Welcome To My Christmas-Themed Nightmare

Welcome, won't you?

Looks like Rifftrax is releasing the rest of the Christmas shorts backlog one at a time. Today's offering is a nightmarish Czechoslovakian stop-motion horror film called A Christmas Dream. My use of the words "nightmarish" and "horror" amounts to humorous exaggeration, yes, but not by much. Head on down, purchase, and embrace the madness.

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Fly, Fly, Fly!

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In less than a week, I've gotten three reviews and one event report behind. Truly, the holidays have been good to us.

In an attempt to rectify the backlog just a little, here's my event report for the Rifftrax Live Christmas show that went down last Wednesday and Thursday. Reviews for Rifftrax's Christmas Rhapsody and Rudoph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, as well as Cinematic Titanic's East Meets Watts will be coming soon. Before Christmas? Maybe, but probably not. To sum up the future reviews, I would describe these offerings, in order, as "sort of okay", "awesome" and "badical"*.

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*Meant as a compliment.

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Rudolph, I Need You Tonight

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The short containing the biggest laugh of Rifftrax's Live Christmas show is now available for sale. Head on down and grab 1948's cartoon version of Rudoph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I'm curious about the three lines we missed after Santa's come-on scene.

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Small, and of No Account

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The day after their live show ended, Rifftrax releases a studio version of one of the shorts they used. Those of you who couldn't make it are now free to enjoy the antics of a suicidally depressed young tree in Christmas Rhapsody. Grab it here.

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He Has No Bone of His Own

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The San Rafael theater's tape delay equipment apparently malfunctioned, so my sister and I rushed down to the Sequoia Theater in Mill Valley instead, arriving with only two minutes to spare. Rifftrax Live was hilarious as expected. It differed subtantially from their previous show in that they favored substance over style this time around.

The interstitial material was all but non-existent--some introductions, a couple of shout-outs to a contest winner in the balcony, and a trio of early twentieth century toy commercials that have, um, not aged well. Let's just say that at some point in our nation's history, a child could watch, wide-eyed, while a large toy robot pushed a small toy robot (named Ding-A-Ling) into his, uh, I'd better stop there.

The other eighty minutes of this ninety-minute show is all riffin'. The first two shorts are repeats, and we've seen the gift exchange skit from the closing credits as well, but the vast majority of the material is new, and all but two of the shorts are Christmas-themed.

"Weird" Al Yankovic joins them to riff on one of the non-Christmas shorts, a hallucinatory little number in which the members of a close-harmony trio play three roles each to teach us the wonders of pork. Also noteworthy is the last short, a forties cartoon version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which contains a moment so pricelessly unsettling (and Kevin's reaction so pricelessly shocked) that the riffers lost three lines to the audience reaction.

If you haven't seen it yet, it's playing again tonight. I'll post a full write-up in the Events section next week.

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As Was Foretold

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Those two things I told you about yesterday? They're happening today.

In the case of Cinematic Titanic's live DVD of East Meets Watts, it's already happened. Those of you who prefer properly pressed and cased DVDs can order it here. If you're okay with the burn-it-yourself method, you can grab a download from EZtakes.com. I started my download at about 10 p.m. PST last night and it was finished when I left for work at 6 a.m. this morning, so it came through at a reasonable speed. Between an upcoming business trip and tonight's event, I probably won't get to burn and watch it until the weekend.

And speaking of tonight's event, in just a few short hours, my sister and I will be heading down to San Raphael to see the Rifftrax live broadcast. Not exactly sure what the subjects are, but from the hints they've dropped, I'm guessing it will include some sort of Mike Nelson vs. "Weird" Al cage match set against a backdrop of musical Christmas pork chops. If you haven't already, grab your tickets now. If you can't go tonight, it'll rebroadcast tomorrow. I'll drop by with some quick impressions tomorrow.

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Two Live Crews

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Nothing today, but tomorrow offers a plethora of potential delights. On the Rifftrax front, there's the live broadcast tomorrow evening, as well as the rebroadcast the following night. Featuring Weird Al, a bunch of Christmas shorts and some sort of porcine operetta. Click the banner near the top of the page for tickets.

On the Cinematic Titanic Front, two separate twitters and the product page promise release of East Meets Watts, a DVD record of a live riffing of a kung fu/blaxploitation, uh, thing. Will it be a DVD with download-to-burn to come? Will it be the other way around? Will it be both? Maybe we'll get an official announcement at some point.

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