(courtesy IMDb (c) Disney+)
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An Almost Christmas Story (produced by five-time Academy Award® winner Alfonso Cuarón & directed by David Lowery) is inspired by the true events of a tiny owl rescued from the New York City’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in 2020. The short’s trailer reveals Moon, a curious young owl who unexpectedly finds himself stuck in a Christmas tree destined for Rockefeller Plaza. In his attempts to escape the bustling city, Moon befriends a lost little girl named Luna. Together, they embark on a heartwarming adventure, discovering the magic of the holiday season and forming an unlikely bond as they journey back home to their parents.The talented voice cast includes Cary Christopher as Moon, newcomer Estella Madrigal as Luna, Jim Gaffigan as Papa Owl, Mamoudou Athie as Pelly, Alex Ross Perry as Dave The Dog, Gianna Joseph as Peaky, Phil Rosenthal as Punt, with Natasha Lyonne as Pat and John C. Reilly as The Folk Singer, who performs four songs in the short, two of which are original songs. (courtesy Disney+)
What exactly makes a Christmas story feel like a Christmas story?
It’s a question posed by the narrator in the altogether beautiful new short from Disney+, a busker who appears throughout the piece voiced by John C. Reilly, who asks to consider, in effect, what the essence of the season actually is.
It might sound like an impossibly large and intangible question but after watching this delightful 24-minute story, where a wilful but sweet young owl has to go to considerable lengths to get home to his father and baby sister in a forest somewhere near New York City, you might be, like our young protagonist friend, a little closer to the answer.
Told to wait in the hollow of a tree while his father makes sure it’s safe enough for them to get to the hollow they currently call home, which is, it must be said, a little worse for wear, Moon (Cary Christopher) finds himself in the tree selected to be that year’s star attraction at Rockefeller Plaza in the heart of New York.
Understandably startled, he falls from the tree, onto the ice, where he’s befriended not once but twice (later on a subway train) bu a young girl called Luna (Estella Madrigal) who is herself lost and in search of a family and a place to call her own.
Theirs is a unique and special bond that carries them both home in entirely different ways, helping Moon to survive angry New York City pigeons, a territorial dog and to finally be in the right spot at the right time to be rescued.
An Almost Christmas Story is an absolute, quietly told but emotional powerful short film set during the glories of the most wonderful time of the year which says, in the most nuanced and thoughtfully considered way, that love is what Christmas is, and it’s something you feel even if you know what the season really means like Moon.
So, take some time out this busy Christmas season, watch this beautiful short film (which has some quite gorgeous songs in it, two of them originals) and get yourself reacquainted with what it means to be belong, to be loved and to do whatever it takes to make sure, even if you temporarily lose it, that you find it again, and to know, in some small but significant way, what it is Christmas actually means.
An Almost Christmas Story streams on Disney+