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Jake Spankenheimer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jake_spoankenhuemer_6001.png
Voiced by: Alex Doduk

The main protagonist of the special, a boy around the age of about 10-12 and of course a modified version of David from All Dogs Go to Heaven 2.

  • Adorably Precocious Child
  • Agent Mulder: He believes in Santa Claus from the start, even before Grandma got run over by a reindeer.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: He most likely gets this from his Grandma. As nice and as helpful as Jake is, Cousin Mel learns the hard way that messing with Grandma was a surefire way to get on his bad side when he ultimately gets her thrown in prison. He's also clearly enjoying the hell out of watching Mel squirm when all the evidence against her leaves her with no more ways out, and forces Mel to confess to everything she did.
  • Brainy Brunette: He's pretty smart for his age.
  • Cassandra Truth: Nobody believes his claim that Grandma got run over by a reindeer early in the movie, even when he's wide eyed and screaming it. They don't particularly believe him either when he says that Santa is real, even though there's clearly evidence that suggests that he is indeed real.
  • Deadpan Snarker:
    I.M. Slime: Mel's Attorney: I.M. Slime.
    Jake: Well, you said it, not me.
  • Determinator: Absolutely refused to stop looking for Grandma even after a year had gone by.
  • Nice Guy: He's easily the nicest character in the movie, being more than willing to help his grandmother when nobody else will and even helping out Santa Claus. As demonstrated above, however, that doesn't exactly mean that it's a good idea to provoke him.
  • Only Sane Man: In a way, since, he's the only one who actually saw what happened to Grandma and had still been looking for her for over a year, long after everyone, including his own family, had given up.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: As mentioned above, he's pretty smart.
  • You Have to Believe Me!: In regards to what happened to Grandma. The fact that slightly senile Grandpa is the only other witness didn't help his case.

Grandma Spankenheimer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gramma_spankenhymer_1249.png
Voiced by: Susan Blu

Jake's Grandma, who owns a small department store in the city, the only piece of property not owned by super company Austin Bucks.

  • Beehive Hairdo: Largely to fit the design of the grandma from the song
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Almost lets loose on Cousin Mel after she whines about Grandma not selling the shop, before saying "but Grandmas shouldn't talk that way." She also makes it clear to the family that if she'd gotten more help besides Jake with the decorating (like she asked), she wouldn't have been leaving so late that night. The look on her face and her tone of voice makes it clear she's pissed off.
  • Cool Old Lady: She displays this trope as it was intended rather than ironically. Besides being sweet and loving, Grandma's a savvy businesswoman, has a snarky sense of humor, and doesn't take shit from anyone. She's the type of woman you wish you'd have for a grandmother.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Doesn't display it as much as Jake, but it's clear she's the one he got it from. She even shows this after she gets amnesia.
  • Easy Amnesia: After the reindeer incident. It was so bad she was incapable of retaining any permanent memories.
  • Everyone Calls Her "Barkeep": If it's never revealed what her first name is, she's referred to as "Grandma", and she's Jake's grandmother.
  • Friend to All Children: She dresses up as an elf and reads to kids in her store during the holidays.
  • Good Is Not Dumb: Despite what Cousin Mel thinks (who Grandma doesn't trust with the business), she's an intelligent businesswoman whose kindness and generosity keeps customers loyal and coming back. Her repeatedly turning down Austin Bucks' offers to buy her property turned out to be a smart decision too. It gave Bucks enough time to receive the inspiration needed to come up with a better offer to turn the store into a franchise, thus allowing Grandma to keep her property while still making her family a fortune.
  • Granny Classic: Definitely has the look.
  • Happily Married: To Grandpa.
  • The Heart: Without her, the store was never the same.
  • Lethal Chef: Averted. Despite the song "Grandma's Killer Fruitcake" her baked goods and pastries are insanely popular and delicious, especially her fruitcake. The one batch that turned out bad was the one Cousin Mel intentionally poisoned to make people sick.
  • Made of Iron: Amnesia not withstanding, the woman managed to survive being trampled by eight reindeer and a sleigh. Twice.
  • Nice Girl: Is a loving grandmother to Jake and devoted to her husband, dresses up and reads to kids in her store, and also devotes her spare time doing charity work around the holidays.
  • Older Than They Look: She's surprisingly youthful-looking aside from her white hair.
  • Parenting the Husband: She shows nothing but patience towards her husband's increasing senility.
  • Plot Allergy: Her supposed allergy to eggs. One of the reasons she'd been heading out was because she left her medication at the store.
  • Silver Vixen: While not exactly "sexy," Grandma Spankenheimer is very pretty for a woman her age.
  • The Smart Guy: Is easily the smartest person in her family besides Jake. She was the primary manager of the store and the reason it was going for so long. This gets highlighted during her disappearance when, nine months later, Jake's parents are actually trying to sell the last fruitcake she made. A year old fruitcake that was on the ground, in the cold, partially chewed by their dog, and used as police evidence.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: She is pretty obviously killed in the song, though her family BELIEVES her to be dead.

Grandpa Spankenheimer

Voiced by: Elmo Shropshire

Grandma's husband.

  • Adaptational Heroism: In the original version of "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants off of Santa" Cousin Mel isn't mentioned and the idea to sue Santa (which destroys Christmas by bankrupting the Jolly Old Elf) occurs to him independantly after seeing an ad for a lawyer on TV.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Implied he's turning senile. Though the original song does have him mostly taken advantage of by his lawyers and all he gets for his trouble is a TV and the lawyers take most of Santa's money.
  • The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: He's the only one apart from Jake (and Grandma) to see the reindeer run over Grandma.
  • Disney Acid Sequence: His song pretty much comes out of nowhere.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Much like his wife, Grandpa's first name is never revealed and he's a grandfather.
  • Grandparental Obliviousness: Half the time he seems to be living in his own little world.
  • Happily Married: To Grandma. The fact he didn't immediately go out to help her despite seeing her run over by Santa's sleigh is more of an indicator that he's having a senile moment, but he's overjoyed the moment he sees her for the first time in a year.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He walks right into Cousin Mel's trap by signing her contract. He thought he was helping.
    • He also knocked down the inflatable Christmas tree in the beginning.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While he is reading the letter Santa wrote explaining what happened, he gets angry for the first time ever. The look on Cousin Mel's face when she realizes she got Grandpa mad makes it clear she knows she's beyond screwed.

Cousin Mel

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cousin_mally_1938.PNG
Voiced by: Michele Lee

The main antagonist of the special and Jake's cousin (somehow).

  • Abhorrent Admirer: To Austin Bucks.
  • Adaptation Name Change: In the original song, she's named Cousin Belle. Presumably, the change was because "Mel" was seen as a more villainous name.
  • Ambiguous Situation: Just how much of the plot was Mel's plan? Everything seems to be predicated on the idea that she already believed in Santa Claus the entire time and wanted the hit-n-run to happen. Indeed, she just so happens to have a bottle of reindeer nip, immediately hides the note from Santa which explains the whole ordeal and barely reacts at all when the man bursts into Austin's office. On top of that her stated goal at the end of the film is that she simply hates Christmas. Cousin Mel is either a brilliant strategist or just got extremely lucky.
  • Adaptational Villainy: In the song, Cousin Mel is only given a brief mention as playing cards with Grandpa after Grandma's death, and doesn't seem particularly malicious. Here, she's elevated to the position of main antagonist.
  • Ambiguously Related: We have no idea how Mel fits into the family tree. All we know is that she's somebody's cousin. Whether by blood or legally is also unclear.
  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: One way of looking at her Disney Acid Sequence song with I.M. Slime is that the two of them were completely ecstatic when they realized just how much money they could get for suing Santa.
  • Ascended Extra: In the song, she's barely mentioned. She's also not mentioned at all in the pre-amble to the original "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants off of Santa".
  • Big Bad: Her selfishness and greed are what drives the conflict of the movie.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: She can be exceedingly ruthless and manipulative when she puts her mind to something, but most of the time she just whines about Grandma's business practices.
  • Corrupted Character Copy: Her character model is almost identical to Daphne Blake, yet she has no compassion for others.
  • Deep South: If her accent gives anything to go by.
  • Double Entendre:
    Cousin Mel: Now Austin, darling, why don't we go somewhere romantic and consummate this deal?
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Hates "the goody goody feelings of Christmas".
  • Evil & Fiery Redhead
  • Excessive Evil Eye Shadow: Downplayed. Not necessarily excessive, just enough to make evil sexy.
  • Exposed to the Elements: The only character not dressed appropriately for winter.
  • Femme Fatale: She tries to schmooze both Grandpa and Austin Bucks with her good looks. She manages to wrap Grandpa around her finger (if only because he's senile to begin with and didn't know what she was really up to), but she's not so lucky with Austin, given that he chooses to give Jake a chance to find his grandma instead of letting Mel have her way right then and there.
  • Femme Fatalons: She has long, sharp nails that look almost like claws, fitting for her predatory nature.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: It's clear she's not the most beloved member of the family, so why she's living with them at all is anybody's guess. We never even find out how she's related to Jake, like if she's a relative through his dad's side of the family or his mom's side. Even Grandma doesn't seem to like her.
  • Gender-Blender Name: "Mel" is typically a male name. Although it could just be a nickname, being short for something like "Melanie," "Melinda" or some other name that starts with "Mel."
  • Gold Digger: She is explicitly described as one by Grandma.
  • Greed: All she cares about is getting rich any way she can.
  • The Grinch: Pretty much stated during her confession she doesn't like the spirit of Christmas.
  • Hartman Hips: Cousin Mel's hips are quite large and you get a number of moments showing them off.
  • Hyper-Awareness: Subverted. The fact that she noticed a few key things, such as the letter Santa left behind and Santa actually arriving with Jake and Grandma, are what allowed her to put her plans in motion.
  • Idiot Ball: Why she held onto that letter stating what really happened is anyone's guess, but the fact that she did was pretty much Mel shooting herself in the foot.
    • Likewise, leaving the spice in her purse. Doofus manages to pick up its scent and leads Jake to where she was keeping Grandma hidden.
  • Impossible Hourglass Figure: She's got quite a curvy figure, which adds well to the fanservice.
  • Irony: She goes to all the trouble to try to get rich. Then after she's thwarted and sent to jail, her family does get rich when Austin offers to turn the Spankenheimer store into a franchise.
  • It's All About Me: "Hey, I deserve to be rich."
  • Jerkass: Undoubtedly the biggest offender in the movie; even Daphne's nowhere near as unpleasant as she is.
  • Kick the Dog: She made her grandma suffer Laser-Guided Amnesia and framed Santa for her disappearance.
  • Lack of Empathy: It's pretty clear that she doesn't care about poisoning people to get rich. Neither does she care about nearly ruining Christmas by almost landing Santa in jail.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: She goes to jail for obstructing justice by hiding Santa's letter.
  • Lazy Bum: Wants money, does everything beyond actually working to try and get it and pretty much sponges off Jake's family. The only time she's ever shown working is when she thinks someone is shoplifting.
  • Male Gaze: Pretty much any scene, particularly during her villain song, where she is dancing with a Fur Bikini top, and her Cleavage Window has widened. See it here.
  • Manipulative Bitch: Is a contender for the third smartest person in the movie behind Grandma and Jake. Up until the ending, she managed to effortlessly turn around every hitch she encountered to her advantage.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Just take a look at the picture above and the associated quote.
  • Parent Service: Mel is a beautiful, curvy woman that talks with a breathy southern drawl. No points for guessing who all that's for.
  • Redhead In Green: She has red hair and wears a green square-neck blouse.
  • Shaking the Rump: During their song "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa", both Mel and I.M. Slime dance exotically and shake their large butts.
  • Unexplained Accent: She speaks with a slight southern accent while the rest of her family doesn't. Might make sense since she's just their cousin and probably grew up elsewhere.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom. While her plan was to poison people by spiking Grandma's fruitcake, she didn't mean for it to attract the reindeer that ran her down. It's later averted when she and her attorney kidnap Grandma, just so they could frame and sue Santa over her disappearance.
  • Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where she puts Austin Bucks' phone number and Santa's letter.
  • Villain Has a Point: You'd be hard pressed to find someone who disagrees with Mel that selling a tiny little family holiday store for millions of dollars is a good idea. It's especially notable that the entire family, sans Jake and Grandma herself appear to be perfectly fine with the sale.
  • Villainous Breakdown: She pitches a fit once it's pretty obvious that there's too much evidence stacked against her for her Evil Plan to work anymore.
  • Villain Song: "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa", which she shares with I.M. Slime.
  • Wingding Eyes: She experiences the dollar sign variant.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Not directly, but she had no qualms with anyone getting sick from her poisoned fruitcake, including kids. She's also not very fond of Jake.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: She's surprisingly good at turning unexpected events in her favor. When her scheme to sabotage Grandma's business gets her run over, she hides the letter from Santa and tries to take advantage of her absence. Later on, when Santa brings Grandma back, Mel kidnaps her and frames Santa.

Santa Claus

Voiced by: Jim Staahl

  • Adaptational Heroism: The original song implies he ran over Grandma deliberately. Here, it was an accident because she was carrying tainted fruitcake that smelled like reindeer-nip.
  • Ambiguously Jewish: Ironically enough, yes, owing to an unexplained Yiddish accent he has.
  • Big Good
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Happily Married: We see Mrs. Claus at points in the film. She's naturally worried for him after he's convicted of hit and run and kidnapping. He also holds her warmingly as they're about to head back to the North Pole.
  • Idiot Hero: He's definitely a nice guy as he's genuinely remorseful for running over grandma, gives her free medical care to recover, and even admits to the whole thing when confronted about it. Though his logic of leaving a note rather than talking to the family only a few yards away from where he hit her was a rather boneheaded move. Even if Cousin Mel didn't steal the note, a gust of wind could've blown it away, and they had no way of proving the note was really from him had she not hid it.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: A main rule of thumb is that humans aren't allowed to the North Pole without permission. So he lets Quincy slide when he brings Jake there to find his grandmother.
  • Santa Claus: This is the man himself we're talking about. It's a given.

Doofus

Jake's dog.

Austin Bucks

Voiced by: Cam Clarke

A rich business man who owns pretty much every store in the city, save for Grandma's.

  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Subverted, despite initially being set up as such. He wants to buy Grandma's shop, but he's not willing to go to any illegal lengths to acquire it, and gives Jake a fair chance to find Grandma before he signs the deal with Cousin Mel. Likewise, after everything said and done, he offers to turn Grandma's shop into a franchise.
  • Hidden Depths: When he was six, he wanted a Lieutenant Neutron Action Figure.
    Austin: Lieutenant Neutron? He was the best!
    • He also had a chance to go somewhere romantic and consummate a deal with Cousin Mel, which pretty much any other guy would've taken, but he chose to give Jake a little extra time to find Grandma.
  • Honest Corporate Executive: As mentioned in the above two entries, despite being initially set up as corrupt, he's actually a pretty decent guy who's more than willing to give Jake a fair shot at finding his grandmother before signing off on Cousin Mel's deal.
  • I Own This Town: A benevolent example. In fact, Grandma's shop is the only business in Cityville that Austin doesn't own.
  • Meaningful Name: The guy's last name is "Bucks" and he owns a massive corporation. You can piece the evidence together.

I.M. Slime

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_vignettewikianocookienet_20191111_23_21_26_1.png
Voiced by: Kathleen Barr

Cousin Mel's attorney, who helps her frame Santa Claus for Grandma's second disappearance.

  • Amoral Attorney: She does everything she can to ensure her client gets her fraudulent cash payoff, including aiding in a kidnapping scheme. She is also the closest in character to the original "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa", where the unnamed lawyers end up taking most of the money from the Grandpa vs. Claus case leaving Santa bankrupt and Grandpa just with a second TV.
  • The Dragon: To Cousin Mel.
  • Facepalm: After a now lucid Grandma shows up in court and Cousin Mel shouts, "That woman is a fraud! Grandma doesn't know who she is!"
    • Doubles as an Oh, Crap! as well as she knows they're pretty much screwed.
  • Hartman Hips: Just like Cousin Mel, Slime has a big bottom which she shakes during the infamous "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa" song.
  • Hello, Attorney!: She is quite attractive.
  • Karma Houdini: Disappears at the end of the film with no known comeuppance for the role she played in almost destroying Christmas.
  • Meaningful Name: She's a lawyer. Get it?
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Lampshaded when Jake meets her for the first time:
    Jake: Who are you?
    I.M. Slime: Cousin Mel's attorney. I.M. Slime.
    Jake: You said it, not me.
  • Obviously Evil: Her last name is literally "Slime", and she is every bit as unscrupulous in her profession as you'd expect.
  • Unfortunate Names: Who would go by those initials if your last name is Slime?
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: She just disappears at the end, with no explanation of whether or not she got arrested and sent to prison like Cousin Mel.

Quincy

Voiced by: Philip Maurice Hayes

Santa's head elf.

  • Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Like Jake, he likewise was trying to find out who Grandma belonged to and eventually does when he gets Jake's letter to Santa to bring his Grandma home. He also helps out Jake recover Grandma from the cabin Mel was keeping her hidden away in.
  • Worth It: Give the guy credit, he knew there was a risk in bringing Jake to the North Pole without Santa's permission. But he did it anyway, which luckily for him, allowed him to keep his job.

Spankenheimer Family

Voiced by: Scott McNeil (Mr. Spankenheimer), Kathleen Barr (Mrs. Spankenheimer), and Maggie Blue O'Hara (Daphne)

Jake's mother and father (the latter of whom is Grandma and Grandpa's son) and his older sister, Daphne.

  • Adults Are Useless: They don't really prove to be much help both before the incident (making excuses to get out of helping Grandma with charity work and decorations) and after (all but giving up the search for Grandma. Hell, Daphne at one point tells Jake to give up). But hey, it's a kids movie. Par for the course.
  • Jerkass: Daphne, Jake's sister. She spends most of the movie ranging from being a bratty sister to being a complete asshole to Jake. She softens at the end when Jake's ultimately proven right about Santa and their Grandma.
  • So Proud of You: Stated to Jake after he saves not only Grandma, but Christmas itself.


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