Eloise: Little Miss Christmas
DVD
Reviewed by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
Format: Movie
Genre: Animation
Released: October 10, 2006 (DVD release)
Back in October, I reviewed Me, Eloise, the first installment of a new animated series based on the books by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight. In general, I thought it a fairly charming effort all around. Ken Lipman's script was amusing and age-appropriate without being cloying, and Wes Archer's direction gave it a look and feel not at all dissimilar to the great animated series King of the Hill. With such a strong introduction, I was looking forward to Eloise: Little Miss Christmas.
What is it they say about great expectations? Little Miss Christmas doesn't live up to them. The problem is pretty obvious from the get-go: Steven Goldman's script, instead of being the latter-day holiday classic it strives to be is in all actuality a parade of threadbare cliches. The plot, such as it is, will be familiar to anyone with the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts from the 1920s and 30s. A snide, well-off kid brags to the other children about the sold-out holiday spectacular stage show he's going to, so Eloise in true plucky fashion decides that she and her gang are going to put on their own Christmas pageant in the Plaza Hotel. Cue the multiethnic parade of token characters who each explain in turn how they celebrate their culture's winter festivals--the Jewish twins who tell Eloise about Hannukah, the Central American Latina who speaks glowingly of fireworks, the Japanese girl... I was actually suprised when the African American boy didn't wax poetic about Kwanzaa. I've nothing against multicultural awareness, and in fact encourage it among my own children, but the clunky, ham-fisted approach of Goldman's script set my teeth on edge. And as if that weren't enough, Eloise then promises all the children that Santa Clause will be a surprise guest at the pageant, followed by the cranky hotel manager cancelling the event entirely because the ballroom has been rented out. Gosh, I didn't seen any of that coming--I wonder how things turn out?
The pedestrian approach of Little Miss Christmas is particularly frustrating because while Me, Eloise was relentlessly cute, it avoided schmaltz. When Eloise writes her Christmas list and asks for nothing for herself, instead begging for Santa to appear at the now-cancelled pageant "for the other children," the story overshoots schmaltz by a huge margin and lands knee-deep in saccharine. It certainly doesn't help that the narrative is downright dull. Whereas Me, Eloise clocked in at a reasonable 45 minutes, Little Miss Christmas is a head-scratching 66 minutes long. Why? The padding is obvious early on, with an extended and unfunny Mission Impossible-style attempt by Eloise and her friends to sneek peeks at Christmas presents in a storeroom. Sequences that go on far longer than strictly necessary from a dramatic perspective are peppered throughout the show, presumably to pad the narrative out and convince viewers they're getting their money's worth. Unfortunatley, less is more. Were this tightened down to a 45 minute run time, it might very well be snappy and engaging. As it is, the show's merely flabby.
DVDetails
The special features included here are run-of-the-mill for children's releases, but the filmmakers can be commended for resisting the urge to dump this on the market as a bare-bones release. The movie comes with full-frame and widescreen viewing options, which will be welcomed but more and more people as the switch over to large-screen televisions takes hold. The sing-along songs are merely indexed scenes from the show, but as children can obsessively watch certain scenes repeatedly (and I speak from experience, witness the "Whoop-De-Dooper, Loop-De-Looper, Alley-Opper Bounce" song from The Tigger Movie) this could actually prove to be a useful option in some households. The Gift Wrapped Kids DVD game is the exact same hide-and-seek-style play found on almost every other kid video, and Plaza Pals is a run through of the main characters in the show. Like Me, Eloise, the Little Miss Christmas DVD uses a split screen format in the From Paper to Movie option to compare the show's storyboards to the finished product through an extended sequence. This is entertaining and informative for curious children interested in how animation is created, but isn't likely to be watched more than once.
Overall, Little Miss Christmas is a swing and a miss. My daughters were captivated by Me, Eloise, but their attention wandered repeatedly during this one, at one point my youngest asking to watch Zathura instead. It's an inoffensive show that has occasional cute moments, but if you want a holiday favorite the whole family will be entertained by, you're better off looking to A Charlie Brown Christmas or A Christmas Story.
The Movie Itself: 4 out of 10
The DVD Features: 6 out of 10
Now Playing: Whitesnake Whitesnake's Greatest Hits
No comments:
Post a Comment