"Let's just say that on this day, a million years ago, a dude was born who most of us think was magic. But others don't, and that's cool. But we're probably right. Amen." - Homer Simpson in "'Tis the Fifteenth Season"
The Simpsons Christmas 2 DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
Ah, the joys of Christmas. Drinking eggnog. Singing Christmas carols. Wassailing. Receiving gifts. Throwing buckets of fish guts at holiday parade spectators. Welcome to the madcap world of The Simpsons, where ordinary days are not-so-ordinary, and holidays are even stranger. The Simpsons Christmas 2 collects four holiday-themed episodes from the show's twelfth, fourteenth, and fifteenth seasons.
In "Homer vs. Dignity" (original airdate 11/26/00), the Simpson family is so cash-poor that Homer is forced to sell his car's backseat in order to buy gasoline. Unfortunately,rather than buying the gas, he uses the money to buy a novelty horn. Desperate to make money, Homer asks Mr. Burns for a raise. Mr. Burns refuses to raise Homer's pay, but since Smithers is on vacation (in New Mexico appearing in a show he wrote, Malibu Stacy: The Musical) and Mr. Burns is bored, the old curmudgeon hires Homer to be his "prank monkey." What exactly is the job description of a prank monkey? He plays practical jokes on the unsuspecting public and humiliates himself in unusual ways. In exchange, Homer gets fistfuls of cash. At first, Homer is fine with the idea, but he begins to have second thoughts when Mr. Burns asks him to ruin a holiday parade. Leeza Gibbons guests as the parade's emcee.
A massive blizzard on the day before Christmas vacation leaves all of the area's schools closed in "Skinner's Sense of Snow" (12/17/00).except for Springfield Elementary. It looks like it will be a crummy Christmas when Principal Skinner and the students get snowed in. With Homer and Ned Flanders in charge of their rescue, the outlook is even gloomier.
Homer decides to write a Christmas song in "Dude, Where's My Ranch?" (4/27/03) when a lawyer stops the family's caroling fun because of music royalties. The resulting tune, "Everybody Hates Ned Flanders," isn't exactly rife with Christmas spirit, but - thanks to guest voice David Byrne of the Talking Heads - the song becomes a huge hit. The family tries to escape Homer's newfound fame by vacationing at the Lazy I Ranch, where Bart and Homer battle a family of beavers and Lisa develops a crush on a young ranch hand (played by Home Improvement's Jonathan Taylor Thomas). The Lord of the Rings' Andy Serkis also has a cameo as a freaky cowhand.
When Homer bumbles his way into a pile of money, the Simpson family agrees to spend it on a Christmas tree "so large its absence from the forest will cause mudslides and flooding" in "'Tis the Fifteenth Season" (12/14/03). Much to his family's disappointment, Homer blows the money on a talking astrolabe ("Today is the birthday of our Lord, Jesus Christ.and singer Barbara Mandrell") instead. Spurned by his loved ones, Homer learns the true meaning of Christmas from a cartoon (Mr. McGrew's Christmas Carol) and sets out to spread an anti-consumerism message.by stealing everyone's Christmas gifts.
Of the four episodes collected here, "'Tis the Fifteenth Season" is the funniest. It neatly sends up Christmas specials through parodies, such as the claymation Christmas with the California Prunes (featuring the song "Oh Pruney Night") and the Rankin-Bass-esque The Year Santa Got Lost (in which Jimmy Stewart's Mr. Mailman tells the tale of the year when hippies gave hallucinogenic drugs to Santa's elves). Even Christmas songs get skewered with "Christmas Convoy" ("10-4, King of the Jews"). The episode is also rich with visual gags. When the Simpsons venture into the rough part of Springfield to purchase a shriveled Christmas tree with Homer's remaining two bucks, they pass a snowman with a bloody axe in its head and a man hanging himself using Christmas lights as a noose.
The other three episodes have their funny moments, but the episodes are barely Christmas related. One of them ran in April, for God's sake. These are also late-series episodes, so the plots tend to jump from one idea to another. "Dude, Where's My Ranch," for example, appears to be a Christmas episode at first, but the conceit is quickly dropped. While all of the episodes are funny, only "Fifteenth" maintains a Christmas theme throughout, making it the most likely to stir the Christmas spirit in viewers.
One disc holds all four episodes. The disc is housed in a Simpsons-yellow keepcase featuring the family gathered around Homer, who is asleep under the Christmas tree after apparently eating Santa's cookies. The DVD itself is cleverly designed to resemble a snow globe, in which the Simpsons are encased.
The menus are extremely simple. The main menu lists the episode titles next to a static picture of the Simpsons in a sleigh. Viewers can play all episodes or choose an individual one. Scene selection menus allow viewers to choose between each of the episode's six chapters.
