Christopher's Christmas Mission (1975)

Too much of everything

Great Film overall

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Shown mostly every Xmas in Sweden, this 'short' is typical of the output of Tage Danielsson, one of the greatest and brightest figures of Swedish entertainment and even political thought.Ever incisive, Tage could cut to the quick with skits that had you rolling in the aisles - and feeling good at the same time (which is no mean feat).And he always had a message with all that he did. And this Xmas story is no exception.It's brilliant, it's brilliantly narrated (by Tage himself of course) and no Xmas at home in Sweden would be really complete without it.Let's all play homage to a great man and thank him for what he gave us all those years - Tage tragically died in skin cancer at an early age. I was fortunate enough to meet him privately, and he was every bit the same person the public knew him as.A truly great man - and here is yet another gem he gave us. Enjoy. It's a lot of laughter, but it's extremely big hearted. It will make your Xmas all the more full of warmth.

This lovely little story really represents Christmas as I know it... in Sweden most people spend a good part of Christmas Eve watching TV and this is one of the shows that has come to be a celebrated tradition, broad-casted every Christmas Eve for the last couple of decades. It is the tale of a modern day Robin-Hood whose generosity at first is met with suspicion but finally he manages to remind everyone he meets what Christmas is all about - giving and loving not greed for all the right presents.The animations are funny and well done and the warm and comforting voice of Tage Danielsson guides us through the film, leaving us with a warm fuzzy beautiful Christmas feeling deep within.

In English: 'The Christmas Eve of Karl-Bertil Jonsson'. This little story, by comedy writer Tage Danielsson and artist Per Ahlin, is a jewel.With equal portions of affection and humor, the story of the young boy Karl-Bertil, and how he spends Christmas, is told. He takes the Christmas spirit far, when working at the post office and deciding to re-address Christmas gifts, so that they end up with poor people. His father finds it out, but what happens next is not what daddy had surmised.The style of animation is original and charming, with a well-found sort of antique air to it, and the story unfolds very pleasantly - still not ignorant of the injustices in the society portrayed. A social message is presented, but in a very sweet and enjoyable way.Tage Danielsson had a very personal way of combining pathos with comic ease, and this is one of the best examples of it.

When it comes to christmas, we have some stupid traditions in sweden. One is the one-hour mix of seriously downsized disney movie-cuts. It´s one of the seeeeerious traditions here. I don´t like it, but it takes the attention of about 50 percent of the swedish population for one hour, so I guess it haves some kind of value. I always wonder what the other 4 million does between 3 and 4 in the afternoon... Anyway, the story about Karl-Bertil Jonsson is really what christmas is about. A young man who works at the post-office takes all the gifts that are adressed to the rich people, and then gives them to the less fortunate. When he have to admit this to his very capitalistic father what he has done, all hell breaks loose. His father forces him to go to everyone he has "stolen" from, and admit his crime, but to everyones surprise, all the rich people are just delighted whit Karl-Bertils little christmas-scam... It may sound silly, but the comments (impossible to give to you in english in their right value of entertainment, but trust me, I cry in my laughter every christmas), and the nice story, makes it impossible to not love this story. I pity the fools that not aregiven the possibility to see this.