Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"The Town Santa Forgot" is an American television special for the holidays and this first aired back in 1993, so it will have its 25th anniversary next year. The director here is 6-time Emmy winner Robert Alvarez, so it should not be too surprising that this one here was nominated for an Emmy too, even if it came short and lost to a lesser known work. I personally did not enjoy the watch too much. The only thing I quite liked was the core plot idea about the people from the place thinking somebody gave them a huge gift and how it was supposed to renew the boy's thinking about the idea and spirit of Christmas. However, did this plan work out? Not really I would say. The transformation did not feel particularly realistic and one problem I had here was that really not one single character was particularly interesting that you would wonder what happens next to him. And this includes the main character especially. I think this film could have been cut into half the runtime really without anything being lost. And it could have been even shorter in the one-digit minute runtime area as honestly especially in the first half there were a great deal of scenes that felt forgettable. As for Dick van Dyke, the narrator here and biggest name attached to the project, he was solid too, but only stood out slightly because everything else was really nothing special, not because he was. Overall, this one gets a thumbs-down and it is certainly not the brightest half hour in animation from the 1990s. Not worth checking out, not even during the holidays.
ExplorerDS6789
On Christmas Eve, a kindly old grandfather tells a spoiled little boy and girl about a kid named Jeremy Creek who was the greediest boy of all time. How greedy was this boy named Creek? He had thousands of toys, and that's just from this week. You know that kid in Target or Wal-Mart who pitches a fit when he's told he can't have something he wants? That's Jeremy, except he always gets what he wants by throwing a tantrum and sucking his thumb like Prince John from Disney's Robin Hood. His parents give in to his demands, which shows exactly how Jeremy got to be this way. His bedroom was stuffed with playthings of every size and description. There were boats, trains, cars, planes, you name it, he had it. Now you must think that if one kid had so many toys, it would get pretty boring and lonely without having someone to play with, right? Nope, not Jeremy. He'd chase off any other kid who dared to try and play with his stuff. However, this spoiled brat got his comeuppance one fateful night after pitching a fit over wanting a newer and bigger Cowboy Bob and his wonder horse Chigger, his parents finally put their feet down and said no dice! They realize they've spoiled him and it must stop. Good, they've finally taken a hint. Oh, but Jeremy wouldn't give up that easily, for if his folks wouldn't buy him more toys, there was one man he could turn to: Santa Claus! So he commenced to writing up a mile-long list of things...what do you bring a boy who has everything? More of it, I guess. You could argue this boy has OCD, or maybe getting toys is his hobby? He asks for absurd, outlandish things, then he wrapped up the whole bundle and tried to fly it to the North Pole on his remote controlled airplane... really? So he stuck on a ton of stamps and gave it (as well as a hernia) to the mail man. So Santa gets the ginormous letter and is baffled as to who wrote it? Jeremy Creek? Santa had never heard of him. The elves were puzzled too, so they searched the map and came across a town called Jeremy Creek. What are the odds? They all conclude that it was a whole town who'd sent the letter, and up until now it hadn't been on Santa's route. Um... why? Maybe kids only started moving there recently? No matter, Santa and his helpers work quickly to fill the huge order, to make up for all the Christmases they missed.Twas the night before Christmas, and up on Jeremy's roof, the little brat prepared to nab Santa at the first sound of a reindeer's hoof. He watched as Santa made his rounds to the other houses in town, but then inexplicably flew right past Jeremy's. The boy was heartbroken...if he had a heart, and I think here is where we can start to sympathize with him, because no kid wants to be forgotten by Santa. Well, come Christmas morning, he sees that the jolly fat man never came at all, and his parents hadn't gotten him anything, because he already had everything. Just as he's about to start throwing a trademark fit, a news broadcast comes on TV, telling of a swamp town called Jeremy Creek, who had gotten all the gifts meant for the boy of the same name. Jeremy is still livid, but when a child expresses her thanks to whoever wrote the note, the little boy's eyes opened for the very first time so he could see what a greedy, selfish brat he'd been. The town had deemed him a hero, a feeling he'd never felt before. He goes under the tree to reflect, when all of a suddenly he's visited by Santa in microscopic form. He tells Jeremy that he knows about everything that happened, so basically Santa intentionally skipped Jeremy's house because he was a greedy little brat and the fact that he and that town had the same name was a merry coincidence. So he wants to reward Jeremy for his unintentional generosity by offering him a gift of his choice. For the first time ever, the boy wasn't sure what he wanted, so Santa makes him his helper. And so Jeremy began to give his excess toys away and each Christmas for years after, he helped Santa deliver gifts all over the world, until one year, Jeremy got too big to fit in the sleigh. So instead of Santa just...I dunno, getting a bigger sleigh, Jeremy was dismissed as the helper. And so, the old grandfather concludes his story with the moral of that it is more fun to give than it is to receive. His grandkids were now less greedy because they took the story to heart. It was then revealed that the man was actually Jeremy from the story, which I'm sure most of you had figured out already.This special gives us all the perfect Christmas gift of nostalgia. I'm sure many of you watched this growing up, and even though I discovered it at a later age, I still make it a point to watch it every year. Narrated by Dick Van Dyke, who does an outstanding job, and the late, great Hal Smith is the voice of Santa, plus child star Miko Hughes, who pretty much voiced and played a kid in almost everything in the early '90s, from Full House to Wes Craven's New Nightmare. The story itself is pretty catchy, it's in a traditional rhyming format that I only wish I could emulate. So this year, why not revisit some old friends and return to The Town Santa Forgot, and if you know any people who are selfish and greedy, tell'em all about Jeremy Creek. Merry Christmas!
TheLittleSongbird
Nice to start my review with a rhetorical question. Anyway, the Town Santa Forgot is very well done. It has a great timeless message, never be greedy, and is really nice to watch. Sadly, I do confess this isn't a cartoon that I grew up with, I saw this for the first time today. And why did I want to see this? Because of Dick Van Dyke, I have always loved him. And I have to say he does a marvellous job as the voice of the narrator/grandpa(who begins and ends the cartoon). Others pros are the wonderful whimsical animation, the beautiful music and the heart warming ending. The story telling of a very spoiled brat called Jeremy Creek is very charming, and the script is both funny and poignant. My only qualm is that it does drag only slightly in the middle.Other than that, this is a really nice watch. I do recommend it! 9/10 Bethany Cox
