The Christmas Tree Train (1983 TV Movie) User Reviews

A ludicrous cartoon that boggles the mind while simultaneously taking two years off your life.

[soodynem · 1/10 · 5 October 2008]

My little brother bought this at a consignment store one day. It also happened to be the first day of the Apocalypse, but I suppose that could have been a coincidence.

Uh... I actually don't remember that day very well. This video warped my mind somewhat.

First of all, it came in a case labeled "The Christmas Train" even though the actual title is "The Christmas Tree Train." This also happened on the label of the tape.

Second, the two baby animals on the front looked as if they had been drawn by a child on MS Paint. The screen caps on the back looked as if someone a snapped a picture of them from a TV screen. Terrible.

Don't get me started on the "plot". I'll do it myself. It involves a dimwitted pair of baby animals of the species bear and fox. They visit the local park ranger and communicate in English. The strangeness of this didn't register with me for a moment because of the sub-sub-sub par animation that was frying my retinas. Eventually, the ranger shows the animals a jack-in-the-box that scares them out of their wits. This leads them to running away, getting attacked by a mountain lion and an owl and getting aboard a Christmas Tree Train.

Meanwhile, the parents of said animals join forces with the ranger and do…nothing. Seriously, they just sit in the cabin and do pretty much nothing to find the animals. At one point, the ranger even gives an excuse that he is not on duty so he can't drive off to look for them.

The animals meet the owl that attacked them, (or looking back, appears that the owl was just grabbing a piece of trash beside them. Yeah) form a plan to escape, ignore it, and run off into the city. What follows is so mind-numbing that it's not worth mentioning.

Eventually, after several 'Humans are smelly, littering pigs who hate animals' jokes, and an incident that involves some store clerks mistaking live baby animals for stuffed ones, Santa Claus himself rescues the animals and takes them back to the cabin. It turns out the ranger knew Santa and sent him to rescue them!

The freaking scariest part in the video is when Santa rides off towards the moon, and I swear, it looks just like Heath Leader's Joker looking through a pane of frosted glass. I would have screamed if one of the four horsemen hadn't diverted my attention by killing me.

Ah, well. Never watch this.

Rusty and Buttons go on quite a Christmas adventure!

[cmhealey2 · 10/10 · 25 January 2012]

This cute little cartoon is another one of my Christmas holiday season favorites!! I remember watching it while I taped in--way back when! I love the old cartoons--especially the Christmas shows! I can STILL after all these years remember the theme song to the show "The Christmas Tree Train"... I love that little song!! and the joking around back and forth between Rusty and Buttons---great one liners, too! Every year when I watch my old VHS tapes of holiday cartoons I hope and pray that the VCR isn't going to finally swallow and eat the tapes! I have got to remember to see of any of my favorites are out on DVD yet! I saw a boxed set in one store at Christmas time--it has 4 dvds with 27 different Christmas cartoons--but only a few of them I like! maybe in the future...I should ask Santa~

Wild Animals in a Wild City.

[ExplorerDS6789 · 9/10 · 7 December 2013]

Have you ever wondered where the Christmas trees came from? I mean, before they hit the tree lots? I know, the forest. But have you ever wondered how they get from there to here? By way of the Christmas Tree Train! This is the story about that proud and powerful train and... well, actually it's the story about two little animals who end up aboard the train and get lost in the city. I wonder why it's named after the train if it's not about that. Well, the train gets them there. No matter. Park Ranger Jones, or Jonesy, tells us the story of how bear cub Buttons and his fox pal Rusty ended up on the Christmas Tree Train. It all started a few days before Christmas when the two of them went to visit the ranger. Now, apparently their families live in the same cave as Rusty's father George complains about having to put up with Buttons' father, Abner's snoring. He is a bear after all and it's time to hibernate. So Jonesy shows Rusty and Buttons his Christmas decorations, tells them about "Sandy Claws" and even shows them some toys for his grandkids. Having never seen such contraptions, the kids are scared off by a jack-in-the-box and run away into the woods. As if that weren't enough, it was beginning to snow something fierce. That and a pouncing mountain lion were enough to send them running. Fortunately, this mountain lion hates snow, so he cowers under a tree. They stumble upon a group of lumberjacks cutting down pine trees, one thing leads to another and suddenly Buttons and Rusty find themselves loaded into a boxcar on board the titular train! Meanwhile, back at the cave, when the children haven't shown up, and mothers Bridgette and Rosie get worried, George and Abner head over to Jonesy's to find their wayward cubs. Abner is little help as he falls asleep on the couch, leaving George and Jonesy to search alone.

On the train en route to the city, the kids chat with an owl who was there because he thought he was flying into a barn. He knows where they're headed and warns them about the dangers of the city. Finally, they get to the switching yard and right when that boxcar door opened, Buttons and Rusty run like heck, right across the bridge and into New...York-Angeles-cago. It was every bit as perilous as that crazy old owl said. Well, those kids could not stay out of trouble to save their lives, ending up in a department store basement among boxes of teddy bears that looked an awful lot like Buttons. Convenient. The store's owner, a kindly old gent with a white beard who is in no way Santa Claus incognito, is tickled at the new line of "life-like" stuffed bears and even a "stuffed" fox with moving eyes. They're put on display, and they actually manage to fool people into thinking they're stuffed. However, when one kid gets a bit too "touchy", Rusty and Buttons run off again. Back at Jonesy's cabin, he gets confirmation from the switch yard that a bear and fox most definitely ran off the train, but they have no clue where they went. Jonesy laments that he weren't on duty, he'd go look for them... what kind of duty is he on the week of Christmas in the middle of the night in a forest with anthropomorphic animals who seem capable of taking care of themselves? Just go, leave George in charge. Anyway, back to Buttons and Rusty, and I guess it's their naptime as they've fallen asleep, in what is revealed to be the store's big Christmas window display. They're awakened to the array of lights, toys, music and even fake snow, so they dance around and put on a show for the window shoppers. Thankfully, this was all being caught on TV, which Jonesy and the cubs' parents saw. Oh, by the way, the store owner really IS Santa Claus. Surprised? He gets a call from Jonesy, who explains what's up and so jolly St. Nick rescues Buttons and Rusty and flies them home in his sleigh. It was a Merry early Christmas for everybody.

I think I can best sum up this special in two words: adorable. I mean, very cute. Not sickeningly cute like the Care Bears, but it is relatively high on the cuteness meter. Sure, it's a cheesy Christmas cartoon, but so what? It's still a lot of fun. I watch it every year. The characters are adorable, especially Rusty and Buttons, who you want to see more of...and you're in luck, because they had specials for every holiday season, though I've only seen the Halloween one. Okay, but not as good as the Christmas one. If Christmas Tree Train has any low points it's that the pace is a little quick, it doesn't "stop and catch its breath", it moves very fast. The majority of the special is just the kids running around. I know it's a children's cartoon and they don't want them to get bored, but still, I think a few breather moments would have helped this one a bit. This Christmas, climb aboard the Christmas Tree Train, still chugging strong after 30 years. If you've got kids, show it to them. If you don't, show it to someone else's. Fun times are waiting to be had.