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.

Read More

I’ve gotten a late start to the holiday season this year, but Warner Bros. is helping find my Christmas spirit with all their awesome DVD and Blu-ray releases of late. Following up on the 1960s and 1970s collections, today I’ve got my hands on I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown in a deluxe edition DVD.

This Peanuts special is a rare beast. It’s a modern production (2003), and it’s very enjoyable. It revolves around Linus and Lucy’s younger brother Rerun trying desperately to convince his Mom to buy him a dog for Christmas. She doesn’t budge, so he settles for spending some quality time with Snoopy. Snoopy’s brothers make appearances and there is a lot of genuinely funny dialog.

Read More

Previously I wrote about the Warner Archive release of The Flight of Dragons. Today I watched another rare Warner Archive release, this time of the 1980 made-for-TV movie Yogi’s First Christmas.

I’d never seen Yogi’s First Christmas before (that I can remember), so we popped it in this weekend expecting a relatively short holiday special, but we were surprised to find out that it was feature length.

The feature is aptly titled, because it all revolves around Yogi’s first Christmas at Jellystone. I’d never thought about it before, but hibernation would totally screw up the holidays. When Yogi and Boo Boo accidentally get woken up, they finally get to take part in Christmas. The stakes are high this year due to Jellystone’s hotel manager flirting with the idea of selling the lodge, and Yogi and the gang try desperately to keep her happy to change her mind.

Yogi’s pals Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, and Augie & Doggie Daddy are there for the party, but the hotel manager’s evil nephew Snively is too. He hates everything, including Christmas, and is hell-bent on ruining the gang’s plans.

Yogi’s First Christmas is pretty funny, if a little cheesy. There are a few forgettable musical numbers, but also plenty of slapstick to make up for it. All in all, it would make a great addition to your Christmas special shelf (everyone has those, right?), especially since this is the first time it’s been available on DVD.

You can buy it on DVD today at the Warner Archive.

This review is based on product provided by Warner Bros.

It’s hard to believe, but Christmastime is almost here, and in honor of the nostalgia-filled holiday, here’s a Charlie Brown Christmas desktop wallpaper. You can download it in the following sizes:

• 1920 x 1280
• 1920 x 1080
• 1600 x 1200
• 1024 x 768

I’m excited to be able to start posting Christmas-related stuff here on THS, and this Charlie Brown Christmas wallpaper was made using the awesome Blu-ray that I’ll be reviewing pretty soon.

Read More

Out on DVD today is one of my favorite cartoons from the 90s, if not my all time favorite; Superman: The Animated Series. I’ve always been a huge Superman fan, and when the Batman crew decided to take on the Man of Steel, I knew it was going to be the best adaptation of the character yet.

Superman: The Complete Animated Series is a massive 7-disc DVD set from Warner Bros. that contains all 55 episodes of the show, with a few bonus features spread throughout the discs. You probably know if you’re a fan of this show or not, and if you don’t own any of the previous DVDs, I’d say you definitely need to pick this one up.

Read More