foreman berate his lazy worker, a Skunk for skipping out on work. The costume work is so bad you’ll begin to wish for the wardrobe guy from The tale of Custard the Dragon to come back. Don’t think it could be so horrifying? Take a look!
Yeah, pretty bad huh? Also, the Santa in this short has no dialogue and just begins laughing hard everytime the camera is on him, even as the Wolf is trying to talk to him in a serious fashion.
Finally it’s time for Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny, where Santa gets stuck on a beach thanks to his Reindeer wandering off with no way to get back to the North Pole. Luckily some children are there to bring him an entire petting zoo to try to move his sleigh. Though the sleigh doesn’t move, Santa “entertains” the kids with the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, a short which is stuck in 70s in a very bad way. Finally, as all hope seems lost, the Ice Cream Bunny appears, says nothing (including explain, why he is called the Ice Cream Bunny) and gives Santa a lift back to the North Pole. It is so entertaining with its terrible acting, costumes, and quality, it’s hard to keep from laughing while writing this review.
For those interested in more Rifftrax, there will be an Encore screening of Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny on December 15th in theaters which run Fathom events. Also, in January, there will be encore performances of classic riffs from the previous years including Starship Troopers on January 14th and legendary bad movie, The Room on January 28th. Grab a friend and check them out. You will be entertained.
For similar entertainment try supporting the Kickstarter to bring back the TV show responsible for all the riffing, Mystery Science Theater 3000. Only a few more days left but every bit helps them to make more entertainment by watching bad movies and making of them. Because classics such as Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny should be remembered as the trainwrecks they truly are.
