The Christmas King: A Garden Cartoon Movie, on Angel

This is a not a winter festival or a family reunion. We are here to celebrate Christmas and Butch Hartman’s creation take it extremely seriously. They should, because he created the Garden Cartoon franchise with the intention of incorporating Christin themes. Hopefully, we all understand the symbolic significance of Lenny the Lion and Lucy the Lamb, who are the greatest of friends. However, they always understand there are things greater than themselves in Hartman’s The Christmas King: A Garden Cartoon Movie, “co-directed” by Nick Kalmar and Stephen Picher, which just premiered on the Angel app.

Hartman’s credits include creating franchises like Danny Phantom and The Fairly OddParents so he has extensive experience within the animation medium. Nevertheless, the visual style is fairly (so to speak) simplistic even by Nickelodeon standards, but the target demo, roughly first through fifth graders, aren’t likely to care. Hartman still incorporates a lot of slapstick humor, like when Lenny straps himself to a giant catapult. However, Hartman and company also always manage to find meaning in it all.

As it happens, the first snowflake of Christmas has landed, so Lenny and Lucy wish to take it up Christmas Mountain to the Christmas King, which is a traditional practice in the world of “The Garden.” However, they are running out of time for their pilgrimage, because “The Boss” keeps them other tasks. It is frustrating. Yet, he assures them he would never give them more than they can handle. Yes, the Boss (the remarkably resonant voice of Brian Stivale, who also did voiceover work for the upcoming David) is essentially who he sounds like. Also, many of his jobs turn out to be cool and rewarding, like dressing a colony of penguins for a penguin wedding.

There is no getting around the Christian content. Hartman and co-screenwriters Holly Housen, Raul Menza, Keith Nance, and Allen Rhodes even incorporate short, well-known passages of scripture into each lesson imparted. Of course, when you really think about it, it seems odd to complain about Christian content in a Christmas special. Seriously, where do you think the holiday came from? Also, this is a very upbeat and positive Christianity that embraces and promotes virtues like faith, friendship, fellowship, empathy, and forgiveness.

Regardless, if it isn’t your thing that’s fine. Just shut up and let others enjoy it. In fact, it might be a little too jaded for some of us drawn to more cult anime, but we can still appreciate the bright colors and endearing menagerie of talking animals. (Nevertheless, it should be noted the straight-up animated Biblical films The King of Kings and Book of Joshua: Walls of Jericho were produced with much greater artistry, while The Christmas King lands more like a longer “special” episode of the continuing series.)

Still, it is all very nice, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The truth is many of its lessons could also apply to us grownups. More than anything, it is cool to see a Christmas movie or special that isn’t afraid to celebrate Christmas. Recommended for Evangelical families with very young children, The Christmas King: A Garden Cartoon Movie now streams on Angel.