Review Date 7/11/2019

I have Reviewed OVER 500 "Christmas Films Christmas Television show episodes and Television Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare about these films. I am on a mission to watch every Christmas Movie ever made. Since 2014 I average 100 a year.

I never heard of this until it was included in a dvd set I bought that had "Year Without a Santa Claus" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

In this film a sailor in search of a Christmas tree, lands on a mysterious, uncharted Irish island where he accidentally releases a bad-tempered banshee from her pinetree prison. Leprechaun Blarney Kilakilarney knows that in order to survive, the banshee will try to swipe his clan's pot of Christmas gold. With some magical assistance from Lord Patrick, the king of the wee folk, the sailor and Blarney make a plan to outwit the gold-hungry hag before Christmas morning dawns.

More plot than needed. This cartoon to me was most likely going to be an hour but for some reason the producers went to a 30 minute version. The story is okay but in reality there is not a since of awe and wonder that you come to expect from Rankin/Bass.

In this 25-minute short film from the holidays almost 35 years ago, you don't get any snow, but you get lots of green fields, funny little gnomes, not so funny evil creatures and lots of gold. "The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold" is another Rankin/Bass movie and writer Romeo muller should also be known to animation lovers for his contributions to Christmas-themed films. I thought the movements in here were sometimes a bit abrupt and this film did not flow as smoothly as I hoped, but it's still a decent watch. The story is okay and the animation is as well once you got used to the style. And it's also maybe worth a watch for being pretty different compared to other Christmas cartoons from around that era. Actually, you can watch this one very nicely in the other months of the year too. I recommend it. No greatness, but solid from start to finish, liked the Irish accents too.

Simple cabin boy Dinty Doyle is sent by his captain to retrieve a pine tree for Christmas on an uncharted island. He discovers that it's populated by leprechauns. He's the first human on Tralee in two centuries. When he digs up the tree, he unleashes a banshee named Old Mag the Hag. She needs the leprechauns' gold before Christmas. After a storm, Dinty follows a rainbow to a cave of gold guarded by Blarney Kilakilarney.

This is another Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated Christmas special. It goes too far trying to connect Christmas with leprechauns. Who knows if this is some kind of Irish folklore but it doesn't connect. The stop-motion still has its charms but the plot is bland. It's more exposition than thrilling adventure. I wonder if somebody pulled leprechauns out of a hat.