User Reviews

When you sit down at your dinner table on Thanksgiving Day, and says thanks. Don't thank the person that cook the food, don't thank the people that got the food, and don't even thank God for allowing you to live one more year. No, remember to thank a squirrel for making this all possible! At less, that is what the 1972 made-for-television animated special, 'The Thanksgiving that almost wasn't' was trying to tell us. Directed & produced by William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, the special tells a fictionalized telling of the first Thanksgiving celebration in America in which a talking squirrel, Jeremy Squirrel (Voiced by Hal Smith) must save the holiday, when young Pilgrim boy, Johnny Cooke & a young Native American boy, Little Bear go missing in the woods. He goes on a daring mission to rescue the stupidest kids ever. They say they are the greatest hunters ever, but they have no clue, how to survive in the forest. How did these children, ever made it through the winter? Anyways, how are these animals cool about helping out these kids, anyways? They spent most of the time, with the animals acting like they are hunting them. Don't they know that, they are going to kill them? Why is Jeremy so against the Native Americans and Pilgrims fighting against each other? Wouldn't he be more OK, with that? Seem better for Jeremy, if they are killing each other, rarely than him! It's funny, how the Native Americans and the Pilgrims are cool with a talking squirrel. It doesn't surprise, nobody. They should be capturing Jeremy and testing him on how he able to talk by now. If not, the pilgrims and Native Americans should be eating him by now, and wearing his fur coat to keep cool. It's also weird in a way, that Jeremy choose to speak English to the children, yet to the adults, he talks like a random squirrel. He's been speaking plain English this whole time and all of a sudden he's squeaking and chitterling like a squirrel when it matters the most. WTF!? It's get even more puzzling, when the adults know what's he's talking about and choose to follow the squirrel to their children. Did they all go to Emperor New Groove Kronk's school of learning squirrel language? It doesn't make any sense. Another thing about this special, is the lack of historical accurate. Yes, it's more historical accuracy than a lot of other specials, but to believe that the Indians are just outright willing to teach the Pilgrims, how to grow crops seem like a understatement. It's not like guns play a factor in why the Native Americans help the Pilgrims. It's also untruth, that this is the first thanksgiving. American holiday's true origin was the New England Calvinist Thanksgiving. For a film, called the Thanksgiving that almost wasn't, it could had done better, with its story. The film plot is a bit nothing. You would think the movie would have more conflict. Have the Native Americans mistrusted the Pilgrims, and the Pilgrims mistrusted the Indians for thinking, they kidnap their kids, and they have both groups work together to find their kids. Sadly, the movie doesn't do that. They already mostly trust each other, and so willing to talk the advice of a talking squirrel. It was disappointing. A lot of people might get confused with the film due to the fact that a novel share the same name. It's isn't an adapted of the novel, The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't. So don't bother. The animation is already for the time, but they were pretty cheap. They reused a lot of animation shots throughout the special. It's seem like a lot of sound and background music was taken and recycled from old Scooby Doo's episodes. The dialogue in this special is awful. The voice actors sound like they're just reading it, without giving much emotional. They were just descripting what is going to happen. It wasn't needed. Aside from the nostalgia, I think the best thing about the special is the music. Too bad, the movie overplays some of the music, way too much. The opening song is use throughout the video. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty catchy. I love the Thurl Ravenscroft vocalizing with the moonshine jug, thud-puckin' theme. "Cornbread, pie and biscuits risin', mmm that smell is tantalizin'. I can't get that voice out of my head. Still, the music getting over played get really annoying. The TV Special isn't that hard to find. In recent years, it has been aired on the cable channel Boomerang or Cartoon Network during the Thanksgiving season. You can also find it on Youtube. If you do find the DVD. Look for the one that comes with "Casper's Halloween Special" as a double feature. The DVD transfers is very good. Colors are generally decent with a few expected levels of grain and minor screen anomalies, like dirt and scratches. The audio track is good, with a few slight hissing. Sadly, it doesn't have subtitles or closed-captions available, though. Overall: This being from 1972, before political correctness had seeped out of the universities to infect and destroy most national pop culture. It's alright in its tone. It's no way, deserve any Anti-Thanksgiving hatred. It's a family friendly film that was pretty OK at the time. Check it out if you feeling nostalgia or need something to watch after the feast. So happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Dinner now, then the football game, and then it's off to bed for the early Black Friday sale.