Cabbage Patch Kids: Vernon's Christmas

Can you say ‘guilty pleasure'? How about ‘blind spot'? I can, and I admit that those darn Cabbage Patch Kids are mine. Vernon's Christmas is a remarkably seamless stop-motion animated half-hour piece set on a snowy Christmas Eve, featuring two little tykes named Amy and Henry, who share doubts about Santa making the big house call, leading their older cousin Vernon, who--after doing the math and calculating that Santa must travel 3,842 miles per second to visit all the kids in the world in one night--to create a backup plan that delivers just in case Santa can't. Even adults (not, I must admit, the target audience here) will enjoys characters such as the valley girls Prissy and Missy (who hold up glasses of water at Burger Planet and chime, “this better not be tap”) and Vernon himself, who serenades his younger cousins to sleep with a little guitar and the lyrics, “the sooner you close your eyes, the sooner your eyes will shut.” DVD extras include the music video “We Can,” a featurette spoof on how Cabbage Patch babies are born, and text bios of the major Cabbage Patch players. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: P. (N. Plympton)