Search - A Miser Brothers' Christmas (Deluxe Edition) on DVD

A travesty

Matthew M. Sylvestre | Boston, MA | 12/17/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The "sequel" to the beloved Rankin & Bass classic is just a pathetic mess from beginning to end. The colors are foreign, the acting uninspired, the characters paper thin. The close up perspective of the scenes lacks depth; you do not get a felling that an entire world lies outside the camera's frame as you do with the classic. And poor Heat Miser and Snow miser look pathetic (note Heat Misers picture on the DVD box looks nothing like the pathetic impostor in the show). And don't get me started on Mrs Clause or the insipid Little People clamation video inspired "elves" (the original elves were far to embarrassed to be a part of the debacle). Beyond all this the story seems torn between attempting at one moment to appeal to the melba toast morality of mothers of toddlers and the next trying and painfully failing at appealing to adults (witness the creepy, charmless flying henchmen of the obnoxious villain). There is just nothing here but a faint twisted shadow of the original. Don't waste your money (instead send it to me to compensate me for the 45 minutes of my life I will never get back)... Some one, please make a special in the true spirit of R&B, or, at very least, one that sort of looks like the original... Merry Christmas"

Far from a classic

Sierra6588 | U.S. | 12/21/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"As adults who grew up watching the classic animations "the year without a santa claus" and "rudolph the red-nosed reindeer," we really wanted to like this, but it just doesn't compare to the old classics of yesteryear. maybe it's because we watched the old shows for years, and maybe that holds a bit of nostalgia because of our childhood, but this pale rip off of the rankin-bass animations of the 60's is really off the mark. it has none of the charm or fun of the originals, not does it have any of the memorable characters or music. it LOOKS really great, and the style of animation is very true to the old shows, but the writing is just dreadful.

the only good part is the re-hashing of the old song between the Miser bros.from the first "year without..." someone obviously spent a great deal of effort to recreate the look and style of the genre, and the animation IS well done, and it has moments of cuteness, but, for anyone who loved the original, and is over 5 years old, this show is really LAME!"

Disappointing modern take on a classic

GardenGuy42 | FL USA | 12/12/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I will give this 2 stars for nice stop-motion animation and colorful sets. They tried but they had a lousy story to work with. I realize that Rankin-Bass is history now but the "modern" take on these characters and the "new" story is just wrong on so many levels.



Mrs. Claus has none of the charm of the Shirley Booth character in the original "The Year Without a Santa Claus" and she looks like she is about 50 years older than Santa and she can't sing. Santa also lacks the charm of the original although still voiced by Mickey Rooney. The new elves, while admirably diverse, are charmless too and lacking lovability, especially the head elf who sounds like an accountant instead of one of Santa's jolly helpers. How modernly droll (not).



The Miser Brothers are OK but the new "improved" CEO version of Mother Nature and the huge-chinned North Wind? What on Earth? A useless peripheral character with zero interest as a villain.



The music is the worst I've heard on one of these, sounding like someone's teenager wrote it in the garage on their WalMart guitar in about 2 days. You won't be singing these songs again and again nor hearing them covered by any recording artist on a Christmas album. The original Misers song is the only highlight musically.



Too bad -- I really wanted to like this. A poor effort at capturing the magic of the old Christmas stop motion specials clearly made to make money and not delight children and adults alike."