Chris Colon
With its standard setup and typical "orphan saves Christmas" storyline, while "Christmas Is Here Again" doesn't score many points for originality, it finds refuge in style. Made by small Hollywood-based studio Renegade Animation (staffed by Warner Bros. alumni), it attempts to recapture the pure feel of classic Christmas specials and largely succeeds with its wholesome main characters and retro-modernist art style in a rare case of Flash animation used well. The movie gets a nice kick in the second act from fox Buster (Norm MacDonald) and polar bear Charlee (Brad Garrett) who engage in a brand of fast-paced wordplay and visual gags that are largely absent and sorely needed in most other Christmas specials to offset their standard flair for the saccharine. The movie struggles to find its footing early on, with the narration even trying to get past the admittedly rote first act, and, unfortunately, the songs are the weakest aspect, however I definitely recommend this to be worth checking out for those who think that a lot of the feeling of classic Christmas specials is mostly lost today.