Review: 5 More Sleeps ‘Til Christmas

Jimmy Fallon is probably not as synonymous with prime-time animation as Stephen Colbert who seems to make a more assertive effort to make sure he always keeps a foot in that basket, but maybe Fallon needs to do a few more projects because 5 More Sleeps ‘Til Christmas is a funny, fresh animated special that the whole family can appreciate.

Written by Jon Foster and James Lamont, 5 More Sleeps ‘Til Christmas adapts Fallon’s holiday children’s book that was a #1 New York Times bestselling effort. Shadowmachine checks in as the animation studio and does the special justice by not only putting together fantastic CG animation, but directing the special half-a-tick slower so that it looks like a classic Rankin-Bass X-Mas special.

In a story narrated by Fallon, we get a semi-autobiographical tale of how much Jimmy Fallon loves X-Mas and even has the previous five days from the big day all mapped out with activities. This year, Jimmy’s mom gets a new boyfriend and his daughter, so Jimmy has to somehow his tried-and-true X-mas conditions with that of being a mindful host to new house guests. The result is a tale that not only gives us the classic trope of, “the important meaning of X-Mas”, but also one about blended families and overcoming difficulties that can pertain to just that.

The end result is a fun and heart-filled tale filled with good morals, hope, and best of all, the acknowledgment that gingerbread cookies really are awful. Like really, who eats that shit?