Miserly Behavior
I’d like to apologize for the missed updates- there were some issues with the server that took a surprisingly long time to fix. This post was supposed to go live back on the 11th, but the Powers That Be were not interested in helping me stay current. However, it’s still mildly relevant, seeing as today us Christmas and all, and the server is back now, I think, so it’s all good. The original lapse in server integrity also gave me the opportunity to stumble across this:
That’s right, in the tradition of the last few years, the stories and shows of yesteryear are being mined once again in the interests of making semi-new content. Unlike some other Xmas remakes and spinoffs in recent memory, this one stays true to the original medium, although the budget is clearly higher and the technical know-how is more advanced, which kind of takes away the original charm, in my opinion. It also seems like they’ve tried to flesh out the story of the Miser Brothers, give them some history to explain the reason for their mutual dislike, aside from the fact that they are polar (pun not intended) opposites, and maybe even make Heat Miser more of a sympathetic character. That last part worries me some, as I especially enjoy the gruff, almost belligerent Heat Miser from the original:
The Miser Bros’ song-and-dance routine from The Year Without a Santa Claus
As if the change in the musical tone and tempo and the hellish lair that Heat Miser inhabits were not enough, George Irving’s ponderous delivery and the slight changes in the lyrics (“they call me Heat Miser”, as opposed to ‘friends call me Snow Miser’, for example) lend a certain ominous power seasoned with thinly veiled threat. Snow Miser will turn your hat a snowball, change it back, and then take you out to lunch. Heat Miser will melt your bicycle while you’re sitting on it and dare you to get mad about it.
But the changes that they may be making are just part of the formula process that seems to be alive and well, (like the need for a love interest,) so I will just bite the bullet and hope for the best. On the whole, it looks like it just might be a satisfactory reprise of these two characters, as opposed to another attempt that I unfortunately stumbled across while researching this post:
(CAUTION: If you’re one of those people who felt Michael Bay ‘raped your childhood’ with the recent Transformers movie, or take similar offense at other resurrections of older works, you might want to skip the clip below. It’s not pretty.)
I’ll be watching (or at the very least taping) A Miser Brothers’ Christmas with low expectations, and looking for Rankin-Bass DVDs, for I am suddenly waxing very nostalgic.
See you in two weeks!
