A Miser Brothers' Christmas (2008)

Good movie but grossly overrated

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Everything connected to the Miser Brothers characters was good and could have translated to a simple story about learning to work together.The North Wind was a completely unnecessary character that was not needed to tell the story... but of course every story NEEDS a villain... oh, except The Year Without a Santa Claus, where this story comes from.Also, hire decent songwriters. REAL songwriters. Contemporary songsters DON'T necessarily write properly for musicals.If you're going to revisit a story and characters, you need to try a little harder than this. This just felt like an obligatory release in order to keep a recently acquired intellectual property... oh like one from Rankin Bass to Warner Bros....But the animation was good, and the character design was fun. I didn't understand the many critiques against this, when the crime was in the storytelling and the songwriting.

I'd give this a eight and a half out of ten. Pretty good actually. Or maybe the haters are louder than the lovers (or likers?) Hmmmm.... where can i start? If you hadn't seen the first one, you wouldn't think this was too bad. But the music is pretty bad. The one and a half point for me is taken off from the new character North Wind's song and Mrs. Claus's song. And the fact that in this, Snow miser seems more PUSHY AND SARCASTIC and not so much with the ridiculous PUNS AND RANDOM BURSTS OF LAUGHTER. And why'd Snow Miser get the new haircut and lose his hat? But I do like (better than the original) X Snow Miser's new SINGING voice- Juan Chioran (because when you listen to Dick Shawn's, it sounds a bit choppy) X Heat Miser's new clothes X when they show the flashbacks of the childhoods Overall, it's okay. But it will never beat the original. But I love the original.

My biggest gripe on this one was not Snow Miser or Heat Miser...it was the other characters in this story. I think they did a decent job with the two main characters, but outside of them everything was beyond terrible. They did not even try to replicate the characters. They all looked different.....much cheaper. The elves for example looked not as detailed...they looked like an after thought. In fact, most of the elves were kids or kids with mustaches. Mrs. Claus looked like that lady from Sylvester and Tweety...you know the granny that hits Sylvester over the head with a cane. Santa Claus......it's hard to describe....he looked like he was from another story...not a Year Without Santa Claus. Mother Nature? The same. Why no Jingle and Jangle? Seriously why do a half attempt. It is almost like they were rushing this out for Christmas and said...oops we gotta get this out in a couple days hurry up design some characters.On top of that, the music was terrible....besides playing the Heat Miser and Snow Miser themes on more than one occasion. They even had Snow Miser sing "He's Mister Green Christmas". Then had Heat Miser sing "He's Mister White Christmas". Any opportunity to play this song possible. Other than these songs......hardly a thought was given to the music.I did enjoy baby Snow Miser and baby Heat Miser. And seeing both Characters again.It was nice to hear the original Santa and Heat Miser voices included....although both voices where different due to the fact both men are now in their 80's.....especially Santa. I really had no gripes with Snow Miser cast. Everything else...URGH! I ask why they just could not do this right. Make the Characters look at least somewhat like they used to...which means include Jingle and Jangle. Spend a little more time coming up with decent Christmas songs.It hurts me to say this but...........thumbs down.

Our society seems to have lost the capacity to make a decent Christmas special. I don't know where to start. I'm a huge fan of The Year Without a Santa Claus (I even have the action figures) and the models they used in this "sequel" for the miser brothers don't really resemble the originals. They didn't even try with the other characters of Santa, Mrs. Claus, and Mother Nature who all look completely different. The original characters were charming and warm but these ones seemed like lifeless dolls. The story line was nonsensical and the music was simply dreadful. I honestly think the music and lyrics were written in a single evening. The only decent songs in the whole program where the retreads of the miser brother songs from the original. This is the second flop based on The Year Without a Santa Claus so I'm inclined to say leave well enough alone and don't attempt any more. Just because we now have the technology to churn out shows doesn't mean you can skip the story telling and music writing. Too bad because I love the originals and was hoping for some additional originals for my daughter's generation. Guess that was too much to hope for.