REVIEW: REGULAR SHOW “THE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL”

The guys must destroy a gift in order to save Christmas.

Spoilers Below

It’s  Christmas time and everyone’s having a good time at a big ol’ bash! Rigby and Mordecai decide to get out to stock up on some more soda when CRASH!! Santa falls through a nearby garage! After having to prove who the hell he is, Santa tells the guys that his workshop created a special kind of gift that makes people go crazy and as a result needs to be destroyed because his evil lead toy designing elf aka Quillgin intends to use if for bad stuff.  After Santa passes out, Mordecai and Rigby grab the gift and go get help, but by the time they come back Santa has already disappeared! At first the rest of the park employees aren’t convinced that Mordecai and Rigby even met Santa, let alone have an evil-inducing present, that is until they kinda demo the gift and almost go under its spell until Skips grabs it. Skips tells the guys that the present can not be destroyed by normal weapons as its made from dark magic, so  the big guy suggests they take the present to the rival park so as to dump it into the lava fields. Unfortunately, Rigby sets off an alarm which causes the park employees to get captured and questioned by Gene of whom also sets off the present with his fellow park rangers causing everyone to go nuts. After Gene gets a taste, he has to come to a decision…help his rival park colleagues or ruin Christmas!

Thankfully Gene decides to help the gang by taking off in snow mobiles thus narrowly escaping the clutches of Quillgin and his evil henchmen. The park gang head into the booby trap-infested cave and have to work together to get through a bunch of challenges all the meanwhile the elves are chasing them. Thankfully, through the power of teamwork the guys make it to their destination but Quillgin shows up to stop them with a gun! With danger surely looming, all looks lost for our fellowship of park employees until Santa friggin’ Claus shows up with an invisibility cloak. That said, Quillgin has a grenade and he hurls it at everyone and is able to grab the present and uses its powers to find a way to destroy Christmas…forever! But before the evil elf can even use it, Mordecai tackles Quillgin into the pit with Rigby close behind, struggles to get the package loose, and is able to summon matching airboards to fly out of harms way leaving the evil elf to perish. Back at the house, Thomas is the only one left and the Mordecai and Rigby are ordered to clean up the house. But, with the help of their new invisibility cloaks, the guys are able to hide from Benson.

I have no idea how these guys seem to be able to do it every time and by these guys I mean the writers for Regular Show. It’s like, let’s take the rule book on Christmas specials and completely throw them away. Then make Santa  pretty much into a superhero of whom has to battle an evil elf. Throw in the fact that the park employees had to go through what I thought to be Regular Show’s answer to the Paths of the Dead when it came to the litany of trials being tasked by Muscle Man(DDR-tiles), Benson(pinball), and Pops (wrestling a fucking polar bear), and you get yourself a truly momentous achievement in animated television. Ed Asner(Elf) plays the greatest Santa Claus in the history of film, but I do think that Thomas Haden Church was a bit of a let down with Quillgin as I felt he was sorely miscast. That said, this episode had all the ingredients to send this episode into perfection, but even with the slight smudge, this episode shouldn’t be missed, and as a result sets a standard for Christmas specials for years to come!

(9.0 out of 10)