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| - Article title (if different than what the page was named): Ho-ho-ho; the Christmas special we've all been waiting for finally arrives We've all been waiting for the exciting new Christmas special, "Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation," and it's finally come. Just last week, it aired on Disney XD and Disney Channel, and, for the first time ever, on ABC Family in a couple of days (at least at the time I'm writing this). So did it live up to the hype? Was it the Christmas classic we were waiting for? Let's find out. I, honestly, was mixed about it, but still felt it was pretty awesome. Let's start with some of the pros. The visuals, for one, were just phenomenal. The bright colors and vibrant character designs were at their peak. The animation with all the snow, with all the action scenes, were amazing. The design for the character's winter clothing was top-knotch. All the layout artists, character animators, character designers, and of course colorists, were experiencing the highest moment of their career on the show. Plus, there was the stellar voice performance and amazing songs. Each actor and actress served up deliciously rich performances for their characters and really treated them with great care despite it being a special. My favorite song, of course, was Doofenshmirtz's "I Really Don't Hate Christmas;" his songs are always the best ones of the episode, and, while I wasn't very interested in the other songs very much, I did feel that they were greatly delivered and really felt like a Christmas tune. But that brings me to what mixed me: the writing. If this was a normal episode, I would have been rather bored and feel that the episode was lacking. But it wasn't a normal episode; it was a Christmas special. Therefore, it had some warm, sticky-sweet writing signature of Christmas specials. The kind of "this time of year is the greatest" thing that we see a lot, but we've grown to love and actually expect. I was at times slipping from the fact that it wasn't a normal episode, but really, I truly began understanding it was a special and looked at it from a different point of view: this is a Christmas special, and is therefore written like a Christmas special, but what helps it stand out is the whole satirical theme of it, making fun of the cuddly, friendly idea it is. Doofenshmirtz's entire subplot is a huge parody of how penetrating carolers are and how annoying it can get when people are trying to stuff down cheer down your throat when your perfectly jolly and comfortable in your current state of Christmas enjoyment. I was really cracking up at Monogram's disbelief in the fact that Carl did not give the CD to Perry and was in fact not his Secret Santa. Their dynamic is, simply put, delicious, rich, and hilarious. The energy Jeff "Swampy" Marsh and Tyler Alexander Mann put into their characters is actually almost non existing; but you see, that's what makes it so funny! It's the whole simplistic, dry voice performance they give that makes their characters so relateble and funny! And as they develop them, it just gets more and more masterfully funny. And it's this development that helps this special so strongly, too. Isabella is confirmed to be Jewish, something we fans have just guessed at. And this even helps it become a diverse Christmas special in stead of the usual "Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, no others" thing that's become to common lately. Buford also serves as a majorly developed character in this. He plans on redeeming himself just before Christmas in order to be on the good list. And the great part about that is he does. It's like he's Scrooge at the end of A Christmas Carol, redeeming himself before Christmas and becoming better for it. I doubt it'll will actually change him forever, but there's something almost like a Biblical parallel to it — if this wasn't a Disney cartoon, that is. So all and all, I truly enjoyed this special. It was visually stunning and was voiced and sung brilliantly, and while the writing was explicitly sweet and sticky, it was good in that and made fun of itself in the process. It was a great, fun special filled with laughs and smiles, and for that, I give it a jolly old overall A.
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