For many people, a familiar pastime in the weeks leading up to major winter holidays is gathering with family members and watching holiday movies, be they in a theater or on television. This year, such plans will have changed for individuals not living with the people they often spend time with during the holiday season, and curfews and lock-downs have forced movie theaters to close. However, this shouldn’t stop us from enjoying holiday movies with friends and family.
During the month of December, therefore, the Falls Free Press will present “The 12 Films of Christmas,” focusing on new holiday movies for the year 2020—a year that can do with plenty of spirit. We will review each film, whether naughty or nice, and let you know where to watch it.
‘Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the galaxy, the creatures were stirring on the verge of a catastrophe. Santa was stressing about his reindeer-free sleigh, while a race of aliens were planning to move all of Earth’s toys their way.
Alien Xmas is a throwback to the famous stop-motion animated Rankin-Bass holiday specials, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and The Little Drummer Boy, but the theme is straight out of Dr. Seuss.
Based on the picture book of the same name by Jim Strain and director Stephen Chiodo, who also created the stop-motion scenes in the film Elf, this short film, narrated by Santa (voiced by Keythe Farley), introduces the Klepts, an alien race resembling what many UFO enthusiasts refer to as “greys.” The aliens used to have many colors; however, over time they became greedy, wanting to take everything for themselves, turning the race into drab, colorless beings, not unlike a storyline from the classic Care Bears animated series. When tasked with taking over Earth, “X,” a runt among his crew, volunteers to fly to the Northern-most point to set up a gravitational beam to steal all of Earth’s belongings.
X finds more than he bargained for in his attempt to grab everything in sight, though, accidentally getting nabbed as a toy for one elf engineer’s daughter, who teaches him the spirit of giving and of Christmas. He helps repair Santa’s sleigh and saves Christmas… except for the imminent invasion of aliens… remember the aliens? (it’s a movie about aliens after all).
While a majority of the film is narrated by Santa, including X’s thoughts, X doesn’t speak. Instead, the character is non-verbal, communicating through “Ooh,” “Ahh,” and “Hmm,”—all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, a master of voice-over for all humans, animals, and unusual creatures alike—and other hand motions, which all elf characters he meets appear to understand completely. The idea that everybody knows what X is saying is a trope too often overused and confusing, yet in this case it is perfect for the film’s viewership—very young children who can relate to “X’s” small stature and understand why he feels bad about being ignored and not knowing a lot of words but still be able to save the day. Granted, for children, an instantaneous change from being greedy to loving may not happen as fast as X’s transformation, which happens even faster than it had for the Grinch.
Parents, on the other hand—particularly fans of science fiction and extra-terrestrials—are sure to enjoy not only the classic feel of this Christmas special, recalling their childhood of watching similar stop-motion animated programs on television, but also the elf engineer who must balance his stressful work with being able to spend time with his wife and daughter during the holidays.
At only 42 minutes, Alien Xmas is just long enough to be a wonderful bedtime story without becoming too cumbersome, a problem many holiday specials for children are known to have.
Alien Xmas is available to watch on Netflix.
