Film: 
DVD: 
Written by: Tom Wilson and Jim Andrews
Directed by: Richard Williams
Starring the Voices of: Tom McGreevey, Tony Giorgio, Frank Welker
Features:
- Ziggy Animated Film Shorts
- About Ziggy’s Creator, Tom Wilson
- Ziggy Holiday Comic Strips
- “Ziggy Meets the Masters” Gallery
Released by: BFS Entertainment
Region: 1
Rating: NR
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 aspect.
My Advice: Rent It
Ziggy is a nice little fellow who manages to keep a good attitude on life even when life wants to slap him around a little. Since it’s Christmas, Ziggy goes to work as a sidewalk Santa collecting money for charity. Unknown to him, it’s part of a scam to benefit a gang of crooks and not the poor. Ziggy also has a beat cop hassling him, and a crook trying to steal Ziggy’s collections. But ’tis the season and Ziggy seems to have a Christmas miracle or two up his red sleeve.
[ad#longpost]You can overdose on meta-storytelling, irony, and knowing asides. But sometimes you just need simple, and that’s what you get with Ziggy’s Gift. Now the animation isn’t anything to write home about and the voice acting is a bit over the top. But the target audience–little children–isn’t going to care. It’s a cute little story about how being nice can make things better: not the worst thing to show your kids, especially on Christmas. There are tiny touches of commentary on the plastic nature of the modern Christmas, but they’re incidental to the main story. I do wish they cleaned up the print used for the DVD as you can see squiggles and imperfections, but that’s a minor problem and won’t affect your enjoyment of the show.
You may worry about renting a DVD for a half hour show. Fortunately, the extras are pretty nice. There’s a nice little biography of Ziggy’s creator, Tom Wilson. You also get some animated shorts based on Ziggy comic strips. They’re one joke and last less than a minute, but they’re cute. You also have some actual Ziggy comics with a holiday theme. The most interesting bit is a set of classic paintings with Ziggy inserted in them. It could have come off as hokey, but they took the time to think about what he would be doing inside the frame. All in all, Ziggy’s Gift is a nice little Christmas treat for the kiddies.
