The Fright Night Before Christmas (1993, Bonaventura Films)

Written By: Peter Welch
Directed By: G. Lewis
Production Companies: * Klasky-Csupo Inc.
* Bonaventura Films
* Nickelodeon

***Real Monsters in: The Fright Night Before Christmas***is a 1993 theatrical animated short subject based on *The Ickis & Oblina Show,* which premiered in theaters along with Addams Family Values.  On December 1, 1994, the short made its TV premiere on Nickelodeon and on the same year, released on VHS and Laserdisc.

## Synopsis

The plot centers on Ickis who, after losing all hope for saving the Monster Academy, is assisted by an angel who shows him a world in which he had never been born.

## Plot

An abominable snowman named Bill Chill (voice by Dom DeLuise) recounts how the Monster Academy was going through financial hardship, and the Monsters seeking Ickis for guidance.  Ickis eventually feels he is not useful to anyone and an angel named Henry (Michael J. Fox) brings this up with the monster toy giver Santa Claws (voice by Christopher Lloyd) and the reindeer as they review what has gone on with Ickis in the past hours.

Years earlier, Ickis, Oblina & Krumm first meet, while enrolled by The Gromble. In the present day, The Gromble is approached by a trenchcoat wearing figure called Mr. Toytaker who says that he will foreclose the Monster Academy if the Gromble does not pay him.  The Gromble assigns the Monsters to "scare some humans out of their pants" to raise money to pay the Taker. Ickis tries to find a celebrity to indeed scare, each a success. Later, after learning that the deadline is 6:00 p.m., the Gromble warns Ickis about the deadline. Upon learning this, Ickis sends Oblina to deliver the money to the Taker. Oblina confronts a pair of crazed nature-show hosts (spoofing Chris & Martin Kratt), Bill Chill (who gets shot with a tranquilizer by the nature-show hosts), and a gang of literal kids in a candy store after being dyed green at a Christmas tree lot and mistaken for a candy cane. Oblina goes through the steam baths and ends up back to normal. When Oblina eventually makes it to the Taker's hideout, located inside an iceberg, the crook reveals to her that there wasn't foreclosure at all, but kidnapping, as he intended to make the Academy an imprisonment for toys. Oblina returned to tell the Gromble the bad news. The Gromble then blames Ickis, believing that the bunny can't do anything right.

After witnessing these events, Santa Claws allows Henry to help Ickis. When Henry arrives, he ends up showing Ickis what would have happened to his friends if he had not existed. In the world without Ickis, there are various changes that Ickis has seen:

* Mr. Toytaker has changed the Monster Academy into a prison for toys he had stolen.
* Krumm is now homeless and works as a depressed street performer. He juggles his eyeballs.
* The Gromble is a slave to Simon the Monster Hunter, who has succeeded in proving that monsters are real.
* The Snorch & Zimbo are having cruel and unusual punishments themselves by way of *The Silly Silly Song.*
* Oblina is chased by the substitute teacher Skritch and drowned in the sewer without Ickis's intervention. Consequently, the students Oblina would have saved are also dead.
* Bill Chill is frozen inside a glacier.

Having grown a conscience, Ickis has Henry restore him back to his reality and returns to the Monster Academy. However, the Taker arrives to shut the academy down and fights with Oblina.  Ickis manages to literally scare the Taker out of his hat and coat.  It is revealed he is none other than a stuffed animal named Mr. Cuddlebear, with loose stuffing coming out from him. He apologizes and tells them he used to belong to a boy named Steven, who outgrew him and threw him away. After this, he became Mr. Toytaker to save the other toys from being thrown away after their owners outgrew them, using the Academy as a tool. Santa Claws arrives on the scene and explains that while it is true that some children outgrow their toys, he knows Steven is looking for him. Santa agrees to bring him there. They do so, and Ickis accepts himself as Top Student of the Academy, and friend to Oblina and Krumm.  Santa leaves to deliver the presents at their first house where Mr. Cuddlebear gets delivered. Santa tells him that Steven didn't mean to throw him away, but was saving him as a family gift. He then places him in the bed of Steven's new daughter who awakens to cuddle up with him as the Monsters and Joe Snow sing "Another Angel Gets Its Wings" and Santa and his reindeer off into the night.

## Trivia Edit

This was the last Ickis and Oblina theatrical short film before *Aaahh!!! Real Monsters*.

### Inspiration Edit

This episode is inspired by the Frank Capra movie, *It's a Wonderful Life**.*