The Middle Room will not be shown tonight...

Instead we bring you Mainlining Christmas.

The Middle Room will return after the holidays at its regularly scheduled time.

Christmas Specials You Haven't Been Watching, Parts 3 - 8

We'd hoped to consider more Christmas specials, as we considered A Muppet Family Christmas and The Snowman.  We'd planned to give each of the below their own article, but it was not to be.  Other matters distracted us.  What matters, you may ask?  Why, the publication of a novel, itself related to the holidays.
Even so, we wanted to devote a little time to some of the Christmas specials we meant to get to.  Perhaps we'll have more time next year to delve further into these titles:


Prep and Landing
The newest of the specials we're discussing, this demonstrates, once again, why Disney is now in good hands.  For all intents and purposes a Pixar production, Prep and Landing combines the spirit of Rudolph with the Christmas cheer of Die Hard.  These elves are specialists, professionals trained to operate in harsh conditions and armed with tech that makes James Bond look like a caveman.  They are ninja, secret agents working in dangerous environments, risking their lives to ensure the path is ready for St. Nick.  Sweet enough for young children and exciting enough for fans of action, this is for everyone.

You can watch Prep and Landing on Hulu for another week.


Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas
Debatably, Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas doesn't belong on this list.  This is, in many ways, a list mirroring our series on underrated films, and, of everything on here, this is the most established, the most widely recognized as a classic.  Still, it has faded from public memory, and we felt it deserved to be remembered.  Made in 1977, this marks a noted shift in Muppet history.  It marks the first time we are aware of where Henson used Muppetry to create a world.  Utilizing elaborate sets, animatronics, and fantastic music, this opened the door for The Dark Crystal and other such productions.  Its influence can still be felt in films like The Fantastic Mr. Fox.  This didn't just affect Muppets: it showed the world that three-dimensional fantasy environments were possible years before the advent of CG.



The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus
While certainly significant, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" is not alone in shaping our conception of St. Nicholas.  In fact, the version most of us are familiar with seems to owe more to the 1902 book by L. Frank Baum.  Before Rankin/Bass adapted this special directly, they integrate elements and ideas into their earlier specials.  The bizarre world Santa Claus inhabits, as well as his association with fairytales and fantasy, is deeply rooted in Baum's work and sequels.  The abduction of Santa Claus first occurs in his work, and in later stories he meets Jack Pumpkinhead from the Oz franchise.  Nightmare Before Christmas, we suspect, was born from these tales.

The Rankin Bass special is a fairly good adaptation, though it does drag in parts.  While we'd hesitate to recommend it to everyone, fans of stop motion and anyone interested in the history of Santa Claus will find it as intriguing as we do.


The Tick Loves Santa
While every episode of The Tick animated series is worth watching, the Christmas one is particularly inspired.  Here, The Tick confronts Multiple Santa, a thief dressed as Santa Claus with the power to duplicate himself.  But, as in all great art, The Tick's real struggle is internal: can he bring himself to fight Santa?  To put things in perspective, "The streets will flow red with Santas," does not make the top ten list of the episode's best lines.  Like almost everything else ever made, this can be found on youtube.



Christmas with the Joker/Holiday Knights/Comfort and Joy
The importance of Batman: The Animated Series and its successors cannot be overstated, nor can the quality of these shows.  Over the years, the show devoted two episodes of Batman and one of Justice League to the holidays.  It is ill advised to let the holidays pass without viewing all at least once.

Christmas with the Joker occupies a special place in our hearts.  It was this episode, seen so many years ago, that first drew us to the series.  It was one of the show's first, and, as such, there are moments when the animation falters or a scene stops making sense.  But it portrays the Joker with a psychotic and murderous whimsy one can't help but love, and it's impossible not to be drawn in by the episode's sincerity.

The second episode, Holiday Knights, came years later.  It features a series of short vignettes about the holidays.  The stories vary in tone, from the ridiculous absurdity of Poison Ivy and Harly Quinn's holiday shopping spree to Gordon's solemn New Year's tradition.

The final episode, Comfort and Joy, is similarly structured.  The story follows various members of the Justice League as they celebrate Christmas.  While aspects are, perhaps, unnecessarily zany, it's a lot of fun and surprisingly heartwarming.


Christmas Eve on Sesame Street
The opening of this special from 1979 is a tad underwhelming, featuring ice-skaters dressed as characters from Sesame Street.  Stick with it, though: once you're through the introduction, the show improves quickly.  Vintage Sesame Street is absolutely incredible: the area looks and feels like Queens, NY.  The streets are dirty, there's trash everywhere, and the cast even hops on a subway car at one point.  With this, we throw down the gauntlet.  Watch this special from start to finish, look us in the eye, and try to tell us it doesn't warm your heart.  Go ahead.  Try.

Christmas Specials You Haven't Been Watching, Part 2: Raymond Briggs' The Snowman

Comparisons between this British animated special and Frosty the Snowman are as inevitable as they are absurd.  Reduced to a sentence, the stories are more or less the same: a child builds a snowman which comes to life and together they travel to meet Santa Claus.

Indeed, imagine Frosty if it were silent, save for a hauntingly beautiful score.  Imagine if it were animated with love and inspiration, using hand drawn animation to explore a three dimensional world.  Imagine if Frosty the Snowman was about the magic and wonder of childhood and the tragedy of its loss.

The Snowman isn't a complicated work, but it is a brilliant one.  It is a dream-like fantasy that explores the power of animation in a manner you've likely never seen.

Versions can be found on Youtube, though we suggest picking up the DVD to fully appreciate the depth of the animation.

Also, be aware there are multiple introductions which have been made for different releases.  With all due respect to David Bowie, be sure you get the original which was done by Raymond Briggs.

Christmas Specials You Haven't Been Watching, Part 1: The Muppets Family Christmas

Every year we hear someone utter the phrase, "Christmas starts earlier every year," a little earlier.  This year, we began hearing people complain about the appearance of decorations even before Halloween.  Should this trend continue, we expect the whining will start even before stores start selling holiday merchandise in August.

In order to keep up with consumer demand, The Middle Room is starting a new series on Christmas specials.  Rather than astound you with descriptions of those specials you already watch five times in December, we thought we would instead consider exceptional specials you've never seen or, perhaps, haven't seen in a long time.

Sure, we love "It's Christmas, Charlie Brown" and "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" as much as the next conglomerate of geeks, but there are benefits to exploring less traveled paths.

The first installment will not be the only time we discuss the Muppets in this series, but we consider it the best of the Muppet specials.  Occurring in the home of Fozzie's mother, A Muppet Family Christmas is fundamentally the essence of whimsy and joy condensed into a hour-long television special.

Like Secret Wars and Crisis on Infinite Earths, A Muppet Family Christmas is a massive crossover event, incorporating the casts of The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock.  As any geek knows, the success of any crossover is primarily a factor of how well the characters are portrayed.  Despite the massive cast, the integrity of the characters is consistently maintained.  The attention to detail is as stunning as the special is clever.

From Sprocket and Rowlf's untranslated discussion to the brilliantly arranged medley at the end, this is a work of astonishing care.  But the high point of the special is a showdown of sorts between the Swedish Chef and Big Bird that plays out precisely the way it should.

Various versions of this special have been made available on DVD, though you'll be hard pressed to find one that hasn't been truncated due to copyright issues.  Fortunately, there exists a solution.

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

A part of me is always sad to see Free Comic Book Day end, because we must wait an entire year for another.

But there is little reason to despair: we still have, after all, the memories. And we have the comics. In this case, we have many, many comics. Forty-six unique books, in fact, along with an additional fifty-seven duplicates. Also, we received two Flash pins.

Did it take an army to gather such a prize? No, dear reader, no. This is the take of two (though special thanks are due to a third companion, who donated a rare and much-sought-after issue to our collection). And, of course, we required five comic stores to complete our day's mission.

Until next year, we bid you a Happy Free Comic Book Day. If we see you in the next few days, don't be surprised if we offer you some extras.

Toy Review: Darth Vader

Twice a week, like clockwork, a new article or review is posted on The Clearance Bin, and twice a week, also displaying a manner not inaccurately compared to a clockwork mechanism, we in The Middle Room inform you, our reader, that such an event has occurred.

Should we ever stop, we fear, the very fabric of our Universe might unravel, so integrated are these updates to the heartbeat of our reality.

But fear not, for we have remembered our responsibilities. And so, with much fanfare, we announce that a review of the item pictured above has been added to The Clearance Bin. And what might that be? Why, it is a Star Wars Fabriche in the likeness of Darth Vader. Truly, it is a disturbing object; a rejection of redemption for the damned, symbolically represented by a visage of the Sith Lord, so far lost, that his dark repressed intentions are subconsciously revealed in a canvas of pure snow.

This is no mere sculpture, but rather poetry incarnate.

Toy Review: Galactic Heroes Stocking Stuffers

Some pictures speak for themselves. Clearly, this is not one of them. Therefore, a rather comprehensive review has been posted to The Clearance Bin.

'Tis the Season

We in The Middle Room adore Christmas, and it is with all sincerity that we send our best wishes. But wishes, of course, are cheap: we've no illusions that our readers are so easily placated.

So we offer content, as well.

First, we would like to draw your attention to a review at the Clearance Bin looking at the 1966 TV Series Batmobile.

But that is far from all. In consultation with The Clearance Bin, we've also put together a collection of images - digital Christmas Cards, if you like - celebrating the season. We have dubbed this selection an "Uncanny X-Mas," and we wish nothing less for you and your loved ones.

Finally, we'd like to share what's become something of a holiday tradition here in The Middle Room: a comic about a secret agent penguin which was created by some guy named "Erin Snyder" a few years back.

We do hope you enjoy.

Spirit of the Holidays

Christmas in July, inverted, becomes July in Christmas. And there is a sense that Black Friday is a mirror image of the Fourth of July: a celebration of the fundamentals of our economy, the basis of our entire civilization.

For those of you who have yet to complete your shopping, we've just posted a review of a Santa Clause action figure, pictured above, in The Clearance Bin. And, should you become curious as to how we arrive at a specific score, you can read all about it in the article explaining our Methodology, also just published.

Yes, another Black Friday has come and gone. We in The Middle Room marked the occasion by setting our alarms bright and early for 4:45 AM, climbing out of bed, crawling to our computers, and buying discounted DVDs from Amazon before they ran out.

This, we should add, has several advantages over the more traditional activities:

1. Easier commute.
2. One can return to bed immediately after concluding one's purchases.
3. No one needs to die.

The third point is one of particular significance this year, as the body count, while thankfully remaining in the single digits, was higher than one would have expected. Two shoppers shot each other dead at a Toys R Us in California, while closer to home a Walmart employee in Long Island, NY was trampled to death by impatient shoppers immediately after opening the store.

While it warms our hearts to see so many embracing the true spirit of Christmas, we sincerely hope that in the future consumers can express their love of capitalism in a manner less reminiscent of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

On the other hand, it is an exceptional film.

Updates at The Clearance Bin

Just now, for your enlightenment and enjoyment, we have posted the next segment of our ongoing series From The Workshop at The Clearance Bin. Today's installment is entitled, "From The Workshop, Part 2: Kitbashing", and it is of course penned by our very own customizing master, Lindsay.

And, because we were in a generous mood, we did not stop there. Indeed, we have also published a review of Reindeer Games Rudolph, a marvelous toy, and we invite you to take a look.

Toy Review: Lemax Christmas Accessories

Those of you who collect toys may want to stop by The Clearance Bin to check out our review of Lemax Christmas Accessories we bought at half price at our neighborhood Michaels. While you're there, check out the new site: we've improved it to make it easier to navigate.