Nostalgia sells. It’s a fact. Every 20 years or so, the kids of an era grow up, have some cash to spare (hopefully), and indulge in the interests of their youth. Or their adolescence. Or whatever they were into 20 years ago. It’s a trend that Netflix’s The Toys That Made Us capitalised on beautifully, telling the mostly unknown stories of the development of some beloved toys of the 1980s and 1990s.
With a style that could best be described as “quirky,” with its reenactions of critical moments in the development of the toys and frenetic editing, coupled with the fact that many of those involved had no clue what they were doing, never mind that they were creating products that would win over the hearts of millions of children, it all added up to a certain nostalgic charm.
The Movies That Made Us did Something similar for Dirty Dancing, Home Alone, Ghostbusters, and Die Hard, but somehow, The Holiday Movies That Made Us, didn’t quite fill me with the same warm fuzzy feeling as the previous series.
BTS
It isn’t because of the switch in narrator, from Donald Ian Black to Phe Caplan, as she gels perfectly with the the show’s vibe.
Maybe it has something to do with the movies covered. Elf and Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (TMTNBC) are both undoubtedly Christmas classics, but they don’t quite have the same nostalgic draw for me.
I was 15 when I saw TMTNBC in the cinema, celebrating my sister’s birthday (my dad still refers to it as “that awful skeleton thing”). I love it, but I’m not nostalgic for it.
You Are So Money and You Don’t Even Know It
Another issue is that these two shows have a couple of glaring omissions. Neither of the film’s directors appear, nor do most of the stars. Tim Burton only appears in photos or through contemporary news coverage, while Jon Favreau appears in what looks like footage from the DVD extras of Elf and clips from Swingers.
Danny Elfman almost makes up for this on his own, but having nothing from Will Ferrell, Zooey Deschanel, or even James “Jimmy the Dream” Caan, Bob Newheart, or Ed Asner (all of whom are still alive!?) is a bit of a letdown.
It’s a problem that shows like this are going to run into eventually. A large part of the appeal of previous nostalgia-fests, was that you simply didn’t have access to the behind the scenes goings on or supplementary material (or at least that’s how it was in my day!). The closer you get to the present, the more DVD/Blu-rray extras, interviews, and analysis on YouTube is available, ruining some of that mystique.
There are still some great stories here. Danny Elfman is a delight, between his bafflement at being asked to produce a soundtrack for the first time, as well as his contradictory memories of certain events to writer (and former girlfriend) Caroline Thompson, James Caan’s working relationship with the crew on the set of Elf, as well as Henry Selick’s creative clashes. The jokey editing, however, becomes more of an annoying crutch here. There are far too many gags and some of them just don’t work. Like an old joke about stop motion being slow? That was funny… 20 years ago when it was on The Fast Show!
Leave It In, It’ll Play
The editors seems to have had a field day using clips from films, both those being discussed and those only tangentially related, to finish interviewees sentences, or inserting out of context reaction shots from interviews to add more drama. I’m not sure how Deane Taylor, Art Director on The Nightmare Before Christmas feels about having footage of him holding a colour calibration card left in, or how the other interviewees felt having footage of them drinking water or leaving the interview included, just for laughs.
After revisiting the Ghostbusters episode of The Movies That Made Us, these two episodes feel like a pale imitation. That episode had access to Dan Akroyd, and director Ivan Reitman, and knew when to cut back on the yuks, especially when it came to the pair discussing their memories of the late Harold Ramis.
Following the writer and producer of Elf as they swing by the coffee shop where they first discussed the project, was never going to have same impact as Akroyd and Reitman standing together outside the New York Public library for the first time in 34 years since they shot Ghostbusters.
But maybe that’s just my nostalgia speaking.
The Holiday Movies That Made Us
Netflix, Season 1, 2 episodes
Showrunner: Brian Volk-Weiss
Host: Phe Caplan
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