It's Christmas: Part One

Ho ho ho! As we are in the festive season, I thought I should let you know a little about what classifies as Christmas entertainment in the old Hardgraves head! As it is usually Film Tuesday today, I thought I'd start with films...doi!

So here, in no order whatsoever except for when I remember them, are my top Christmas films!

• Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - as a huge Tim Burton fan, this is always a must. You don't see a lot of stop motion animation these days, and when its done so wonderfully as it is here you celebrate the fact that at least someone is still flying the flag for this particularly painfully slow animation technique. The story is typical Burton - ghoulish and full of dark humour, when Jack Skelington, king of Halloween, decides to liven up his rather boring life by having a go at Christmas for a change. The characters are all individually gorgeous, and the atmosphere is added to by Danny Elfman's gorgeous songs and score.
• A Christmas Carol - now there are a lot of versions of this film out there, one more of which I will cite in a mo. This particular one is a fairly recent made for television adaptation starring Patrick Stewart as the famous Mr Scrooge, with Richard E Grant as Bob Cratchit and a cast of faces you may recognise but are not sure where from exactly. This is a very faithful adap of the book, which is one of my favourite stories anyway. However, try as it might, this version can never uphold to the standards set by...
• ...The Muppets Christmas Carol - here, instead of dumbing down the story to make it feel more family friendly, the wonders of the Jim Henson group actually at times make a fairly frightening but faithful vision of Dickens' tale. Yes, so I doubt there ever was a rubber chicken factory in Victorian London, and yes, nearly all the cast have American accents - that's all the felt cast, mind - but it is a witty, dark film with plenty of good songs and a great performance from Michael Caine as Scrooge.
• Fred Claus - this is very recent, having only just been released. It was also mercilessly slated by the critics, but then of course it would be. All in all, we know its a pile of Christmas wrapping paper, but it is full of sugar and spice and everything nice, with a good name cast featuring Vince Vaughan, Kevin Spacey, Paul Giamatti, etc. You can't help but feel christmassy when you watch this film.
• Snow Day - another interesting one, as technically it's not set at Christmas. But I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, so it works for me. Again not very popular with critics, it again is full of the sweet candy cane good stuff that just makes you feel all good inside, just like a decent Christmas film should do.
• It's A Wonderful Life - not much else can be said about this that hasn't already been said.It's a masterpiece, a work of genius, with a brilliant performance from James Stewart. I find the little girl semi-annoying, but other than that this deserves to be the number one Christmas film on any list!

Well, that's all the films I can think of. Tomorrow: music!

Laters.