It’s officially December and we all know that means Christmas is well and truly upon us. For the team at Goosed it means a couple of things:
1. Ramping up reviews to help you get the best Christmas presents for those techie folks in your life.
2. The annual argument about whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie (it’s not there I said it, sorry.)
3. Watching a rake load of “real” Christmas movies to find the best one’s to watch this holiday season.
Well taking step number 3 quite literally, I sat down over the weekend and watched the best of what Netflix has to offer. What I found was this adorable, 30-minute long animated short named Angle’s Christmas. Here just check out the trailer:
A potential Christmas Classic?
Maybe not quite the Christmas classic but to be honest if Angela’s Christmas doesn’t make you go “Awh” then you have a heart smaller than the Grinch himself. The story as you might have guessed by now is set in Limerick in the year 1914 and is based on the story by Pulitzer Prize winning Irish author Frank McCourt.
Anyone from Limerick is probably going to spend a good portion of the film recognising streets and buildings that look like they haven’t changed since way back then. Keep an eye out for South’s Pub cameo appearance.
Anyway Angela’s Christmas was made by Brown Bag films, you might remember them as the makers of Give Up Yer Aul Sins (and the Fig roll ads too), as well as other children’s shows such as Doc McStuffins. If getting these heavy hitting creators on board wasn’t enough, Frank McCourt’s wife Ellen McCourt even got involved in the production.
“It was Frank’s dream to see this delicate little Christmas story transformed into a classic Christmas tale” Said Ellen McCourt “He would be thrilled with Angela’s Christmas, as is the entire extended McCourt family.”
Angela’s Christmas Storyline
“McCourt has a way of capturing the mind of young Angela that will have you laughing and crying. The story lends itself beautifully to animation and we are so excited to share this with audiences around the world.” Darragh O’Connell, Creative Director at Brown Bag Films
As with many short films, Angela’s Christmas leaves you yearning for that little more, but maybe that was the hole point?
If you have kids you should sit down and watch this with them as the brilliance of the story is the understanding of how the mind of a child works. As we all know a child’s mind can run wild and in Angela’s Christmas, the little lady herself has a moment of wonder as the local priest tells the story of the baby Jesus.
Seeing the doll of the little baby in the cot and relating it to her own life experiences, Angela decides that baby Jesus needs a blanket or he will “catch his death” in the cold. Well as you can imagine this sparks her wild imagination and leads her to stealing the doll to keep it warm, much to the dismay of the Church going community.
Without giving much of the story away, the rest of Angela’s Christmas sees the little girl trying to protect the doll to make sure he is warm and safe. What we get is a heartwarming story that represents the child’s persistent and innocent desire to ensure everyone even the baby Jesus is taken care of during the loneliest time of year.
Angela’s Christmas is a delightful little Irish short that’s earning rave reviews and rightly so, give it a watch you won’t regret it.
Other Notable Christmas Movies on Netflix:
It’s that time of year to make yourself a hot chocolate, wrap up in the blanket and hide from the cold winter weather. To be fair, Angela’s Christmas is a nice little warm up to get you in the mood for the Christmas flix. So here is a list of movies on Netflix worth getting stuck into (in no particular order):
- Arthur Christmas
- The Christmas Switch
- Christmas Chronicles
- The Nightmare before Christmas
- Jingle all the way
- A Very Murray Christmas
- Love Actually
- Scrooged
- Home Alone
