ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar- Day 15
Many movies live in our minds as only sweet memories. We know we've seen it, but for the life of us we cannot recall anything about it. For a moment they were there and then they were gone. Catching up with these films is a 50-50 prospect of being delighted by finally catching back up with a long lost film from our past, or the crushing disappointment that comes with the realization that it is less than the memory you have of it.
Warning: Spoiler Alert! There's not much to spoil here, but if you haven't seen it since it first aired, or have never seen it and want to go into it blind, don't read, go check it out and then we'll meet back here.
ICFH 2022 Advent Calendar December 15- A Cosmic Christmas (1977)
Young Peter (voiced by Joey Davidson) is caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season, trying to make his way through the throng of people crowding the streets with his pet goose Lucy.
From the sky comes a bright light that no one but Peter notices. Everyone is too wrapped up in what they are doing to pay any attention to a light in the sky.
Peter follows the light, which is a spaceship, and confronts three Wise Men-esque aliens who have come to earth to learn the significance of Christmas. Peter tries to show them, but, you know, people suck.
When Lucy is kidnapped by some hungry street urchins led by Marvin (voiced by Greg Rogers), the aliens see the meaning of Christmas in all its glory when everyone pushes their differences aside to join together and keep the little A-hole from drowning in a pond.
Before all this the aliens illustrate what the Christmases looked like when Peter's Grandmother was a little girl. This takes a dig at the commercialism of Christmas, as Grandma reminisces about how they used to make all their decorations in the old days, but it is not heavy handed or preachy. (This 25 minute animated special doesn't have time to waste.)
This Canadian production originally aired in December of 1977 on Network TV in Canada and the U.S. If you were a kid of a certain age, you were all over this thing, as you had probably just spent the summer of '77 going to the theater to watch Star Wars over and over again. Sci-fi was hot!
Like stop-motion animation or Claymation, the animation here is a comfort to people of a certain age. You can look at it and it feels right. It will remind you of Saturday mornings in front of the tube with a big bowl of sugary cereal. In fact, it's style is very distinct and reminded me a lot of the style of animation used for another Canadian produced animated feature, Heavy Metal (1981).
Re-watching it for the first time since it aired, it was like sitting down with some relative I had not seen in decades and only had fond, very non-specific, memories of; knowing only that my time with them was happy. It felt very comfortable revisiting this special. This is the kind of film I'd definitely share with kids in the family to see their reaction.
A Cosmic Christmas is streaming now free on the Roku Channel, as well as Hoopla for anyone who has a library card.
There was also a groovy story/soundtrack LP released.
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