This season, I didn’t jump into the sentimental pool alone. My annual date with a few tears of joy included a viewing with my 9-year-old son.

For me, IAWL is about more than idealism and friends coming through in the clutch. The experience also includes watching a long shot of Jimmy Stewart at a train depot as he shifts through several emotional states without saying a word. It’s recognizing the slice of cinema history where theatrical conventions are dominant but deep focus allows you to see detail in the background activity across the street. It’s early sci-fi, dealing with a multiverse and otherworldly interventions. Sharing this richness with offspring is a rite of passage I’ve awaited for a while. I saw IAWL as a gateway drug to Citizen Kane and Wages of Fear.

It didn’t go as pictured.

Carter made it through the movie, but sometime around the christening of Mr. Martini’s new home he asked why this was considered a Christmas movie. Like everyone else, my boy noticed and lamented Uncle Billy’s misplacement of the B&L’s eight large, immediately rendering that plot device implausible. Dead tired from a full evening already, my son later cried himself to sleep about a lost opportunity to read instead of watching a movie he didn’t like. I felt like the Mr. Potter of parenting.

I’ll admit, if I made my initial decision to watch IAWL based on the classic movie trailer, the Frank Capra signature storytelling wouldn’t be a part of my annual repertoire. I had to discover it for myself, in my own way: as a clip in Joe Dante’s Gremlins. By the mid-1980s, I was anticipating the New Year’s Eve televised broadcast on PBS. It grew on me.

I expect it will grow on Carter, too, but in the meantime he offered a few suggestions on how the movie could be improved:

Film it in color. I should have eased him into black-and-white movies all with a viewing of Pleasantville. My youngest son only recently ended his ban on live-action television shows by becoming a fan of Mythbusters. Similarly, my eldest prefers technicolor to the ancient aesthetic. IAWL did get the colorization treatment in 1986, but I refuse to point that out. In this family, that’s not how we roll, son.

George Bailey shouldn’t talk like a gangster. I’m a bit baffled how the guy who played Jefferson Smith and Elwood P. Dowd could be mistaken for a two-bit hood. Jimmy Stewart’s voice has become a caricature over time, and maybe that’s what my boy sensed. When asked who should play the lead, Carter—who clearly hasn’t seen Less Than Zero—suggested Robert Downey, Jr.

Bedford Falls wouldn’t be that different. According to my son, no single person can make that much of a difference as to change a town from having only one neon sign to having hundreds. Plus, shouldn’t Mr. Gower be dead by the time everyone starts singing Auld Lang Syne? Carter may have a point about the dynamics of time and social networks, but it’s difficult to get Clarence’s point across to George if the only noticeable change in Pottersville is the snow.

Hurm. Maybe we’ll try again when he’s a teenager and there’s a version of the movie on the Wii. Hee Haw!

Cover Image From Disney Interactive

Let’s start with the more positive note. A Christmas Carol really isn’t that bad a game, but it suffers from the limitations of its source material. While playing a Christmas-themed game right about now feels almost festive, I can’t imagine it having all that much appeal in July. Aside from that, it’s an adventure game that follows the plot of the movie (which Jason reviewed in November), and like he said of the movie, the game is much better than I expected.  Moving objects around with the stylus was sometimes frustrating for the kids- the controls aren’t always laser sharp, and a sliding tile mini game was the source of some exasperation, but overall it was well received. The inclusion of an Advent Calendar was a neat idea, there is plenty of Christmas music and the original Dickens novel is available for reading on completion. The graphics, particularly the Victorian elements, were quite well done, although given the limitations of the DS it isn’t surprising that the developers had to go for a more cartoony look than the movie.

Disney’s A Christmas Carol from Disney Interactive
Rated: E for Everyone
MSRP: $29.99

Wired: Something to get young gamers in the holiday spirit.

Tired: Christmas theme limits post-holiday appeal, sometime balky controls, very little replay value.

Cover Image From Disney Interactive

On to JONAS. My daughter is in that key tween demographic, seems physically attached to her DS and follows all the Disney musical licenses (right down to her Hannah Montana iPod dock) and even she couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for this one. From what I could tell before everyone lost interest, the game involves either dressing up the Jonas Brothers, avoiding hazards that might harm the Jonas Brothers’ clothes, changing the Jonas Brothers’ outfits and, at the end of each mission, playing a concert performance, music rhythm game that’s something like a very watered down Rock Band. Of course, the rhythm game also means you have to listen to a Jonas Brothers tune, complete with DS compression to make it even better. Die-hard Jonas Brothers fans might like it, but it’s definitely not a game you would ever inflict on someone for casual play.

JONAS from Disney Interactive
Rated: E for Everyone
MSRP: $29.99

Wired: Jonas Brother fans can dress the cartoonish avatars of all three in various goofy outfits, music rhythm game has some replay value

Tired: Too. Much. Jonas.

Image copyright © Disney Channel; used with permission.

If the folks at Disney have their way, it’s time for the Grinch and Rudolph to make room for a new classic Christmas special. There’s nothing wrong with Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty and Snoopy, of course, but there’s certainly plenty of room for Phineas, Ferb, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Candace and Perry the Platypus, right?

Yes, this coming Sunday evening at 8:00PM ET/PT, Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation will have its premiere on Disney XD. For once (the “S’Winter” episode notwithstanding) the boys will be making their plans in a season other than Summer, and that’s the least of the differences. Their plan this time is to make Danville into a giant Thank You card to Santa Claus, their reasoning being that Santa hardly ever gets any gratitude for his hard work and dedication. I don’t know the whole plot (and wouldn’t spoil it for you if I did) but I believe that something happens involving two British elves named Blay’n and Clewn’t, and in the end the boys have to — try to act surprised — save Christmas. Dr. Doofenshmirtz has evidently created a “Naughty-inator,” presumably to make everyone else’s Christmas as rotten as his, which I’m sure will give Perry Agent P some trouble.

There’s definitely a sentimental side to this 45-minute special, which will have songs throughout. I’m sure some of the songs, like Doofenshmirtz’s “I Don’t Really Hate Christmas,” will have plenty of funny moments, but with tunes like “Thank You Santa” from Mitchel Musso and “Christmas Is Starting Now” from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (yes, really), there should be plenty of Christmas spirit. While the focus is clearly on Christmas, there will also be at least a few Hanukkah references (from Isabella, of course).

The special features the show’s usual excellent voice talent (I’ve always loved that the dad’s voice is done by Richard O’Brien, best known as Riff Raff from Rocky Horror, for instance). Ferb’s British grandparents are in town for the holiday, and are voiced as usual by Malcolm McDowell and Jane Carr. And the inimitable Clancy Brown  provides the voice for Santa Claus.

In the meantime between now and Sunday night (when the special will be preceded by a huge marathon of the show’s episodes), you can enjoy the special’s opening in the video below, and listen to the first-ever Phineas and Ferb podcast, about the special, with Dan Povenmire and Swampy Marsh (and their characters, Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Major Monogram). If you should miss the special Sunday night, it will be repeated on Disney Channel next Friday (and will be available on demand as well). The special’s songs are scheduled to be available on iTunes starting on Monday, December 7.

It’s really unusual for me to be looking forward to a Christmas special, believe me, but I’m about as anxious to see this one as my kids are (and they can hardly wait).