''How Murray Saved Christmas'' is a 2014 animated

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

, directed by

Peter Avanzino Peter Avanzino (born May 26, 1962) is an American animation director. He has directed several episodes of ''Futurama'', and served as supervising director on the 6th and 7th seasons of the series. Avanzino works for Rough Draft Studios in Glenda ...

and written by

Mike Reiss Michael L. Reiss ( '; born ) is an American television comedy writer and author. He served as a show-runner, writer and producer for the animated series ''The Simpsons'' and co-created the animated series ''The Critic''. He created and wrote ...

. The voice actors include

Jerry Stiller Gerald Isaac Stiller (June 8, 1927 – May 11, 2020) was an American actor and comedian. He spent many years as part of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara with his wife, Anne Meara, to whom he was married for over 60 years until her death in 2015 ...

Sean Hayes Sean Patrick Hayes (born June 26, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He is best known for playing Jack McFarland on the NBC sitcom ''Will & Grace'', for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award, four SAG Awards, and one American Come ...

Kevin Michael Richardson Kevin Michael Richardson (born October 25, 1964) is an American actor. Known for his distinctively deep voice, he has mostly voiced villainous characters in animation and video games. In film, Richardson voiced Goro in ''Mortal Kombat'' (1995) ...

Jason Alexander Jay Scott Greenspan (born September 23, 1959), known professionally as Jason Alexander, is an American actor, comedian, host and director. An Emmy and Tony winner, he is best known for his role as George Costanza in the television series '' Se ...

John Ratzenberger John Dezso Ratzenberger (born April 6, 1947)About John
from Ratzenberger's official website is an Americ ...

and

Dennis Haysbert Dennis Dexter Haysbert (born June 2, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the '' Major League'' film trilogy, Secret Service agent Tim Collin in the political thriller film '' Absolute Power'' ...

. The special premiered on December 5, 2014, on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. It was nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. The special was the first time

Universal Animation Studios Universal Animation Studios (formerly known as Universal Cartoon Studios) is an American animation studio and a division of Universal Pictures, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast. It has produced direct-to-video sequels to Un ...

produced anything for NBC.

Plot

A quaint little town called Stinky Cigars, a secret location hidden only by a name that was chosen to repel tourists, is populated by iconic holiday characters from every culture around the world. It is home to

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...

and his workshop full of hard-working elves, and to other holiday figures from the best-known (

Cupid In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, lust, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus (mythology), Venus and the god of war Mar ...

, the

Easter Bunny The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit—sometimes dressed with clothes—bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" orig ...

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

and

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

) to the most minor and obscure (

Arbor Day Arbor Day (or Arbour in some countries) is a secular day of observance in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees. Today, many countries observe such a holiday. Though usually observed in the spring, the date varies, dependi ...

Aardvark,

Labor Day Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

Amos). The story, which is narrated in verse and "cheekily punctuated" by original songs, centers on Edison Elf (

), an optimistic inventor with an unexpectedly hazardous new toy, and Murray Weiner (

), the cranky owner of the town's diner. Murray's talent for delivering orders makes the unwilling curmudgeon the only person in town who can fill in for an injured Santa (

) on Christmas Eve.

Cast

as Murray Weiner *

as Edison Elf *

as Santa Claus and Easter Bunny *

as Doc Holiday *

John Ratzenberger John Dezso Ratzenberger (born April 6, 1947)About John
from Ratzenberger's official website is an Americ ...

as Officer Bender *

as the Baby New Year and the Narrator *

Nick Jameson Nicholas Jameson (born December 5, 1950) is an American actor, musician and producer, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Russian president Yuri Suvarov over three seasons on the show '' 24''. He currently resides in Reykjavík doing live co ...

Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media. Kenny has voiced many other characters, including Heffer Wolfe in ''R ...

Maurice LaMarche Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is a Canadian voice actor, comedian, and impressionist. He has voiced the Brain in '' Animaniacs'' as well as its spin-off '' Pinky and the Brain'', Big Bob in ''Hey Arnold!'' (1996–2004), and a variety of ...

Tress MacNeille Teressa Claire MacNeille (née Payne; born June 20, 1951) is an American voice actress, whose credits include voicing Dot Warner on the animated television series ''Animaniacs'', Babs Bunny on ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Chip and Gadget Hackwrench ...

and

Billy West William Richard Werstine (born April 16, 1952), known professionally as Billy West, is an American voice actor. His voice roles include Bugs Bunny in the 1996 film ''Space Jam'' and several subsequent projects, the title characters of '' Doug'' ...

as various characters

Production

''How Murray Saved Christmas'' was produced by

, with the animation being done by

Rough Draft Studios Rough Draft Studios, Inc. is an American animation production studio based in Glendale, California, with a second studio in Glendale and its sister studio Rough Draft Korea located in Seoul, South Korea. The studio was founded in Van Nuys, Los An ...

, both of which are based in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from ...

, who sought to bring a "''

Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, a ...

'' sensibility to Christmas specials", given the fact that he was a writer and producer on ''The Simpsons'', adapted the script from his 2000 children's book of the same name and its 2002 sequel ''Santa Claustrophobia'', which were both illustrated by

David Catrow David Catrow (born December 16, 1952) is an American artist, cartoonist, and illustrator of children's books. Catrow has illustrated over 60 children's books and prior to this, worked as a cartoonist at the ''Springfield News-Sun'' (Ohio). His ...

Reception

The special received 3.57 million viewers and a 0.9/3 rating/share. ''How Murray Saved Christmas'' received mixed reviews from critics. The review-aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the special a score of 50% based on reviews from 6 critics, with an average score of 3.7/10. The review-aggregation website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 60 out of 100 based on 4 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Patrick Kevin Day of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' gave the special a positive review, saying "It's the kind of special that harried parents may want to turn on for their own tired parents to help babysit the kids. They'll enjoy the extended tribute to milkmen." Robert Bianco of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' gave the special a positive review, saying "The very multicultural ''Murray'' is one of those rare holiday specials the entire family can enjoy for years to come." Brian Lowry of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' gave the special credit for delivering on its "snarky promise" by bringing the ''

'' style to Christmas specials:

Playfully irreverent ... and clearly pitched to tickle adults along with kids, ''Murray'' features such moments as a sprightly elf ditty with the lyrics: "We never miss a day of work, 'cause we don't have
health insurance Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...
." Nor are the tots likely to get throwaway gags like a store named
Salvador Salvador, meaning "salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to: * Salvador (name) Arts, entertainment, and media Music *Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music ** ''Salvador'' ( ...
's Dollies.

Nevertheless, Lowry gave the special a negative review, stating that "at the risk of sounding like a

Grinch The Grinch is a fictional character created by Dr. Seuss. He is best known as the main character of the 1957 children's book ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' He has been portrayed and voiced by many different actors, including Boris Karloff, ...

, while Murray gets the sleigh off the ground, ''How Murray Saved Christmas'' doesn't manage to stay airborne." Erik Adams of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave the special a C+, saying "Sentiment- and story-wise, ''How Murray Saved Christmas'' is all over the place, but its joke-telling abilities live up to the shiniest lines on its creators' resumes."

Awards

Composer Walter Murphy and writer/lyricist Mike Reiss were nominated for a 2015 Primetime

for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for ''How Murray Saved Christmas''.

Release

''How Murray Saved Christmas'' was released on DVD on December 16, 2014.

References

External links

* {{Universal Animation Studios 2014 animated films 2014 television films 2014 television specials NBC television specials Animated films based on children's books Christmas musicals 2010s American television specials 2010s animated television specials Christmas television specials 2010s American animated films Rough Draft Studios films American Christmas television specials Television specials by Universal Cartoon Studios Animated Christmas films Films directed by Peter Avanzino Films scored by Walter Murphy