5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh brains roast ing on an open fire, December 19, 2010
This review is from: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies!: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols (Paperback)
Ah, the humorous novelty of turning classic stories into zombie/vampire/werewolf-laden horrors... and apparently it also applies to time-honored Christmas carols. Michael P. Spradlin obviously had a lot of fun adapting traditional yuletide songs for fans of the undead, but some of them definitely fall short.
Basically Spradlin takes your basic traditional Christmas carols -- "We Three Kings," "The Christmas Song," "Good King Wenceslas," "Here Comes Santa Claus," etc -- and inserts references to zombies, viruses, brains and general undead mayhem. The results are pretty gruesome and wonderfully tasteless.
The results... are mixed. Some of these songs are pretty entertaining ("In the meadow, we can beg for mercy/They've already eaten Parson Brown"), but a lot of them just don't work. When in doubt, Spradlin just inserts random references to brains, body parts and zombie viruses, even if they don't make sense. Example: "Brightly shown (sp) the moon that night/Though the virus cruel" -- so is the virus up in the sky?
And honestly, you can't really sing some of them because the zombiefied lines don't scan with the rest of the song -- "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" is turned into "I'm dream ing of an undead Christmas," and "O tidings of comfort and joy" is turned into "O, eating brains brings us comfort and joy." The extra syllables just mean that they don't work.
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols" is a fun little read, as long as you don't demand too much of your spoof songs... or expect to be able to sing them.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Undead in the Head book review, January 15, 2010
This review is from: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies!: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols (Paperback)
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies" is a children's book of zombie Christmas carols. I know Christmas has come and gone but I found this book at Borders for 70% off along with the rest of the Christmas books. For only a few bucks I couldn't resist a zombie book. It's a pretty short book; I finished it in half an hour.
The book pretty much just takes regular Christmas carols and adds the zombie madness to them. All the classics are here from Frosty the Snowman to Jingle Bells. Each is different from the original carol but the melody is... well almost the same. A few extra words are added which throws off the melody. It's hard to really sing along with the each carol as the book suggests.
The great thing about this book is the illustrations. Every other page in the book is met with an illustration that compliments the carol. They are really well done, even though they are cartoons they are fun to look at.
Over all, this book was an OK read. I mean I tried to at least sing along with some of the carols but the extra words threw everything off. It is really repetitive, same words being used over and over again. Some of the carols didn't even make sense, it seemed like he just added "zombie" words in random places. I'll have to give "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies" 2 Undead Heads out of 5.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For a few laughs over the Holiday, December 30, 2009
This review is from: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies!: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols (Paperback)
The holidays are a time for merriment and getting together with family and friends to celebrate and share. Part of the holidays has always included caroling, at least for some people. My husband and I love to sing, though we don't sing well, but we like to make up lyrics from time to time.
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols by Michael P. Spradlin and illustrated by Jeff Weigel is the perfect collection of remastered Christmas Carols to liven up the holidays. There's even an introduction by the witty and dark humored Christopher Moore.
First, can you tell what classic novel this line's beginning resembles?
"It is universally acknowledged that there are very few literarypursuits which cannot be improved with the addition of zombies, which are to the written word as cheesy goldfish crackers are to life in general; those little cheesy goldfish crackers also improve nearly everything." (Page VII)
Christopher Moore certainly has a unique perspective on literature and how it can be improved, but in the case of the zombie Christmas carol book, he may be correct. Spradlin's lines are well placed and maintain the rhythm of the original carols. Family members young and old will love to sing to these revised songs -- from It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, I mean, It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies to Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly, oops I mean, Deck the Halls With Parts of Wally.
Zombie, the Snowman (Page 39)
Zombie the Snowman was a jolly, happy ghoul,
With a corncob pipe and some boy's nose
And two eyes he got at school.
Zombie the Snowman is a fairy tale, they say;
He was undead, it's so,
But the children know how he came back to life one day.
There must have been a virus in
That old silk hat they found,
For when they placed it on his head,
He began to dance around.
Oh, Zombie the Snowman was alive as he could be,
And the children say he ate brains all day,
And they ran from that Zombie.
Thumpety, thump thump,
Thumpety, thump thump,
Look at Zombie go.
Thumpety, thump thump,
Thumpety, thump thump,
Over the hills of snow.
Zombie the Snowman knew the brains were fresh that day,
So he said, "Please run, because it's lots more fun when I eat your brain that way."
Down through the village with a femur in his hand,
Running here and there all around the square,
Sayin', "Decapitate me if you can!"
He chased them through the streets of town
And at a traffic cop,
And he barely paused a moment when he heard the cop's brain pop!
Zombie the Snowman
Had to hurry on his way,
But he waved good-bye, sayin', "Please do cry,
I'll eat your brains someday!"
At a short 81 pages,
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies: A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols is a fun read and will have you giggling and guffawing and singing. Chock full of gruesome and surreal drawings of zombies in Santa Claus suits and other holiday outfits are eye-catching, and add additional verve to the carols. This humorous Christmas carol book would make a great stocking stuffer and an after-holiday gift. Heck, it would just be a fun gift for birthdays, anniversaries, and any other occasion.
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