Christmas Is Here Again (2007)

When Someone Steals Christmas and a Girl Has to Fix It

Every December, the streaming queues fill up with holiday films fighting for attention against the same half-dozen classics. Christmas Is Here Again (2007) arrived quietly on DVD with an all-star voice cast, a premise ripped straight from the golden age of stop-motion Christmas specials, and enough earnest charm to make even the most hardened Scrooge sit up a little straighter. Directed by Robert Zappia and produced by Renegade Animation -- the Glendale studio behind Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi -- it was the company's first feature film, and it shows both the ambition and the growing pains you would expect from that kind of debut.

The story centers on Sophiana, an orphan girl who walks with a cane after a car accident took her parents. Thirty years before the film opens, a disgruntled former coal supplier named Krad -- which is simply "dark" spelled backwards, a naming convention that tells you exactly what kind of villain he is -- stole Santa's magical toy sack. Without it, Santa cannot deliver gifts, children around the world slowly forget what Christmas even means, and the holiday spirit fades like a candle left in a draft. Sophiana, along with a scrappy band of new friends including the boy Dart, a talking fox named Buster, and a polar bear called Charlee, sets off to retrieve the sack and save Christmas.

A Cast That Could Have Carried Anything

On paper, the voice cast for this film is genuinely remarkable. Andy Griffith brings warmth and grandfatherly authority to Santa Claus. Ed Asner -- who spent years playing a different version of Santa in Elf -- here plays the villain Krad with surprising menace. Kathy Bates takes on the stern orphanage headmistress Miss Dowdy. Norm Macdonald gives the fox Buster a deadpan comic edge. Brad Garrett rumbles through the role of Charlee. Shirley Jones, Jay Leno as narrator, and child actors Madison Davenport and Colin Ford round out an ensemble that most studio pictures twice this budget would envy.

The problem is that the script does not always give them space to breathe. Krad in particular gets one memorable villain song, "I'm Evil," that lets Asner stretch, but too many of the other characters are painted in broad strokes. Sophiana is sympathetic and determined, and Davenport handles the role with a maturity beyond her years, but the supporting cast is sometimes reduced to reaction shots and one-liners when they deserved full scenes.

The Mythology Is the Movie's Secret Weapon

What makes Christmas Is Here Again more interesting than its modest production budget suggests is its mythology. Santa's toy sack was not just any bag -- according to the film's internal logic, it was sewn from the swaddling clothes of the baby Jesus, which is why it possesses magical properties and why no replacement can simply be manufactured. That detail gives the story genuine religious weight without being preachy, grounding the holiday magic in something older and more resonant than workshop machinery. It is the kind of lore-building that the Rankin/Bass specials did so well, and Zappia clearly grew up watching those.

The polar setting is used effectively. Ice caves, blizzards, and the looming threat of Krad's coal mine all create a sense of physical danger that keeps the quest from feeling like a simple fetch quest. Sophiana's disability is treated matter-of-factly rather than as either a tragedy to overcome or an inspirational device -- she just uses her cane, keeps moving, and the film respects her for it.

Where It Stumbles

The animation is serviceable without being exceptional. Renegade Animation's television roots are visible in the character movement, which lacks the fluidity of theatrical features. Some of the musical numbers stop the story cold rather than advancing it, a common pitfall for animated musicals working without a Menken or a Sherman at the keyboard. The pacing sags noticeably in the second act before picking up again for the finale.

The humor aimed at adults is hit-or-miss. Norm Macdonald's deadpan delivers more often than not, but some of the broader comedy feels like it belongs in a different, louder film. The tone occasionally pulls in two directions at once, unsure whether it wants to be a gentle fairy tale or a winking family comedy.

A Genuine Holiday Spirit Under the Rough Edges

None of that is enough to sink it. Christmas Is Here Again wears its heart publicly and without embarrassment, which is rarer than it should be in holiday entertainment. The core message -- that Christmas lives in memory and belief, and that it can be recovered even after thirty years of forgetting -- lands with real feeling, especially in the film's quieter moments between Sophiana and Santa.

One review from The Independent Critic called it "an ideal choice for families, children and for Scrooges like myself who, somewhere deep inside, still want to believe." That is probably the most accurate summary you will find. This is not a film that reinvents the genre or produces a song you will still be humming in March. It is a film that tries sincerely to do something old-fashioned and mostly succeeds. For a first feature from an animation house that had only done television, that counts for quite a lot.

If you have seen the Rankin/Bass library so many times you can recite it from memory, Christmas Is Here Again offers a fresh variation on those familiar themes. It is best watched with children young enough to accept its logic without interrogating it, and with adults sentimental enough to appreciate what it is reaching for even when it falls slightly short.