As we inch closer to Christmas Eve, strap on your cardboard wings and buckle up as we take a 2-dimensional flight back to 1999 to revisit the Matt Groening-produced TV special, “Olive, the Other Reindeer,” starring the voices of Drew Barrymore, Joe Pantoliano, Dan Castellaneta, and Ed Asner as Santa four years before “Elf.”

On This Episode:

1. Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), unemployed penguin ready to make you a deal on an extremely valuable watch.
2. Erin Evans (@mserinmevans), my hard-of-hearing pet flea who’s only here to mistakenly tell you your family doesn’t want you here.
3. Joey O. (@ImGonnaDJ24), an injured reindeer’s flightless cousin who’s very excited to be introduced as this, from Y-Not Radio and Words With Nerds.

Topics and Tangents:

1. This special premiered exactly 10 years to the minute after the first episode of “The Simpsons.”
2. The Making of “Olive, the Other Reindeer” takes you behind the scenes to watch the computer animation slowly render on what appears to be a Gateway 2000 PC running Windows 98.
3. We compare the animation style to PaRappa the Rapper.
4. “Mr. Lunch Takes a Plane Ride,” the first book by “Olive” creators Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold, was the first children’s picture book created with digital media.
5. “The Goonies II,” a video-game-only sequel for the Nintendo Entertainment System in which the Fratellis kidnap a mermaid.
6. Jay Mohr in “Camp Wilder,” a short-lived TGIF sitcom in the doomed 9:30 spot.
7. The mondegreen, a brief history and other famous examples, how one ended up an official part of another Christmas Carol, and the stupidest lyric I’ve ever misheard.
8. Dan Castellaneta uses a similar voice for the Postman as he does a few years later for the Robot Devil in “Futurama.”
9. A brief history of “You’re no Jack Kennedy,” and its lasting impact.
10. The time Bullwinkle tried to kidnap my baby at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.
11. R U Talkin’ R.E.M. Re: Me?, formerly “U Talkin’ U2 to Me?” and currently “U Talkin’ Talking Heads 2 My Talking Head?”
12. Michael Stipe on “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” and “The Simpsons.”
13. There’s a Hanukkah menorah on top of Santa’s castle.
14. The pope gets a Phillies hat for Christmas.
15. This special suggests Santa sorts his deliveries alphabetically, which is super inefficient.

Previous Podcast Episodes Mentioned:

• Frosty the Snowman (Season 1, Episode 1)
• A Rugrats Chanukah (Season 1, Episode 6)
• ’Twas the Night Before Christmas (Season 2, Episode 3)
• Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (Season 3, Episode 9)
• Deck the Halls With Wacky Walls (Season 4, Episode 5)
• BraveStarr: Tex’s Terrible Night (Season 5, Episode 3)

Commercial Break:

• Amazon.com Christmas Commercial, 1999

Podcast Promos:

• Santa by the Minute, covering “Santa Claus: The Movie” minute-by-minute.
• The Christmas Podcasts Podcast, a podcast about Christmas podcasts. Yep!

“Olive, the Other Reindeer” © 1999 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

The Advent Calendar House is on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Instagram @adventcalendarhouse, and on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

On this Scrooge Sunday edition of the Advent Calendar House, we venture into the uncanny valley on a trip back to 2009 to rewatch Disney’s motion capture nightmare version of “A Christmas Carol,” starring 4 Jim Carreys, 3 Gary Oldmans, 2 Robin Wrights, and a Cary Elwes in a pear shape.

On This Episode:

1. Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), a touch cross-eyed and mysteriously shrinking for no reason.
2. Matt Weiland (@DinnahDawg), chasing me through the streets of the future in a phantom hearse, and a fee-free Disney Vacation Planner at Matt’s Dream Destinations.

Topics and Tangents:

1. Watch “A Christmas Carol’ on Disney+ while it’s still there for the Christmas season.
2. Respect to a Disney movie that jumps from a storybook opening to a corpse’s face.
3. Despite being the 5th highest grossing Christmas movie as of 2020, this is also considered one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time.
4. Coins on a corpse’s eyes in 19th century England had less to do with paying the ferryman’s toll and more to do with keeping their eyes closed.
5. Cary Elwes, who plays one of the “portly” solicitors, is a descendant of John Elwes, a real-life inspiration for the character Scrooge.
6. Christopher Walken as Captain Hook in “Peter Pan Live” and forgetting his lines.
7. Whoever updates Disney’s Movies website accidentally credited Gary Oldman as both Kermit the Frog and Robin the Frog. No one tell them. I think it’s funny, and I hope it stays like that for a bit.
8. Macy’s Dickens Village in Philadelphia.
9. The Ghost of Christmas Present’s whatever-he’s-doing with turning Scrooge’s floor transparent and flying the entire room around London is some weird mix between Disney’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Soarin’ rides.
10. Jim Carrey on his various accents for Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas Past and Present.
11. Playing Want, of the usually cut for time Ignorance and Want, is Julene Renee, whom I remember from Nickelodeon’s “Roundhouse.”
12. Christmas Yet to Come and the 6-minute chase scene we never knew we were missing.
13. It’s a Robert Zemeckis movie, so of course we get Scrooge hitching a ride on the back of a moving vehicle.

Previous Podcast Episodes Mentioned:

• A Christmas Carol Cast Draft (Season 1, Episode 8)
• Mickey’s Christmas Carol (Season 3, Episode 1)
• The Stingiest Man in Town (Season 4, Episode 10)

Other Previous Scrooge Sunday Episodes

• Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol (Season 4, Episode 8)
• The Real Ghostbusters: Xmas Marks the Spot (Season 4, Episode 3)
• BraveStarr: Tex’s Terrible Night (Season 5, Episode 3)

Commercial Break:

• McDonald’s “Scrooge’s Party” Chicken McNuggets Commercial, 1984, as preserved by Dinosaur Dracula.

Podcast Promos:

• Merry Britsmas, exploring Christmas music, TV, film, and traditions from a British perspective.
• Yuletide TV, a quest to try and find the best Christmas TV episodes ever made.

“Disney’s A Christmas Carol” © 2009 Disney.

The Advent Calendar House is on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Instagram @adventcalendarhouse, and on Twitter @adventcalhouse.