TV Special Review: The Original Christmas Classics

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Three headline specials are lots of fun

Cons: Lack of extras, "Frosty Returns"

The Bottom Line: 

Well love characters

Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty

Sparkle on Blu-ray

Frosty, Santa, and Rudolph Hit Blu-Ray in This Classic Christmas Set

Confession time.  As much as I love Christmas and kid's specials, I have missed some truly classic Christmas specials.  For example, I was only familiar with one special in The Original Christmas Classics set.  Now that I've seen them, I've added some new specials to my annual viewing.

This set contains four specials on 3 Blu-rays.  The oldest one is "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."  It follows the story of the reindeer with the glowing red nose pretty closely from the song, so you can predict the main plot points.  However, it does manage to throw in Hermey, an elf who wants to be a dentist; the Island of Misfit Toys; and an Abominable Snow Monster to liven things up.  It's told through stop motion animation and narrated by Burl Ives.  There are some songs throughout the story, but apart from the title song and "Holly Jolly Christmas," they are only okay.

Next up is "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town."  Another stop motion movie, this one tells us the origins of Santa who goes from abandoned baby to being raised by toy making elves to a man who brings toys to the residents of a town that has outlawed toys.  This one is funny and charming, although it is definitely a product of the 70's.  Again, most of the songs don't add much, and the animation during them is pretty psychedelic.

Both of these specials are just under an hour each.  The final disc contains two specials, and both of them are hand drawn animation clocking in at just under half an hour each.  Up first is "Frosty the Snowman."  This is the one I grew up watching, but I hadn't seen it in years.  I got a smile on my face watching it again.  It tells the story of a snowman that comes to life when a magic hat is put on his head.  But someone wants that hat back, and he chases Frosty as Frosty sets out to find a place cold enough for him to live.  As I said, I found myself smiling as I was watching this special remembering all the times I had watched it as a kid.  Now, I do find the beginning a little slow, but it's still fun.

The final special is "Frosty Returns."  Now why they include this 1992 special instead of the original Frosty sequel ("Frosty's Winter Wonderland") is beyond me.  This is my least favorite from the set.  It ignores the established facts about Frosty (he doesn't need his hat to come to life) and is a thinly disguised message about the importance of respecting the environment.  It's not that I object to the message, but I felt preached at more than entertained.  The songs weren't all that great either.  It's not bad, but it's not up to the other three specials in the set.

These specials have been remastered and cleaned up for Blu-ray.  All but "Frosty Returns" are in their native full frame ratio.  The picture looked great to me.  Honestly, it is harder to tell much difference in the hand drawn specials (something I have long said even as I continue to update my Disney collection in Blu-ray).  However, both the stop motion shorts look great to me.  You can see details in the background and on the characters I doubt were there originally.  I've read some complaints that "Rudolf" looked too soft and overly cleaned up, but I thought it looked great.  The sound has been mixed in full 5.1 surround, but I didn't hear much except music coming out of my back speakers.  It does seem like they could have included more specials here since Blu-ray has such a superior storage capacity or some extras on the making of these specials, but none of that is to be found.

But we aren't done yet.  The set includes a bonus CD with seven Christmas songs on it.  Some of the songs I get.  For example, Burl Ives sings "Rudolph" and "Holly Jolly Christmas."  Jimmy Durante sings "Frosty the Snowman."  Even though it's not from the special, I get having the Jackson 5 singing "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town."  But I do have to wonder why Smokey Robinson and the Miracles singing "Jingle Bells," Brenda Lee's classic version of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and Bobby Helms singing "Jingle Bell Rock" were included.  Not that I'm really going to complain since I did enjoy them all.

If you don't have the specials collected in The Original Christmas Classics, you'll be very happy with this set.  Yes, it could include more, but what is here is fun.  If you already have them on DVD, you'll have to decide if you want to upgrade or not.  Personally, I look forward to enjoying them for many years to come.

NOTE: I was approached by Classic Media and sent this set in exchange for promising to write an honest review.