I'll throw in a vote for "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer is So Bad, It's Good." I'm sorry, but when your villain song is entitled "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants off of Santa," there's a point at which the Narm goes so hysterically far I can't help but chuckle.
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaWebby: Not only that, he also listed a few excellent ones because, as good as they were, they didn't fit in. A Pinky And The Brain Christmas ran on The WB...and anything running there pre-Buffy was pretty much doomed. It deserved better.
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Agreed. That was a great special, and I'd love to see it again. I know the specials he lists aren't necessarily bad, but quite a few of them are narmy or overdone, so the page seemed relevant.
The Nostalgia Critic loves most of Groening's work and therefore wouldn't do Olive. And besides, I think he's admitted to liking it anyway (like most people).
More Buscemi at http://forum.reelsociety.com/Far from the Worst, but the Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special had me going "Huh??" with the part about the rabbit who wanted to commit suicide for having been rejected as the feast's chef. 0_o
edited 8th Dec '11 10:35:43 AM by Sijo
I know I've already mentioned this movie before, but Olive the other Reindeer. Oh. My. Gosh. I HATED this movie. There is many things wrong with this movie. First off, the animation is laughable, it looks like the bastard child of South Park only CG. The art style is obnoxious, and the songs are atrocious too. And now the final nail in the coffin, the idea of it and the overall plot and premise. It has what is quite possibly the stupidest premise and plot of ANY Christmas special I have EVER heard of. It's about a dog who thinks she's a reindeer and she ends up being one of Santa's reindeer because one of his reindeer was injured and they end up running into an evil mailman. That sounds like something I would come up with at the age of 6. This movie definitely makes to my personal list of the worst Christmas specials of all time. No offense to the people who like it, but I honestly fail to see what's special about it. I remember when it came on years ago one Christmas when my brother's friend was over, I said "This movie sucks" and I got weird looks from my brother and his friend. I bet you're all thinking I'm being overly harsh on this movie, so I'll give it one positive remark. The voice acting is decent, but other than that, I cannot find any redeeming qualities in this movie. My brother barely remembers the movie now, but now that I told him about it, he says it sounds terrible.
edited 9th Dec '11 4:16:59 PM by HappyComputerist
Un-frickin-touchable.On the animation: it's supposed to look like that. Groening and the animators were going for a look similar to a pop-up book (while still being faithful to the book).
And it's much more fluid than South Park's animation.
More Buscemi at http://forum.reelsociety.com/I never saw Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, but I'm glad that there is a disdain for its being overplayed on TV.
I never saw The Star Wars Holiday Special either, but reading up on it online made me feel like I was opening a potentially cursed Egyptian tomb or something.
Do not obey in advance.I actually liked the Star Wars Holiday Special when I was a kid. I watched it recently again and just found it... dumb, but hardly as bad as some people say. It's very much a product of its time, though.
And thanks to the Nostalgia Chick, I have just discovered the absolutely worst Holiday Special *ever*: The Christmas Shoes. *Urk*
edited 14th Dec '11 8:36:36 AM by Sijo
The Star Wars Holiday Special, I actually don't mind it. Really, it's more or less a variety show with Star Wars as a framing device. Granted, I've only watched it with Rifftrax, so I may be a tad biased here.
Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer...it's so terrible that I actually would like to nominate it for the position of the GREATEST Christmas special. I freakin' love it. Hell, during the flying sequence in How To Train Your Dragon I couldn't help but think of that stupid sequence with the kid and the elf flying in the sleigh from this! IT STICKS WITH YOU.
Olive is just cute and fun, I'll leave that at that.
A really bad one I can think of? An obscure movie called Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer: The Movie, with Whoopi Goldberg as the villain and Eric Idle as some random minor character I can never remember. It has TERRIBLE songs...no, wait, it has ONE good song, Wings' "Wonderful Christmastime", which I refuse to believe they could have afforded to license.
edited 14th Dec '11 9:55:06 AM by 0dd1
Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.
Yay! Someone else who appreciates the brilliant stupidity of Grandma! It's not just dumb, it's wonderfully dumb.
Got that right!! It's like watching a really enthusiastic yet incredibly inept theater company putting on their favorite play. God bless 'em, they just can't quite do it right, but you know they're really trying to make something good, and their optimism really shines throughout, even when they do the stupidest of things.
And I'd just like to say, that song Grandpa sings about his dead wife getting it on with Elvis in a Cadillac in heaven? Pure genius. You could not have a more hilariously blatant non-sequitur if you tried.
And yes, I call Sincerity Mode on all of what I've said here.
edited 15th Dec '11 12:37:55 AM by 0dd1
Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.Well, there was a new one recently I saw called The Elf on the Shelf. Home Alone 4 is also a major contender. As many people said Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer. I'd also have to include that one animated Rudolph movie from 1998, the one with Whoopi Goldberg as an ice queen.
I'd also have to say, and its a stretch, Jaws the Revenge is one too. After all, it's set around Christmas, at least the first half or 25 minutes. Tis the season to be chompy I guess.
edited 15th Dec '11 11:53:46 AM by primeyandereheika
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Yep, that's the Rudolph I was referring to.
What IS up with the Olive The Other Reindeer hate? I, for one, personally loved it, and still do. It's far from being the worst Christmas special, and I'm pretty sure there is worse. I know Happy Computerist hates the special, but seriously, I only preach hate about things I actually hate outright...like the anime School Days, and everything associated with it. But this isn't the place to bitch about that show, so I'll continue.
The live-action Grinch is kind of approaching So Okay, It's Average for me. It's not too good, but it also does have some good points about it. I prefer the animated special to the live-action one, though.
Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer gets a bit too much hate on here. I watch it, and yes, I do agree, it is utterly Narm-tastic, and some of the songs are sort of stupid. But, as most others have stated on here, it fits like a glove in the So Bad, It's Good territory.
Gotta Catch Santa Claus...yeah, it's not exactly Oscar material, neither is it A Christmas Carol, which gets so many remakes and reduxes that it can make your head spin. I do agree, the CGI is crummy and the animation can be done better, the plot could have been ironed out further, and overall, I do agree, it does not really hold much in the eye of the beholder. People try, and sometimes, they fail. Though, how much one can fail is usually up to the viewer.
The Goodtimes Rudolph (the one that people keep referring to as the movie where Whoopi Goldberg played the Big Bad Ice Queen) is a movie I did somewhat enjoy, but it has been a very long time since I last watched it, and I had lost the tape at some point, so I can't exactly judge it. Still, I do remember it being enjoyable to watch. May not be totally memorable to you, but to a young autistic kid, it sticks with you, even if it fades into the deepest depths of your memory banks.
Nester the Long Eared Donkey...okay, while I do agree that it is quite sad and depressing, keep in mind that not all Christmas Specials have to be cute or heartwarming (Billy and Mandy Save Christmas is a testament to that), but me and my mom do enjoy it. Rankin-Bass may have a track record for the classics, but damn. Cut this special a break.
I know people tend to look to the negative side of things, but all it takes is a few wrong words and some blame to start off a flame war with extra petrol included. So, even though some of the specials you hate are some I actually enjoy, don't shoot me down for it. I'm just noticing some specials that are getting a lot of flak for little rhyme or reason (Olive, it seems that that special is a common target on this thread, with GGROBAR coming in at a close second).
It was enjoyable to me as a kid, and I will say it's probably one of the most nostalgic less-remembered Christmas movies for me (as well as Annabelle's Wish)...but GOD does it annoy me now. Mostly the sub-par animation and the annoyingness of the songs, especially that awful "Show Me the Light" song. It's not exactly 'The Prayer' as far as Award Bait Songs go. The Villain Song is just grating, too. Villain songs are supposed to be fun, deliciously evil romps, but Stormella's is just... well, lemme put it this way, it's like the owl's songs in Rock A Doodle.
Like I said, the only thing I find truly good about it is something that didn't even originate with it, the song "Wonderful Christmastime" by Wings, which I'm still baffled as to how they could have afforded to license it.
As for Nestor, I don't have much of an opinion on it. It was kind of forgettable, I suppose, since I don't really remember anything about it aside from the adorable Nestor puppet (?) they used.
Anyone have an opinion on Annabelle's Wish
? I watched it a lot as a kid, but I really don't remember much about it aside from the basic plot and scattered scenes from it. Not enough to make a judgement call on it, anyway.
EDIT after looking at the cast on that Wikipedia page: WTF, Jim Varney's in that??
edited 16th Dec '11 1:27:55 PM by 0dd1
Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.I loved the 1966 animated version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas with the Frankenstein monster himself known as Boris Karloff voicing the Narrator and the Grinch, but that 2000 live-action movie with Jim Carrey was just....... An abomination that doesn't belong in this galaxy. The Grinch looks like he crawled straight out of Uncanny Valley in this movie but not only that, they made the Grinch into an annoying, loud, and obnoxious character too. The jokes are unfunny, immature, and just plain gross alot of the time (An example of the humor in this movie: Grinch making a guy literally kiss his dog's ass in his sleep.) I also don't like the idea of making the Grinch into a live-action comedy of all things. And about Olive the other Reindeer, I watched a bit of it on Youtube recently. I'll admit it, it wasn't NEARLY as bad as I remember it being. However, I still think it's bad (But not as bad as I put it out to be) and still stand by saying some of the things I said about it like it having cheap animation and a stupid storyline, but to a much lesser extent. However Grandma Got Run Over by a reindeer..... Much much worse. I still agree with alot of people saying it's sometimes So Bad It's Good like that BLAM and the Narmtastic Villain Song "Grandpa's Gonna Sue The Pants off of Santa" while to me the besides those Narmtastic moments, the movie was just plain stupid in a bad way.
edited 16th Dec '11 7:17:46 PM by HappyComputerist
Un-frickin-touchable.

Platypus Comix
has a set of articles on "Misfit Christmas Specials". I admit he listed a few that I actually like, but it's a fun read.
Actually a girl.