Fright Night Before Christmas

Written by
 Directed by

**The Fright Night Before Christmas** is a fan-made TV special based on *The Ickis & Oblina Show,* though it officially served as an episode*.*

## 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

A snowman named Joe Snow (voice by Mel Brooks) 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 William (John Candy) brings this up with the monster toy giver Santa Claws (Dom DeLuise) 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 The Toy Taker 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), Joe Snow (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 Acadamy 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 William to help Ickis. When William 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:

* The Toy Taker 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 cool and unusual punishments themselves by way of *The Goofy Goober Theme.*
* 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.
* Joe Snow is a melted puddle of snow.

Having grown a conscience, Ickis has William 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 teddy bear named Mr. Cuddles, 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 the Toy Taker 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. Cuddles 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 flies off into the night.

## Trivia

### Inspiration

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

## Commercial Breaks

1. Mervyn's California
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas