The Nelvana Holiday Specials: A Cosmic Christmas

Nelvana is a Canadian animation company founded in 1971, whom have made several famous cartoons such as Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, and the Magic School Bus. Nelvana first works were animated short subjects combining live action with animation. But between 1977 to the 1980's, Nelvana produced 6 animated holiday specials. Many of these specials have more unusual themes and often feature elements of science fiction: which was popular at the time. I am now starting a series of blog posts looking over each of these specials and analyzing them in the order that they were released.

The first animated special Nelvana released was A Cosmic Christmas on December 4, 1977. The special starts with a boy named Peter wandering around town with his pet goose Lucy on Christmas Eve. The town is in a frenzy, buying presents and generally losing their cool. The townspeople are so distracted by their Christmas frenzy that no one but Peter notices a UFO land near the outskirts of town. And when Peter tries to tell the people around him, the townspeople ignore him and the local bullies harass Peter. So Peter and Lucy go off to find the UFO and discover three aliens. These aliens, whom bear a resemblance to the wise men of the biblical story, found a strange star that appeared in the sky for one night about 2000 years ago and were sent to find the source of that star. Peter infers that they saw the Star of Bethlehem and that the aliens are trying to find the meaning of Christmas. So Peter takes the three aliens into town to tell the meaning of Christmas. However the townspeople's selfishness and anger goes against Peter's message of love and peace which confuses the aliens. Peter then takes the three aliens to his home, where the aliens get a better idea of what the holidays are about due to the old-fashioned Christmas memories of Peter's Grandma.
**SPOILER WARNING: IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE ENDING SPOILED SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH**
The bullies seen earlier in the special are revealed to be homeless and are starving. The leader gets the idea to steal Lucy so that they can eat the goose. During the previous scene the leader takes Lucy and Peter chases after them. The leader falls through some thin ice and when Peter attempts to save the bully he also falls in. The townspeople had been gathered to confront the UFO the aliens came in and notice the two boys in the ice. The townspeople start to form a chain to reach the boys, but need a few more people. They beckon the aliens whom are standing at a distance to help. But the aliens are conflicted because they can only observe the action, they are not allowed to directly participate in the affairs of this planet. However the leader alien says that they need to learn the meaning of Christmas and they help the surprised townspeople save the boys. The townspeople are angry at the bullies for taking the goose and want to punish them. The aliens are confused why the bullies stole the goose in the first place and Peter's grandma explains that the bullies were probably hungry and Peter invites them to have dinner with them. As a party occurs at Peter's house and everyone learning the true meaning of Christmas the aliens leave forming lights as they depart.
**SPOLIERS END**


This being the very first special Nelvana produced, the animation is a little rougher than the later specials Nelvana produced. The character designs however, are very interesting, and this is the only special Nelvana produced that the majority of the characters are human. The plot is very interesting and has a good moral that goes into the true meaning of Christmas. Obviously the religion aspect of the special is very dominant, which may upset non-Christians. But, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus and one very famous Christmas special features another similar moral to A Cosmic Christmas: A Charlie Brown Christmas. Truthfully, both specials mention the religion aspect briefly enough to not preach but still feature it enough to not make it seem like an afterthought. This is a very smart special, and has decent enough animation. I highly recommend people to watch this Christmas special.


So one special down, 5 more to go. The next special I'm going to write about is The Devil and Daniel Mouse. See you then!