Really Surprised!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Looks like there really is a Christmas special on everything. This one here is connected to the uber-famous, very old computer game Pacman and we follow a family/village of Pac(wo)men during the holiday season. The first five minutes of this 30-minute short they collide with the creatures they fight against in the video game. And the Pacmen here can actually eat them as well. Bt to make it more child-friendly, the eyes of the villains survive (that sounds kinda bloody and wrong) and just move on. Rightly afterward, Santa crashes down with his sleigh and his reindeer, including Rudolph as well. Santa tells the gang that it is their task to save Christmas this time and so they do. They even get unexpected help during that mission and in the end, of course, they succeed and everybody gets presents. This one here is a spin-off from a Pacman television series I have never heard of and features also most of the voice actors from that show. Director Roy Patterson is a bit of a legend in the animation sector and Jeffrey Scott, the writer of this holiday special, was still pretty young when this was made, but not inexperienced either. Only criticism I have is that the animation really looks from almost 50 years earlier and not from the 1980s, maybe because Patterson had a career in the industry already long before his effort here. Then again, this gives a bit of a traditional vibe to the movie. All in all, a solid watch. Recommended.

Christmas Comes to PacLand (1982)*** (out of 4)Surprisenly good animated film has Santa Claus landing in PacLand where PacMan and his family are confused by who he is and what he does. Santa explains that he delivers presents to people on Christmas but his sack of toys have gone missing. PacMan must then go out to the Ghost Brothers to try and get them back. Christmas COMES TO PACLAND is a pretty entertaining little short that clocks in at 24-minutes and actually manages to be entertaining throughout. I never watched the television show so this here was the first time I had actually seen anything with the characters (outside the game of course) and I was surprised at how entertaining and likable they were. As you'd expect, the Christmas message is full of bright and the ending is also incredibly cute. The animation itself was also very impressive and I really liked the colors used for the scenery.

"Christmas Comes to Pacland" has often been referred to as one of the worst holiday specials of all time. Indeed, while it will never even come close to other animated specials such as "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", or any of the Charlie Brown shows, there are certainly much more terrible offerings out there. You want to see a bad Christmas special....try to sit through "The Star Wars Holiday Special", "Cosmic Christmas" or that "Night Before Christmas" deal...the one with the mice and the broken clock. Godawful!!!"Christmas Comes to Pacland" is pretty much standard from that era...the early 80's. The story concerns Santa Claus accidentally becoming stuck in Pacland following a mishap with his reindeer and he not being familiar with the place at all. Likewise, the citizens of Pacland have never heard of Santa Claus themselves, so with that it's a lesson in the spirit of the holiday as everybody works together to get St. Nick back on his way. The animation is basic Saturday morning quality, though the message is understandable (the animators and producers meant well). There are even some funny scenes and lines...care of the Ghost Monsters. Somehow this TV special still shows up on an annual basis on various networks during the holiday season...almost 30 years after the regular series ended. And while it's no classic by any means and can be considered to be quite a cheesy product of pop culture from it's original time period, the positive message of good will is present. Kids will enjoy it, adults will get a laugh, and the producers will revel in the thought that there are much worse offerings floating around out there.

I never thought I'd be reviewing a Pac-Man Xmas Special. Up until a few days ago I didn't even know that there was a Pac-Man TV show.This cartoon has Pac-Man, Ms Pac-Man and Pac-Baby enjoying the snow and winter season before Santa Claus ends up crash-landing in PacLand. Having never heard of PacLand the rounded Pac-People have never heard of Santa or Xmas either. The Pac-People help Santa on his way and end up experiencing their first ever Xmas in return.So what do you know...it's another one of those "Xmas is all about..." cartoons. But this time it's quite enjoyable and has nice wintry animation. It won't be a fondly-remembered special like Charlie Brown or Garfield's Xmas cartoons, but still worth watching.