Let's Watch This: "The Soulmates in the Gift of Light" (1991)

I know Christmas was yesterday, but I don't care. It's still the Christmas season. There's still time for one more Christmas special review.

This special has a very interesting history... at least online. In 2016, an Ottawa resident named Emily Charette posted a screencap from... something that she needed help identifying. This is the screencap:

After ruling out things like a Keebler elves commercial, FernGully, The Littles, The Smurfs, and The Princess and the Dragon, this very year the mystery was finally solved. The Mr. Smee-esque elf character was actually from a 1991 Christmas special called The Soulmates in the Gift of Light (also known as The Christmas Gift of Light).

This very obscure special premiered on November 27nd, 1991, produced by a company called Soulmates Productions... which presumably explains why the title characters are called "the Soulmates". It can now be found on YouTube. And seeing how the special's biggest claim to fame is that nobody knew what it was for years, it seems ripe for reviewing on my blog. Let's take a look at The Soulmates in the Gift of Light.

The special begins on the night before the night before Christmas. And all through the town of... whatever the name of this town is, not a creature is stirring - except for a blue-skinned shady-looking fella and a cigar-smoking kid. Wait, wait, wait, back up. A kid smoking a cigar? WHAT?

On top of that, he's also got a five o'clock shadow. Is he a kid? Or is he just a really short person?

And why does the other guy have blue skin? Maybe he's been out in the cold weather too long...

Anyhow, the blue-skinned guy (voiced by Al Waxman) and the cigar-smoking kid sneak around causing mischief and laughing about how they'll spread negative energy throughout the entire world. Spread negative energy throughout the entire world? Do you suppose these guys invented Twitter*?

As part of their mischief-making, they sneak over to a house that belongs to a girl (Gema Zamprogna) and her dog (John Stocker) who looks almost exactly like Pongo from One Hundred and One Dalmatians minus most of his spots. The blue-skinned guy uses his magic scepter to zap the dog, which creates some evil hands made of smoke that... put the dog in a trance? I'm very confused. Magic scepter? Hands made of smoke? Dog's put in a trance?

"I'm getting veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery sleeeeeeeeeeepy..."

After the blue-skinned guy and the cigar-smoking kid take off in their flying limousine sleigh... yes, they have one of those... it's established that Offbrand Pongo is the girl's guide dog. Not a very good one, it would seem, seeing as the girl very nearly gets turned into roadkill by a car. Perhaps the seeing eye dog needs a seeing eye dog of his own.

Meanwhile, at the North Pole...

Dig that funky architecture.

Santa Claus is watching people do naughty things on his big-screen TV. And when I say "naughty things", I mean things like stealing money from one of those sidewalk Santas. Please get your minds out of the gutter. "Whatever happened to the Christmas spirit?" he laments before setting out in his sleigh... which looks more like a rocket ship. Because this is a high-tech Santa. It bums me out to think of all those poor reindeer who are out of work now that Santa's decided to upgrade...

The Easter Bunny doesn't worry about stuff like this. He gives folks candy whether they're
good OR bad. He's not very judgmental.

Then we cut to the other side of the other side of the universe... okay, can this special choose a plotline to follow? Is this special about the blue-skinned guy and the cigar-smoking kid, the girl and her guide dog, Santa Claus, or... these things?

…did we suddenly enter an episode of Galaxy High School?

So, I'm guessing these two alien Casper-esque guys are the titular Soulmates (Wayne Robson and Shelia McCarthy). A giant floating pink bubble tells them that they're getting a distress call from one of Santa's reindeer. So I guess that rocket sleigh DIDN'T put the reindeer out of work after all...

He says that Santa flew the coop, and without Santa there won't be a Christmas. Oh, sure, people can still spend time with their families, go to the mall to buy gifts to give members of their families, and watch movies like A Christmas Story and Miracle on 34th Street... but without Santa coming down the chimney with presents, it just won't be Christmas!

"Help me, Soulmates. You're my only hope."

Then the bubble turns around, revealing itself to actually be the moon. Which is alive. And incredibly creepy-looking.

Though I know one way it could've been much creepier...

The creepy talking moon turns the Soulmates into balls of light, and then the three of them fly through the galaxy to Earth. Not shown - the moon's flying around wreaking havoc on our planet's tides. "Soulmates to the rescue!" one of the Soulmates shouts as they fly down to Earth.

Meanwhile, the reindeer are setting off to find Santa as Comet and the elves cheer them on. One of the elves just so happens to look exactly like that cigar-smoking kid we previously saw palling around with the blue-skinned guy earlier. Hmmm, I wonder if they could be one in the same?

"Oh, yeah, I'm TOTALLY an elf! Just ignore the fact that I don't have pointy ears."

And now, back to the girl and her Pongo lookalike dog. As the girl sleeps, the dog sadly packs his things and sneaks out because he thinks she'd be better off without him. The moon says that he hopes the Soulmates can help everyone overcome all that negative energy lurking around.

Speaking of the Soulmates, they run into Comet, who does what anyone would do upon seeing tiny aliens who look like Boo Berry had children with Tinker Bell would do - scream.

Who WOULDN'T be making that expression upon seeing those things?

The Soulmates tell Comet to just keep believing that he'll find Santa, and he will. And sure enough, a few seconds later, Comet spots Santa's sleigh. Huzzah!

At the moment, Santa is sitting down on a bench and striking up a conversation with Truman. Yes, apparently Santa can talk to animals. I don't know if he has this ability in any other Christmas specials...

"Don't tell anyone, but I'm really the Sultan of Agrabah. I had to get out of there - our palace
has been invaded by a scary blue CGI Will Smith desperately trying to be Robin Williams and failing!"

Comet and the male Soulmate locate Santa. Christmas is saved, right? Well, no. Santa moans that nobody believes in him or in the Christmas spirit. Mope mope mope mope mope. This entire special has basically just been watching characters mope. First the dog is moping that he's a lousy guide dog, then Santa is moping that nobody believes in him, then Comet is moping that they'll never find Santa and that Christmas is ruined... it's like a Christmas special written by Hardy Harr Harr.

Back at the North Pole, the elf who totally isn't that cigar-smoking kid who's one of the bad guys is telling the other elves that they need to find a new leader. After all, without this gig at the North Pole, the elves would be stuck making shoes, or baking cookies in a tree, or fighting against Orcs. But who could ever replace Santa? Hmmm... how about a blue-skinned shady-looking fella with a stereotypical twirly cartoon bad guy mustache and a Brooklyn accent?

"A runabout! I'll steal it! NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!"

Shady-Looking here reveals his name to be Angris McBragg (no relation to Commander McBragg) and that the elf who looks like that cigar-smoking kid he was hanging out with earlier is in fact that cigar-smoking kid he was hanging out with earlier. I know, big surprise. Oh, and his name is Thomas. DOUBTING Thomas, that is.

Angris wants to take over Christmas because [REASONS]. He wants the elves to make dolls in Doubting Thomas' likeness. The doll will make the children doubt themselves... somehow. Maybe it casts some sort of spell on them? Oh, and he captured the female Soulmate.

Are we going to get any explanation as to why his skin is blue? Is he secretly half-Smurf
or something?

As the elves get to work under the threat of being exposed to the doll's self-doubting powers themselves, we cut back to Santa, Truman, Comet, and the male Soulmate. The male Soulmate says that he can use his Soulmate powers to contact the female Soulmate, and then their combined powers will "see it, believe it, and make it come true". "It's called 'Magic Imagining'!" he says.

So he contacts the female Soulmate, who uses this "Magic Imagining" stuff to imagine herself helping Santa and Truman believe in themselves. Right after she does that, Angris uses the Doubting Thomas doll on her, allowing us to finally see just HOW, exactly, it makes kids doubt themselves. Apparently it has laser beam eyes that can hypnotize folks into thinking they're hopeless.

"Staring contest! You lose!"

The male Soulmate begs Comet, Santa, and Truman to help them with his "Magic Imagining". So Comet gives it a shot, which sends some pink pixie dust up to the moon, who in turn sends "Soulmate Energy" to where it's needed the most. It hits the female Soulmate, snapping her out of her self-doubting trance. It hits Doubting Thomas, too, turning him all nicey-nicey and removing his five o'clock shadow.

So now it's off to the North Pole to stop Angris, right? Nope, Santa is still in his funk. "I don't belong at the North Pole anymore," he insists. So Comet and the male Soulmate... okay, the Soulmates do indeed have names, the male one is named Orion and the female is named Orillia... head off to the North Pole by themselves. After they leave, the wind sends a letter addressed to Santa his and Truman's way - it's from the girl, asking Santa for her dog back. Only problem is, the girl didn't sign her name... which is Ella, by the way... but Santa's computer at the North Pole has some sort of letter-writer-identifying thing that can help them. But Santa doesn't have his glasses, and without them his eyes aren't that great, so he needs Truman to guide him back to the North Pole.

...wait, he's going to WALK all the way back to the North Pole? On foot? I don't know what state he landed in, but chances are it's not exactly within walking distance of the North Pole. Well, anyway, Truman says that maybe they can find their way back to the North Pole if they really, truly believe.

If the "really, truly believing" stuff doesn't work out, maybe they could hail a taxi or something?

The elves have finished making Angris' eeeeeeeeeeeeevil dolls, and since the reindeer aren't there to pull the sleigh, Angris declares that the ELVES will have to do it. How that's going to work seeing as there's no indication that the elves can fly, I don't know. Fortunately, Orion and Comet show up, followed by Santa and Truman. And Santa uses some "Soulmate Energy" to turn the Doubting Thomas dolls into NICE dolls who talks about how important it is to believe in yourself.

Santa apparently found his glasses offscreen, too.

And now that his evil plot has been foiled, Angris flees. No, really. He just flies off in his flying limo. No comeuppance. They don't even zap HIM with the "Soulmate Energy" and turn him nice. Um, okay then...

Santa sets off in his sleigh to do his rounds, Truman is reunited with Ella, the "believe in yourself" moral is reiterated, and the creepy moon makes another appearance. Now, quick, everybody "see, believe, and make come true" that world hunger has been solved.

Well? Has it?

What's the Verdict?

Honestly, I can see why this special didn't catch on. Is it a BAD special? No. It's perfectly fine for what it is. It's just... generic. There's nothing here that we haven't already seen in other animated Christmas specials. Santa doubting himself? Check. Mustache-twirling Christmas-hating villain? Check. Cutesy magical creatures who wind up saving Christmas? Check. Child with a disability? Check. Look at the Christmas specials on this list, most if not all of them include at least ONE of those things. On top of that, it's not a good sign when most of your special is just watching characters mope and moan about how hopeless everything is. It makes the special a chore to watch.

But like I said, the special isn't BAD. There are just far better Christmas specials out there.

* I'm perfectly aware that Platypus Comix's review of the special also made a joke about the bad guy being the founder of Twitter. I wrote this review before Platypus Comix wrote their (much better-written) review of it - remember, I write these reviews in advance. Just thought I'd make that clear because I don't want people to think I got lazy and stole jokes from Platypus Comix's review.