Review: Harvey Beaks “It’s Christmas You Dorks!”

 

When you know you’ve seen history, how do you write about it?

Spoilers Below

In what will probably be the 2016 finale of Harvey Beaks, we get a fun wintry mix of songs, stop-motion animation, and what was really about as close to a silent episode as you’ve seen since BoJack Horseman, but with a bit more heart in terms of delivery.

Whether it’s Harvey and his pals hurling snowballs, the squirrels, and their lone nut, or dreams of dance-skating with your friends’ mom, Harvey Beaks continues to tug on the heart strings with jelly-filled shorts that remind you again and again why this is Nickelodeon’s best-animated series in 15 years. The holiday special alone is right there with the Rankin-Bass productions and certainly puts out to pasture anyone else who has done an animated Christmas special in the last quarter-century.

And while Nickelodeon really put up the press hard for its first animated TV/movie special with mostly-forgettable AlbertC.H. Greenblatt and his crew quietly crafted a musical tour-de-force for the ages that should be required watching every Christmas between now and the end of time.  Seriously, other networks have been trying for YEARS to capture the magic of the early Charlie Browns, and haven’t come close. Shit, NBC aired THREE, count ’em THREE Christmas new animated specials last year, and they all sucked. Netflix, Crackle, Disney Channel, everyone has thrown their hats into the ring, but Nickelodeon’s gonna have the winner. Even uncrackable franchises like Ice Age, Shrek, Toy Story, and others have attempted to find that spirit that was clearly there in the 50’s and 60’s and just isn’t there today…unless if you’re talking about Harvey Beaks. 

Yea, the stop-motion parts were awesome, but it was really the whole package of “It’s Christmas You Dorks” that delivered. And quite frankly, if this really is one of the final episodes of Harvey Beaks, I hope it ends right here. Because Monday morning everyone’s going to be talking about watching one or few of the animated holiday specials airing this weekend, make sure you tell them this was by far the best and to watch it immediately.

SCORE
10/10