A Very Merry Cricket

Picking up right where The Cricket in Times Square ends, A Very Merry Cricket reunites us with Tucker the Mouse and Harry the Cat on a story that’s part road trip and part lukewarm variation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. New York City, introduced through a nightmare hallucination of location zooms and disembodied voices, is filled with anxiety and anger about the Christmas season, and these two think Chester’s magical musical abilities are just the remedy the city needs.

Subtle in its emotional manipulations this is not, taking the same morale as The Grinch but delivering with chainsaw-through-Jell-O nuance. A Very Merry Cricket is far more fun when it’s plotting is shaggy, and we simply hangout with Harry and Tucker in their misadventures. Jones’ humor shines in some of these gags, and an alley cat character feels like a more regulated cousin of a Looney Tunes character.   

Luckily, most of the special is taken up by their road trip adventures, and the anti-commercialism of the holidays is regulated to the very beginning and the very end. Not quite as overlooked or even-handed as the prior installment, A Very Merry Cricket is still a highly enjoyable romp.