- Mr. Finster
Rugrats was once Nickelodeon's biggest animated success, surviving over a decade on cable and created many spin-offs and feature films. However, the show obviously lost its luster toward the end of the 90's, relying on cheap stunts and tactics to make it "interesting" again and maintaining a stale and flat animation structure. Of course, my opinion as one of the original viewers didn't matter any more since the new waves of children were willing to watch and grow up with the show until its demise in 2004. Still, even with its later problems, the show was a good tool to entertain and educate children on social and religious subjects, with its episodes focusing on the major holidays always being a welcomed treat.
"The Santa Experience" was the show's earliest example and one of the best Christmas specials Nickelodeon would ever produce. It deals with the two biggest fears that children have around Christmas time: the moral monitoring and the real presence of Santa Claus. The episode is very well structured, has great comedic timing, and features an unique and realistic display of the holiday in modern times.
The plot has a recurring love with the numbers three; It has three storylines in motion and has each of its story acts feature a specific version of Santa Claus. The episode begins with Tommy, Chuckie, and Angelica waiting in line to see the mall Santa. While the two toddlers have a debate about the good/bad intentions of old St. Nick, Angelica is publicly "scarred" after noticing that the Santa Claus isn't the real one due to his lack of toy knowledge. Her father, Drew Pickles, is concerned about her mental state, but the audience clearly sees that Angelica is fine thanks to a bevy of toys as compensation. She then decides to play a "clever trick" on the baby twins, Phil and Lil, by making them exchange their favorite toys with her for something that would be a Christmas present for the other twin to give. Grandpa decides to come in and become a sadist by scaring the kids with the fears of getting "a lump of coal", causing Tommy and Chuckie to come up with a plan of traps for him. Meanwhile, Drew and Chuckie's dad decide to enact a special Santa visit for the kids. After a nightmare with a Dream Santa, Angelica decides to fix her errors in judgment. The cast is then sent to a secluded house, where the three plots are resolved happily in a way thanks to the real Santa Claus.
The script does seem to jettison the parents' " Santa experience" plotline quickly to the background in the second half of the the show, dubbed simply "Later That Day". While it does bring some nice family moments and sentimentality, it really isn't important compared to the other two. The four writers also choose to have a Christmas deus ex machina, with the families somehow getting a holiday home two days before Christmas. More importantly, the main conflict of the story, Angelica's scheme, isn't really that morally bad. Yes, it's not nice and it does follow her usual mean trickery, but the twins did fairly trade with her. Of course, the writers don't explain why Angelica wanted the other gifts other than that she's evil.
Despite these problems, the episode does have some interesting themes. The corporate and commercial world is negatively portrayed, using Christmas as easy ploys on human beings and their emotions. This element even starts from the very first shot, where a wall-hidden mall employee unenthusiastically throws fake snowfall into a fan. Later, Angelica calls up a holiday help-line for depression victims to fix her worries, only to mis-dial and experience a cruel and mean joke from the bored fat representative of "Cogs Unlimited". The best insult comes at the end when Drew's Santa-for-hire calls in to state his inability to come. He ends the conservation by saying, "Can we reschedule?"
The sly and clever humor utilized in the episode is all done with great editing and delivery. It uses sharp jump cuts and ridiculous plot twists to punctuate the mood. This is best shown where Phil, Lil, and Angelica go with two of the mothers to chop down a tree. Angelica tells them she is going to talk with them when they arrive in the forest, only to cut to her screaming through a muffled scarf a la A Christmas Story. Also, despite all of the buildup to the tree-cutting, the action never takes place due to a mother's sudden radical environmentalism. The episode also uses the show's most widely used jokes to great effect by tapping into the expansive imagination of a child and their constant misspoken words. There is something fascinating of sitting down and listening to a little girl going through her version of the history of Christmas, which started from the pilgrims and ends with Santa having a major lawsuit against the Easter Bunny. The writers throw in some realistic humor as well, such as the visual montage of Christmas traditions with the audio track consisting entirely of Angelica's mother talking on her business cell phone.
"The Santa Experience" is a truly good Christmas special, focusing on the importance of giving and celebrating the holiday with a company of friends and family. It showcases the true frights of the holiday, complete with a guest voice appearance by Tony Jay, while also being a nice warm experience. The episode is one of the few to closely look at what the holiday does to the attitudes of children, judge it and present it fairly to the viewer. The finale shows it to us easily: Phil and Lil are more thankful for each other and the sacrifices they did for gifts. Chuckie learns to embrace Christmas and celebrates it with his loving father. Meanwhile, Angelica is forgiven and given her beloved Deluxe Cynthia Beach House, only to notice a small coal in its attached garage. This twist tells little kids that you might try to quickly fix your karma and become a better kid for Santa, but your mischievous nature is still there to be determine your gift's fate.
TOMORROW'S ENTRY: A wallaby tries to bring Christmas cheer to his depressing, surreal world.
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