The Predator Holiday Special

The Predator Holiday Special is a stop-motion animated short comedy film based on the science fiction action anthology media franchise Predator and the 1964 Christmas stop motion animated television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The short was released on December 18, 2018 with the DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD release of The Predator, airing on Comedy Central the following day on December 19 in promotion of it, and to the 20th Century Fox YouTube channel the following day to that, on December 20.^[1][2] On December 12, this short was announced alongside the promotional poster, to air during a broadcast of BoJack Horseman.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]} Starring the voices of Dave B. Mitchell, Xander Mobus, and Keith Silverstein, the film follows Santa Claus and his elves and reindeer as they have a violent encounter with a Yautja (Predator) at the North Pole.^[9][10]

It is the fifth short film in the Predator franchise, following The Chosen (2010), Moments of Extraction (2010), Crucified (2010), and Predator vs. Colonial Marines (2016).^[11][12]

Plot

At the North Pole, elf-worker Sprinkles and security guard reindeer Blitzen are talking about how excited they are for Christmas Eve when a tri-laser sight from a Yautja (Predator) appears on Blitzen's flank. Recognising its indication, Blitzen pushes Sprinkles aside, draws out his signature mini-gun, and opens fire on the treeline, before he is killed by a shot from the unseen Yautja. Fleeing into the surrounding woods, a panicked Sprinkles attempts to radio Prancer and the other reindeer for backup, only to find the skinned corpse of Dasher hanging from a tree, before Sprinkles himself is impaled by the Yakutia's wrist-blades.

Having received Sprinkles' call, Prancer and several other heavily-armed reindeer head into the woods to find the Yautja, but are ambushed and quickly slain. After decapitating its prey, the Yautja next makes for Santa's cottage; seeing the creature approach, Santa calls upon his final reindeer, Larry (a John Rambo and Dutch Schaefer-inspired reindeer), who guns the creature down with an M16, before Santa and Larry share a congratulatory hi-five.

Several more Yautja from the deceased's hunting party suddenly decloak around the fallen hunter's corpse; as a sign of respect for defeating their comrade, the group's leader hands Santa a trophy from a previous hunt — the Easter Bunny's basket, full of Easter eggs. As the Yautja prepare to leave in peace with their fallen brother, they are suddenly all killed by an enraged Sprinkles in a savage acrobatic hand-to-hand brawl, oblivious to their peaceful intentions. In a post-credits scene, Santa and Larry look upon the scene of carnage in shock, before one of the eggs in the Easter basket, a Xenomorph egg, opens, shocking Santa as a facehugger jumps out.^[13]

Cast

• Dave B. Mitchell as Blitzen, Prancer, Larry, and Santa's other reindeer
• Xander Mobus as Sprinkles, one of Santa's elves
• Keith Silverstein as Santa Claus, a legendary Christmas gift-bringer

Production

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in December 2018, Matt Senreich and David Brooks of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios attributed the production of The Predator Holiday Special to "a random hangout moment" they'd had at Comic-Con with 20th Century Fox's vice president of worldwide creative strategy, Matt Motschenbacher, calling the film a "bloody and gory" take on the 1964 Christmas stop motion animated television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, while serving as "a fun homage to Predator in a stop-motion technique [and] turning it 90 degrees on its side".^[14]

Reception

Padraig Cotter of Screen Rant lauded The Predator Holiday Special as "a loving tribute to the [Predator] series and features all the classic tropes; macho bonding, skinned corpses, miniguns and numerous bloody decapitations [and] even a literal Alien Easter egg",^[15] while Ryan Scott of MovieWeb praised it as a "very fun, violent addition to the holiday special canon".^[16]

Chris Evangelista of Slash Film complimented the film as "kind of stupid [but] short enough that you might get a good laugh".^[17] Dirk Libbey of Cinema Blend praised the film as "well produced and fun", surpassing holiday specials like The Star Wars Holiday Special and positively comparing it to the "The Night the Reindeer Died" opening of Scrooged and Weird Al Yankovic's "The Night Santa Went Crazy" as "the perfect addition to that playlist".^[18] Charles Barfield of The Playlist complimented the film's "serious fun" nature and "an applause-worthy moment where Santa congratulates a reindeer with a handshake that is iconic".^[19]

Christian Long of ComingSoon.net complimented the film's sense of "Christmas cheer", in particular its homages to the 1987 Predator film and Home Alone.^[20] Joey Paur of Geek Tyrant complimented the film for its "super silly" and "over-the-top" tone and "super violent stop-motion madness".^[21] Alex Billington of First Showing lauded "the production quality on this short [as being] pretty damn good, and it's as violent & brutal as it should be", further calling it "Worth a quick watch if you need a laugh",^[22] while Alex Wiggan of It's A Stampede! called it "a Lot of fun [and] the best thing to have happened to the Predator franchise in a long, long time".^[23]

References

External links

• The Predator Holiday Special at IMDb
• The Predator Holiday Special at 20th Century Fox YouTube

This page was last edited on 30 October 2023, at 21:16