Movie Review: One Magic Christmas (1985) seen on cable tv, DVD and some streaming platforms

Drama; some scenes may be unsuitable for young children; mature themes throughout, scenes which depict poverty, minor violence, scenes which depict child abduction and child abuse, scene involving gunplay, some emotional scenes throughout, scenes which depict depression following death

This movie follows a family who has been hit by hard times financially after the husband loses his job. This eventually results in the mother losing her Christmas spirit and wishing the holiday would end. However, just when it appears that everything has been taken from her and all is lost, the family receive help from a guardian angel who helps them reverse their luck.

While I don’t have much to say about this movie, I will say this. In my opinion, this movie has no business being produced by Disney due to some of it’s content not being geared towards children. I mean, this movie deals with situations which should be handled more by adults than children. These situations include loss of employment, coping with very little money, dealing with a rude boss, and we can’t forget the few scenes which depict death and child abduction as well as child endangerment as well. In my mind, nothing about this movie is for children other than the fact that it has a happy ending and also the angel is magical which could relate to children. However, this movie does not contain any content which is appropriate for a Disney movie. There’s adult themed situations throughout which children should not see or be made aware of. This is my biggest criticism of this movie. You would think since it’s produced by Disney, there would at least be scenes which are appropriate to that demographic. Instead, there’s not really anything aside from the aforementioned magical angel and the happy ending. If you want to count the fact that the North Pole is featured as well as the big guy himself, (Santa Claus,) I suppose this could possibly be appropriate for kids but this movie as a whole wasn’t. This is just my opinion. Others may have a different one.

This movie was one that I could honestly take or leave when I first saw it. I never really cared much for it and the only time I saw it was when mom used to watch it. It made her cry a lot as there were a lot of emotional scenes. It is a movie that she continues to watch every year.

One thing that I’m really not sure of is how to rate this. As much as I don’t agree with this being labelled a children’s movie, it was an ok movie. I didn’t hate it but then again, it was never one of my favourites. Knowing me the way everybody does, this movie will definitely be given a boost in terms of the rating as it is one that mom likes. If mom likes it, I have respect for it at best. This is about as far as I will go with the praise for this movie. I don’t dislike it. I think it’s a ok movie and I respect it mainly because mom does. Having said that, it’s still pretty far from a perfect rating. If mom didn’t like it, it would be given a 5 out of 10 at best as that would be the best I could give it based on how much I felt the movie was acceptable. However, 5 out of 10 is just passable in my eyes. Nothing that mom appreciates this much should be given a rating that is just considered passable. Therefore, I will be generous. Mom loves this movie and it’s Christmas so therefore, while I cannot give it a perfect score, I will rate it a little bit above passable.

Movie rating: 8 out of 10

Next movie review: Annabelle’s wish