"Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa" is a TV special that is so bad, there is absolutely nothing redeeming about it. Every single thing about this special, from the inexcusably half-baked animation to the meandering and unfocused story to the awkward and clumsy dialogue, makes absolutely no sense.
If this film was made by a first semester animation student as a final project, it would be serviceable and might deserve a passing grade. After all, animators have to start somewhere.
However, it wasn't one person who made this film. Several adults worked on it, and someone at the WB! Network in 2002 apparently thought it was good enough to air in prime time with potentially millions of Americans being able to see it. Either that, or a disgruntled WB! employee wanted to get themselves fired.
Why did this special air on American television even once? Who wrote it? Why did they write it? What caused so many experienced and celebrated voice actors such as Mark Hamill, Nancy Cartwright, Jodi Benson and others to appear in it? Was the special even finished, or intended to be finished?
I don't know the answers to any of these questions. I do know that there was a potentially good story within the muddle of too many supporting characters, stupid dialogue, and animation that is so atrocious that no one could possibly take it seriously, or even want to watch it.
The title of the special doesn't even make sense. It's called "Rapsittie Street Kids", which, judging from the way the nonexistent word "Rapsittie" sounds, would lead most viewers to assume that it is about a group of kids who are from the city and love rap music. I suppose that "Rapsittie" also sounds like "Rhapsody", but putting together the words "Rhapsody" and "Street" wouldn't make a lot of sense either, or attract an audience of children at which this special was presumably aiming.
Instead, the special takes place in what looks like an affluent suburb. Plus, only one character, an optimistic dreadlocked boy named Rick E. (voiced by Walter "the original black Power Ranger" Jones), actually raps, or at least speaks in rhyme.
Rick E. is evidently the only black student in his school. You learn that his parents died and that he's living with his grandmother, but that's about it. It would have been nice to know where he lived before moving in with his grandmother, and the fact that he appears to be the only African-American boy in a largely white neighborhood is a solid foundation for a potentially good story.
Rick E. also apparently has a crush on a rich girl in his class named Nicole, voiced by Paige O'Hara, best known for voicing Belle in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast". While O'Hara is a fine voice actress, it makes no sense at all that her character is supposed to be no older than a freshman in high school, yet she's voiced by a 46-year-old woman!
Anyway, Rick E. wants to give her a present for Christmas, but doesn't have the money to do so. So he decides to give her a teddy bear that his late mother gave to him years ago.
While Rick E. seems like a sweet boy, and his gift is evidently well-intentioned, any semblance of redeemable qualities you can extract from this special are lost when you hear the odd dialogue Rick E. says to himself out loud when coming to this decision. When deciding to give Nicole his beloved bear, he says (and yes, this is verbatim what words Walter Jones speaks for his character), "Momma, you gave me this bear cuz of love. So I'll give this bear cuz of love."
Obviously, an actor who is fluent in English read this line. I highly doubt the person who wrote it spoke English as a first language. The previous line reads like the writer entered a sentence in English, translated it on Google into Spanish, then translated those Spanish words into Arabic, then translated those words into Dutch, then to Japanese, then Swahili, then French, then finally back to English.
However, that clunky English dialogue is nothing compared to listening to Rick E.'s Great Grandma, voiced (allegedly) by Debra Wilson. For some reason, you can't understand a single word she says. Her character moves around like a robot, and speaks like a malfunctioning one. I know that Wilson is a funny actress, but I couldn't tell if, like Kenny in "South Park" or Groot from "Guardians of the Galaxy", she was intentionally speaking gibberish and it was supposed to be funny.
If it was supposed to be funny, it didn't work. Nothing in this special works, and I didn't even begin to scratch the surface of the things that are wrong with it.
Some people say that bad movies are best for remaking, not good movies. I think that's absolutely true, and "Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa" is a candidate for a story worth remaking.
As this special stands, it is horrible. Everything about it is awful, and children, if given the choice, would rather be gifted a box of coal for Christmas than this movie on DVD, and who could blame them?
Fortunately, this movie never saw a DVD release, and probably never will. It only aired once on TV, and earned notoriety thanks to internet purveyors of horrifically bad movies and TV shows. I suppose "Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa" must be seen to be believed, but you may wish to un-see even five seconds of the horrific animation, and that's just for starters.
If this film was made by a first semester animation student as a final project, it would be serviceable and might deserve a passing grade. After all, animators have to start somewhere.
However, it wasn't one person who made this film. Several adults worked on it, and someone at the WB! Network in 2002 apparently thought it was good enough to air in prime time with potentially millions of Americans being able to see it. Either that, or a disgruntled WB! employee wanted to get themselves fired.
Why did this special air on American television even once? Who wrote it? Why did they write it? What caused so many experienced and celebrated voice actors such as Mark Hamill, Nancy Cartwright, Jodi Benson and others to appear in it? Was the special even finished, or intended to be finished?
I don't know the answers to any of these questions. I do know that there was a potentially good story within the muddle of too many supporting characters, stupid dialogue, and animation that is so atrocious that no one could possibly take it seriously, or even want to watch it.
The title of the special doesn't even make sense. It's called "Rapsittie Street Kids", which, judging from the way the nonexistent word "Rapsittie" sounds, would lead most viewers to assume that it is about a group of kids who are from the city and love rap music. I suppose that "Rapsittie" also sounds like "Rhapsody", but putting together the words "Rhapsody" and "Street" wouldn't make a lot of sense either, or attract an audience of children at which this special was presumably aiming.
Instead, the special takes place in what looks like an affluent suburb. Plus, only one character, an optimistic dreadlocked boy named Rick E. (voiced by Walter "the original black Power Ranger" Jones), actually raps, or at least speaks in rhyme.
Rick E. is evidently the only black student in his school. You learn that his parents died and that he's living with his grandmother, but that's about it. It would have been nice to know where he lived before moving in with his grandmother, and the fact that he appears to be the only African-American boy in a largely white neighborhood is a solid foundation for a potentially good story.
Rick E. also apparently has a crush on a rich girl in his class named Nicole, voiced by Paige O'Hara, best known for voicing Belle in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast". While O'Hara is a fine voice actress, it makes no sense at all that her character is supposed to be no older than a freshman in high school, yet she's voiced by a 46-year-old woman!
Anyway, Rick E. wants to give her a present for Christmas, but doesn't have the money to do so. So he decides to give her a teddy bear that his late mother gave to him years ago.
While Rick E. seems like a sweet boy, and his gift is evidently well-intentioned, any semblance of redeemable qualities you can extract from this special are lost when you hear the odd dialogue Rick E. says to himself out loud when coming to this decision. When deciding to give Nicole his beloved bear, he says (and yes, this is verbatim what words Walter Jones speaks for his character), "Momma, you gave me this bear cuz of love. So I'll give this bear cuz of love."
Obviously, an actor who is fluent in English read this line. I highly doubt the person who wrote it spoke English as a first language. The previous line reads like the writer entered a sentence in English, translated it on Google into Spanish, then translated those Spanish words into Arabic, then translated those words into Dutch, then to Japanese, then Swahili, then French, then finally back to English.
However, that clunky English dialogue is nothing compared to listening to Rick E.'s Great Grandma, voiced (allegedly) by Debra Wilson. For some reason, you can't understand a single word she says. Her character moves around like a robot, and speaks like a malfunctioning one. I know that Wilson is a funny actress, but I couldn't tell if, like Kenny in "South Park" or Groot from "Guardians of the Galaxy", she was intentionally speaking gibberish and it was supposed to be funny.
If it was supposed to be funny, it didn't work. Nothing in this special works, and I didn't even begin to scratch the surface of the things that are wrong with it.
Some people say that bad movies are best for remaking, not good movies. I think that's absolutely true, and "Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa" is a candidate for a story worth remaking.
As this special stands, it is horrible. Everything about it is awful, and children, if given the choice, would rather be gifted a box of coal for Christmas than this movie on DVD, and who could blame them?
Fortunately, this movie never saw a DVD release, and probably never will. It only aired once on TV, and earned notoriety thanks to internet purveyors of horrifically bad movies and TV shows. I suppose "Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa" must be seen to be believed, but you may wish to un-see even five seconds of the horrific animation, and that's just for starters.
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