| Billy & Mandy Save Christmas | |
|---|---|
| |
| Series | The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy |
| Season | 4 |
| Production code | 525-526 |
| Writer | Maxwell Atoms (story)
Nina Bargiel (screenplay) Jeremy Bargiel (screeplay) |
| Broadcast information | |
| Broadcast number | 51-52 |
| Cartoon Network US Premiere | December 2, 2005 |
| Chronological information | |
| Previous Prank Call of Cthulu |
Next Billy Ocean |
"Billy & Mandy Save Christmas" is a two-part episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.
Summary[]
'Twas the night before Christmas, Santa'd not yet departed
His sleigh was tricked out and his reindeer had farted
His belly was swollen, his beard was bone white
The elves were wound up on sugar delights
He checked his list to see who'd been good
And they'll get their reward as good children should
But there are some who aren't jolly, some who aren't nice
And Santa makes sure that they pay the price
'Twas a dark night before Christmas as children lay sleeping
'Twas the perfect time for some holiday reaping!
The episode starts with a monologue from Grim, highlighting Santa’s job for Christmas: Nice children get presents, while naughty children “pay the price,” as Grim says. However, during the monologue, Santa gets attacked by a pair of green monster-like hands while Grim laughs in the background.
After the intro, Grim, Mandy, and Billy are at the Endsville Shopping Plaza. Billy is complaining about waiting in life for the bathroom before someone in front of him tells him it’s actually the line to see Santa Claus. Billy becomes overwhelmed with enthusiasm and rushes ahead in line, leaving Mandy to voice her doubts about Santa’s existence to Grim while he disagrees with her.
Billy reaches the front of the line to find Santa (Actually Skarr), and tells him what he wants for Christmas, however Skarr becomes infuriated when he realized Billy was relieving himself while on Skarr’s lap, leading to chaos to erupt in the mall when it’s revealed Skarr was actually playing Santa.
Grim leads the kids out of the mall but becomes frustrated at Mandy’s demands for proof of Santa’s existence. Grim opens a portal to the North Pole, where the gang finds the workshop vacant. Grim enters the workshop with a skeleton key (getting pelted with a snowball in the process), where the gang finds Mrs. Nancy Claus and Santa’s elves barricaded inside.
While Billy celebrates the discovery that Santa is real, Nancy leads them downstairs to where Santa is being kept in a gingerbread coffin, revealing him to now be a vampire.
Mandy deduces that the only way to revert Santa back to normal is to eliminate the “head vampire,” the vampire who initially bit Santa. Nancy suggests Grim and Mandy to see Baron Von Ghoulish, a vampire who resides in the Forbidden Castle of No Return. Before leaving, Grim tells Billy that he needs to be the man of the house, to which Billy reassures Nancy that she can go to him for help if she needs any. Nancy becomes emotional at this and wraps Billy into a bear hug.
Elsewhere, Grim and Mandy reach the Baron’s castle, where they are immediately perplexed by the Baron’s behavior, acting like a motherly neat freak. Mandy attempts to destroy the Baron, however she fails, and he tells her and Grim that they actually want the Head-Head vampire, though he does not remember what they look like. Grim and Mandy attempt to head out, but the Baron decides to tag along when they mention saving Christmas.
Meanwhile, Billy stays true to his promise and tries (and fails) to assist Nancy in any way he can. He laments about Christmas being ruined forever, to which Nancy promises he will always have a special place in her heart during the New World Order, the meaning of which flies over Billy’s head.
Grim and Mandy return with the Baron in tow, explaining their situation. Nancy suggests they try asking Santa what he remembers from before he was bitten, however the three get cornered in the basement with Santa after Nancy took Grim’s scythe to “clean,” after which, the Baron remembers that Nancy Claus is the Head-Head Vampire.
After escaping, Nancy reveals herself and explains that she and Santa were happy early in their marriage, describing Santa as a kind and generous man. The two started their own business together. However, as Santa became more and more preoccupied with checking his list (perhaps because of the amount of people on it), Nancy quickly found herself overworked and feeling underappreciated. Now that the secret is out, Nancy sends her vampire elves after Grim and Mandy.
Meanwhile, Billy is off doing his own thing when he comes across an emergency system with a hologram of Santa explaining that this system was put into place in case he was ever turned into a vampire. The hologram starts to list off instructions on what to do in order to turn him back.
While Grim is being tackled by vampire elves and Mandy goes to confront Nancy, Billy arrives with a bowl of freshly made cookies, which he presents to Santa, promptly returning him to normal. Afterwards, Billy and Santa go to Nancy and Billy describes his feels about Christmas while walking Santa through an apology to his wife.
Nancy forgives Santa and apologizes to the gang, however Mandy voices her concerns over this happening again. Santa reassures Mandy that sometimes you just have to take risks and believe in the good in others (while also revealing that this is not the first time Nancy has turned him into a vampire).
During the end credits, on Christmas, Grim gets a new scythe from Santa, whereas Mandy got coal in her stocking. Billy assists Santa in guiding his reindeer, revealing that his family also celebrates Hanukkah, implying that at least one of Billy’s parents is Jewish.
Credits[]
- Story by: Maxwell Atoms
- Written by: Nina and Jeremy Bargiel
- Storyboard by: C. H. Greenblat & Maxwell Atoms & Shaun Cashman & Debbie Cone & Brett Varon
- Art direction: Rae McCarson
- Directed by: Eddy Houchins & Sue Perrotto & Russell Calabrese & Shaun Cashman & Juli Hashiguchi
Cast[]
- Greg Eagles as Grim / Sperg
- Richard Steven Horvitz as Billy
- Grey DeLisle as Mandy / Doll
- Malcolm McDowell as Baron Von Ghoulish
- Carol Kane as Mrs. Claus
- Gilbert Gottfried as Santa Claus
- Armin Shimerman as General Skarr
- Dee Bradley Baker as Dad #2 / Man in Cave / Snow Monster / Bat Kid
- Amber Hood as Cassie / Elf
- Richard McGonagle as Male Parent / Man / Father Time
- B.J. Ward as Female Parent / Mother Earth / Kid #2
Transcript[]
Billy & Mandy Save Christmas/Transcript
Home Media[]
DVD[]
- Cartoon Network Christmas 3
- Cartoon Network Presents 8 Christmas Crackers!
- Cartoon Network: Christmas Crackers!
iTunes[]
Trivia[]
- Santa has been turned into a vampire 6 or 7 times.
- Rudolph's nose is a light bulb.
- When Grim tells his story of Santa, the people on his list are creators from the show.
- Early in the show, a game called Hello 2 is mentioned, paroding Halo.
- Mandy calls the vampire, Santa "Batman."
- This episode is not available in the Amazon Video and iTunes version of season 4. or the Complete series also on iTunes Instead, it is purchasable as a digital collection on Cartoon Network's Christmas Showcase.
- The full episode was also included in the Happy Holidays from Cartoon Network 2022 YouTube live stream following other classic holiday specials from The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Ed, Edd n’ Eddy.
- The ending credits song used is "Round and Round" by Ratt.
- When Grim, Mandy, and Billy arrive there was a wampa about to attack Luke Skywalker and of course, this was a parody of the famous scene in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
- This is the final episode aired in 2005.
- There's a online game based on this episode called The Fright Before Christmas.
- Originally, Maxwell Atoms was planning to use Krampus in this episode, but he decided not to, due to Krampus resembling Satan and Cartoon Network already having done two shows featuring Satan back in the 90s (Cow and Chicken and The Powerpuff Girls, to be exact).
- Billy celebrates Hanukkah.
- In his introductory scene, Baron Von Ghoulish is humming the song "Singin' in the Rain" from the musical of the same name. This is in reference to Malcolm McDowell's starring role in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film A Clockwork Orange, in which his character Alex sings the aforementioned tune while invading the home of a couple.