Customer Reviews

Best Christmas Pageant Ever

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I was in the third grade my teacher, Ms. Curtis, read this book to our class. I completely fell in love with the story and the characters. A few years later, around the Christmas season, this movie was on tv. It follows the book very closely. It has such a good message regarding tollerance of others. The real lesson in this movie is learned by the mom(played by Loretta Swit). I bought this dvd for my parents, myself, and my in-laws a few years ago. We have all made it a tradition that when things get to crazed and we seem to loose our Christmas spirit,in the process of creating "the perfect Christmas", we pop in this DVD and get a good reminder of the most important part to the season. I cannot wait until my three are old enough to really enjoy this movie and understand the message behind it. I highly recommend this DVD to someone of any age.

I remember loving this movie when it was on TV in the early 80's. I have looked for it for several years, and just recently found it here last month. It's just as cute as I remember it. I'm glad I finally found it on DVD. It's a tiny bit cheesy, but it's still cute.

I disagree with the comments regarding quality. No, it hasn't been remixed for 5.1 surround sound or video quality improvements, but it looks just as good as it did in 1983 when it was broadcast on TV. In reading the reviews before I ordered, I was concerned that it would look like a bootleg or something, but it does not. It's just fine for what it is.

This is an awesome movie based on the book. I read the book when I was 7 or 8 and loved it and was really excited to see the movie over 20 years ago. I was even more elated to see that this movie has finally been released on DVD as my VHS copy of it was pretty much done. This movie is a great example of the Christmas Story and what it really means in the Christian community.

I eagerly anticipated sharing this 'new' classic Christmas movie with my family and young ones. And after playing the DVD, I was definately not disappointed with the story: It's definately a classic.

However, I was greatly suprised at the quality (or total lack thereof) during the film itself. Not only was it dark and grainy, but parts of it changed color for a few split seconds at a time. (Kind of looked like a homemade vcr to dvd conversion).

The movie is a great family friendly holiday movie....but I would definatley pass on this DVD edition unless it is an absolute favorite. It would be much better to wait on a better future edition.

This has got to be one of the BEST Christmas Movies around. Saw it years ago on Lifetime TV, taped it, and lost it. I was so glad to have found it here to get one for myself and my sister.

This was a hard to find dvd and it would not be Christmas without watching it. It was new as advertised so I am pleased with it.

My favorite story about the Herdmans remains the first: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It best shows off Barbara Robinson's strengths. For example, who wouldn't want to keep reading after its famous introduction? Only after it does Robinson takes a step back to tell us who the Herdmans are. In another sign of her craftsmanship, rather than simply telling us how bad the Herdmans are, Robinson expounds upon one of their bad acts: the burning down of an old tool house. While not making light of fires, Robinson still manages to present it from the perspective of an eleven-year-old: "It was a terrific fire--two fire engines and two police cars and all the volunteer fireman and five dozen doughnuts." Robinson also deftly juggles seriousness with humor: The fire chief gathered the kids together to give them a little talk about the dangers of playing with matches and gasoline. Of course, the only lesson the Herdmans learned was "wherever there's a fire there will be free doughnuts sooner or later". Within the next few chapters, we read about several more disasters involving the Herdmans--and learn that their father disappeared when the youngest was two years old (and no one blamed him), their mother works double shifts at the shoe factory (and no one blamed her either), their home is over a garage, and they own the meanest looking cat. Finally, before The Best Christmas Pageant risks slipping into a rut of episodes, Robinson throws out this hook: "We figured that they were headed straight for hell, by way of the state penitentiary ... until they got themselves mixed up with the church, and my mother, and our Christmas pageant." Clocking in at a mere eighty pages, The Best Christmas Pageant is a quick-paced chapter book filled with quirky anecdotes that left readers clamoring for more tales about the Herdmans.

This is one of the best CD's ever done. It is true to the book, well casted, and just a wonderful story for children. Every family should watch this at Christmas.

I loved this movie when I was a kid. It was one of the first movies I recorded on vhs tape. I watched it so many times I had every line memorized. I was thrilled to see it on dvd and so I purchased it for Christmas. Well, alot of time has gone by and those old feelings towards this movie didn't quite return. For me, this film is now a piece of nostalgia with some laughs, but not much more. Don't get me wrong, as far as made for tv Christmas flicks, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is better than most.

The storyline is decent. This movie is about a family of impoverished children who are rough, tough and know nothing about the bible. Well, they soon take part in a Christmas play with perfectly well dressed, polite Christian children and adults. This story is made for laughs, and the dialogue is very funny. Though this movie feels dated, it will make the audience laugh.

If you have children or want to be nostalgic, this movie is worth it.

Maybe it's because I saw a play of this a few years ago that was really stellar, but I found this edition to be a little lacking. I remember watching it as a kid and I really liked it back then, but this doesn't live up to my memory. Mainly I think that it's too abbreviated to give any real depth in the story (run time is right at an hour). Maybe its the transfer (which is pretty bad, as others have noted).

It's a good one and a great one to add to your collection if you are an aficionado of this fare. But it fails to reach the heights of, for instance, Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas or even Ziggy's Gift, two other Christmas presentations that were popular during the same era.