Tuesday's Forgotten TV: The Gift of Winter

There's SNOW Tuesday's Forgotten like this week's Tuesday's Forgotten!

Sorry...

This week, it's the 1974 Canadian animated special The Gift of Winter. This special introduced the characters that would gain greater exposure in the 1978 Halloween special Witch's Night Out. Here, characters Small, Tender, Bazooey, Goodly, Nicely, Malicious, and Rotten march to see the spirit of Winter himself to protest the harsh temperatures that threaten to ruin the town's Christmas. It's a long, exhausting trek, and when they arrive at Winter's headquarters, they get a frosty reception.

Sorry...

As with Witch's Night Out, The Gift of Winter features the voice talents of Gilda Radnor as the narrator, Nicely, and Malicious; this time, she costars with her future Saturday Night Live castmate Dan Akroyd in the roles of Goodly and Rotten, one year shy of their not ready for primetime debut. Although the animation of Witch's was on the crude side, it's even moreso here, but not in a bad way. The characters look like sketchbook pencil drafts come to life, which gives the special an earthy appeal. With their heavy winter gear on, they look not unlike South Park characters!  It looks every bit the independently produced cartoon from 1974 that it is, and it's actually refreshing to see animation this raw in an age where so much animation is computer generated (as delightful as much of it is).

As in Witch's, the characters live up to their sobriquets: Nicely is nice and considerate, Goodly is righteous and an activist, Bazooey is a hippie, Small and Tender are...you know, and Malicious and Rotten? Let me put it this way: their idea of dealing with Old Man Winter? Sneaking in dynamite to blow up his headquarters. I kid you not! They literally plot to commit an act of terrorism! I love you, 1974!

This is one of the VHS tapes I picked up at the Goodwill store in my neighborhood earlier this year, and I'm glad I did so, as I highly enjoyed it.  Here below is the special in its entirety for you to enjoy. Please leave a comment after viewing if you can. Thanks!