RiffTrax: Christmas with Rifftrax Featuring Magic Christmas Tree

While not as side-splitting as some of their other releases, Rifftrax's MAGIC CHRISTMAS TREE is still a pretty solid laugh value that's certain to become traditional viewing among the more twisted of us. First up, the Rifftrax guys present a quartet of vintage toy commercials (without riffing) which are fun & unintentionally funny all by themselves. Next is a brief segment of something that tried to pass itself off as The Joe DiMaggio Show, in which joltin' Joe introduces some pasty guy who instantly turns the proceedings into a five-minute long Lionel Train commercial. Insulting, thinly-veiled commercialism passing as entertainment, from the more simplistic era of the 1950's; pretty funny now thanks to the riffs. Then we are stunned by an animated short, THE SHANTY WHERE SANTY CLAUS LIVES, an embarrassing piece of pap which highlights the shockingly insensitive time period in which it was created. Truthfully, it's not all that good, either as originally presented or as victim of the guys' riffing. Finally, it's on to the main event...The feature film is truly something else. I don't know who dreamed up this head-scratching mess that passed for a movie once upon a time but it's so strange and stupid that it almost defies coherent explanation. The creation of MAGIC CHRISTMAS TREE might have happened something like this: One afternoon a third grade teacher asked her class "Alright children, what kinds of things should be in a Christmas movie?" The hyperactive tykes screamed: "Santa!" "Witches!" "Fire engines!" "Halloween!" "Meatloaf!" "Giants!" "The Three Stooges!" The teacher mailed off the resulting list to Hollywood. Some demented/inebriated sub-Ed Woodian schlockmeister read it, proclaimed "Pure Genius!" and hammered it into a incompetent, incoherent shooting script ...and the resulting disaster is the MAGIC CHRISTMAS TREE. What's it all about, you ask? Well, a selfish, slow-witted young boy uses wishes granted by a sarcastic magic pine tree in order to kidnap Santa for himself, thereby ruining Christmas for the rest of the world. Eventually a sweaty, hairy giant roaming in the nearby hills threatens to make the kid his love slave (or something) and that scares our porky problem child into making things right with Santa and mankind again. There's also an evil yet nice witch & her cat Lucifer(!), a satanic Santa ring, on-foot car chases, demonic incantations, meatloaf & baloney sandwich swapping ...oh, and let's not forget the boy's boring, mannequin-like family, lead by an idiot father who disturbingly resembles Three Stooges alumni Curly Joe DeRita. There's more to it than that but that more or less sums it up. Just do yourself a favor and don't bother trying to make any sense of this thing. You'll only end up giving your gobsmacked brain a painful, perhaps permanent charlie horse.Picture quality is mediocre for all the stuff on this DVD, but that's likely due to the crummy public domain-level quality of the source material. Audio is thankfully strong & level. There are no extras beyond the listed commercials, short and feature film. The spirit of the holidays is alive & well with this latest offering from Rifftrax. String up some twinkly lights & shiny tinsel, put on a scary costume, hang your stockings by the chimney with care, carve a few jack-o-lanterns and enjoy! It's the magically magic-less magical magic of the MAGIC CHRISTMAS TREE! Happy holidays everyone!!! 4 STARS

Oh, wow. Not since the Ice Cream Bunny terrorized young viewers has there been such Christmas mayhem unleashed on unsuspecting viewers. This RiffTrax Christmas DVD must be seen to believed; there are some old commercials that are modestly amusing and a distressing cartoon called "The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives" (let's just say it couldn't be made today and leave it at that,) and finally the truly odd main feature, "Magic Christmas Tree." "Magic Christmas Tree" is a half black and white, half color feature featuring an unscheduled bout of unconsciousness and a witch (Now where have I seen that before?) framing an almost incoherent plot involving a cat named Lucifer, a turtle named Ichabod (whose onscreen introduction is highly surprising to say the very least,) and an incompetent dad trying to mow the lawn while mom talks to Betty on the phone about nothing at great length. Too bad they used clown horns for topsoil! (Don't ask.) Ichabod munches clover and witchcraft helps kidnap Santa (leading to a rift in time) all because of a meddling and annoying magic Christmas tree. Reading the credits proves entertaining ("Nedra" is one of the voices...,) but in case you missed it, this whole spectacle was brought to you (in an odd square format that I've never seen anywhere else) by the Long Beach Civic Light Opera Association (of all things.)"Magic Christmas Tree" is timelessly disturbing holiday fodder, and the only Christmas movie able to bridge the gap between meatloaf sandwiches and inexplicable lawnmower accidents. It is an ageless classic that RiffTrax brings to you for the holidays!Merry Christmas!

This is horrible. And only the RIFFTRAX crew can make it watchable!The commercials are a hoot - although I do remember wanting the battlewagon when I was young (yes, I am THAT old). The cartoon was certainly not made in these PC times. It does make you sit up and go "HUH???? Did I just actually see that? And why am I laughing?"Then the main event! A witch, a cat named Lucifer, a giant and then that stupid christmas tree. And it talks. And has an attitude. And it makes Charlie Brown's christmas tree look like the one from Rockefeller Center. This movie-ette is an accident that found a place to happen (your television). You don't want to look - but like real humans, we do. And thank goodness! The riffs are spectacular, as usual, and will put a smile on your face.A couple of notes I had for myself - did they have crack back then - because the people who wrote this were on SOMETHING. Was their budget the same as my lunch money back then ($.30) - because if it was, they probably had change coming back.Anyway - sit back on Christmas eve and enjoy. The rifftrax guys prove that you CAN polish a turd.

You are going to need a lot of eggnog for this one. It is a very bad movie, but is also a bit low key. A relaxing rifftrax if you will rather than a bust from the gut wtf (buy jack the giant killer rifftrax for that kind of laugh). I got this one to apologize to my friends that could not handle Santa Claus meets the Ice-cream Bunny and this one is definitely friendly to the beer and popcorn atmosphere of a casual bad movie x-mas party.Also--incase a representative from the company that makes MST3K dvds is reading-- I am willing to pay $15-$20 bucks for new movie riffs, but if your are just reselling the old episodes, then please price them as episodes. How much would you pay for 5 episodes of Star Trek TNG? 4 episodes of MST3K should not cost more than that.