La hotte magique

It's a shame that this movie isn't available on DVD (or VHS, for that matter). Thankfully, I did tape it on VHS (commercials & all) when it last aired. Truly a wonderful film, it made remember some of those "warm & fuzzy" feelings that I used to have about Christmas when I was a child. A Disney © production, maybe someday it will be available for purchase...

Probably one of the most underrated Christmas movies out there. Ed Asner was perfectly cast as a grumpy prisoner, the storyline was a very touching one, and the acting was all-around excellent. Would recommend this to anyone. Only wish I could find a tape or DVD of it somewhere ...

Have said more than once how much Christmas is such a special holiday for me and that there are a lot of great things related to Christmas in terms of films and specials. Another reason for seeing 'The Christmas Star' was the cast, hard to go wrong with the ever reliable Ed Asner and the regrettably recently late Rene Auberjonois. Both of whom hold nostalgic value for me, especially Auberjonois from having grown up with primarily his voice work.

1986's 'The Christmas Star' may not be my definition of a great film, there are far better Christmas films and better films overall (though certainly far worse as well) and not everything works. It is though entertaining and charming enough, reminds me of what makes me love Christmas so much (for reasons too numerous to list) and definitely worth seeing if a fan of Asner or Auberjonois or both, the two main attractions of the cast by quite some way being by far the two biggest names.

'The Christmas Star' looks quite good with some nice scenery and photography that doesn't look garish or murky. The soundtrack is nostalgic and suitably festive, ageing quite well. The script mostly is quite entertaining and avoids being too awkward, not awards-worthy but that is something that one shouldn't expect. On the most part, the direction is competent.

Furthermore, the story avoids generally the cheesy or too schmaltzy route, parts are quite heart-warming and touching, even if it is a long way from being perfectly executed. Some nice humour here too. The story is charming and entertaining enough, while not being overly-predictable. Asner, as the only character that is properly developed, is in a role absolutely perfect for him (the gruff and likeable sort, though he did do some against type roles that he came off very well in) and he plays the role with adept ease. Auberjonois is also perfectly at ease in his role without being too camp. Fred Gwynne, also very talented, also comes over well as he is fun to watch and is well-suited.

All that set aside though, the rest of the cast don't really stand out. The kids over-egg it in roles already quite exaggerated and the rest of the characters are too sketchy for the rest of the cast to do much with what they have. Nobody's awful as such, but only the three veterans mentioned stand out properly.

Not all the story works, the surreal-feeling going too overboard in the final third done in a way that came over as more strange rather than intriguing and the cohesion wavers, actually found the final third a bit muddled personally but maybe that's just me. Also felt that the film got a bit rushed at this point too which did affect the cohesion, and some will be put off by the incompetence of the prison guards which is more of a subjective opinion.

Overall, quite decent but not great. 6/10

Unrepentant convict Horace McNickle (Edward Asner) escapes from prison by stealing the Santa Claus costume during the Salvation Army party. Vicious landlord Mr. Sumner (Rene Auberjonois) intends to evict everyone during the holiday season. Money is tight for the Jameson family and they're one of those being evicted. Young boy Billy Jameson finds Horace sleeping in the basement and believes him to be the real Santa Claus. Police detective Waters (Fred Gwynne) suspects that Horace is after his missing stolen loot.

This is essentially a Christmas Carol with two Scrooges. It's uber-cute when the kids come down to the basement to sit on Santa's lap. This may work better if McNickle gets visited by the three ghosts of Christmas throughout the movie. Instead, it takes a surreal turn in the last act to do its own version of Christmas ghost. The encounter between McNickle and Sumner also needs to be expanded and revised. This is an interesting murkier take on the many Christmas movies.

What I love the most about Christmas its that their his lots of old movie like this one on TV. It just finished an hour now and I wanted to write about it before I think of something else. This is a lovely film and it confirmed what I knew since a long time,That Barret Oliver was the greatest child actor their was during the 80's,He his so natural.Even now compare him to Haley Joel Osmend and you can see that Barret was even better. Anyway, the film his simple but it work,after the credit roll you feel happy and full of hope for mankind. It's a shame that they dont do Christmas movie like this anymore.