The excellent 16:9 enhanced widescreen DVD comes with a nearly half-hour behind-the-scenes documentary.

The mid-1960s was really the Golden Age of the Holiday Special. Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) were made in quick succession, and their success led their production companies to crank out new shows every six months or so for the next decade. Rankin/Bass made more stop-motion shows and the occasional cartoon (such as Frosty the Snowman), Bill Meléndez and Lee Mendelson churned out new Peanuts shows while Chuck Jones and MGM (and later DePatie-Freleng) adapted more Dr. Seuss stories.

Gradually, the freshness of those shows wore off and anyway audiences preferred the classic, first wave of specials to new ones; by the mid-1980s Rankin/Bass was pretty much kaput as a producer of annual Christmas shows.

A Miser Brothers' Christmas seems to have been made without their direct involvement, produced as it was by a distinctively younger generation of filmmakers at Cuppa Coffee Studios, based in Toronto, Canada, and Warner Bros. Animation.

Another Christmas is threatened when Santa Claus (voiced by Mickey Rooney) injures his back after crashing a new "Super-Sleigh" designed by female elf Tinsel. The crash is blamed on perpetually warring siblings Heat Miser (George S. Irving) and Snow Miser (Juan Chioran, replacing the late Dick Shawn), benign demon-like creatures that control the world's temperatures. In fact, Santa's sleigh was actually sabotaged by the North Wind (Brad Adamson), who secretly covets Santa's position of authority, or something, for no clear reason.

Mother Nature orders her quarreling sons to take Santa's place, and they must learn to get along with one another while the North Wind continues to plot St. Nick's overthrow.

Much like the less-inspired, later Rankin/Bass shows, Eddie Guzelian's teleplay struggles to find new story avenues worth exploring, but that holiday gold mine was played out long ago, and the prevailing sense of déjà vu was probably inevitable. The feuding Miser Brothers, initially based on the then-popular Smothers Brothers and their act ("Mother always liked you best!" etc.)* are given a few new wrinkles, and their eventual reconciliation is almost touching, while Guzelian adds a few promising new characters, such as the industrious female elf Tinsel, Santa's Chief Engineer.

But the shortcomings of the script are more than compensated by the obvious affection and care given the production, which stylistically almost exactly replicates the Rankin/Bass universe of old, though here with a production polish and lavishness far exceeding what had come before. The animation is basically flawless - not always the case with some of the early shows - the miniature sets are lavish and attractive, the lighting and photography excellent throughout. And for a change some CGI enhancements - snowflakes, background skies, etc. - actually enhance the look instead of taking attention away from the older animation art form.

Though Brad Anderson's North Wind seems to be channeling Kelsey Grammer's Sideshow Bob (from TV's The Simpsons), the other voice characterizations appropriately fill the void left by Rankin/Bass regulars who've since passed away (Paul Frees, etc.).

It's especially nice to hear Mickey Rooney and George S. Irving reprising their old characters. Both were in their late-80s at the time and their voices are lower and more gravelly since the 1974 show (Rooney had first played Santa Claus in 1970's Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town) but they're instantly recognizable and their nostalgia value is immense. The new songs are generally unmemorable, but a reprise of the brothers' signature song is delightful.

Video & Audio

Apparently filmed one frame at a time in HD video, A Miser Brothers' Christmas looks just great on DVD. The 16:9 enhanced image is bright and colorful with exceptional detail, while the 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround is equally impressive. If like me you're used to the older 4:3 monophonic shows, this technologically updated special is a treat. Optional English and French subtitles are included on the special but not the documentary.

Extra Features

What Makes Stop Motion Go? is a pretty good 4:3 behind-the-scenes documentary, featuring a lot of good footage of the puppets being cast and animated on the surprisingly large miniature sets. I don't think the words "Rankin" or "Bass" are heard even once, and there's no footage from any of their shows, a shame, and overall this is a featurette for the masses and not the animation buffs, but it's okay.

Parting Thoughts

A Miser Brothers' Christmas will appeal to nostalgic 40-somethings as much as their children. It lacks the freshness of the earliest and best Rankin/Bass stop-motion specials, but is so well made that it hardly matters. Highly Recommended.

* That's how the Miser Brothers express it, but as reader Sergei Hasenecz notes, "The correct quote, Tom to Dick, is 'Mom always liked you best!' Of Dick's comebacks to his older brother, the one I always liked best was, 'Do you know why Mom always liked me best? Because I was an only child.'"

Stuart Galbraith IV's latest audio commentary, for AnimEigo's Tora-san DVD boxed set, is on sale now.