the insects' christmas - The Screengrab

The Screengrab Highlight Reel: Dec. 13-26, 2008

I tell ya what, Santa's work is never done. I'm about ready for a long winter's nap here, but before I nod off, there's a whole shitload of Screengrab posts for me to catch up on. And as usual this time of year, it's all about me. You've got your Mexican Santa, your axe-wielding Santa, your skanky Santa, and of course, the usual undignified begging I have to put up with from grown-ass adults (Dear Santa: Cinematic Comebacks We'd Most Like to See, Parts One, Two, Three and Four).

There's enough Christmas content here to choke a reindeer. You've got a sackful of 12 Days of Christmas reviews, from A Christmas Story to It's a Wonderful Life to The Muppet Christmas Carol. You've got a stocking stuffed with YouTube clips, including The Junky's Christmas, The Insects' Christmas and the 40 Inspiring Speeches of Christmas. You've even got the Christmas Unwatchable, The Perfect Holiday. But if you're anything like me, you're completely Christmas-ed out, so here are the posts I'll be curling up with before my long visit to the Land of Nod:

On-Line Holiday Viewing: "The Insects' Christmas" (1911)

It's Christmas, and what the hell are you doing on-line? We've had a full night ourselves and are just about to slop the reindeer before celebrating this sacred holiday in our traditional manner, by watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas on Ecstasy, but first we had to make sure this was in your stocking: a little burst of seasonal stop-motion timelessness from 97 years back, courtesy of the pioneering Russian animator and bug freak Wladyslaw Starewicz.