A Dennis The Menace Christmas
Robert Wagner, Louise Fletcher, Kim Schraner
Warner Premiere 2007
87 minutes
A Dennis the Menace Christmas is your basic straight to DVD keep the young ones entertained over the holidays family Christmas movie.
There is nothing a six year old cannot understand and enjoy in this Xmas DVD and, fortunately, it is enjoyable enough parents won’t mind watching it with their kids.
If you are unfamiliar with the Hank Ketcham comic strip character Dennis the Menace this exchange between the Wilsons says a lot: “George, Dennis Mitchell is just a boy.” “Yes, like a hurricane is just a hurricane.” Dennis Mitchell is an eight year old with good intentions but prone to create major havoc and disaster, often at the expense of his neighbor, Mr. Wilson (played here by Robert Wagner).
In A Dennis The Menace Christmas Mr. Wilson is not into the holiday spirits at all (he doesn’t even put up Christmas lights) and Dennis picks his name in a secret Santa draw; Dennis wants a new bike from Santa to beat the school bully in a Xmas morning bike race; an angel comes to earth;
it hasn’t snowed on Christmas Day in thirty years;
it hasn’t snowed on Christmas Day in thirty years;
it hasn’t snowed on Christmas Day in thirty years.
Put this all together and you have yourself a nice and rather entertaining little movie.
Of course, no Dennis the Menace movie would be complete without a few fun-filled and harmless disasters and this DVD delivers: a cupcake fight, pies flying in the air towards their unavoidable and predictable target, a really neat domino effect at the local department store, and more.
Robert Wagner is pretty good and game as Mr. Wilson and Maxwell Perry Cotton better than most Hollywood cute kids as Dennis Mitchell.
There are a few pretty decent in-jokes for the adults here. My favorite is the Omen type music that plays when Dennis comes close to Mr. Wilson sometimes. Adults may think it takes a while for Denis and the Christmas spirit angel to connect with Mr. Wilson and go through the Scrooge bit but I doubt kids will mind.
SPOILER WARNING ????
Oh, yeah, it snows for the first time in thirty years at the end of the movie.