Christmas Is Here Again

• Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Robert Zappia
• October 20, 2007 (Heartland Film Festival)

Voice Cast

• Narrator-Jay Leno
• Sophiana-Madison Davenport
• Paul Rocco, Jacque-Daniel Roebuck
• Dart (Prancer’s grandson)-Colin Ford
• Buster-Norm Macdonald
• Charlee-Brad Garrett
• Krad-Ed Asner
• The Selves-Michael Norris
• Miss Dowdy-Kathy Bates
• Santa Claus-Andy Griffith
• Victoria Claus-Shirley Jones
• Chorus-Randy Crenshaw, Bob Joyce, Sally Stevens, Susie Stevens Logan, Gary Stockdale, Carmen Twillie, and Lauren Wood

When the evil Krad steals Santa’s toy bag, an orphan and her friends try to stop him from destroying Christmas.

Christmas Is Here Again is a movie I found lingering in a bin at my local Dollar Tree. It looked cute-and visually it is-so I picked it up at the cheap cost offered by the establishment. Beyond that though I think while they were aiming for something wholesome and pure, they landed on a more materialistic message instead.

To start with because Santa doesn’t deliver gifts Christmas dies. Once Santa’s sack goes missing he has no magical means to transport all the gifts. Because he is not handing out gifts for free Christmas is largely forgotten. Is the message that Christmas is all about the getting and not the giving?

Santa’s sack is stolen by an evil entity called Krad that mined the coal Santa dropped into stockings for the naughty kids. That was until Santa decided to stop punishing them with coal. Krad swore revenge and accomplished that by stealing the sack. So not only is it about getting but you get whether you deserve it or not.

It is important to remember that all the while Santa had a deal going with Krad, Krad was tricking selfish children into joining him and converting them into entities called ‘Selves’ to mine the coal for him. So Santa had a deal with an individual that kidnapped and transformed children and only broke it to not punish children and not because the guy was kidnapping them. Let that sink in.

Why can’t they just make another sack you ask? Because Santa’s sack is made from the cloth that Jesus was swaddled in. So not only is Christmas Is Here Again all about the getting but it’s about The Nativity Story-sort of. This film largely mistakes gift giving for the Spirit of Christmas but what Christmas is all about is not about gift getting but I digress.

The humor of the story in general is pretty much what you would find in the usual made-for-TV production that’s aimed at the slightly more worldly child. Though it doesn’t quite have the rapid-fire of your average SpongeBob episode, it does have jokes very similar to the heyday of things like Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures. 

The cast is excellent. They have here a group of people with actual talent who know how to create characters with their voice alone. That is saying something in my opinion since these are not voice actors but traditional actors. Edward Asner, Kathy Bates, Brad Garrett, Andy Griffith, Shirley Jones, and Norm Macdonald along with Madison Davenport do excellent.

Most importantly Christmas Is Here Again looks cute. The visual style is comforting and heartwarming and communicates a certain level of sweetness. It’s what you want to see in an animated special. I just think it unintentionally communicates the wrong message.

The message seems to be it’s all about getting gifts from somebody else and not giving of yourself. And the origin of the cloth for Santa’s sack just feels ill-conceived. If you’re a person of faith there is a difference between the Power of God and magic yet the implication is that the sack is magic. Just make it a magic sack!

Aside from the sack there’s Buster the Fox who sells out his friends for 25 pieces of gold which felt like a bad reference to the silver paid to Judas for the betrayal of Jesus. The difference is he doesn’t hang himself but feeling guilty for the betrayal uses the gold to steal the sack back and free his friends.

Our hero Sophiana is a disabled girl living in an orphanage. The matron of the orphanage Miss Dowdy tells Sophiana that nobody will want her because of her disability. In the movie the disability factors in so little you could easily be forgiven or justified for forgetting about it. She has a cane, but it’s often not featured in shots and I would bet dollars to donuts that it is not even present in some of the scenes. There’s plenty of fodder for characters to learn a lesson and come around but it’s all about getting the sack back so they can get the Christmas spirit of receiving gifts going again.

The story progression is weak. It’s entertaining enough that kids will like. The ending is obvious from a mile away. I’ve seen others use the term unearned, but I guess that would be the best description of what occurs here with Sophiana getting a family and who they are.

Christmas Is Here Again isn’t terrible for kids but with a tweak here or there it could’ve been something special. Adult shouldn’t think too deeply about it like I did.