The Toy that Saved Christmas

The Toy that Saved Christmas


Release Date:

October 1996

Rating:

Four Star Fruits out of Five

Review:

Pros:

We don't have to sit through the theme song on this show

Show opens with a lovely scene of snowflakes falling at night to the sound of wind chimes

The character of Annie is introduced

The setting of Dinkletown is pretty cool

The "Can't Believe it's Christmas" song is pretty catchy and elaborate

A small carrot wearing a diaper is seen throughout the show following people around

The infomercial selling a doll with a working buzz saw built into its right arm is pretty funny

Mr Nezzer and Mr Lunt are back

The "Billy has more toys than you" line is hilarious.

The factory escape scene at night is pretty well done

Comparing the IRS to bank robbers and vikings is pretty funny

The return of the Peach

The mouse trap gag

The nativity story is read to us, reminiscent of Charlie Brown's Christmas

Eluding the security penguins is pretty funny

Mr Nezzer's tubes to different towns is pretty cool

This is the first time we get to see a vegetable shrug - how did they do that?

The chase and rescue scene is the most exciting scene up to this point in VeggieTales history.

Louis uses his buzz saw to make furniture

Closing scene of the stars over the mountains at night is lovely

Cons:

George's voice is too high pitched

Mr Nezzer is apparently the twin of the Mr Nezzer in Rack, Shack, and Benny in order to prevent confusing kids about his repentance scenes in both episodes, but really... how is this less confusing?

The shadows often stand out too much on this show

The talking tow theme rips off of Toy Story

The "saving Christmas" theme rips off pretty much every other Christmas special ever.

Pa Grape's voice sounds weird again like in the last show

The Silly Song with Larry is a bit too long at over six minutes

Two of the main characters - Bob and Larry - don't even show up until half way through the show.

Louie's quest for the true meaning of Christmas feels contrived

The kids spend most of the show whining and being generally obnoxious

Junior assumes that everyone in town will be watching the same TV channel that apparently only plays static at the same time for no reason

Mr Nezzer's present going from wrapped to unwrapped without any transition... presumably because it was too hard to animate a zucchini unwrapping a gift

The heroes had previously escaped falling of the cliff by jumping from their sled and landing in the snow, but for some reason they don't seem able to do this later and instead lasso a tree with a rope

Mr Nezzer does nothing to save himself and has to rely on a bunch of tiny penguins and a talking toy to keep him from plummeting to his death

In the closing scene the silhouettes are moving in the wrong direction from the way the camera is moving

Several scenes in this show were completely reanimated after the show was released because of how embarrassingly sloppy many of them were. 

The closing scene originally had the french peas singing "He is Born the Holy Child" in the background... which didn't quite fit the scene due to how silly it sounded, so later changed to Junior singing "Away in a Manger."

Segments:

The Toy that Saved Christmas

Story By:

Phil Vischer

Songs Included:

I Can't Believe It's Christmas!
Grumpy Kids
Away in a Manger

Oh, Santa!

Song By:

Mike Nawrocki