The ScratchPad: Top Ten Animated Holiday Specials (#10-#6)

Welcome to the ScratchPad, your number one source
For animation and yuletide, of course.

The holiday season's upon us in droves
With specials and movies abundant as cloves.
I'm here to sort out the best of the best
So you can enjoy the season in jest.

So, without any more build up or further ado,
Let us see the number ten spot coming through

#10: Billy and Mandy Save Christmas (from the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy)


Few holiday specials have a unique flair.
They're churned out in droves, and their writers don't care.
But I'm happy to say that for Billy and Mandy
The writing is sharp, and the humor is dandy.

After losing a bet to an evil-souled child,
Grim the Reaper is no longer free to run wild.
Forever imprisoned as a permanant slave
To two humans, barely old enough to shave.

So, when Billy gets all sad and lonely and sorry,
He goes to see Santa, that's where things get awry.
Turns out Santa, to all of our shock and our fright,
Shouldn't be here, but rather in Twilight.

Witty, funny, and Burton-ish, too.
Billy and Mandy are the first in our slew.

#9: The Fright Before Christmas (from Danny Phanton)

Next, we come to a rompous, odd roast
About a teenager: half-human, half ghost.
He hates Christmas so, because, on a whim
It seems Christmas hasn't been too kind to him.

So, perhaps out of boredom, perhaps out of spite
Danny destroys a poem on Christmas night.
Its writer is hateful and ghastly and mean.
No doubt this is the oddest special I've seen

You'll notice, no doubt, in a very short time
That every last line in this special, it rhymes.
This adds a magic to the special, unique.
Making this special my number nine pick.

#8: Invasion of the Secret Santas (from Batman: The Brave and The Bold)

I love superheroes, I must say I do.
So, any special with them's worth a view.
Although, I'd have to say, if I could, that very few are ever that good.

But for Batman, however, that's very untrue.
In fact, this holiday special just flew.
With action and heartwarming cheer seeping out,
I have no ill will towards this special, or anger to spout.

See, some holiday specials are all warm and sappy.
This makes them quite bad, you could even say-

Excuse me, I've got a call on line one. Back in a sec.

This special, however, averts that with ease.
It's not only action fans that it can please.
A tale of a robot who yearns for a heart,
And not a single childish joke about-

Sorry, guys. I really need to tell people not to call when I'm blogging.

With the right balance of action and soul,
This special deserves more than just coal.

#7: Christmas with the Joker (from Batman: The Animated Series)
I know what you're thinking, I can hear your mutters.
But, one good Batman special surely deserves another.
This episode aired, and started it all.
A decade where Batman's reign never did fall.

Of course, to start out, you must have a great cast
Like Mark Hamill's Joker, who has swagger and class.
He snide and he's smug and he simply won't lose.
A modern day circus clown meets Uncle Scrooge.

As much as Kevin Conroy has his voice down pat,
(For those of you not here in October, he's the Bat)
It's Hamil's act that truly steals the show,
The first sign of how much this series could glow.

#6: Mickey's A Christmas Carol

There's simply no argument that can ever douse

The appeal of Disney's mascot, Mickey Mouse.

He's been pushed and shoved and over-promoted.
To the point where his resume has become bloated.

Perhaps this is the reason, or just a bad habit.
That I've seemed to forget Mickey's tradmark magic

In this classic story, he's at his best
Scrooge McDuck, in the title role, he can attest.

I feel an urge to brag and to boast
About the exuberance of the three ghosts,
Played by Goofy, Jimminy Cricket and Pete
They deliver an act that's really quite neat.

Which is why I think that it's only proper,
To use this entry as the point where we stop 'er.
Fear not my friends, for the list will conclude
I hope you'll come back for the final strech soon!

Happy Holidays!
Tomato