christmas – PopCult Reviews

PopCult Podcast – PopCult Christmas 2024 Special

Ghosts visiting a jaded television executive. A mad scientist’s creation hoping to find a home among the normies. A Japanese POW camp becoming the site of a clash between soldiers and honor.

PopCult Podcast – Christmas Eve at Miller’s Point/Flow

A family gathers at the matriarch’s home for the holidays in the early 2000s. A cat finds itself caught in massive flood and relying on a group of other animals to survive.

Movie Review – Ernest Saves Christmas

Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)
Written by B. Kline and Ed Turner
Directed by John Cherry

Ernest made his film debut in Goes to Camp in the summer of 1987. By Christmas 1988, his second feature was in theaters. Ernest Saves Christmas is my personal favorite of the series. I think it understands some things about Ernest that many other films, especially the post-Touchstone movies, don’t seem to understand. Between these two films, we saw the airing of Hey Vern, It’s Ernest, a CBS Saturday morning kids show in the vein of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. Varney played Ernest plus other characters, the cameraman as Vern was continued, and Chuck & Bobby were brought into the canon. This has all the elements you expect, which is why I was surprised as I watched the rest of the franchise and realized certain things like this is the only film Vern appears in.

Comic Book Review – Klaus

Klaus (2016)
Reprints Klaus #1-7
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Dan Mora

So many origin stories have attempted to explain Santa Claus’s roots. I just reviewed a middling Netflix animated film a few weeks ago, also titled Klaus, that provided its own explanation. I’ve always been a fan of writer Grant Morrison and their genre-reinventing work in comics. From devouring their run on JLA in the 1990s to going back through their catalog to read Animal Man and more modern work, like Seven Soldiers and Morrison’s extremely engrossing Batman work, I am a fan. Not an uncritical one, though. Some of Morrison’s work just doesn’t click for me, but I always know they will do something interesting, and at least the kernel of fascinating ideas will be in there.

TV Review – Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (1977)
Written by Jerry Juhl and Paul Williams
Directed by Jim Henson

There is nothing else quite like the Muppets. Growing up in the 1980s & 90s, the Muppets were a constant presence in the media. Sesame Street lives on, and everyone knows who Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the rest are, but the Muppets and Jim Henson were more than that. You had films like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. There were shows as different as The Muppet Show, Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock, and other less successful attempts. The throughline in all these things was the belief of Henson and his cohorts that incredible storytelling could still be done through the ancient art form of puppetry. Good puppetry completely blows the best digital effects out of the water. How a highly skilled puppeteer can manifest a multi-dimensional character is always more impressive.

TV Review – Knowing Me, Knowing Yule

Knowing Me, Knowing Yule (1995)
Written by Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Patrick Marber, and Rebecca Front
Directed by Dominic Brigstocke

The British have a word: “prat.” The definition I could find states: “very stupid or foolish.” I don’t think many characters could serve as a living definition of that word better than Alan Partridge. Partridge is the creation of actor/comedian Steve Coogan. This perennial television host is meant to encapsulate all the phony, idiotic behaviors your average TV presenter exhibits in the UK. I don’t think it’s too far off from some of America’s hosts.

TV Review – Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Chrimbus Special

Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Chrimbus Special (2010)
Written by Tim Heidecker, Jonathan Krisel, Doug Lussenhop, Jon Mugar, and Eric Wareheim
Directed by Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, and Benjamin Berman

I can’t say I “got” Tim & Eric the first time I saw them. That was in the context of their first show for Adult Swim, Tom Goes to the Mayor. It would be discovering their follow-up, Awesome Show Great Job, that cemented them as some of my favorite modern comedians. I would eventually revisit Tom Goes to Mayor and appreciate it immensely. I still see how their tone & style of comedy might not be for everyone, but it certainly keeps me laughing. I decided to revisit this exceptional episode of their series where they invented their own grotesque take on Christmas.

Movie Review – Klaus

Klaus (2019)
Written by Sergio Pablos, Jim Mahoney, and Zach Lewis
Directed by Sergio Pablas

The origins of Santa Claus have been the fodder for several pieces of modern American media. Rankin-Bass’ 1970 special Santa Claus is Coming to Town sees Santa as an orphan raised by elves. The animation company would do it again in 1985 with The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, based on the novel of the same name by L. Frank Baum. 1985 was also the year the producing partnership of the Salkinds put out their gaudy Santa Claus: The Movie, which provided its own take on St. Nick’s beginnings. Other films have hinted at the origins of Santa and his elves through worldbuilding, like Disney’s The Santa Clause. So, why would someone else want to tackle this again?

Movie Review – Tokyo Godfathers

Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
Written by Keiko Nobumoto & Satoshi Kon
Directed by Satoshi Kon

This year, I wanted to look at some Christmas-themed films & television specials that are not part of the traditional canon but aren’t a garbage fire. Last year, I did a series titled “A Very 2000s Christmas” and found that decade to have some of the most rotten, mean-spirited dreck centered around a holiday that purports to be the opposite. I needed some media that brought me Christmas cheer this year. We start with this animated feature film from Japanese master filmmaker Satoshi Kon. I first became aware of Kon when I watched his incredible psychological thriller, Perfect Blue. When I found out he had made a Christmas film, it seemed like a perfect addition to this list.

PopCult Podcast – A Christmas Story Christmas/Top 5 Xmas Movies & Specials/It’s a Wonderful Life

It’s Christmastime! What’s waiting under the tree for you? A big pile of stinky shit called nostalgia. We cleanse our palette of that by talking about some Christmas media we actually like. Then it’s on to a beloved classic.