The Christmas Tree is a 1991 animated Christmas special. The movie was produced by Flamarion Ferreria Films and distributed by Family Home Entertainment. The Christmas Tree was written by Nels Christianson and directed by Flamarion Ferreria.
The story is a group of orphans are living with the heartless Mrs. Mavilda in awful living conditions. Then they befriend a nun named Sister Anthony and her two kids Pappy and Lily. Once the orphans are told the story of Christmas they think the only way to achieve a Merry Christmas is to find Santa Claus.
My Thoughts
When were told in the beginning just how evil Mrs. Mavilda the narrator says how she has nice looking clothes for the kids then she strips them out of those clothes to make them wear the awful ones. I bring this up because apparently the animators thought we need to see that. Yeah the scene literally has Mavilda strip them and we see the kids naked bodies. Thanks The Christmas Tree you now had me feel like I was watching something completely illegal and I should be put on a watch list.
One of the worse things about this movie is the plot. Yeah that synopsis I have above that was just something I made up hoping it would make scene to you guys. The reason being the plot is all over the place so you have a hard time trying to figure out what the story even is. Also there are some plot points that are brought up and never talked about again.
Now to talk about the thing this movie is know for. The absolutely terrible animation. This just might be the worse hand-drawn animation I have ever seen. Nobody moves naturally or anything. Hell there are even some frames of animation that are missing and it's very noticeable. If you by attention real closely you can actually see a guy just teleport onto the street. That's how bad the animation is.
The designs to the characters are just awful. Their always stiff and it also doesn't help that when the kids smile it's so creepy. Even Santa's scary looking in this movie and he shouldn't be. He's Santa Claus for crying out loud I'm not suppose to be scared of him.
When were told in the beginning just how evil Mrs. Mavilda the narrator says how she has nice looking clothes for the kids then she strips them out of those clothes to make them wear the awful ones. I bring this up because apparently the animators thought we need to see that. Yeah the scene literally has Mavilda strip them and we see the kids naked bodies. Thanks The Christmas Tree you now had me feel like I was watching something completely illegal and I should be put on a watch list.
One of the worse things about this movie is the plot. Yeah that synopsis I have above that was just something I made up hoping it would make scene to you guys. The reason being the plot is all over the place so you have a hard time trying to figure out what the story even is. Also there are some plot points that are brought up and never talked about again.
Now to talk about the thing this movie is know for. The absolutely terrible animation. This just might be the worse hand-drawn animation I have ever seen. Nobody moves naturally or anything. Hell there are even some frames of animation that are missing and it's very noticeable. If you by attention real closely you can actually see a guy just teleport onto the street. That's how bad the animation is.
The designs to the characters are just awful. Their always stiff and it also doesn't help that when the kids smile it's so creepy. Even Santa's scary looking in this movie and he shouldn't be. He's Santa Claus for crying out loud I'm not suppose to be scared of him.
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| Come here Lily, we got some candy for you. |
One of the kids is named Pappy. I brought that up because isn't it kind of weird that Judy (Sister Anthony) named one of kids something that is typical associated with your grandpa?
When the kids want to go find Santa their standing around and wondering how are they going to find him? Then the kids' dog barks and Lily says "he knows where Santa is'. I didn't make that up. The dog barks and all of the kids think he knows where Santa is. How does that work? How does the dog barking indicate that he knows Santa's location? That makes no sense even in an animated movie.
Speaking of finding Santa when Pappy and his sister Lily go on their quest they travel to what looks like a snowy mountain and bump into a "polar bear". I put that in quotation marks because it's not a polar bear. What does the polar bear look like you might be asking. The polar bear's design if a blatant rip off of Baloo from Disney's The Jungle Book.
When the kids want to go find Santa their standing around and wondering how are they going to find him? Then the kids' dog barks and Lily says "he knows where Santa is'. I didn't make that up. The dog barks and all of the kids think he knows where Santa is. How does that work? How does the dog barking indicate that he knows Santa's location? That makes no sense even in an animated movie.
Speaking of finding Santa when Pappy and his sister Lily go on their quest they travel to what looks like a snowy mountain and bump into a "polar bear". I put that in quotation marks because it's not a polar bear. What does the polar bear look like you might be asking. The polar bear's design if a blatant rip off of Baloo from Disney's The Jungle Book.
Also how do you screw up the design of a polar bear. Polar bears are not brown there white. Everyone knowns that. Even preschoolers know this and their probably just learning about the animal.
Then in that same scene Lily falls down a cliff (and her voice actress gives off an unconvincing performance by the way) and then nearing the end of the movie Santa Claus appears with her and everything's fine. That may seem cut and dry to you but that brings up some questions.
1. How did she survive her fall down a fucking cliff!?
2. Even if she did survive where exactly did she land where Santa would have seen her and she wouldn't have a scratch on her?
Now onto the voice acting...well like the animation it's awful. I mean a large majority are voiced by kids but they can't act to save their lives. I know that sounds a little harsh but when you hear them you'll say the same thing. However while some of them are voiced by kids one of them is voiced by a teenager girl. Um...why not use other teenagers who can act instead of kids who can't act? I'm so confused right now. Also one kids doesn't even sound like a child. He sounds like a alien who was gargling his drink at the time of his recording. Their was only was person's voice I liked listening to and that was Judy's other than her everyone made me what to turn on the mute button.
The Christmas Tree like many other Christmas movies have a moral your suppose to learn. The moral is "you always win when you are good". Now to be honest I wouldn't have a problem with this lesson if it wasn't for two things. One that message appears at the very last minute of the movie. Which means this moral was an afterthought when the writer wrote this. My other problem with this is it had nothing to do the movie. The whole story was about a group of kids trying to find Santa so they can have a Merry Christmas. So what the hell does this "you always win when you are good" have to do with that. Nothing! Nothing at all!
Well after watching and reviewing this movie I can see now why it's regraded as the worst Christmas special ever. The animation was atrocious, the plot either makes no sense or it doesn't exist, the voice acting is the worst I have heard from an animated movie, and that moral was literally shoved in at the last minute.
My final rating is Destroy It!
Okay one last thing I don't usually do this but since you'll have a hard time finding it here's a link so you can watch the movie for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlFtMxG6mnY
So I hoped you enjoyed the return of Cinematic Disasters. I'll have another one I just don't know when it will be or on what movie. Until then enjoy this one.
State of The Project (Nov 17th - Dec 7th)
Nov 17th - Justice League Review
Nov 20th - Justice League Easter Eggs
Nov 23rd - Coco Review
Nov 27th - Underrated Films - The Iron Giant Review
Nov 30th - Raiders of The Lost Media - Champions
Dec 4th - Cinematic Disasters - The Christmas Tree
Dec 7th - What You Probably Didn't Know About It's a Wonderful Life
NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU.
Nov 17th - Justice League Review
Nov 20th - Justice League Easter Eggs
Nov 23rd - Coco Review
Nov 27th - Underrated Films - The Iron Giant Review
Nov 30th - Raiders of The Lost Media - Champions
Dec 4th - Cinematic Disasters - The Christmas Tree
Dec 7th - What You Probably Didn't Know About It's a Wonderful Life
NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU.
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