Review: Big City Greens “Dream Tree; Blue Greens”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Trees! Depression! Christmas!

OUR TAKE

Another month, another new episode of Big City Greens to review, and it’s the last month so it’s the last episode for the year! And naturally it’s a Christmas episode, at least for the first segment, and those can be so much fun if done well enough. In this case it’s…fine! Like getting socks after you’re twenty five. Or a Kohl’s gift card. Bill thinks he’s going to get a vision from the Spirit of Christmas about the perfect tree to get, the vision instead goes to Cricket, they attempt to get a tree and are thwarted, and Bill realizes that maybe investing too much in a vague concept of a holiday was not the most productive move. Or rather he just accepts he should celebrate with his family as is. Also, Tilly tries to get Grandpa Nick to come out of his shell regarding caroling, which is also fun. Perfectly solid holiday themed plotlines that center on having male family members let go of stubbornly held beliefs that are holding them back from enjoying the festivities with their loved ones. It’s not going to make anyone’s top ten christmas specials or anything but trying to come up with new ideas for these stories just gets tougher every year anyway.

The other half focuses on Tilly dealing with a small bit of winter ennui, which may or may not be seasonal depression as I joked before, but if it is, it’s actually a pretty nuanced way for a cartoon to look at it. Initially it’s seen as a problem by Cricket and the family, as it seems like Tilly’s mood is just bringing everyone down for no good reason, but as everyone gets near her and feels it too, it becomes clear it’s just a different way of looking at the world at the moment. And then, when Cricket actually talks to her about it, she clarifies that it’s just a mood she’s in at the moment and that it will pass eventually. There’s no problem to be solved or issue to be taken care of, sometimes people just feel the way they do at any given moment, and as long as they’re not hurting anyone or making it a problem then they should be allowed to be that way as long as they need to. Even though kids cartoons are probably not getting as much reach as they used to (as far as I can tell), it’s stuff like this that gives me faith that animation is continuing to evolve even as the kids who watch it cycle out of the demographic. Anyway, Happy Holidays!