The Christmas Tree
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 Those eyes. Sweet baby Jesus, those eyes...
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The Christmas Tree is a 1991 animated Christmas adventure-drama special. It only aired once, on USA Network, and has since resurfaced on YouTube. It is available to watch for free on that platform.
Plot
The film takes place in an orphanage, run by the evil Mrs. Mavilda, who steals the orphanage's funds, and tricks the mayor into thinking she's a good manager. The kids are so miserable, that they latch onto a pine tree, as a mother figure, and a stray dog, as their only friend. Things begin to change, when a new family moves into town, and the mayor assigns the mother, Judy, to a position, as Mrs. Mavilda's assistant. She and her two children, named Pappy and Lily, live at the orphanage, while their father, and Judy's husband, Ray, must live elsewhere, for his new job. Judy takes the orphans under her wing, and tries to make life better, for them. When Mrs. Mavilda decides to frame Judy for a crime, in order to have her removed, the children make a desperate bid, to appeal to Santa Claus for help.
Why The Tree Got Chopped Down And Burned For Firewood
- Poorly-done cel animation, that's incredibly stiff most of the time, since the only thing the characters move, is their heads and mouths.
- One shot in a street, shows a man teleporting into the scene out of nowhere.
- In other shots where Mrs. Mavilda is calling somebody, it's very painstakingly obvious, that her animation is being reused, when she talks.
- The character's faces are usually completely inexpressive; when they do have expressions, they nosedive straight into the uncanny valley, especially when the kids are smiling.
- Voice acting that sounds like not a single one of the actors is even trying. The orphan children, in particular, are clearly not actors, and are probably the production staff's kids. Their line-readings are flat recitations, like a small child delivering a report, to their class. This isn't helped by the characters often having completely neutral facial expressions.
- Of note is Judy, Pappy (what kind of parents would call their son that?), and Ray's voice, which has a creepier monotone, than the kids' annoying ones. His pale skin doesn't help, either, as it makes him look like a corpse.
- Santa's voice at the very end of the movie comes off as unintentionally creepy.
- The story is all over the place, with plot points, that are immediately forgotten, as soon as they are brought up.
- Some plot details, like Ray being disconnected from his family, due to his job, feel rather forced.
- It's unclear as to what year or decade the story takes place in, though it seems to be set sometime in the 1920's, due to a few anachronisms, that keep turning up. For example, one of Mrs. Mavilda's henchman watches television with a medium-sized screen. The earliest TV sets had very small screens.
- Terrible editing and sound-mixing. When Mrs. Mavilda yells, "you're fired!", at Judy, her voice breaks the volume levels, of the microphone.
- Awful soundtrack, that barely fits.
- The so-called, "moral", of the movie at the end, "you always win, when you are good", basically saying that good people always get what they want, feels shoe-horned in, at the last minute, and has nothing to do, with the movie's story, or even the meaning of Christmas, itself. It isn't a good moral either, since even young children will know, that life isn't fair sometimes.
- Most of the kids are voiced, by children, but one of them is voiced, by an eighteen-year-old, using an artificially sped-up and pitch-shifted voice in an attempt to sound like a kid, but instead sounds like an alien.
- Lily, one of the main characters, falls off a cliff, and is presumed dead, but later reappears, after being saved, by Santa Claus, off-screen.
- This film has some inappropriate scenes for the target audience:
- The infamous “child undressing scene” where Mrs. Mavilda undresses two children.
- The movie explicitly states Mrs. Mavilda has a gambling addiction and is an alcoholic and they make no attempt to sugar coat it.
- Inappropriate Dialogue: “Oh, what a hangover.”, “Oh my god, what happened to her?!!!”
- Repeated References to tobacco and alcohol: In most of the Mrs. Mavilda gambling scenes, Mavilda and her friends are seen drinking alcohol and smoking cigars. At some point, Mavilda even tells her friends to bring champagne, an alcoholic drink.
- These instances do not belong in a film targeted towards children.
- In one scene, Mrs. Mavilda tries to take a dog away to a pound, but it breaks free, and runs away, while the children all cheer. However, it looks more like the children are having seizures, due to their weird shaking, jumping movements, loud mumbling, and screaming.
- Plot Holes:
- If the orphans had not had new clothes in years, why are they fitting them perfectly? The clothes should’ve obviously been too small for them because children grow. It would look more believable.
- Since Santa already exists this world, then how come the orphanage children were not getting presents in previous Christmases before Judy got hired? Santa would deliver Christmas presents regardless of the circumstances. Unless, Mrs. Mavilda confiscates the presents before the children wake up on Christmas morning, which could be highly probable given her character.
- Awful character designs, like the children, in particular. They have strange, soulless, inverted eyes, with a black iris, and a grey pupil, that makes it looks like they all have cataracts.
- Mrs. Mavilda is too scary, and threatening, for the target audience, especially her face, in a brief shot.
- The film noticeably rips off designs, from Disney films. The bear's design is Baloo, from Disney's The Jungle Book, one of the children looks like John Darling, from Peter Pan, and Mrs. Mavilda and Judy resemble that of Lady Tremaine and Cinderella, from Cinderella.
- Mrs. Mavilda has very odd speech patterns, often flipping, from amused, to annoyed, in the space of a single line, interrupting her own speech, or randomly bursting out laughing.
- The mayor is very dumb. His obviousness to Mrs. Mavilda's abusiveness of the orphans, despite them, wearing the same nice clothes (which inexplicably still fit them), and looking sad, every time he visits the orphanage. Near the end of the film, his voice suddenly starts to sound like Adam Sandler, for no good reason.
- At the end of the movie, right before Mrs. Mavilda prepares to cut down the tree, that the orphans named, "Ms. Hopewell", she gets zapped by Santa Claus, with a bolt of lightning. This would normally kill her, but she somehow survives, undergoes a complete personality change, and is forgiven by the town, making her a villain, with a lack of karma.
- Horrid, and nonsensical dialogue.
- For example, in the scene where Mrs. Mavilda gets struck by Santa's zap of lightning, a man exclaims what happened, for a woman to respond, quote on quote: "I don't know! She got struck by lightning!" Why would you say you don't know, if you knew exactly what happened?
Redeeming Qualities
- Judy's voice, is the only voice, in this film, that is pleasant to listen to.
- Just like with Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, the movie is so bad, it's funny.
- Mrs. Mavilda's voice actress, is the only one, who puts a hint of effort, in their performance.
- Santa's design looks okay.
- Despite its flaws, the cel animation isn't entirely bad, and can actually be quite decent, in a few shots.
Videos
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