Urkel Saves Santa (Christmas Speical)

 With Thanksgiving over, the leftovers still lingering, and the winter holidays on the horizon as we have officially rolled into December. I thought I would prepare for the one I partake in, Christmas. The gifts, the giving, the music you hear two months early, and the movies and specials. This is one of if not my favorite holidays and I love being a part of it every year. Whether it is watching ELF for the hundredth time, or perhaps listening to music and baking, I love this time of year. November and December are my favorite time of year, so what content do I have to bring you today, as I spend the next few weeks delving into music, movies, and nerdy things that keep the season bright? I am talking about a special that almost didn't happen. Still, Warner Brothers ended up putting this on digital services like Amazon for purchase only with that seeming to be the only option, so is this worth the 15 dollars? I will take the risk and let you know about it.

I will say out of the gate this special is not for everyone. I had some fun with it, but if you are not a fan of Steve Urkel or Family Matters then this is not for you. If you do not like musicals, random songs, or the idea of Steve Urkel singing, then this is also not for you. If you can put all of that aside, then this is not a holiday classic, but it is not a waste of time either. 

The movie has an off-the-wall all-over the place plot involving apps, the month of December, donkey cheese, an evil tech bro CEO, and more. All with the central focal point of Steve Urkel at the helm, being a goofball, messing things up, and saying classic one-liners from a bygone television era. The special was mostly fun but it also did nothing stand out. For as much that was good, there was an equal amount of a moment that left me scratching my head or one that did not hit. Some jokes really made me laugh, and some of the songs I did enjoy, but even though this was an hour and a half, the pacing was not the best and I found myself wondering why the plot pulled in so many directions. Some of the jokes were so absurd they made me laugh and other times nothing, as the film continued.

This film doesn't revolve around a singular holiday, instead, it tries to acknowledge all of them. There is still a heavy lean to Christmas and is mostly about Santa, but still stops to talk about the other holidays at points. The special also has this odd fascination with being on Santa's nice list, to the point that it's one of the morales, keyword morales because like three of them kind of pile on and overlap.

This special falls into the same problem as lots of modern musicals, especially animated ones where there are too many songs. Some are actually very enjoyable, while the other half had me questioning why they were there to begin with. Giving off the vibe of songs for the sake of just having songs, and it shows, sometimes they come out of nowhere, some are long, and some are super short. And there are a ton of topics as well, from a nice opening to singing about the mall at Christmas, to sad songs. The songs are so scattershot with their quality, that a couple were well made and it made me wish the same for all of them, some were good, some were forgettable.

This special is fifteen dollars, and at the end of the day it is inoffensive, I had some fun with the special but at other times I was not enjoying all of it. I wish the plot was more focused and there were not so many songs, when musicals overuse songs, then they lose their spark. One or two songs can end up standing out, while the audience forgets the rest, making each time a song randomly pops up, lose its special place in the plot. Songs work best when moving something forward and not just existing for novelty's sake. If you are a fan of Urkel, perhaps you will find some enjoyment from this like I did, but if not, there are plenty of other specials to watch, and this might be worth it on a sale price and not full.