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The Year Without a Santa Claus/Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey/Rudolph's Shiny New Year

The Year Without a Santa Claus/Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey/Rudolph's Shiny New Year

List Price: $14.97
Your Price: $11.23
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nostalgic!
Review: I grew up LOVING this movie! Heat and Cold Miser were the highlights of many conversations among my friends. Christmas hasn't been the same since they stopped showing it every year!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow!
Review: Shirley Booth is great, The miser brothers rock, and Vixen is lovable. Highly recommend this fantasy for children of all ages. The Rankin Bass (Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer people) have made a great classic that is always fun to revisit.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Christmas Classic Cartoon!!
Review: I looked forward to this cartoon every year at Christmas time, I have looked but never found it, now my kids will not think I am crazy anymore for singing the heat miser and snow miser jingles. Thanks.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Heat-Mizer and Freeze-Mizer steal the show!
Review: I have loved this movie since I was a kid, and have been looking for it in video stores for years. I thought I'd never be able to find it, but am so happy I did! Now my kids can watch it any time and sing the "I'm Mister Heat Mizer" song with me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Rankin-Bass tour-de-force
Review: If you or your children enjoy Rankin-Bass's works, you'll especially enjoy this one. It is longer than many of their specials, at 51 minutes (why don't the networks play the longer ones anymore???). That allowed them to fit all kinds of great stuff into this one!

You've got Mickey Rooney as Santa, and Shirley Booth as Mrs. Claus, for starters. On top of that, there are at least seven different holiday songs included. Finally, the plot isn't as simple as many childrens' specials are these days, although it's not so complex as to loose the attention of younger viewers.

Buy it, and enjoy it with your family! You'll love it for the Snow Miser's song alone. I know I do. :)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This is the classic movie you probably saw on tv when you were growing up with the famous Heat Miser, Cold Miser song and dance routine.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: There won't be a year without a Santa Claus.
Review: This was made by the makers of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer": Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass. In this show, we find Santa who has become to tired to make his annual trip around the world, an also he fears that the Christmas spirit is gone. Mrs. claus sends two of the elves, Jingle and Jangel out to Southtown to see if the Christmas spirit is still around. Along the way, Santa, in search of them and Vixen, makes a family there believe in Santa again. Then, a deal is made with the bickering Miser brothers about if it can snow down south, and if it can have a spring day up north. The deal is made, but all the children want Santa Claus to make his trip. He's finally convinced, holds a meeting and has a big parade in the middle of town before taking off. At the end, it looks like the whole thing was a dream. Was it? I couldn't catch on with it. Still, it's a wonderful holiday film for the family!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Even my popcorn died of boredom.
Review: I've read a lot of reviews on this movie, and I wonder if anyone is paying attention to the GLARING mistakes and downsides. It's understandable to like it, but I've heard some people say it's perfect! Waaaay off.

I think the goal of making this movie was to make children stay immature forever. First of all, about 65% of the movie is made up of songs. Not good songs that teach valuable life lessons, or ones that suit situations well, but immature songs that are always happy, even in a dangerous situation.

Pretty much everything else about the movie is immature. I mean, I know it's a children's movie, but c'mon! This is like Barney, only without the education!

The animation isn't all that bad. As a matter of fact, it's rather charming. But to make up for it, there is a huge lack of character development and bad plot quality, and one GAPING plothole.

You see, the two elves who can be considered the main characters in the movie are introduced pretty early on, but it isn't made clear for a while that they're going to be important characters at all (As a matter of fact, I only expected them to show up in one scene!). This is extremely rare for a children's movie, and pretty bad, too.

The rest of the characters lack development as well, but let's move on to the plot. It's okay, but it seems to flip-flop all around. One minute, Santa is so sick he can't get out of bed, and the next, he's flying thousands of miles on a single reindeer. One minute, a kid has himself convinced that Santa's fake, the next, he's 100 percent certain he exists.

Now, that plothole...you see, Jingle Bells and Jangle Bells rode a young reindeer to a town, and she got sick after a while because the conditions weren't suitable. But Santa rode a reindeer there, as well, and it was fine. You'd be a fool not to notice this error...

Overall, this is a movie to stay away from, and if you do consider watching it, keep in mind that it is severely flawed and about 90% of it is absolutely no fun to watch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: COOOOOL!!!!!
Review: On 'A Year Without Santa Claus' this is BY FAR the most surreal of the Rankin/Bass christmas specials.Santa tries to take a year off,resulting in Mrs.Claus trying to bargain with the Heat and Snow Mizar (two bizzare,showboating characters that more or less steal the show) and mother nature,they're mother.In 'Shiny New Year' Rudolph must locate the deserted Baby New Year named Happy from the 'archapelago of lost years' such as it is and from a bird-like foe called Eon.Trouble is Happy,like Rudolph is possessed of a non-conformity (in Happy's case Dumbo-like ears) that cause him to be laughed at by all he meets.Then upon finding Happy Rudolph explains how he is being laughed with,not at and a happy ending abounds.And Nester?Well that's just a very charming story in Rankin/Bass classic style.I always have saught them out-as I admire that clever animatronic style they use and the clever stories of various misfits finding themselfs at Christmas.These two are the most bizzare but even late in the day they still rock!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What's Christmas without Nestor?!
Review: I'm sure the other two cartoons on this DVD are good, but the only one I really care about is "Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey." I remember watching this special on television each year when I was little, and I absolutely loved it. The story is about Nestor, an adorable little donkey who was born with two ears as long as a pair of elephant trunks. Poor Nestor has a hard time managing with those ears, and everyone makes fun of him. When his mother gives her life to save him on a cold winter night (a scene that makes me cry harder than when Bambi's mother dies), he finds himself all alone in the world. Soon Nestor meets a friendly little cherub who guides him on a quest that puts his ears to good use. Nestor SINGLEHANDEDLY (or maybe singleEARdedly?) saves the Virgin Mary's life when she is carrying Baby Jesus to Bethlehem! How cool is that?! (I guess you have to see it to believe it, but trust me, it's quite entertaining!)

All religious undertones aside, this is still a great holiday classic that everyone will enjoy. Nestor is irresistible, and I'm thrilled that I finally own the DVD and can watch it whenever I want.


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