Pretty Good

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Absolutely Fantastic

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I don't even know how to explain it.The voice acting is awful. The animation is hardly pretty to look at. The story is a garbled mess. But I still can't help but salvage something from this. Maybe it's just the natural Christmas appeal. Maybe it's just me imagining something better in the core of my mind. Maybe it's just the kid named, "Pappy" (the name makes me very happy for some reason). But... I feel a sort of magic from this. Like there is something wonderful even in the core of things like this. The best example I can think of is looking at the smiles of the children in a stop frame (not counting the orphans' first smiles towards the new children - that is memorable for a reason). There seems to be so much happiness in them, somehow. It's not really enough reason to call it a good movie, of course. I still watch it every year mostly because of how bad it can be. But it has a magic in it that earned it a spot in my Christmas movies pile. That alone says something, at least to me.

Before I even start, yes, the Nostalgia Critic brought me here. But don't worry, I'll do my best not to retread his steps or repeat any of his jokes. So with everything that everybody has said about this animated special, is this really the Anti-Christ of Christmas specials? Duh! So anyway, how does this charming little tale begin? At an orphanage run by a cold, calculating she-demon called Mrs. Mavilda, who treated the children badly. She overworks them, starves them, and even pilfers money from the mayor, who donates cash in actual money bags with its intent to take care of the children. She pulls a few fast ones and keeps the money for herself to gamble with. One fine day, a couple with two children of their own venture into town, seeking a new life... boy, did you make a wrong turn. The mayor gives the father, Ray, a job at the mill, though it would require him to be away from his family for some time, and he arranges for the mother, Judy, and her two kids to stay at the orphanage, because... this town has no hotels, I guess. She can be Mrs. Mavilda's new slave... I mean, assistant. Mavilda runs a tight ship and lists off her extremely strict rules... I would say I hate this character, but she's not a character. She's an over-the-top stereotype who can't possibly be taken seriously. Still a bitch though. So, after Judy slaves away at her new job, the children introduce her to Mrs. Hopewell: a pine-tree that sat behind the orphanage. It was named Hopewell because it somehow gave the children hope, and faith. With Judy's help, they build a makeshift playground around the tree. With her around, the children felt happy and it looked as though things were starting to change for the better.One fateful day, the mayor delivers two money bags to Mrs. Mavilda, which were intended to buy the children new clothes and Christmas presents. Bet you know where this is going. So while Judy tells the kids all about Christmas and Santa Claus and what-have-you, greedy Mavilda gambles the money away with her crooked friends. In the final game, it was all or nothing, and guess what? She lost. Yep, Mavilda done goofed. How will she explain this? Oh, she won't. She just orders Judy to keep her mouth shut about what really happened and tell the kids they won't be getting new clothes. So while she delivers the heartbreaking news, the overly-paranoid Mavilda tries to think of a way to get rid of Judy without arousing suspicion, as she so blatantly exposits to us. So she calls one of her lowlife friends and arranges for Judy to be framed for theft. Oh, and she also plans to cut down Mrs. Hopewell. Um... there's petty, and then there's... this woman. Excuse me while I imagine myself breaking a few of Mavilda's bones and slamming her head through a wall. Well, a little girl overhears Mavilda's plan, but doesn't get to warn Judy. She tells the others, and they hatch a plan to save Mrs. Hopewell...and Judy too. They send Pappy and Lilly, Judy's kids, to tell the mayor about what's been going on, but alas, they decide it's late and the mayor's gone home, so they decide to seek out Santa Claus to save their beloved tree. The kids set out to the North Pole on a makeshift dog sled pulled by their dog Liccorice. Suddenly, they're chased by Baloo the bear and lose control of the sled. Liccorice fights off the bear, while Pappy tries to help up his sister, who was slipping down the edge of a cliff. Unfortunately, poor Lilly slid off and became lost. Well, I guess Mrs. Mavilda's plan of framing Judy for robbery didn't work, so she just outright fires her and plans Operation: Chop Down Hopewell. So after I imagine myself cracking a few more of Mavilda's ribs, Judy stands with the children in defense of Mrs. Hopewell. I certainly hope they're chainsaw proof. Thank God the mayor arrives just in time to stop the madness. Pappy and Liccorice show up, and report that Lilly has gone missing. Determined not to let some children and a tree outdo her, Mrs. Mavilda revs the chainsaw to finish the job herself, when all of a sudden, lightning strikes her. Then, Santa Claus himself rides by on his sleigh and makes Mrs. Hopewell shine bright. He'd even found Lilly, who was reunited with her family. So, the mayor declares Mrs. Hopewell city property and makes Judy head of the orphanage. She and Ray adopt all the children there, and as for Mrs. Mavilda... she becomes Judy's assistant apparently, and she turns good, because you always win when you are good. Um, no!Okay, so... bad animation and bad acting aside, this thing is an atrocity. There is ZERO character development, everybody is flat and boring, the story is ridiculous, and everything is just plain wrong. I don't need to stress what a horrible bitch Mrs. Mavilda was, just your typical abusive orphanage manager. Nothing like a little child abuse to brighten the holidays, eh? At least the children don't look abused. They're overworked and underfed, sure, but at least they look as though they were still able to eat and keep themselves clean. I hope so anyway. Not much else I can say. This was garbage. If you're curious about this special, watch the Nostalgia Critic's review or any YouTube Poops you can find. Don't torture yourself and sit through all 42 minutes of it like I did. It sucks the big one in all respects. Just...avoid it. It will anger you, annoy you, bore you and depress you.

Okay, okay. This review may sound like everyone else, but I have the same opinion of this movie as they do. I was just exploring IMDb when I found "The Christmas Tree" and saw the rank. I didn't know why it was rated very low, so I had to check it out.Being that it is a 45 minute special and I was looking at this before dinner, I didn't want to watch the whole thing. I only watched the beginning up until they introduced Mrs. Hopewell. My first thoughts about this were: The narration sucks, and why did they name the tree Mrs. Hopewell? I decided to watch the Nostalgia Critic's review, which was almost as long as the whole thing, and that was probably because there are so many things wrong with it. Like I said, the narration was AWFUL, the animation is poor quality, the acting showed absolutely no emotion, the lip sync did not correspond with the dialogue, and one of the characters, Lily, sounded like she was drunk. Santa's voice, I thought, was demonic and sounded like as if the actor's voice was deepened. (I would say the same with another character whose voice was pitched) I highly recommend to watch it if you're looking for a laugh. Otherwise, STAY AWAY FROM IT.

I've seen quite a few bad Christmas specials like "The Night B4 Christmas", but I don't think it has anything on the sheer awfulness of "The Christmas Tree". It's everything wrong with a Christmas special and would turn even the most joyous man into a bitter Grinch after seeing this stinker.The plot centers around a rundown daycare, where a woman by the name of Mrs. Mavilda is making the kids' miserable because she is really strict on them. The children's' only friend is a tree named Mrs. Hopewell, albeit all they do is stare at it everyday, but that's the least of this movie's problems. So when a new assistant arrives, named Lily, and her two kids, they all try to teach them about Christmas.So what's so wrong with this movie? The premise is pretty mediocre, but that doesn't matter at the end when a good story with a good moral is done like in every other Christmas special right? Wrong. Very, very wrong.First off, the artwork and animation is beyond hideous and sloppy. While the sets and backgrounds look decent enough, the character designs are horrible. Everyone's eyes and facial expressions are guaranteed to give kids nightmares and creep adults out. They all have blank, soulless eyes and sinister smiles and I feel that they're going to steal my soul. The animation is no better at all, it's even worse actually. The lip syncing is so off key, that it's like watching sock puppets try to talk. Every bit of dialogue never seems to match the lip movements of the characters. Not to mention that these characters barely move. They never seem to have any movement and when they do move, it's like they have chronic arthritis or something.Secondly, the voice work is beyond awful even for a low budget special. The actors put zero effort into their parts, resulting in everyone sounding monotone and lifeless. The worst actors though go to the ones who voice the kids. I can't even understand what 90% of them are saying because their voices are very garbled and unclear. I know these are little kids, but at least let us understand what they're saying.The next big problem is that the story is ultimately told very badly. There are a lot of pointless scenes that go nowhere. Sometimes, there are these horrible edits that show two things happening at the same time. The pacing is also really horrible and the quest to bring Christmas isn't done until towards the end of the film. Not to mention that there are some plot holes ranging from why Santa just randomly drops presents everywhere to what caused Mrs. Hopewell to be hit with a lightning bolt that resulted in Mrs. Mavilda being hit and somehow becoming nice. Many elements in the story are left unexplained for no reason and is irritating.The final gripe, and possibly the worst aspect of this film, is its so called "moral". To put it bluntly, the moral here is so awful and misguided that you'll be wondering what the point of this whole film. Apparently, according to this movie, "You always win when you are good." Yes, this is literally the moral of this film. Instead of something like how everyone gets together to be with their families, or helping those in need during the holiday season, we get a horrible message that being good means you'll always win. If this isn't the worst moral in a Christmas special, then I don't know what is. As bad as "The Star Wars Holiday Special" was, it at least had some decent moral, even if it wasn't entirely clear, it had a moral. This movie's moral is beyond lazy and completely misses the point of Christmas so much so, you have to wonder if the people behind this film even know what Christmas is.Overall, while this film may, keyword: may, be funny to laugh at how bad it is, it's nothing but a heartless film with a horrible moral, a badly told story, and horrible animation and voice acting. There's really nothing good I can say about this so called "special" and it's best left forgotten. So the next time Christmas comes around, find a way better special like the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I'd even say go and watch the live action one. At least Jim Carry was amusing to watch in that one unlike this film. So unless you literally want to find a film that makes you hate Christmas, then avoid this abomination at all costs.