While binge watching and reviewing bad Christmas movies this December, I vaguely remembered watching this one a few years ago out of morbid fascination. This wasn't even a full-length movie. It's just 22 minutes of low-quality computer animated garbage that looked as though it were made by a class of middle-schoolers who somehow got their hands on computer animation technology.
Here's the story: Santa Claus is facing production troubles at the North Pole. His most brilliant elf, Burton, invents a machine that malfunctions and transforms him into an evil snowman, who promptly creates a huge blizzard that threatens Christmas. What follows is a bitter battle between Santa and the Snowman until a girl named Jennifer intervenes and resurrects Burton by singing a lame song about the "Christmas Light". That's it.
I know this was made in 1995 when computer animated media was just entering the entertainment industry, but even for that time period, the animation was horrible. By comparison, the earliest episodes of ReBoot, Beast Wars, and VeggieTales were head and shoulders above this trash and whoever said this was as good as Toy Story was lying through their teeth. All of the scenery was barren and plain looking. The North Pole itself looks more like a prison complex than a toy factory. The character designs look like lumpy clay figures with spindly noodle arms that were created in a kindergarten art class, and their movements were sluggish and jerky. Everything in this movie just feels so soulless and boring, it'll make you yawn.
The voice acting is terrible, and this was the only role nearly all of the so-called "actors" ever got. Isaac and Santa Claus both sound bored as they muttered their lines in monotones, even when they're in danger. Burton/Snowman was only marginally better with his hammy villainy. The only half-decent voice acting comes from Dan Haggerty (RIP) as the narrator.
None of the characters are interesting or likeable. Santa himself is a complete jerk who joins Isaac in bullying Burton, kidnaps Jennifer, and even tries to kill Burton as the Snowman. What kind of crummy Christmas movie would have such an uncharacteristically nasty Santa and expect kids to enjoy it? Neither he nor Isaac even apologized to Burton in the end for pretty much causing the whole mess in the first place by treating him like dirt.
In the end, this was a disaster that failed everywhere Toy Story succeeded. Everything here was terrible. It didn't even deliver any meaningful holiday message or moral, except that there is good in everyone (ie. The Christmas light), but it fails miserably. I truly pity any kid unfortunate enough to have watched this, the first and one of the worst, computer animated Christmas movies ever created.
