“The Night Before Christmas” is a wonderful and entertaining short, animated movie. The voice talent includes Kevin Kline as the narrator and as Papa. The characters are delightful, including Gregory the mouse (voiced by Lee Tockar), Impelstick, the mischievous fairy (Sam Vincent), Elliester the fairy (Tabitha St. Germain), the Fairy Queen (Kathleen Barr) and Santa (French Tickner). The colors are vivid and the film features a few terrific songs including “I’ll find a way” and “Don’t ever, ever, ever, ever give up!”
The poem is the Clement C. Moore classic, and the video is based on Mary Engelbreit’s wonderful illustrations from her popular book. An additional, original story focuses on a fairy spell cast by the mischievous Impelstick to send Santa and his sleigh into a star field on Christmas Eve. Gregory sets off to stop him and encounters help from the good fairy Elliester and from the Fairy Queen. St. Nick finally shows up at the end just in time for Christmas and the conclusion is a happy one. We are pleased to award this warm Christmas special our Dove Family-Approved Seal for all ages and five Doves, our best rating.