The Christmas Light

The Christmas Light is a technically accomplished short featuring three-dimensional animation and a one-dimensional story. On the eve of Christmas, Santa faces a crisis when an evil helper named Burton Lemon is accidentally transformed by his own toy-making invention into a Snowman who aims to turn Christmas into a blizzard fest. With the help of his elf Isaac and a young girl named Jennifer, Santa boards Sled2, a Star Wars-type non-reindeer-powered spaceship, has a dogfight in space, and eventually conquers bad Burton. In other words, your standard Saturday-morning-cartoon plot. As the "first fully computer animated Christmas adventure," some may want to add, but this won't replace Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer or any of the other animated Christmas classics anytime soon. An optional purchase, for ages 4 and up. (R. Pitman)