A Miser Brothers’ Christmas DVD Review
Posted 11 years ago by Tommy Television
Ah, Rankin/Bass. You can’t have Christmas without at least a few of their classic holiday specials. Of those, 1974’s A Year Without Santa Claus has received a modern spin-off starring the Miser Brothers, Snow Miser and Heat Miser. Canadian animation studio Cuppa Coffee and Warner Bros.
A Miser Brothers Christmas premiered last year on ABC Family, and is now available on DVD from Warner Bros. Mickey Rooney is back (albeit in raspier form) to voice Santa, and the special is a pretty decent attempt to emulate the look and feel of classic Rankin/Bass.
Snow Miser and Heat Miser are just two of Mother Earth’s children, and they don’t get along very well. When their evil/Jay Leno-lookalike brother North Wind decides that he wants to be the new Santa, he frames them and they’re forced to help save Christmas.
North Wind is obsessed with being famous like Santa, and he sends his lackeys to take down Santa’s sleigh right when the Misers are having a hissy fit in between their castles. Mother Earth demands that they go to the North Pole and help the elves prepare for Christmas as Santa is laid up with a backache.
Cuppa Coffee did a pretty good job of making this look like Rankin/Bass, but not as well as the animated characters that were in Elf. Everything looks a little too clean and lacks the imperfections that one tends to associate with Rankin/Bass animation.
At times the voice acting is cringe-worthy, but A Miser Brothers Christmas was an entertaining holiday special. Besides, can you really have enough Christmas specials to watch this time of year?
A Miser Brothers Christmas is available on DVD today!
Disclaimer: This review is based on product provided by Warner Bros.
