Babar & Father Christmas
Brief Description:
In this delightful, fully animated holiday tale, Babar’s children Arthur, Pom, Flora and Alexander write a letter to Father Christmas to ask him to visit Celesteville at Christmas. But their letter never arrives, because it is stolen by Babar’s arch-enemy, Rataxes the Rhinoceros, who wants all of Santa’s toys for himself! When Babar sees his children so disappointed, he decides to make a journey in search of Father Christmas. Secretly followed by Rataxes, Babar’s adventure takes us from Paris all the way to the North Pole, to the very toy shop of Father Christmas himself! Can Babar save Christmas for Celesteville?
(possibly written by me, possibly taken from Tubi, IMDb, or Wikipedia and edited by me. I forget)
Date: 1986
Genre: Canadian Christmas family TV special
Running time: 24 minutes
Cast: Laurent de Brunhoff (Narrator)
James Bradford (Babar)
Louise Villeneuve (Celeste)
Rick Jones (Zephyr / Lazzaro / Podular / Mice)
Les Lye (Rataxes / Father Christmas)
Kemp Edwards (Arthur)
Courtney Caroll (Flora)
Amie Charlebois (Pom)
Kai Engstad (Alexander)
Director: Gerry Capelle
Production company: Atkinson Film-Arts and MTR Productions
Based on: Babar & Father Christmas by Jean de Brunhoff
Setting/Aesthetic/Feel: 3/5
This was a very old Babar movie, much more like the books. The aesthetic was still somewhat similar to the TV show, though. It had a nice vintage feel. I don’t have strong feelings about it.
Characters: 3/5
Babar was very nice, as was Celeste. Rataxes was just a bumblehead instead of being any fun, and Zephyr + Arthur + the kids were very different from the TV show, much less interesting or amusing. I liked the Professor and his secretary though! It would have been so fun to see more of them.
Plot: 3/5
I would have liked this a lot more if it wasn’t all about Santa Claus. It was a cute story of Babar travelling and searching for him, but then it began heavily selling the S.C. line and Babar even got magical powers or something at the end when he dressed up as Father Christmas. I was hoping for a heart-warming family movie about the true meaning of Christmas—more along the lines of the Grinch or even Miracle on 34th Street.
Theme/Message/Topics: 1/5
None aside from that Santa exists and gives presents… bleh.
Overall: 2/5
I didn’t hate it until the end. But I wouldn’t watch it again. It was pretty boring and there wasn’t any redeeming features at the end.
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