The Munster clan returns for another television movie, but you’ll wish that it had been made with the original cast. However, it is a pretty harmless family type film that the kids could enjoy.
Eddie Munster (Bug Hall) is getting beat up at school and therefore doesn’t feel like celebrating the Christmas season. Since he’s not acting like his old self and wanting to celebrate the holiday each of his family members decide to try and get him in the Christmas spirit.
His dad Herman (Sam McMurray) wants to buy him a toy from Transylvania, him mom Lilly (Ann Magnuson) enters them into a house decorating contest, and Grandpa (Sandy Baron) is trying to use his alchemy to make it snow. The “ugliest” Munster, Marilyn (Elaine Hendrix), has decided to invite the whole family to the family mansion for a good old-fashioned family Christmas.
While Grandpa is trying to perfect his potion he accidentally transports Santa (Mark Mitchell) and two elves to the manse. When the elves try and ditch Santa to try and find a place to party, Christmas is in definite trouble and in even more trouble if Grandpa can’t devise a way to get Santa back to the North Pole.
I guess most people fall into one of two groups – Munster’s fans or Addam’s Family fans. I always preferred the Munsters since they were on a constant rotation in the syndication package that aired on my local channels after school. The Addam’s Family was a bit harder to see in those days, but DVD has made that much easier these days.
The original cast was pitch perfect and any revivals of the Munsters have always paled in comparison. This attempt does feature some interesting choices, but again it’s just not the Munsters. Maybe that’s because it’s in color.
Sam McMurray (from the Tracey Ullman show and vocal work on the Simpsons and many other shows) seems to be attempting to emulate Fred Gwynne and not really doing a very good job of it.
The scenes with Gwynne and Al Lewis were always the highlight of the old show, but Sandy Baron (Jack Klompus from Seinfeld) and McMurray don’t have the chemistry to make it work in the short scenes that the two characters are together and the writers must’ve noticed it too since they’re apart for the most part.
Bug Hall is okay as Eddie, Ann Magnuson (Anything but Love) seems okay as Lilly as well (but again pales to Yvonne DeCarlo and Gwynne’s chemistry). Elaine Hendrix has enough short skirts and tight sweaters to make her turn as Marilyn nice to watch.
If you’re familiar with the old show then you’ll probably dislike this take, however if you’re a kid who isn’t too familiar with the show then this might make a nice little stocking stuffer (the younger the better most likely).
A Scary Little Christmas is presented in fullscreen. The only special features are a collection of “sneak peeks” for other Universal DVDs.
In comparison to the old show, this new holiday film comes up short. However, it might entertain for those that have no familiarity or love for the old show.
The Munster’s Scary Little Christmas is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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