12 Yuletime features and TV shows, plus 27 cartoons
Annie Van Auken | Planet Earth | 09/16/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"MILL CREEK's HOLIDAY FAMILY FAVORITES contains a dozen movies and TV programs plus 27 cartoons, all on four DVDs.
For more festive fun, try MGM's CHRISTMAS FAMILY DVD 3 PACK. It's a triple feature of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," "It's a Very Merry Muppet Movie" and "Prancer."
PROGRAM LIST for "Holiday Family Favorites":
FEATURE FILMS--
(6.5) Beyond Tomorrow 1940) - Harry Carey/C. Aubrey Smith/Charles Winninger/Rod La Rocque/Richard Carlson
(6.3) A Christmas Without Snow (TV-1980) - Michael Learned/John Houseman/Valerie Curtin
(6.7) The Great Rupert (1950) - Jimmy Durante/Terry Moore/Tom Drake/Chick Chandler
(???) Little Women, Part 1 - Jo's Story ("Studio One") (TV-1950) - Nancy Marchand/Berry Kroeger/Una O'Connor
(???) Little Women, Part 2 - Meg's Story ("Studio One") (TV-1950) - Nancy Marchand/Berry Kroeger/Una O'Connor
(6.2) The Littlest Angel (TV-1969) - Johnny Whitaker/Fred Gwynne/Cab Calloway/E.G. Marshall/John McGiver/Tony Randall/Connie Stevens/James Coco
(5.7) The Miracle on 34th Street ("20th Century Fox Hour") (TV-1955) - Thomas Mitchell/Teresa Wright/Macdonald Carey/Don Beddoe/Hans Conried
(???) The Nativity ("Studio One") (TV-1952) - Thomas Chalmers/Paul Tripp/Hurd Hatfield
(5.4) The Pilgrimage Play (1949) - Nelson Leigh/Alden 'Stephen' Chase/Leonard Penn/John Doucette
(1.9) Santa Claus (Mexico-1959) - José Elías Moreno/Cesáreo Quezadas 'Pulgarcito'/José Luis Aguirre 'Trotsky'
(2.6) Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) - John Call/Leonard Hicks/Pia Zadora
(6.4) Scrooge (UK-1935) - Seymour Hicks/Donald Calthrop/Maurice Evans
CARTOONS (details where available)--
(Studios: Audio-Visual [av], Famous [fa], Fleischer [fl], Halas & Batchelor [hb], Powers [pow], Rankin-Bass [rb], R&S Film Ent. [rs], TerryToons [tt])
THE CANDLEMAKER (1957) [hb] - A candlemaker and son labor under a Christmas deadline on a big order (made for the Lutheran Church).
CHRISTMAS COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR (1936) [fl] - Grampy brightens some orphans Xmas with his invented toys. Nice 3-D final scene.
A CHRISTMAS DREAM
CHRISTMAS FAIRY TALE
CHRISTMAS NIGHT
A CHRISTMAS VISIT
THE CHRISTMAS VISITOR (1959) [hb] - While Santa enjoys a cigar, the toys he's just delivered do battle.
THE ELF AND MR. LITTLE
HECTOR'S HECTIC LIFE (1948) [fa] - Prince is in trouble with his master and may get kicked out of the house on Xmas Eve. Then a basket of mischievous puppies arrives...
HOWDY DOODY'S CHRISTMAS
JACK FROST (1934) [pow] - Jack's warnings to prepare for winter go unheeded by a young bear.
JINGLE BELLS (1931) [tt] - Tom and George compete in the annual sleigh race.
THE LITTLE LAMB
THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL (1937) [col] - Hans Christian Anderson's story is set on New Year's Eve.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL
O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM (1950) [av]
A PRESENT FOR SANTA CLAUS - Short
RUDOLPH, THE RED NOSED REINDEER (1944) [ha] - Rare post-Fleischer Studios short directed by Max F. himself closely follows the famous holiday song's plot.
SANTA AND THE FAIRY SNOW QUEEN (feature)
SANTA AND THE THREE BEARS (1970) [rs] - Hal March/Jean Vander Pyl (voices)
SANTA CLAUS STORY
SANTA IN ANIMAL LAND
SILENT NIGHT: STORY OF THE FIRST CHRISTMAS CAROL
SNOW FOOLIN' (1949) [fa] - A massive woodland snowfall is the setting for this first-day-of-winter "Jingle Bells" singalong.
THE STORY OF THE FIRST CHRISTMAS (Australia-1975) [rb] (Claymation)"
You get what you paid for
Cat | New England | 10/25/2009
(1 out of 5 stars)
"My parents had just bought this set of 8 dvds. Now granted, there is a LOT on here.... but it's not good quality.
I've got the cartoon disc on right now, and it's all off colored, skipping, with really bad quality. It looks like someone taped them off tv and then transferred them to dvd.
Or maybe the production value was just really that bad.
It's all public domain, so you're getting exactly what you paid for. The only good thing on this disc is the original Rudolph cartoon, and even that seems like it could have gotten a better treatment.
If you want good cartoons, stick with the ones you know. The stop motion Rudolph, Charlie Brown, and The Grinch will be the ones your kids want. Not this."