Totally Rad Christmas!
It's a show about the raddest time of year in the baddest decade ever! That's right! We talk all things Christmas in the '80s to the max! Toys, movies, specials, music, books, games, comics, decorations, food, fashion, and fads--if it was gnarly during Christmas in the '80s, we got it covered!
Totally Rad Christmas!
Wayback Wednesday: Magic Kingdom Yuletide Special (w/ Mike and Charlie)
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What’s up, dudes? I’m joined by Kids of the Kingdom Mike Westfall of Advent Calendar House and Charlie Ague of Closer to Christmas to discuss this 1985 single broadcast “Magic Kingdom Yuletide Special!” Scrooge McDuck can’t fathom the magic of Christmastide, so Mickey and Santa Goofy contribute to his conversion through song and dance! Skating? Yep. Singing? Check. Nightmare-inspired bipedal horses prancing? Definitely! So put on your Victorian bonnet, grab your ice skates, and magically teleport into this episode!
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It was 1985. Yule Brenner succumbed to cancer. The Supreme Court ruled that Long Island is legally not an island. Clue had three different endings randomly distributed to theaters, and Mickey Mouse and the gang attempted to change Scrooge McDuck's mind about the magic of Christmas. I'm your host, Jerry D with another episode of Totally Rad Christmas, the podcast that talks all things Christmas in the 80s, toys, movies, specials, music, and fads. If it was gnarly during Christmas in the 80s, we got it covered. Now, before I introduce my guests, it's time for the 80s word of the day. As always, it comes from the Dictionary of 1980s slang by Rick Carlisle. Today's word is Mondo Adjective. Great, cool, tremendous, either in quality or size. Derives from the Mondo genre of low budget, low-quality exploitation shockumentary film. As in, it was a mondo weird. Use it all the time. So joining me today are two very special guests. The first is a totally rad Christmas All-Star and Ratty winner from Advent Calendar House. It's Mike Westfall. Mike, how's it going?
SPEAKER_04Hey Jerry, thanks for having me. And let me assure you that I have indeed been had.
SPEAKER_02Yep, yep, you're welcome. But the next guest you'll know from the brand new podcast, closer to Christmas, it's Charlie Egu. Charlie, what's happening, man?
SPEAKER_03Not too much, Jerry. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, thanks for coming on. This was uh, you know, I I was kind of keeping up with all your posts about your your recent visit to the Magic Kingdom, and I thought, what a perfect way to spice up this episode a little.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, listen about that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04You sent us this link, and it's not your fault that they decided to call it the Magic Kingdom Yuletide special. But let me be the bearer of bad news to anybody searching for this. This is not at the Magic Kingdom Park here in Florida. Nope. This takes place on some soundstage somewhere. Probably Disneyland.
SPEAKER_02Who knows? I I have a feeling it was Disneyland. Based on some of the because, well, first of all, let me say there's like barely anything about this special that I could find anywhere. So even when you like when I I went to the IMDB Pro trying to contact some of these folks just so I could get some sort of information, and most of them have like zero contacts. Like there's there's nothing with these guys. So I had a really hard time doing research for this episode, but I have a feeling it was indeed in Los Angeles, you know, or uh, you know, not Los Angeles, but uh in uh yeah yeah in California. Anaheim, right. That's that's what I meant. In Anaheim, and uh the only reason I think that is because of one of the actors and their traditionally Hollywood job. Like I'm reaching here, I really have no idea what this is.
SPEAKER_04Well, the closing credits do say special thanks to Disneyland, so that's where I'm getting. But it could be just one of their sound stages in Burbank. This is indoors the entire time, it's on like some soundstage that is painted like an outdoor frozen pond, and then they go to Santa's workshop and it's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_02And for some reason, the seven dwarfs are there? I don't know. Yeah, I guess they're supposed to be the elves. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, the the elves took the ear off, so they brought in the dwarfs on a temp contract.
SPEAKER_03I think those they're they're like the only character costumes that still look like the way they use them in the parks nowadays, though. Like all the other characters, you could tell it's like a different style costume where the dwarf ones seem to be exactly the same.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, all of them have gone through a refresh, including Uncle Scrooge, because I've I've met a costume Uncle Scrooge about oh, five, six years now, and it does not look like this anymore.
SPEAKER_02It's it's interesting that there's only two voice actors as well, and so well. So one of them was Barnett Ritchie, who was like the choreographer as well, and she does Minnie Mouse.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Barnett Ritchie is a Disney legend in Capital Letters. She she choreographed and directed a lot of shows at the parks, including the Main Street Electrical Parade and Phantasmic. And these kids of the kingdom in this special, the the uh the human characters are her brainchild as well. That was a show at Disneyland.
SPEAKER_03Kids of the Kingdom? Yeah, I was wondering about the kids of the kingdom because when I was trying to look up anything about this as well, that's the only description I saw was like the kids of the kingdom, and I was like, I didn't see one kid in this special except for the adult justice kids in a bit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's these guys. It's some it's this instead of I guess they had sh when they had live shows at the parks, these were the cast members who who played the human parts in those parts just interacting with Mickey and the Fat Five.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm gonna put kids in quotes here. Oh yeah, right. Yeah, and let's be honest, these guys, they're you could tell they're used to that kind of live, you know, just just in front of everybody production because they're definitely like play into the back of the theater with the their whole acting style, and yeah, and nothing against them. I mean, they're they tried their hardest, but I mean they're not actors, they're they're stage performers, right?
SPEAKER_04They're they're performing a show. This reminds me a lot of yeah, the park shows, but it reminds me of something that you would see on ice, right?
SPEAKER_03That's exactly what I said. I I I went to a Disney on ice once when I was a kid, and it's very reminiscent of that, and like you know, Disney has a style, like they're the style that these people are acting and they're dancing, and just everything about it just screams Disney, even if you know you go to the parks, the stage shows that they do in front of the castle, like it all still looks the same to this day. It's all you know, it's a definite brand that they've kept.
SPEAKER_02See, and I got very much the uh like Caribbean cruise vibes from their performances. You're not wrong there either. But like Jack Wagner does all the voices of the Disney cast, and I mean again, Jack Wagner was like pretty big in Disney. He was the announcer, I believe, for the magical world of Disney.
SPEAKER_04Yes, he was the voice of the Disney parks for many, many, many years. You can still hear his voice at Walt Disney World if you ride the monorail. He's the guy who says, please stand clear of the doors, poor five order manganese ale halo de las puertas.
SPEAKER_02You you haven't been there before. No, you're just uh No, not at all. But actually, that's a good place to start. So before we dive into this this completely bonkers special, let's uh let's talk about our history with just with Disney in general and you know what we remember about going to the parks. Because for me, I've only been to Disney World once and Disneyland once, and that's it. But I know you guys have a lot more uh deep history with it. So, Charlie, why don't we start with you? You know, like what's your experience with Disney? What do you remember about going to the parks?
SPEAKER_03All right, so Disney World is the only place I've been to. I've never gone to Disneyland, and like we were talking a little bit before the show, I think I might have done it in the wrong order because going to Disney World first, I hear horror stories about going over to Disneyland. I don't want to be I don't want to be let down by it, but I think that might you know happen inevitably. But so growing up, like every summer, I have three siblings. So my grandmother would pick two of us and take us to Disney World in the summer at least one time. The other guy. Yeah, well, you know, there were two of them got to go the next year, then whoever we got one year, we got to you know swap it out for the next year.
SPEAKER_02I got to.
SPEAKER_03And we I you know it was my grandmother. I don't think she could handle four of us running around the park.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I guess, but that's some lottery. Yeah, I volunteer as tribute.
SPEAKER_03It's one of those things where back in the day, I think she used to save up for like a vacation club at work and then just you know, pick pick two of the kids and go. So yeah, we got to do that a few times as kids, and then I'd say for the last I want to say 17 or 16 years, we've been going every year once down to Disney World and taking our older kid. Well, we'll just say it was for his birthday, but you you know, you need an excuse to get down there. So yeah, basically been going every every year, you know, one time a year.
SPEAKER_04Right on. And what about you, Mike? Charlie's been there more recently than I have, and I live down the road. My first trip to Walt Disney World was in 1989, like three weeks before what was the Disney MGM Studios opened. So I missed the opening of that, and then I went back again in November 1997 for my parents' 25th wedding anniversary. They honeymooned at Walt Disney World. Oh, 1972. So it was only open for a year, so we went back. They're coming back this year for their 50th wedding anniversary, so I'm excited for that.
SPEAKER_02Well, congratulations to them, by the way.
SPEAKER_03They're celebrating their 50th at the 50th celebration of the park.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I yeah, they're gonna just get there just in time. And when when it was the 25th, we just managed to get the the the horrible cake castle. I saw I did see that one. Yeah, so for the unfamiliar, on on Walt Disney World's 25th anniversary, they repainted Cinderella Castle to look like this giant pink monstrosity of a birthday cake. It is tacky and glorious. I love it.
SPEAKER_03Uh it had a very inflatable look to it.
SPEAKER_04Like it looked like a bounce house. Yeah, you're right. But then my now wife moved down here. We met in college, and she moved down here for a job at a nearby school, and then I would come and visit her. We weren't even dating yet, we were just good friends from college, and then eventually it got to I was visiting more and more and more often, and one year we went to Mickey's not so scary Halloween party, and I decided that night I need to live here. So found myself a job, moved down here close to Walt Disney World. We are now married, and I go every so often. I haven't been back since before COVID, but uh, we'll get back there eventually. Like I've mentioned before, my father-in-law is a cast member at the Magic Kingdom, so it's nice to have that little perk when we can.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's pretty cool. So I got to and and Charlie, I can actually confirm that going to Disney World first and then Disneyland after is not the best order to do it. So so Disney World of and part of this could be my high school personality, you know, just latching onto certain aspects of the park and and glorifying one over the other. But I did go to Disney World first. It was in 1995, it was right after my freshman year and of high school, and we had our band trip. And so we went to Disney World and we drove on a bus, and it took 30 hours to get there, uh, drive driving on a bus. So I'm from South Texas, we had to go all the way up Texas and then down the coast. So yeah, 30 hours later we arrived. We spent, I think, uh five or six days there, and so we went to Epcot, we went to Magic Kingdom, we went to MGM studios, and it was fun. We had a I had a blast. I I went on like my first real roller coaster because even though I'd been to like Astro World and Fiesta, Texas and Six Flags, I was still a little scared of roller coasters. But when my friends, especially the girls, were going on them, I thought, oh well, I gotta I gotta do this, you know. I I can't be that that guy. So I I went on it and it was it was awesome. So which one was your first? It was actually Space Mountain.
SPEAKER_04It was Space Mountain. See, that's a really good introductory roller coaster.
SPEAKER_02I think so too, because it's real dark as well. You don't know.
SPEAKER_04Right, you can't see how close everything is, it doesn't really freak you out. Like we did that, that was my daughter's first coaster. Actually, no one wasn't. No, her first coaster was at Universal. I take that back, but it was at night. So, but this was her second and loved it.
SPEAKER_02Right, yeah, and and I did too. After that, I was hooked. I love roller coasters, I love every kind of amusement ride, they're just so much fun. Tower of terror is fantastic, so I love love going on that one. But after that, so in 1997, I had an internship at Boeing North America in in uh LA. And so I worked in their space shuttle division, and on the weekends, yeah, it was really cool. On the weekends, we got to go to like the various attractions in California. So we went to SeaWorld in San Diego, we went to you know, some zoos, we this automobile museum, things like that, but we got to go to Disneyland, and it was not as good as Disney World. Now, again, it could have just been at that point I was about to be a senior, I was ready to get out, and I just I don't know, Disney World was much more fun to me. No offense to those people that like Disneyland better. Yeah, I'm glad you do. But to me, it just didn't hit as as I don't know, as hard, I guess. I don't know if the kids still say that, but anyway, it didn't hit as hard. So I I prefer Disney World, but it was fun. I did almost get punched at Disneyland. What or Disneyland? I mean I shouldn't be laughing about that. No, it's it it's a dumb story. I don't even know what I did, but so it was the park was closing. We had to meet our RAs, and we we had to meet them at the gates, and so there was a group of us together, and we were like working our way, but it was over the 4th of July weekend, so there was huge just crowds, and of course they're crowds anyway, but this time apparently the RAs were saying was even more packed than normal back in '97. So I was kind of snaking my way through the crowds, and I guess I bumped into a stroller, and you know, I said, I'm sorry, and the the dad just looked at me, he said, Hey, if you touch my kid again, I'm gonna punch you, I'm gonna deck you or I'm gonna punch you, something like that. I don't even remember touching the kid. I think I just like my foot grazed the the wheel, but uh anyway, so yeah, chill out, dad. Yeah, pretty much, and so that was my first taste of oh, people are crazy. And but eventually we found our ways to the RA and we made it back home.
SPEAKER_03You know, that's that's actually one thing I miss about my kids being a little bit older now. The stroller was a good line of defense to get uh your way through the crowds at the park. You know, when you're trying to make your way to the door, you know, you just start walking a little bit faster with that stroller, people move from it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you might clip a heel here and there, but it's so crowded. You're you can't avoid hitting a stroller or being run over by a stroller, like it's inevitable. So everybody knows that that's going to happen. No one should be annoyed by it. We're all trying to get to where we're going. Everybody needs to just chill a bit.
SPEAKER_02Especially some, you know, little punk scrawny high school kid, this little nerdy looking dude. I mean what anyway, whatever. But uh yeah, so that's like my history with it. I don't really I haven't been back. I want to go back, but yeah, like you know, we were talking before, before we started recording, it's it's pretty wicked expensive, and I know there are ways around it, but we're starting to save up for not this upcoming year, but probably for the following year to take the kids. And at that point, my youngest will be should be almost six, and so it'll be you know, it'll be like perfect, she'll remember things.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, that's it, that's a great age to go and just kind of let them lead the way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so anyway, I I love it. You're right, there's like nothing Magic Kingdom about it at all, except that perhaps maybe they recorded this in the Magic Kingdom. That's uh just but like you said, I don't know. Or or maybe this is one of the stage shows. It's I think it's a stretch. I really I I I'm at a loss for words, or maybe it's just because, like you said, Barnett Ricci did so many of the productions there. But either way, it's this is the Magic Kingdom Yule Tide special, and it is cuckoo bananas. I mean, it uh it makes no sense, and it doesn't help that this recording was broken up into three sections. It felt like some parts were cut out, and also the beginning, the very beginning was missing as well. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we absolutely missed the first who knows how many minutes of this special.
SPEAKER_02Right. And so I don't know how it starts at all. I've tried like I'm pretty good. My Google Foo skills are are pretty sharp, but I couldn't find any other versions of it. This was the only thing I found.
SPEAKER_04No, this is the only copy on planet Earth, yeah. It aired in 1985. I didn't get the Disney Channel until 1986, so I missed seeing this.
SPEAKER_02Okay, because I was gonna ask you, because I know you're you're much more well-versed in the the uh Disney Channel world than I am. So we also got it around 86, 87. So I didn't see this either. Uh, this was apparently December 19th, 1985. But other than that, I really don't know anything about it except that it was directed by Rudy, Rudy Goldman. He directed like a few things, and then like he even did the Peter Paul and Mary the holiday celebration that that okay that that they ended up recording and uh as an album. But then he has like no credits until like he has a wine documentary in 2016, so it jumps from like 1988 to 2016. So I don't know what he did in between, if he was just kind of chilling, but hey, some sort of live events that weren't recorded, I guess. That's what I imagine, or maybe because he did a wine documentary, he was really into wine. I don't know. It could be there it is.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, this definitely looks like something that aired once, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and it that's could you imagine though, if like this whoever recorded this one, if this didn't exist, like no one would even remember this, you know, it'd be one time it would air on TV, and then that's it, like no one would ever think of this thing again.
SPEAKER_05Oh no, it's simply can't be much longer. We saw impatient portraits, my yeah.
SPEAKER_02See, and I have like a ridiculously long list of topics to cover for my show, you know, and yeah, like it's it's stupid long, but there's a bunch of random things on there that I just can never find. And so when I saw this, I thought, oh, that looks fun. Your magic kingdom, Yuletide Special. All right, let's let's check it out. And luckily, I found even this, but at the same time, uh most of the things on that list, like a lot of them I can't even find anywhere. So I'm glad I found this, even though it's you know, pieces are cut off and it it feels like there's things missing from one section to the other.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely take what you can get as someone who also has a long list of things I want to cover. I might have to add this to my list and invite certain people on to make them watch this. So I'm gonna wait a few years and kind of make everyone revisit this again.
SPEAKER_02It's it's very interesting, and perhaps in a few years someone will might have uploaded a better copy. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Here's hoping.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Or uh or maybe you'll will more about this Rudy Goldman guy or some of these other folks. So, like I said, I've tried to track down several of these people, and there's absolutely no contacts list available. So we'll see if the very few people that actually had, I think in fact it was only one, the editor, and that's because he did some some compositing for a few other movies. Okay, and so I I reached out to him, we'll see what happens. I I would love a follow-up just to kind of learn something about this because the uh there's really nothing. But let's go ahead and dive right in because this thing was was really interesting. Yeah, it's it's kind of like a big, I mean, okay, let me put it this way there's very little plot, most of it is just song and dance numbers.
SPEAKER_04This is a theme park show that they decided to tape for TV instead. And I bet it would have looked a whole lot better outside in front of the crowd.
SPEAKER_02Yep, yep. I completely agree. The sets, although the the sets were alright. I mean, nothing special, but at the same time, I I think they fit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's fine. Yeah, it's typical, it's like a Disney soundstage for something like this. It made me think of the full house episode where they went to Walt Disney World and they have that whole sequence where Michelle wishes for a tea party and they're indoors in some soundstage you can never visit with a bunch of Disney characters. Reminded me of that.
SPEAKER_02I I also got and maybe it was just because it was the people in the costumes, because it was mid eighties, but it reminded me a lot of like, you know, Welcome to Pooh Corner and Dumbo Circuit.
SPEAKER_05Yes. I mean lower budget, of course, Christmas.
SPEAKER_02Cookies and that's done on the But I I still got those vibes, and I really enjoyed just that interaction, and it made me really, really want to watch that Welcome to Pooh Corner Christmas episode that used to be on YouTube and is now taken down.
SPEAKER_04Oh no, it's gone!
SPEAKER_02I should have downloaded it when I could have. Yeah, same. So this special, like you mentioned, starts off like mid-song, the first song, and it's like a big medley. And we get the the kids of the kingdom, which are four couples essentially, four guys, four girls, and they're kind of doing a song and dance number, and we get Mickey and Minnie and Chip and Dale in there as well. Yeah. So that's fun. But they sing some pretty cool songs. It's like a big sleigh ride melody, uh medley, excuse me, is the big the big thing. So they go they go into sleigh ride, then they seg into like a how much longer is Christmas kind of song. And then I I love it because at this point we're introduced to our antagonist after all this song and dance number, and it's Scrooge McDuck sounding not so Scrooge McDuckish.
SPEAKER_04No, as soon as his voice it was uh I was like, what is up with that voice? It's not Alan Young.
SPEAKER_02Nope, it's not Alan Young at all, and it's uh because it's Jack Wagner.
SPEAKER_04It's Jack Wagner, and I can attest to he he was the voice of most of these characters for much of the 80s because it was really a transitional period for Disney. You had Michael Eisner taking over as CEO in 1984, Clarence Nash, who was the voice of Donald Duck since the beginning, died earlier in 1985. So Jack was their voice actor for live shows like this and shows at the parks and Disney on ice. And if you ever remember watching the Disney Sunday movie uh on ABC, where where would like Michael Eisner would introduce a Sunday movie, hello, and he would hang out with the characters. That's Jack Wagner doing all those character voices, too.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's just it's kind of it's just funny because like you expect, especially because Mickey's Christmas Carol has come out at this point, right? Like you expect, you know, Alan Young or or something, you know, but uh no, it's Jack Wagner, and he's he does a serviceable Scrooge McDuck, but it made me laugh every time he said humbug.
SPEAKER_03Because it would come out like a I have that written down, humbug.
SPEAKER_04Humbug. He's yeah, his his Scottish is real deep, yeah. And it's like a whole different section of Scotland than Alan Young is trying to uh to portray.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, he's from the Loch. I don't know. I can't I can't do it. So apologies to our Scottish listeners.
SPEAKER_03But there was one of them towards the end of the special that he that he did crank out an actual humbug, that he said it clear. It was it was real random. It was right towards the end, and he did say humbug.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he got one, he got one in there. The rest of it he was like it it would it veered a little too close to groundskeeper Willie. Yep.
SPEAKER_02And now that you've said that, all I can't unhear it now. Exactly. All I can picture is him talking about like Scots and other Scots. But so okay, so Scrooge interrupts and they seg into another song. They they call him like the meanest duck in the whole wide world. He's a miser, he's a skin flint, he's a villain, and they're just kind of going at Scrooge really, really bad, which I get that's that's the point of it. But like, like poor Scrooge, man. He doesn't care, of course, but still, I mean, I just I felt bad for Scrooge a little bit as well.
SPEAKER_04This is like you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch, but everyone's smiling about it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_03I'm glad you said skin flint because I was not sure what they said in that special when I was watching.
SPEAKER_02I was like I had to why that a couple of times. Like, what the heck was that? Yeah, but the kids of the kingdom are dressed very much in like a like a stagecoach driver or perhaps even like a bell hop, you know, except they have the top hats and the the lady that's the the gentleman, the men, you know, have those on. The the ladies have like bonnets with nice flowy kind of dresses. And I had a book, it was a little golden book, and it was a book of jingle bells. It's like had a bunch of carols in it, and uh, and they're pictured, I mean, they're dressed exactly like like that. So I almost got like turn of the century vibe from them as well. And of course, they're in brilliant colors. There's like a bright red and like a purple, and there's like a very Christmas green, but then there's also like a weird olive green kind of color that almost clashes with the Christmas green.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, it's a very weird green. It it's yeah, it's almost it's almost brown, and I and I guess the other one's blue as well.
SPEAKER_02So there's actually five couples. I thought there was only four. Yeah, there's a couple of soloists and they do a fine job singing, nothing fantastic, but there's a lot of very cool choreo choreography going on with them dancing and jumping and frolicking.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they can dance. They're all lip syncing, so this is pre-recorded.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, oh, totally, totally lip syncing. Chip and Dale come out and they start they start dancing as well, and then we get an appearance from Donald, too. And Donald, of course, is silent throughout the whole thing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he's only got a few lines.
SPEAKER_02I imagine that's could be does he say something? I didn't recall him.
SPEAKER_04He says a few things here and there. Jack Wagner's Donald isn't great, so maybe that's why passable. Okay. So yeah, I think I think they just give him minimal lines.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so so I miss those lines, but yeah, that's what I figured that he just couldn't do the voice very well, and so he he he opted out. Just doesn't have to be a good thing.
SPEAKER_04Now it would be another year or two before it would be another year or two before they brought on Tony Ensemble to uh take over the role.
SPEAKER_02I gotcha. They they wish him Merry Christmas, they're singing all about Christmas, and of course, Scrooge, even though at this point he's already he's already become a good man, at least if you think about it in terms of or a good duck, I should say, in terms of years, you know, in '83 was was Mickey's Christmas Carol. So at this point, he should already be a nice, fun, loving, you know, Christmas loving gent. But instead, he's the miser. And I I get it, they need a good villain for the special, and so why not throw in someone whose name is literally Scrooge? He says, you know, humbug, and I don't believe it, and all that stuff in his best uh growly Scottish.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he doesn't believe in the magic of Christmas.
SPEAKER_02He doesn't believe in the magic of Christmas at all. And so Mickey and Wendy, and I think it's Paul, Paul Bryant, is the the main actor. But and I only believe that because he's listed first. They don't actually say Paul, they don't say his name, but I I was really trying to listen in. They say Wendy later on.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's the only name I caught. I I did not even bother to look at like I saw that they were names of actors, but I was just like, I am not going to try and match all of these.
SPEAKER_02I did, and there's nothing to match to for all of these people. That's their only credit here.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, all of them on IMDB. This is it. That's it. So maybe they were actual cast members at the parks who did live shows.
SPEAKER_02That's what I'm thinking. Like they probably just said, you know what? You know what you can un you can get my choreography really well. Just come be in the show. Sure. And that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04This might have been a show at the park for maybe one or two Christmases.
SPEAKER_02Could have been, yeah. I wouldn't doubt it. I mean, it really, you're right, it really has that live kind of feel. So I wouldn't put it past them to have just recorded the show on like a soundstage, you know, with some Disney Channel's only a couple of years old, it needs content, so throw this up there. Exactly. Yeah, there's no uh Santa Claus yet, so nope. But anyway, Mickey starts talking and as well about you know the magic of Christmas, and Wendy says that she wishes she could change Miss Uncle Scrooge's mind. And so Paul says, Well, I think I know how we might be able to do that, and they all decide, you know what, let's go on a sleigh ride. A sleigh ride, a sleigh ride. So Mickey uses his Christmas magic and and he makes horses appear and a nice sleigh. But we need to talk about these horses, yes, these horses were something.
SPEAKER_04These horses are bipedal, they are standing on their back legs. These horses are monsters.
SPEAKER_05Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh my goodness. Did you get a what's the name of the horse from Bravestar? It's like 3030. 3030. Did you get a 3030 vibe? I got a 3030 vibe.
SPEAKER_043030 if he was like twinkletoes because they're doing like dancing routines. It almost looked like they have like ballet slippers on. Oh a horse costume. It's like one of the basic tropes. One person's in the front, one person's the back. So it looks like a horse and not the abominations pulling this sleigh.
SPEAKER_03I was trying to picture what's actually going on under that costume when I saw these, you know, when they were out there dancing, because these things are like probably another, I don't know, four feet above the person's shoulders.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the hair.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think it's it's like the T-Rex costumes they have now where you're looking at the neck.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yep. And I just felt so bad because you know it had to be so unbelievably hot in those costumes. And they're, you know, just doing it.
SPEAKER_04Even though they're indoors, they're probably cranking up the air.
SPEAKER_02I mean, it could be, but I don't know. I feel like they they wouldn't just for the, you know. I I mean, I don't know about all girls, but like my wife gets ridiculously cold, even when she's wearing like three layers. So I just I feel like I well okay, whatever. It could be. I'll take your word for it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04I'm the cold one of this family, so oh I gotcha.
SPEAKER_02I gotcha. So I we'll we'll buy it. But yeah, the horses are dancing around and they're all white. They're all white horses with like, you know, their their yoke, and it's got a little bit of it looked like a little bit of garland on it to me, but I had to watch it on my phone when I could, so I didn't get that close of a look.
SPEAKER_04Well, I mean, it wasn't that much better on desktop. It was I gotcha.
SPEAKER_02I gotcha, yeah.
SPEAKER_04This looks like it was uploaded in the early days of YouTube, which is why it's in three parts, because when YouTube began, you had a 10-minute time limit.
SPEAKER_02Yep. And that was it. Yeah, and and they're all very much under like I think the longest one is like under nine minutes. So makes sense. But yeah, these horses are just odd, and they're pulling the sleigh and dancing around, and everybody else is just kind of sitting in quote unquote in the sleigh and in front of it. But it it's just this massive thing, and the horse, they really are the stuff of nightmares, man.
SPEAKER_04Looking at their face, they're so bizarre. Oh, yeah, and the sleigh is this like wood panel cutout, and they just stand behind it because it's faster and easier to get out and get in, and then do some more dancing, and cheaper too. And cheaper too, but like I mean, as someone who builds sets for productions at my kids' school, then that makes perfect sense. Like we had to build a Willy Wonka boat last year, and that was the same thing where we were just building the facade of it and they would stand behind it.
SPEAKER_02And so these horses, they it's not a tap dance, they do like some prancing around, and then they kind of just stay in the same place and do almost like a jumping jack type thing, which uh at least that's what I wrote in my notes. Jumping jacks, question mark. They were mouser sizing. I mean that takes me back.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they definitely ran the gamut of dances though, because like you said, it did start off kind of tap dance-ish, then it went into like a jazz number, you know, where they were jump jiving and wailing all over the stage.
SPEAKER_02Yep, very much so. And then the horses just dance with the girls, which I thought was fun. Damn, may I go in? No, sir. Don't like it. Oh man. So, but we get another medley, and really I think the yeah, of course, like we said, this is just an excuse to have a big song and dance numbers. So it's kind of like a vaudeville kind of act without the the comedy, it's just the you know, the the the numbers, and so we get I actually kind of like this medley here. So I like to call it like a sleigh ride medley. So it starts with like some sort of just sleigh. I've never heard the song before, but it seemed like it was very much about sleigh bells, and they cut into Kay Thompson's jingle bells, which I really dug. Yeah, yeah. So I love Kay Thompson's jingle bells, it's like one of my favorite versions, and even though it was arranged for Kay Thompson, it was popularized by Andy Williams, and so they do like the very first part. Come on, we're going for a sleigh ride, you know, and then they cut in, they they seg right into jingle bells. Oh, thank you.
SPEAKER_04That's a good Andy Williams.
SPEAKER_02They they they seg right into uh jingle bells, and I love it because they say I know one horse, and then they all kind of yeah, the horse is kind of winny, like, wait a minute, there are six of us, and so they correct themselves a six-horse open sled, and they keep coming back to that every time they sing that line in jingle bells throughout the rest of the show.
SPEAKER_04It's a six-horse open sled.
SPEAKER_02It's a six, not gonna make that mistake twice. Yeah, who knows what these demon horses are gonna do to us if we don't jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle ball the way.
SPEAKER_05Oh, what fun is to riding a one horse open? Six horse open sled.
SPEAKER_02So uh then we get into just regular sleigh ride, the song. Donald comes out again, and then the girls, you know, still in their bonnets, they they start dancing with the white horses again. The boys reappear, and then they all start singing silver bells, because that's the natural progression, I suppose, going from sleigh ride to silver bells.
SPEAKER_04Makes sense.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, why not? But they do this cool little echo thing where the men start singing the chorus while the women are singing the verse, and then the men finish the verse, and then the women sing the chorus above it. So I actually really enjoyed that. And I think if I had these like uh as MP3, like I totally would add some of these versions like to my playlist.
SPEAKER_04They're just you can absolutely put some of this stuff on a playlist, and it would sound great.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. They're actually really decent versions of it, and it it made me like wonder who the the composer or arranger I should say was. But again, there's not like a whole lot out there for this arranger, so and he's not even credited as like an arranger, he's like the music director or something, so that really could actually mean anything. It could mean he just put them all together, it could mean he hired someone out. I have no idea.
SPEAKER_04So it's Disney, they have a whole house.
SPEAKER_02I'm sure they have a staff studio, yeah. Yeah that does all of this stuff for the parts, so has to be that. Uh and that's probably exactly what and he was probably just the guy that put all the the staff together and said, Okay, I want this here and this here, go do it. You know. But yeah, that was a really cool version. Now we get to part two, kind of. There's like this weird seg, and it feels like something's missing here. And I don't know if it's just when they uh uploaded it, they didn't upload it exactly correctly, or or if it's just when they recorded it, maybe they tried to cut out commercials and and miss some of it. But it feels like something was wrong.
SPEAKER_04So there wasn't so there weren't commercials.
SPEAKER_02That's true.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so yeah, I thought that too. I thought you know they were trying to cut out commercials, but then I remembered no, if this is on the Disney channel, then there wouldn't be commercials, they just cut it the wrong place.
SPEAKER_02So maybe they just cut it wrong, yeah. But we get Mickey and Minnie skating for a bit, and yeah, that was I mean, that I'm not a great skater, so to me it was very impressive. Oh, yeah, especially with those big feet. With the big yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04Right, but yeah, who can dress who can ice skate in a costume like that? I'm a fair ice skater, but I probably wouldn't be able to do it in big Mickey Mouse feet.
SPEAKER_02No, see, and I I've skated once and I fell and I was like, all right, I'm good. I did it. I could say I've been ice skating.
SPEAKER_04You have the experience.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Yep.
SPEAKER_04Falling's part of it.
SPEAKER_02That's right, yeah, exactly. So, you know, I'm I'm good. I I got it all covered. Towards the end, I actually was decent, but the problem is I was like an excellent marcher, like in marching band. Oh, yeah, modern marching is much different, like you got to roll your feet, and unfortunately, I picked up the habit of almost like not super, but but uh kind of rolling my feet as I walk a little bit more, so it's hard for me to like glide, and so I I'm terrible at skating. Roller blades I can kind of do, but ice skating for sure. I was like, this is this is the worst because I'm just so used to like you know rolling my feet very well when I when I move that it just it doesn't work for me, but anyway, that's that's neither here nor there. We get Mickey and Minnie skating really well. There's an another little song medley, they love their medleys here. There's like snow is falling, it seggs into winter wonderland, and we get Wendy asking if Mickey can use more of his magic because she wants Frosty to come alive.
SPEAKER_06See what I mean about the magic of Christmas? Anything can happen!
SPEAKER_07Hey Mickey, how about a little of that Christmas magic for our friend over here?
SPEAKER_02So Mickey does his little hand wave deal.
SPEAKER_04And we get generic Disney Park Snowman.
SPEAKER_02Yep, yep. Well, no, no, it's frosty.
SPEAKER_04It's frosty, but if you've if you've ever seen a Christmas parade at Disney at a Disney park, you've seen this exact snowman and possibly several clones of it dancing with him.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure that's all it is. So I've again I've never been, I've only been in like July, but and yeah, it's a serviceable, it's a serviceable frosty or or snowman, whatever. I only call him Frosty because they play Frosty the Snowman underneath.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, for for the purposes of this special, that's Frosty the Snowman.
SPEAKER_02I'm exactly yeah, yeah. So he doesn't say happy birthday. I'm sorry to disappoint.
SPEAKER_04Womp womp. They couldn't get the rice to that.
SPEAKER_02No, no. We get another cool medley. So it's Frosty the Snowman, it's Slay Ride, and then it seggs back into Jingle Bells. And again, I really like these musical numbers here. They the transitions from like one number to to the next are actually fairly decent. They're not too choppy, they they work pretty well in my estimation, because transitions are really hard to do, and and I think they're actually quite seamless in in their scope there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and Disney can do that with their eyes closed, they do that for shows at the parks all the time, especially their fireworks ones.
SPEAKER_02See, that's cool. And I wish I had more experience to actually like chime in on that because I have no idea. I've only been there once.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and it's neat the way they do it, like for the fireworks shows, like you said, because they'll blend songs from different movies, but it all it all just works, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And that's what a good staff arranger will do. Someone that's I mean, their sole purpose is just to take like pre-recorded or previously composed music and just re-ar you know, arrange them and make them work. And so there's a lot of little tricks, especially if you're gonna like modulate from one key to another, if you're gonna change tempo. There's like a lot of cool tricks that you can use that unfortunately in some instances, a lot of composers don't take advantage of that. And so that's why you'll hear some of those medleys that are just very choppy, or like they'll stop one song and then start the next one. But the blending was was pretty seamless in this. So I really appreciated it as a as a composer and arranger myself. I mean, I just I really dug the way they did it. But we get, you know, Scrooge McDuck is still so so humbuggish that's buying it. He's not buying it. Nope, nope, nope. And so Wendy really wishes that she could go to Santa's workshop because that's there's got to be magic there, and it's gonna be amazing.
SPEAKER_01It's off to the North Pole. Santa and his helper Toy Boy are busy getting ready for Christmas Eve. Let's go inside the toy shop and see what surprises they have in store for us today.
SPEAKER_02Paul says, I think I know how we can get there. And once again, Mickey does his little dance and song and dance number, and we're in Santa's workshop.
SPEAKER_07The North Pole. That's the North Pole.
SPEAKER_02I've never seen a Santa's workshop quite like this. No, it's pretty lame.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, it's another sound set, but I mean, this would look nice if it was on a stage at a theme park. Like it's right, it's just simple enough. Enough. And I guess I'm sure they had taken this set from a park show or some sort of setup with Santa's workshop.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I totally believe that. I mean, it feels very much like if you were to see it live, like it would play very well. Yeah. As like a half hour special. I don't I don't buy it. No. You know?
SPEAKER_04No. There's just enough to give everyone room to move around, and they have a whole bunch of different characters moving around in this. This is when the seven dwarfs are here. And then everybody else kind of joins the fray. So right.
SPEAKER_02And again, I think you're right. I think the the elves, Santa's Elves must have been on some sort of vacation or something, because the dwarves are doing all the work here. And we get dopey plane with like what was it, like a little model airplane or something? Is that what it was? Or yeah.
SPEAKER_04Looked like it, like a little toy plane.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean, there's some cool candles, and they're like big enough, you know, they they kind of oversize everything so that it makes it makes the dwarves, you know, which are also people in costume, you know, it makes them look a little bit more to scale, you know, like they're shorter. Yeah, it makes them look more dwarfy. Yeah, but I mean, other than that, there's there's like the desk with the candles. There's uh in the background, there's like a big painted window, but there's not a lot of details. So again, it makes me think just you know, it was more for like a live production.
SPEAKER_03I think there was a little Pinocchio on the one shelf, too. Like I said, there was a Pinocchio.
SPEAKER_02Yep, I think there was. Yep. But we also get another cool medley, and we have Toyland, which is like the music that starts it off. It's a nice slow, you know, Toy Land, that kind of thing. Exactly. But it segs into like the March of the March of the Tin Soldiers, right? Yes, I think that's what it is. And from there, that segs into more nutcrackers. So we get the dance of the sugar plum fairies, where some more Disney characters come out. So after the the the little tin soldiers, which are all the men, you know, dressed in in the toy soldier costume, it's like a blue coat with the the red pants, and they have the you know the hat with the the yellow plume on it. It's you know the big old white X, everything on on their uniforms. It's pretty cool. But as the sugar plum fairy song begins, we get Br'er Bear, which I know is not really uh kosher nowadays, but he comes out in a tutu. Yes, and Tiara, I think, too, right? It's like a something on there or hat or something, yeah. And then we get Baloo, Baloo the Bear, yep, and finally we end with one of the bears from um Country Bears. I think it's uh Liverlips or something like that.
SPEAKER_04Liverlips McGrowl is his name from the Country Bear Jamboree.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, it kind of makes me want to go watch the movie The Country Bears.
SPEAKER_04Country Bears is an underrated movie, it actually is, yeah. It really is underrated, and it's hard to remember that that I think was the first movie that they made from a theme park attraction. So the only reason we got Pirates of the Caribbean and five of those is because the Country Bears did okay.
SPEAKER_02Right, right. They said, you know what, we can do this.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, they still utilize those costume characters at the Country Bear Jamboree up on the top, the balcony up there. They sometimes they're out there waving and pointing at people walking up the street. Oh, are they? That's pretty neat. Yeah, nice.
SPEAKER_04I've never seen them up on the balcony there. I've seen them out for things like the Halloween party.
SPEAKER_02Because didn't they close did didn't they close Country Bears?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that was closed for a little while, but I don't know if I took a picture. I'll have to look through my pictures when we just went, but I know they were up there, you know, basically just pointing at people down on the street because they'll be up there with some of their instruments and stuff. It's pretty neat.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it looks like they're doing a lot more of that sort of thing. And they started that when they first reopened the parks after they closed for COVID, and then they started, well, we can't really have people standing next to cast members like that, but we can have them waving so that they didn't just get rid of all of the character presence in the parks. Right. Because they're keeping that, and I like that they had that.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's I mean, that's half the fun is finding like your favorite characters. Sure.
SPEAKER_04Even if you can't stand next to them and like take a picture with them or get their autograph, it's nice to see them. I like just seeing them out and about.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. That's always it just adds to the I don't know, disnification of everything.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, it it's an atmosphere thing, and I love it.
SPEAKER_02So that uh seg into Trey Pack again. We get Tchaikovsky, and we get some uh Russian-style dancers with the uh the classic red silk kind of shirt and the black pants and the big old you know hat. I know there's names. Oh man, that's that's a callback. I used to love that cartoon, but the wolf scared the crap out of me.
SPEAKER_04I had a record of it, it was great.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but that that wolf, he was scary.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So so they're in the Peter and the Wolf costume, you're right, and they're they're doing their dance. Then we get another strange, just strange thing. The these baby doll carriages with with the girls, now they're they're wearing different like baby style bonnets and dresses, and they have toys, which I noticed one of them looked like was holding a little orphan Annie doll.
SPEAKER_04It definitely looked like Annie.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I thought it was like a there was Raggedy Ann was in there. Was it?
SPEAKER_04Oh, Raggedy Ann, yeah. I didn't get that good of a look because again, the quality of this is terrible.
SPEAKER_02Terrible, yeah. And I was watching it on my phone, so there you go. Which apparently is a thing I do now just in preparation for the show. Oh, yeah, so do I.
SPEAKER_04Like I'll be washing the dishes and just have my phone up here on a little ledge over the sink, and that's my prep work.
SPEAKER_02Yep, yep. So they they come in these, like just like the sleigh, which is you know, cardboard cutout essentially, it's a baby carriage of all these different colors, and they start singing nothing for Christmas with some altered lyrics.
SPEAKER_04I do not like when people do this in the middle of songs like that. I don't like the interrupting, and the for some reason it just grates at me. And this is that sort of thing where it's like we're getting nothing for Christmas. That's right. Mommy and Patty are mad. What you do? Oh, I hate it. And Disney does it all the time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's very much, it's very much a staple, and especially in like lifestyle shows, that's kind of the thing you do, you know. Yup. Or, but they also do a very like the Eagles, you know, where it, you know, the song Hotel California, but if they're in, you know, if they're in Arizona, they'll they'll welcome to the Hotel Arizona. So they they kind of did that as well. They just started throwing their names in and all the different things that they did. It's like, okay, that's I get it.
SPEAKER_03See, when I when I started this segment, I this might have been on the third, like the third clip that we watched. I think that's what it started it off. But I must have had a second window open because when this one started, it was off like by two seconds and it started playing again, but I didn't realize it. So I thought the song was going in the round, and it was so chaotic, I could not, I could not imagine Disney letting this fly because you couldn't understand, because you know, the one person sitting there singing, and then it just kept overlapping, and then finally I realized I had a second window open.
SPEAKER_04And after I closed it, it wasn't much better after I closed it, but I will say those costumes are nice with the cardboard baby carriages, that would make like a really good Halloween costume. It would actually you can modify that, it was like you can make a race car out of that.
SPEAKER_03You know what? Speaking of Halloween costumes, and this kind of would go along with this. I every once in a while we'll shop on Disney's website uh through their store, but this year they have a huge push for wheelchair costumes, which is it's it's a cool idea. That's awesome, but like it's something like that. Like you just plaster, but their their website's littered with them, they have so many different ones now, and it just basically you just plaster it to the side of your wheelchair, but some of them are huge, uh you know, it just reminds you of something like that. It's definitely a cool idea.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they're really cool now. They have some like the Batmobile, or there was one I think that did they kind of turned it into like a tauntaun, you know, just just different things. I mean, that's actually really cool. I mean, I'm I'm glad they have stuff like that. I've seen one that was a Mario Kart one, and that's my favorite.
SPEAKER_04That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. Yeah, Mario Kart rules. Then eventually they do ditch the the carriages and they they tap dance for a while, and uh, you know, it's nice, and at least the choreography is pretty tight, so you can tell they rehearse this for quite a while. Oh, absolutely, or they're at least very professional that you know they they got it down because they were all together, even though some of the some of the movements are just them kind of waving their hands in like circular motions, and that's about it.
SPEAKER_04That's just part of the dance.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I I suppose it's just it's to me it was a little odd, but I'm not a dance guy, so I'll take your word for it. Yeah. Then we get the the coup de gra here, which is uh goofy as Santa Claus. It's Santa.
SPEAKER_07Uncumble, uncubable, uncover, and whiskey.
SPEAKER_04With a red nose for some reason. They gave Santa Goofy this bright red nose, and I'm like, that's not where the red nose goes in this, y'all.
SPEAKER_03They worked it into the song, they did work it into the song, yeah.
SPEAKER_02They worked the red nose into the song. And I was trying to think, like, in the original Clement Moore poem, do they talk about his nose like a cherry?
SPEAKER_04Like a cherry. Oh, that's it. That makes sense now.
SPEAKER_02So maybe that's why. But goofy as Santa, it's something I want like forever now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but he's gotta have that red nose. He looked like do you ever do you remember those old 50s goofy shorts where he had a son with a little crew cut? And his like goofy son, like the George Geef character. And and his son has that bright red nose. So that's what it reminded me of.
SPEAKER_02So maybe this isn't goofy, maybe it's his son growing up.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, maybe it's his son. Like this is decades before Max showed up.
SPEAKER_02Right, right. They just called him Junior.
SPEAKER_04So Junior grows up to be Santa. He has a red nose.
SPEAKER_02Hey, I'll buy it. It's Disney. Anything can happen.
SPEAKER_04Yup.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he comes out and it's it's pretty fun. His reindeer come out as well, too. And they're very similar to the the horses, where they also dance on their back legs. But for some reason, it's not quite as jarring as the horses. The horses seem scary.
SPEAKER_04No, it's not like yeah, yeah, they do. I think the reindeer are a little more proportional to I don't even know what, but they're also bipedal. But I've seen these reindeer before in in Disney parades, so maybe I was just used to them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it could be. But they do have we do have a nice I don't know why I wrote this in my notes because I'm trying to remember and I can't, but we we have like a big candy cane in the foreground with the bow on it. So again, I think it was just to to create the sense of scale. But I I don't know. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, so Goofy does a little uh tap tap tap tap dance number while the some of the the lime green suit folks sing Must Be Santa. That that song, Must Be Santa. Yeah. So they take that, Goofy starts singing, and they kind of start going through a bunch of different holidays, you know, like like what other holiday are we talking about? I I don't even know, like I must have missed something because I don't know how they got to this part, but they just start naming random holidays here.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they started talking go ahead.
SPEAKER_03No, I was gonna say, I think Goofy was asking, like, what's you know, what's a special time that's coming up or a special day or something similar to that. So they just start rattling off every other day except for obviously Christmas.
SPEAKER_02I gotcha, which now makes sense because Scrooge McDuck comes out and he starts saying December the 26th.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, did you notice when Scrooge walked out? The the when they were rattling off all the different days, the last guy to say something before Scrooge walked out he said it was the first day of duck hunting season, and then Scrooge walks out.
SPEAKER_02I did, yeah, I did catch that. Yeah, I wrote that down. Yeah, I wonder if that was on purpose. And Scrooge said something like heyday.
SPEAKER_03Is that a I think he said payday?
SPEAKER_02Oh, does he? Oh, payday. Oh, see, that makes so much more sense. This is why I can't watch things on my phone because my notes just evolve into random news.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, because I think he had a little sack of money with him too when he was when he came out there.
SPEAKER_04Like he does.
SPEAKER_02Well, he is Scrooge McDuck, so that does make sense. Uh, but then we get like a duet, and it's kind of like a dueling duet between Goofy and Scrooge about December the 25th, you know, Christmas Day, and December the 26th, because Scrooge hates Christmas, he can't wait for the next day. Yeah, and so there's like a back and forth between the two.
SPEAKER_06I don't hear any argument, so may I say more things? I wish them every day complete December of the 26th. The sum of the 20th. December of the 26th. Well, there is a you know, yeah, but the summer of the 26th, you don't seem to understand the summer the 20th.
SPEAKER_02I really enjoyed that part, but again, we get more talking, and Santa Goofy says, you know, hey, Mickey, I want you to give this gift to Scrooge. And so Mickey gives it to Scrooge, and he's like, Why would I get a gift? I don't even like Christmas. It's like, but I'll open it anyway. And as he opens it up, it's the star that inside that becomes like this huge tree. It like just kind of expands and they're magically teleported back to their original setting.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah. No, well, first you get a puff of smoke, and I'm a jerk, and my first thought was, oh no, anthrax!
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's it is weird. This the star like cracked open, it looked like, and it just smoke came out of that, and then as they pan back, they looked like the trees coming out of the box, which was a neat effect.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And when I saw the smoke, I was just thinking of uh a Keaton family, a Keaton Christmas Carol, you know, the the special the terrible special effects that they had there, you know.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04But they made that part of the show, like they they commented on the on the smoke in the show, which made it better.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Here it just explodes into like this giant tree, and it's a pretty standard 80s tree. I mean, it's got like yeah, the tree's fine. It's still got like all the tinsel garland on it, it's yeah, you know, the the decorations, but the the kids of the kingdom now are all decked out in pastel colors, and they're nice, like satiny or or silky, I don't know, dresses and uniforms with white trim, and they're actually I mean they're they got an upgrade, I think, from their lime green outfit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the real Christmas magic is everybody gets new clothes.
SPEAKER_02Uh oh. That that big rectangular white box that you do what it was as soon as you get Scrooge, of course, his mind is changed and he starts to feel the magic of Christmas. And they sing sing, I think the song is called Sing a Christmas Carol. That and they're singing that. And they do the big finish where everybody's dancing, and Scrooge at the end says, Merry Christmas, and then we get Jack Wagner announcing, you know, the big Christmas from our family to yours kind of a thing.
SPEAKER_04From all of us to all of you, Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, this thing it okay. It if we take it as just a stage show, it actually makes a lot of sense, and I dig it. But if I were a kid, you know, I was five years old around this time. If I were to see this on the Disney Channel, I think I'd be upset, you know. Like I'd say, okay, it's cool, it's Mickey, but like what happens? Like, there's just singing and dancing. I don't want to see singing and dancing. I want to see No, my attention is elsewhere by this time. Exactly. Like, I want to see, you know, Rudolph have to save Christmas because you know, it literally is life and death, you know, or or something. You know, I just I don't want to see just song and dance. No, but as a stage show, I think I would have actually been enthralled by it even at age five.
SPEAKER_04This had to have been a park show. Like they could have pumped snow, they could have pumped soap flakes into the sky. Yeah, yeah. This looks like it would have been a whole lot better outside in front of the crowd.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's exactly what I thought when I saw it. I could picture them doing it on the stage in front of the castle, like during the Christmas party. I don't think they did the Christmas parties back then, but the way you know how they have the Christmas and Halloween parties now, that could easily just be done on the stage towards the end of the night, and it would fit right in. Even today, I think.
SPEAKER_02The funny thing is as, and this is still pretty classy for for Disney, you know, and Disney in general is you know, they're not well, anyway, they're pretty classy. So the funny thing is, I could see if this was on stage, I could see people with like t-shirt cannons, like just kind of shooting t-shirt cannons into the grass.
SPEAKER_04No, they have backstage little confetti things that they would conceal pretty well, or just people back there behind behind a set piece.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I could see that. But yeah, I mean, so this that's the special. Again, I don't really know what's Magic Kingdom about it, except maybe that it could be performed live in a Magic Kingdom somewhere.
SPEAKER_04But other than that, I think it was just how to describe a show with these versions of the Disney characters, these costume characters.
SPEAKER_02Right, right. But I did appreciate that they actually threw in these these costumed characters, and even though the voice wasn't perfect, I thought Jack Wagner did a pretty good job uh overall doing all those different voices. So yeah, and that's what they had in the 80s.
SPEAKER_04So this is a very mid-80s Disney thing.
SPEAKER_02But you know, it does make me wonder what would you say would be your hap, hap, happiest memory or moment of going to the Disney parks, you know, Disney World or Disneyland in general, and and then maybe this special in particular.
SPEAKER_04I mean, my hap, hap, happiest moment of all time at a Disney park is when I propose to my wife in in the middle of some fireworks. Nice. Uh, but we've we've gone to the very merry Christmas party after hours at the Magic Kingdom before, and that's always fun. I really missed something that Hollywood Studios would do called the Osborne Family Festival of Dancing Lights, where they would it was this family, and I think they lived in Texas or somewhere in the South, and they their whole street would just be lined with these lights that were synced up to music, and Disney I guess they ran out of room to house them, and Disney said, We'll put them in our park, and they were at Disney's Hollywood Studios for years and years and years, and then they only took them down to when they expanded with the Star Wars stuff. But I missed that show so much.
SPEAKER_02You said the Osborne family, and all I could think about was Ozzy Osbourne for some reason. Different Osborne. Can you imagine Ozzy biting the head off a bat there in Magic Kingdom? I mean, I kind of could. That's more of a universal thing. Yeah, that makes sense over there. Uh but yeah, what about you, Charlie?
SPEAKER_03I and just all my memories we had at the park, you know, going there with the family. We never did the Christmas party per se, but we did the Halloween party the one year. And being on on vacation, we always have the luggage wear with us, so we could weigh our luggage before we get to the airport. And we just by chance wanted to weigh how much candy my kid walked away with. And we we had a pillowcase full of eight pounds of candy, and we wait, we waited on the little scale. We didn't obviously eat all eight pounds of it, some of it got left in the hotel and like they deal with it. Yeah, but yeah.
SPEAKER_04You go to that Halloween party, they just dump candy in these tiny bags they give you. But if you're smart, you bring extra bags, and they're like, Oh, you run out of bag, they'll give you another bag. It's like, oh, they do not skimp on the candy. Nice. You will still have candy by like next June.
SPEAKER_02By the next Halloween, yeah. Just the five. Oh man, that's awesome. See, for me, I remember winning five bucks when I was in Disney World. It was the Houston Rockets were playing the Orlando Magic, and it was in the NBA finals, and it I I bet some kid in in band, I don't even remember who it was, but I bet him that the Rockets were gonna win. And the Magic, it was that game where the Magic were up, and it was Anderson, I think. He actually missed like four free throws in a row, and the Rockets came back to win, and so I won five bucks, and it was like the greatest thing ever there at Disney World. Wow. But other than that, with this special, I think it would just be talking about it with you guys because there's really no nostalgia for it, and it's just watching it by myself on my phone was odd. So uh it was a trip, man. Yeah, zero zero stars. Do not recommend, at least put it on your laptop.
SPEAKER_04Watch it once, just experience it once.
SPEAKER_02I agree, just don't do it on your phone, like whatever you're trying to squeeze. Oh, not your phone. Yeah, no, I watch it on a bigger screen. Yeah, get the experience. Oh man, but now we come to my favorite part of the show. So, this is a little segment called Gag Me with the Spoon. So, this is where we do our best impressions of our least favorite part of this special. And as the guests, I'll let you go first, just kind of set up the scene for us. So, which whoever wants to go first, uh yeah, first come, first serve.
SPEAKER_03After you, all right. So hopefully I'm not stepping on anyone's feet here. But the the goof, the goofy's impression, you know, he kind of came out as like a surfer stoner type of goofy with his voice at first, you know, wasn't really feeling it. But so when he came out, he comes out with his his. Deep laugh. He's like, he had like a surfer type of voice. I can't really explain it, but probably my my least favorite impression on there.
SPEAKER_02That's funny. That was amazing. Can you imagine? So now I want I want grown-up junior stoned Santa. No, definitely don't do that. But if you do, you send me a copy of it. You have your template.
SPEAKER_04My least favorite line was the first thing Uncle Scrooge says and just threw me off because I was expecting Alan's young voice, Alan Young's voice, and I got uh Jack Wagner's instead. And then it was just like, hey, hold on there. Hold on. What's all the racket?
SPEAKER_02I love it. Yeah, I think he's definitely related to Mike Myers there. I'm Scrooge McDuck of the Clan McDuck. Or something. I don't know. Uh anyway, you know, I you just picture him saying, Piper down, we have a Piper who's down.
SPEAKER_04Piper down, shut your kickles.
SPEAKER_02Kid, money bags, no. I don't know. But okay, so that those are both fantastic. So I was gonna pick a Scrooge McDuck, but I definitely can't do it after that. That's that was much better than mine. So I went with Hall, Paul Bryant, the the the only male speaking part. So this is when Mickey and Minnie are uh just done skating. He says, Gee, Mickey, I didn't know you and Minnie could skate.
SPEAKER_04That was like in that exact cadence, folks.
SPEAKER_02I tried, I practiced. It's yeah, very much, uh, very much theme park style.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like nodding the head kind of hands. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Huh? You kind of dip in and out and you tilt your heads up.
SPEAKER_04If you've ever watched like a p like a Disney show, or even if you haven't, if you've ever seen like Peter Pan live with Mary Martin, it's that sort of vibe.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, I wouldn't have been surprised if some of them had been on strings and they had like flown, you know. I wouldn't have put it past the it wouldn't be out of place. Exactly. But it does make me wonder. So G.I. Joe taught us that knowing is half the battle. What do you think the other half is?
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna go with uh make sure you count your horses before you sing a song about them.
SPEAKER_04That's good. My answer was I don't know because they only use the front half of the horse costumes.
SPEAKER_02So the other half would be the back half.
SPEAKER_04The back half.
SPEAKER_02So I said, well, if no one's half to battle, the other half is just wearing costumes that don't seem like they're too hot. Just because that's all I could think about. I know that's that has nothing to do with the show. That's just all I could think about. But I run hot generally, so oh man. Guys, it's been fun talking about this this insane special with you guys. But uh, like, you know, tell me about your your shows and anything else you want to plug.
SPEAKER_03Uh okay, so uh the new podcast that I came out with, it's only a couple of months old. It's called Closer to Christmas. Basically, it's anything Christmas related, there's no set thing. I've been kind of focusing on games a little bit the first few episodes, but it's kind of like an advent calendar. You you know, you don't you don't know what's in there, but it's gonna be something Christmas related. And every time I put out an episode, you're a little bit closer to Christmas. That's what I like to say.
SPEAKER_02Right on. And uh, where can they find you?
SPEAKER_03Oh, you could go to anchor.fm slash closer to Christmas and closer to Xmas on Instagram.
SPEAKER_04Right on. Mike? You can find my podcast, The Advent Calendar House. A salute to all holiday specials, but mostly the Christmas ones, at adventcalendar.house. That'll be back in December with 12 new episodes. Until then, you can find me on Twitter at Fall West Mike.
SPEAKER_02And of course, Advent Calendar House is in on Instagram too, isn't it? And I think uh Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04I I forgot about Instagram. Yeah, it's uh Advent Calendar House, the full thing on Instagram.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I like that you could actually like have long names. You can put the full name of your show or you know with it, Twitter. Yeah, what's up? I can't I gotta shorten it to Rad Christmas. That's that's terrible. Yeah, but anyway, yes, check out both those shows. Advent Calendar House is one of my all-time favorites, and I'm really starting to dig the few episodes that you had, Charlie. So, guys, go check them out. I know most of you already probably listen to Advent Calendar House. So if you're not, do you even podcast, bro? But anyway. But on that note, I'm gonna say thank you guys again. It was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_04Oh, definitely. I appreciate it. Thank you. This was great.
SPEAKER_02And I'll end it with sing a song of gladness and cheer for the time of Christmas is here. So check us out on our social media pages, Facebook and Instagram at Totally Rad Christmas, Twitter at RadChristmas, or our Facebook group, Totally Rad Christmas Mall and Arcade, where you can make your voice known to us as well. We post anything and everything, 80s or Christmas related. And if you're feeling like Scrooge after he opened Santa's gift, leave us a review on iTunes. It helps us reach more people and spread some rad holiday cheer. Now don't forget to check out our merch shop on tepublic.com and our super dope website, totally radchmas.com, courtesy of Tiz the Podcast Elf Tom Crow. From all of us to all of you, a very Merry Christmas. Later, dudes,
