The Spirit of Christmas
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The Spirit of Christmas is the name of two different animated short films that launched South Park. To differentiate the two, they are often referred to as Jesus vs. Frosty and Jesus vs. Santa.
Background
Jesus vs. Frosty
In 1992, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, then students at the University of Colorado, made Jesus vs. Frosty, under the "Avenging Conscience Films" moniker. Parker and Stone animated the film using only construction paper, glue, and a very old 8 mm film camera, and premiered the film at the December 1992 student film screening. It featured prototypical versions of the kids of South Park, including a character resembling Cartman but called 'Kenny', as well as three nameless boys resembling Stan, Kyle and Kenny.
The story was that the four kids build a snowman and, in the vein of Frosty the Snowman, put a magic silk hat on it to make it come to life. Unfortunately Frosty turns out to be evil and deranged, sprouting huge tentacles and leading one of the boys to utter the famous line, 'Oh my god! They killed Kenny!' for the first time. The boys go to Santa for help, but it turns out he was Frosty in disguise, and he kills the Kenny-resembling boy. The two remaining kids find a nativity scene and a baby Jesus kills the evil snowman by slicing off the magic hat with his halo. The two kids then realize the true meaning of Christmas: presents. So they go to their homes to find the presents hidden by their parents, as a deer eats the remains of the Cartman-resembling boy named "Kenny" and the nameless Kenny-resembling boy.
Jesus vs. Santa
In 1995, Fox executive Brian Graden paid them $2000 to make another animated short as a video Christmas card he could send to friends. In turn, the duo created Jesus vs. Santa. This version of The Spirit of Christmas featured more developed versions of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny (and featured a cameo appearance of Wendy Testaburger). It established the characters as they would be used in South Park. The film reportedly had a budget of $750, with Parker and Stone keeping the rest of their commission. The making of the short was parodied in the South Park episode "A Very Crappy Christmas."
The story differs largely from Jesus vs. Frosty: Jesus descends to South Park where he meets the kids. He asks them to take him to the local mall, where he finds Santa. Turns out that Jesus has a bone to pick with "Kringle" - according to Jesus, Santa diminishes the memory of Jesus' birthday with his presents. Santa is aware of the feud, and claims that "this time", they will "finish it." They stand up for a fight (accompanied by sounds and music from Mortal Kombat), and they duke it out, accidentally killing various bystanders (including Kenny) in the process. Jesus pins Santa down, and they both ask the boys to help them, but Stan hesitates, and wonders: What Would Brian Boitano do? The skater miraculously appears and holds a speech about how Christmas should be the about being good to each other. The boys transmit the message to the fighters, who ashamedly agree and decide to bury the hatchet over an orange smoothie.
Graden initially distributed the video to 80 friends in December 1995, one of the friends rumored to be George Clooney. After months of being passed around on bootleg video and the Internet, the film caught the attention of cable network Comedy Central. The network hired the pair to develop South Park, which premiered in the USA on August 13, 1997.
In 1997, Jesus vs. Santa received a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for best animation.
The episodes remain free to distribute and are available to watch at the [South Park Studios] website.
Kenny's Deaths
- In Jesus vs. Frosty: The boy resembling Cartman (and called "Kenny") gets grabbed by one of Frosty's tentacles and is thrown at a distance. He gets slammed into the ground and bleeds to death. The boy resembling Kenny gets grabbed by the throat by Santa (actually the snowman in disguise) then tossed to the ground and is decapitated. A deer nibbles at "Kenny"/Cartman at the very end of the film. During Cartman/Kenny's death, the other two boys make their famous "they killed Kenny!" cry; for the Kenny-like boy's death they merely comment that that probably wasn't the real Santa after all.
- In Jesus vs. Santa: Kenny gets decapitated by Santa, causing his head to fly off and hit a statue which topples over, crushing some children. Rats eat his corpse at the end of the film.
External links
- [South Park Studios: Creator Bios]
- [Script of Jesus vs. Frosty]
- [Script of Jesus vs. Santa]
- [Spirit of Christmas Official Distribution Site] (including transcript, the episodes are available from here but are of poorer quality than those available below from the official website).
- [link] Watch Jesus vs. Frosty here.
- [link] Watch Jesus vs. Santa here.
References
- [South Park Studios: How it all began] (this page contains links to both episodes available to view).
- [South Park Timeline]
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