Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol comes this close to screwing it up but somehow still works

TV: Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol comes this close to screwing it up but somehow still works



New feature: You already know the 12 Days Of Christmas, with its drummers drumming and partridges and gold rings, but we here at The A.V. Club like to take everything one step further, for your reading pleasure. Hence, 13 Days Of Christmas, a collection of essays on a handful of beloved holiday classics and a few that have sadly fallen through the cracks. Up today, the very first animated TV Christmas special, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.
What do people think when they watch Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol on TV nowadays? It rarely turns up—though this year, NBC has decided to give the special its first broadcast network showing since the ’80s—and when it does, it’s been cut down from its original running time of 52 minutes, by up to 10 minutes, to better fit into modern timeslots. This is usually accomplished by taking out ...


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The Roots provide a cure for the bah-humbugs with “All I Want For Christmas Is You”

The Roots and their toy instruments provide a cure for the bah-humbugs with “All I Want For Christmas Is You”



Back in June, The Roots and Jimmy Fallon taught us all that we actually love “Call Me Maybe,” especially if it’s played on classroom instruments. Well, they return today to teach us a valuable holiday lesson: It is in fact possible to improve upon what is arguably the best original Christmas pop song of the last 20 years, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” given the right performance. (Sorry, kid from Love, Actually, this wins.) Christmas-sweater-clad ?uestlove and Co. bust out the xylophone, melodica, and shakers, a choir of adorable moppets pop up to provide the holiday-mandated choral accompaniment, and Miss Mariah herself arrives (spectacularly overdressed, of course) to contribute her signature dog whistle to the mix. It’s a perfect cure for a case of the bah-humbugs, and a reaffirmation that—like mega-popular bubblegum pop singles—not all holiday music has to be awful ...

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How DreamWorks Animation Became One of Hollywood's Most Female-Driven Studios

How DreamWorks Animation Became One of Hollywood's Most Female-Driven Studios



Jeffrey Katzenberg now employs far more women producers than men: "You can have a life and still work here."

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