I learned about Miraculous: Tales Of Ladybug And Cat Noir through cosplays at conventions and Free Comic Book Day preview comics before it finally aired someplace I could watch it. The heroes aren’t perfect, but they do try to improve, which is hard when you’re a character in a show that likes its status quos. They also made a Christmas episode and the official YouTube channel is offering me an addition to the Christmas playlist.
It’s Adrian’s first Christmas without his mother, and his running off panics all of his friends and loved ones. This leads to a series of events in which even Ladybug mistakenly believes that a street Santa is a bad guy…which the villainous Hawkmoth (secretly Adrian’s father) uses to his advantage, using his powers to turn people into supervillains under his control. It’s up to Adrian to clear his name, and his superhero identity Cat Noir to help Ladybug undo the mistake and save Christmas. Also, there’s a surprising amount of singing, so good thing Marinette and Adrian’s voice actors have good singing voices in-character.
This seems to be the year for Christmas-saving stories. I guess it’s all the studios using YouTube to host shows officially now for a little extra ad revenue. Makes me miss when Hulu used to do that.
The sequels to Men In Black may have taken more and more a dip in quality (I haven’t seen International yet but I hear mixed reviews) but the animated series that ignores the ending to keep J and K together (I still say the sequel should have followed J and L on new adventures) was a great use of the characters. Following the movie rather than the original comics, J and K continue their adventures to protect the world from invading aliens while allowing decent aliens to hide among us, though in this special Santa Claus is human and the elves are aliens. Then another group of aliens kidnaps Santa and his toys, forcing our favorite agents to work with one of the space elves to save Christmas…and maybe help J figure out what to get K for Christmas.
Yep, this is made by the same company that would later make Jackie Chan Adventures, our other Santa-rescuing story. Guess they liked saving Santa Claus. Surprise Godzilla and Batman didn’t get to do that. Imagine 90’s US Godzilla in a Santa hat, while Santa exists in the DC multiverse, so why not The Batman?
Let’s start with something fun. Alice’s Wonderland Bakery has the descendant of the Alice of the Disney movie (at least I think so) traveling to Wonderland to open a magic bakery…which is becoming a genre considering this isn’t the first magic bakery in kids’ fiction. This episode sees a much nicer (but still a bit ego-driven) Queen Of Hearts having a royal banquet, only to have a bunch of little pests ruin the festivities. It’s up to Alice and her friends to save the banquet…with gingerbread.
Jackie Chan Adventures features an animated take on Jackie Chan’s usual characters in a setting where Chan is an archaeologist dragged into different magical adventures…despite how little magic shows up in most Jackie Chan movies because American cartoon makers can’t seem to realize not every martial arts show needs magic! The “Armor or God” movies are an exception, not a rule. See also every adaptation of the Double Dragon game franchise ever, including live-action and comics.
In season three the enemy is Daolon Wong, who is obsessed with absorbing chi energy. This Christmas he has targeted Santa Claus, meaning that Jackie and his friends, whom his niece, Jade, refers to as the “J-Team” better grab their long johns to help save Christmas.
I know, Hanukkah isn’t the same as Christmas, just celebrated around the same time. However, I’m not against teaching about the holiday so non-Jewish kids at least know what their non-Messianic Jewish friends are celebrating. Of course for this one to work we have to play a bit with the lore.
Elena Of Avalor is a sequel to Sophia The First, a show set in a fairy tale kingdom (and thus based on European folklore as well as the Disney princesses early on). This show instead borrows from Mexican folklore and is an example of a strong action female done right. Elena isn’t perfect. When she’s right, she’s right and the show treats her as such, but when she’s wrong she’s able to learn from her mistakes in the hopes of being a good queen when she comes of age. Until then the council advises the teen princess as she gains the wisdom to go with her good heart and become the rule that Avalor deserves.
In this episode we have visitors from a country based on Israel to teach kids about Hanukkah. I’m not sure why not-actually-Israel still has Hanukkah since that’s as tied to Israeli history as it is Jewish custom, and I can accept Avalor having their own Day Of The Dead celebration in another episode. Still, the story works as so it goes on the playlist.
This one is not as Christmas-y as the others, which is why I’m starting with it. However, it is based on a song played at Christmas every year, which I actually reviewed for Sing Me A Story to find out why. As I said, there isn’t a lot of Christmas in the song or the story and if you read my review of the song the history is way off, but it’s still an interesting special on its own.
I’m starting to think Nickelodeon insisted Saban Brands had to do Power Ranger Christmas episodes. Dino Super Charge had access to a Sentai episode with a Christmas theme. Granted, Japan has so few Christians that their take on Christmas is…different, but you still make a clip show? And yet because of the number of episodes Nickelodeon allowed them to make the Christmas episode is basically an epilogue to the “Dino Charge” storyline, set after history was altered in the Dino Charge universe (yes, there’s been a Power Rangers multiverse since RPM, as shown in the Samurai crossover) to where dinosaurs still exist. At least we get a T-Rex in a Santa hat! 😀
“Here Comes Heximus” at least follows the previous Christmas episode’s tradition of using the holiday in a story that happens to have clips instead of vaguely tying them to the season to force an episode. A surviving monster returns to Earth to turn Santa’s coal into a mind control conduit and the Rangers have to come out of retirement to stop them. Except some of the Rangers are hit with the anti-festive whammy. Luckily Keeper has brought the time-displaced Rangers back to the present to help celebrate the season (just go with…all of it) to remind everyone who they are.
Personally I would have used Kendall to awaken Shelby, as a coda to their relationship to show how both of them changed, not just Shelby, though having her boyfriend awaken her makes sense as well. Unfortunately this is where our Christmas Rangerfest ends. “Secret Santa, the most recent Christmas episode as of this writing, isn’t available on YouTube, possibly due to whatever arrangement has with Hasbro that doesn’t include past Ranger shows, as the series is slowly appearing on their regular official channel and on home video in the US through Shout Factory. It’s also the only one that isn’t a clip show vaguely set at Christmas.
Ninja Steel gave us “Past, Presents, And Future”, which has Santa taking Sarah back through time to temporarily borrow the Ninja Power Stars from their past self, which is at least different as clip shows go, and “The Poisy Show” is only Christmas due to decorations and Santa saving them again. Interesting to have Santa save the Rangers for a change…and it’s the same team both times. Not a good showing, folks.
Beast Morphers gives us “Scrozzle’s Revenge”, but outside of Scrozzle trapping the Beast Morpher Rangers in Christmas ornaments it seems Hasbro is following Saban Brand’s lead. I guess the writers for Dino Charge were the only ones putting effort in the Christmas side of the Christmas special, and yet still doing a clip show epilogue. Dino Fury‘s “Secret Santa” sounds promising but again not available. Santa’s magic sketchbook is stolen by Mucus and Slyther, who also traps Javi and Solon. They have to escape using the other Rangers’ secret Santa presents. Sadly that one isn’t available, either.
So I hoped you enjoyed the Power Rangers Christmas eve. Christmas day specials will be a bit more open in where they came from.
