Review: Total DramaRama “The Tree Stooges Save Christmas”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The kids accidentally destroy Chef’s decorated Christmas tree. Scared this means they’ve ruined his Christmas, they go on an epic mission to replace his holiday treasures.

Our Take:

The Total Drama shows were some of the things I grew up watching during middle school and high school. They offered unique takes on the reality show formula and included specific content that we don’t usually see on a kid-friendly channel. I later gave up on the franchise after Pahkitew Island to focus more on other shows that caught my eye.  

They produced two spin-offs to capitalize on Total Drama’s success: The Ridonculous Race and Total DramaRama. But, unfortunately, I didn’t bother with any of them. I didn’t care that much about The Ridonculous Race, and I’ve only seen a couple of episodes of Total DramaRama, which features kid versions of the characters, and that’s about it.

That is until I got to check out its half-hour holiday episode that sees the Total Drama kids saving Chef Hatchet’s Christmas. The special sees the main characters splitting up into two teams to replace Chef’s tree. While Owen and the others set off to shrink the monuments into ornaments, Duncan’s team goes to get a new tree. Unfortunately, their quest gets sidetracked by their snowman foe, Flakey, who seeks revenge against them by disguising himself as Santa Claus and canceling Christmas.

Was the episode able to get me back into the show? Not really. Was it a watchable Christmas special? Sort of, but I wouldn’t say that it’s the best of the recent Cartoon Network holiday episodes. Like its previous episodes, “The Tree Stooges Save Christmas” sees the show resorting to toning down the franchise’s teen-rated humor to attract a much younger audience. Not only that, but it also has plenty of far-fetched elements that the characters encountered compared to their predecessors. In this episode, those elements include an evil snowman plotting to cancel Christmas and using Harold’s shrink ray to shrink the iconic monuments. The result is a lump of coal that no one wants to get for Christmas this year.

The episode offered a couple of moments that attempted to provide a laugh or two, including Cody’s stupidity and Harold accidentally shrinking Leshawna. Sadly, these jokes were heavily bare-boned and idiotic to leave an everlasting memory in my brain. I remembered liking the previous Total Drama shows for their humorous satirization and clever teen-rated dialogue. So it’s a shame that they provided a spin-off that dumbed it down just to reach out to younger viewers while alienating older fans in the process.

As far as storytelling goes, it’s suitable enough to impress specific followers of the series. I thought the story in the episode was fine until it ran out of steam in the finale. Flakey the snowman seemed to be a forgettable antagonist, and the characters’ solution in telling the two “Santas” apart was annoyingly ridiculous. The voice acting can be irritating from time to time, primarily due to the cast attempting to sound like young, noisy versions of the teens from Total Drama and 6teen. Thankfully, they’re not enough to make me want to throw my television out the window.

Overall, “The Tree Stooges Save Christmas” is a fundamental and mediocre depiction of the Total Drama kids saving the holidays for Chef. While it’s understandably clear that it may impress the show’s fans, it doesn’t do much to make me want to give it another chance. In my eyes, the episode showcases that Total DramaRama is an inferior addition to the franchise that failed to match what the previous shows accomplished regarding the comedy and storylines. The fact that it’s currently on its third season is pretty mind-boggling but also quite impressive considering its quality. What a dour way to conclude Cartoon Network’s week of holiday cheer.