5 More Sleeps 'til Christmas

The animation is pretty nice. Not the best, but bright and cheery, though the head style was a little odd but OK, that's a style choice.

I did not by any means expect the heart of "A Christmas Story," nor did I expect the master storyteller narration of Jean Shepherd. But yikes. Jimmy Fallon was downright flat. Awful. He sounded bored and probably was. Plus he's not even an actor. No emotion. Just terrible. Ugh.

The story was an odd choice. An anal retentive Christmas. Yay. And oh, Fallon was the author of the book it is based on. Figures. There really nothing in it to recommend it, nor to advise strongly against it. It's just sort of there, like the bland narration. I guess kids may like it for the fact it is a cartoon.

Super cute animation and story, easy for kids in blended families to relate and understand. Was fun to watch amidst all of the reruns and repetitive Christmas movies.

There's only five more sleeps until Christmas. A boy has planned out everything perfectly to get the best Christmas. He has his divorced mom and his dog Gary. His plans are all thrown into doubt when surprise guest Michael shows up with his daughter Evie.

This is apparently Jimmy Fallon's project adapted from his book. He's also narrating which is problematic for me. His voice is distinctive and his popular persona doesn't have the gravitas. This is a half hour special which deals with some heavier family issues. He's probably not the right guy to narrate this. In addition, this material may be ripe for adapting to a half hour sitcom. So the format may be off. I like this but only up to a point.

The jerkiness of the incomplete animation is rather jarring. Also numerous close-ups were poorly done with vibrating edges instead of properly rendered ones.

The story is ok, but money spent on narration should have been used to add frames and clean up the animation instead.

I was tempted to give this family Christmas short a succinct review - meh. But I'll be specific: there's too much Jimmy Fallon. Apparently, the expression "a picture is worth a thousand words" is lost on the producers of "5 More Sleeps til' Christmas." Because, if it meant anything at all there would be a lot less narration. While the visuals ARE quite good, the narrator - Fallon - insists on describing everything happening before our eyes. Why bother with the pictures at all? Pure Cinema is an expression used to describe films that tell their story entirely with visuals. What is the opposite of Pure Cinema? "5 More Sleeps til' Christmas."

Compare the emotional impact of "5 More Sleeps til' Christmas" with its dazzling graphics and oppressive narration to the under animated, slow-paced, and narrator-less "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

One final bone to pick. With two days left until Christmas, our young hero greets a sun-drenched morning by throwing open his bedroom window and proclaiming to his dog, "Look Garry, is snowing!" An unhappy neighbor yells, "It's 5 AM!" Where in the northern hemisphere is it daylight on December 23 at 5 AM or 6 AM or 7 AM or 8 AM? Wouldn't the joke be finnier if it was pitch black?

If you are looking for kid-friendly snowy animated entertainment check out "Snowtime!" and "Racetime."