I used to be a big fan of Robot Chicken, but I honestly haven’t watched it in years. So getting the chance to sit down and check out all of the Christmas Specials in one go was something I was really looking forward to. Unfortunately this collection of episodes is kind of hit or miss.
The first three episodes are pretty good. “Robot Chicken’s Christmas Special,” “Robot Chicken’s Half-Assed Christmas Special,” and “Robot Chicken’s Full-Assed Christmas Special” all have a more focused and interesting approach to the concept of a Christmas special. They play around more with the traditional Rankin Bass character designs and throw more pop culture references into the mix. The Dragon Ball Z skit from the first special, in particular, is solid from start to finish, and the “Unsolved Case Files: Claus & Effect” is almost perfect. “Half-Assed Christmas Special” continued this approach, with a hilarious Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” parody, and “Full-Assed Christmas Special” nails it with “Humping Robot Saves Christmas” and “Christmas in Asgard.”
Unfortunately, the second half of the disc doesn’t live up to the first half.
The skits are shorter and more vulgar, with more emphasis on Santa Claus (and other characters, like Batman and random cavemen) murdering people (which is funny the first couple of times), than on jokes. Although, to be honest, “Robot Chicken’s ATM Christmas Special” did include the very satisfying “Finding Jason Bourne” and “What to Get Snake Eyes.” But two or three funny skits in three episodes is disappointing.
The DVD package includes Commentary Tracks on every episodes, and they’re fun (sometimes more fun than the episodes), plus there’s a selection of deleted scenes and animatics that are worth a look.
Overall, though, this seems like it could have been better. A Robot Chicken Christmas Special collection seems like a no-brainer. It should be something that every fan of Robot Chicken would want in their collection, but it’s lacking something; like Adult Swim didn’t really even try to make this an event purchase. There’s no Blu-ray release for one thing, and the packaging seems kind of flimsy. The disc itself is lacking in a lot of special features (the sorts of things that the full season releases have tons of) and feels kind of thrown together at the last minute.
You’d probably be better off buying the complete season collections and skipping to the Christmas Specials, than picking this up. Although there’s something to be said for the cheap convenience of having the Christmas episodes all collected together — to play in the background of your Christmas gatherings — that might be a justification for dropping ten bucks on this.