Release: December 5, 2017
Film: Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa
Tagline: Is Rapsittie Street Kids the worst Christmas Special ever?
This review contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Realizing that Mark Hamill is voicing Nicole's dad, the Critic theorizes that he's actually the Joker, while dubbing in the latter's lines on the former.
- Affectionate Parody: The Cold Open parodies Aliens.
- Alan Smithee: The Critic suggests that the cast could have used the alias in order to prevent the special being associated with them.
- All-Star Cast: The Critic is genuinely surprised that such a film with atrocious CGI would have such a powerhouse cast as Mark Hamill, Jodi Benson (Ariel from The Little Mermaid (1989)), Paige O'Hara (Belle from Beauty and the Beast), Grey DeLisle, Walter Jones (the original Black Ranger), Debra Wilson (of MADtv (1995) fame), and Nancy Cartwright.
- An Asskicking Christmas: The sketch begins with Critic, Malcolm, and Tamara killing the xenomorph-esq queen of the "Christmasians" after having committed genocide towards the rest of the species.
- Bait-and-Switch: Just as it seems that the Critic is about to deliver An Aesop about Christmas (as he did in previous holiday episodes), he simply mimics the film's final line and says "shut that door!".
- Bloodier and Gorier: The episode begins with a sketch of the Critic (with Malcolm and Tamara) trying to outdo his previous Christmas outbursts by traveling across space and brutally killing "Christmasians", culminating in an intensely bloody battle with their Queen which infiltrated the trio's spaceship.
- Call-Back:
- The Critic thought The Christmas Tree was the worst Christmas special he ever saw, until the Internet dared him to see something even worse (i.e., this film).
- In response to the blatant Vocal Dissonance prevalent in some characters, he says everyone should sound like Nintendo Australia's "You Cannot Beat Us" ad.
- Lenee's hairstyle is rendered such that the Critic points some resemblance to Chewbacca's buttcheeks, before thinking that it must be another Life Day tradition he wished he never knew.
- Deranged Animation: The Critic thinks the film's CGI is absolutely atrocious for 2002, a time when such films as The Lord of the Rings and the Star Wars prequels trilogies were pushing the limits of then-existing computer graphics technology. It was so bad that at one point the Critic wonders if this was actually a project for basic 3D animation classes that got a poor score, and by the end of the first half he decides staring at the sun would be less damaging to his eyes in comparison.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Smithy's obsession with his foot-long sandwich is seen by the Critic in a rather phallic light.
- Drinking Game: The Critic puts up "Drunk Face or Kill Face" game, with Malcolm and Tamara joining in, to guess which face Mrs. Parmington was making after her students left for the holiday, as well as Nicole's mom's face when her husband compliments her and Nicole.
- Gilligan Cut: The opening sketch ends with the Critic, Malcolm and Tamara wailing away at the Christmasian Queen's corpse, before abruptly cutting to them back in the bridge of their spaceship, covered in blood and horrified at their own brutality.
- Literal Metaphor: The scene of Ricky rapping has drops of blood tricking down the screen, which the Critic added to symbolize the audiences' eyes bleeding from the sheer Deranged Animation of it all.
- Medal of Dishonor: Barely averted; the Critic still thinks The Christmas Tree is the worst Christmas special he's ever seen, as this film can at least boast decent voice acting and a message that, while very clichéd, is still actually relevant to Christmas, as opposed to the terrible voice acting and Space Whale Aesop of The Christmas Tree. He judges this film a close second in terms of being the worst-ever Christmas special, however.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The opening sketch ends with a shellshocked Critic bitterly regretting his genocide on Christmasians, especially when he realized that their Queen is apparently pregnant.
- Poor Man's Substitute: The whimsical music has the Critic thinking the composer was a Danny Elfman wannabe.
- Random Events Plot: The lack of a fairly coherent story has the Critic wondering if this movie was a troll movie, a money laundering front by a criminal syndicate, or even both (to which he errs).
- Review Ironic Echo:
- Ricky discovering he only has three pennies (too few to buy some toys) is reinterpreted by the Critic as an allegory to him looking at the film's animation budget.
- The misspelling of Rapsittie Street Elementary School's slogan ("Striving for Excelence[sic]") is thought of as a metaphor for the film's sheer inanity.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- When the Critic thought this film sucked his soul out, his "soul" does pass by and bids him farewell.
- The first half of the review ends with the Critic deciding to take a break from the visual nightmare that is this film by staring into the sun.
- Seeing Nicole's mom's "kill face", the Critic, Malcolm and Tamara motion to leave the studio quickly.
- Self-Deprecation: Following his genocidal rampage against Christmasians, a sorely regretful Critic agrees with Malcolm and Tamara to never try to outdo his previous Christmas outbursts again.
- Shout-Out:
- To emphasize how atrocious this film's CGI was for a 2002 production, the Critic puts up in contrast ReBoot, which was far more polished despite being eight years older.
- The establishing shot of the film had the Critic comparing it to a poor man's South Park.
- Smithy and Tug running around with their arms raised has the Critic thinking they are imitating Jack and Rose's iconic bow scene.
- The poor CGI has the Critic thinking the production team could've just used The Sims and dubbed over the characters.
- The black principal character is compared to a Morgan Freeman robot.
- After Ms. Parmington and Principal's wonky dialogue, the Critic sings "Money for Nothing" (which doubles as a reference to it having the first CG music video), particularly the "I want my" lines while imitating their robotic movement, before brandishing an M60 and firing at the film.
- Seeing Ricky being jilted by Nicole, the Critic thinks PaRappa the Rapper's backstory would be more interesting. Later, when Smithy reprimands her for said incident, the Critic thinks they're going to discuss it over the ruins of Peach's castle from Super Mario 64.
- Nicole's song is so overly long and set over such limited animation the Critic thinks listening to "Let It Go" would be less annoying in comparison.
- Ricky's great-grandmother's gibberish is compared to a dolphin reading the Necronomicon.
- Stillborn Franchise: The Critic mocks the film's Sequel Hook for an Easter special.
- Take That!:
- According to the Critic, this film has gained a reputation as the Foodfight! of Christmas Specials.
- The Critic stops just shy of comparing the school's misspelling of "excellence" with some of Donald Trump's misspelled tweets (with the example shown being that he spelled "wait" with an e at the end), thinking that it's too easy a joke to make (which is ironic considering Doug's own history with misspelling in his reviews).
- When a girl complains about Zeke making unwanted overtures to her, only for Ms. Parmington to dismiss her fears as just him being in love with her, the Critic thinks Al Franken
(federal Democratic senator from Minnesota forced to resign after multiple accusations of sexual harassment) also went in that school. - The poor typesetting over Ricky's mail to Santa which flew to Nicole has the Critic thinking it was directed by the rings from Superman 64 (which was infamous for its notoriously hard Pass Through the Rings stages).
- When Critic mocks the special's sequel hook he shows a clip from Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny when he jokingly suggests that they're working extra hard on the special.
- The debate over which between this movie and The Christmas Tree is the worst Christmas Special ever is compared to the debate between Nickelback and Creed for the worst rock band.
- The Unintelligible: Ricky's great-grandmother speaks in such gibberish the Critic claims every time that scene is played a Pixar animator commits suicide.
- Watch It Stoned: Midway through the second half of the review, the Critic realizes the movie came with a strip of acid that he forgot to take, but all it does is make it look like the movie's being played in The Matrix.
- Worst. Whatever. Ever!: Downplayed. The Critic still thinks The Christmas Tree is the worst Christmas Special he ever saw; nevertheless, he understands why other people certainly do, and as a matter of taste rates this film a close second.
(Great Grandma speaking in gibberish)
