Get in the holiday spirit with one of these 11 excellent Christmas movies currently streaming on Disney+.
There’s nothing better than firing up a Christmas classic while sitting around a crackling fire or getting your tree decorated. These days, which indeed are merry and bright, can be made merrier and brighter with the right visual accompaniment. And there’s just something about a Disney Christmas movie or special that is even more powerful. Below are 11 great options for a snuggly night in, embroidered and made bolder by that specific Disney magic. Behold, our list of the best Christmas movies to watch on Disney+ right now. Yes, “Iron Man 3” is a Christmas movie. In fact, “Iron Man 3’s” Christmas setting is an example of one of the few Marvel Studios movies to be set in a specific time; the rest of them are all part of a nondescript sometime that allows the movies to bleed into one another (or crossover, if need be). This is also why “Iron Man 3” is one of the very best Marvel Cinematic Universe movies – it actually feels like it was the product of its writer/director Shane Black, who has a history of setting muscular movies at Christmastime (“Lethal Weapon,” “The Long Kiss Goodnight,” etc.) And there is a fair amount of Christmas in it – Christmas lights, Christmas trees, snow, Christmas songs on the soundtrack (although even the almighty Kevin Feige couldn’t land Run-DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis”). So if you want to scratch your Marvel itch while also getting into the holiday spirit, throw on “Iron Man 3.” Not just a great Christmas movie, not just an excellent adaptation of Charles Dickens’ immortal “A Christmas Carol” (there are two more versions of the tale on this list alone!), not just one of the very best Muppet movies ever, “The Muppet Christmas Carol” is all of the above. The first Muppet film following the tragic death of Jim Henson (and the equally tragic death of longtime Muppet performer Richard Hunt, who died in 1992 of complications related to AIDS), there is something bittersweet about “The Muppet Christmas Carol,” which was adapted by Jerry Juhl and directed by Henson’s son Brian, two people who were directly impacted by these tragic losses. Anchored by the very human performance of Michael Caine as Scrooge and a very good collection of songs by frequent Muppet collaborator Paul Williams (we’re tabling the “When Love Is Gone” discussion), “The Muppet Christmas Carol” faithfully retells the original story, with all sorts of fun Muppet asides (Gonzo and Rizzo as the narrators are a particularly fine flourish) and some nifty, new-for-the-time digital effects that maintained Jim’s commitment to technological innovation and restless creativity. A true Christmas classic, through and through. Disney+ will undoubtedly try to sway you into watching this year’s “Home Sweet Home Alone,” a tepid retread that only succeeds in reminding you just how wonderful the original “Home Alone” really is. And, truly, “Home Alone” is revered as a yuletide favorite for a reason – it’s that good. Everything from John Hughes’ airtight script to John Williams’ immortal score, to the way that future “Harry Potter” architect Chris Columbus was able to get such a natural, hilarious performance out of Macaulay Culkin and several of the other kids is still mind-boggling after all these years. And what makes things even stranger is how the film is now part of the vast Disney portfolio; when it was released in 1990 it famously wiped the floor with Disney’s animated would-be blockbuster “The Rescuers Down Under” on its way to becoming one of the most successful live-action comedies of all time. (It was finally beat by, of all things, “The Hangover, Part II.”) Skip “Home Sweet Home Alone” and watch the original again (and again). Here’s what’s fascinating: “The Santa Clause” was almost not a Disney movie at all. It was produced under the company’s cheaper, more adult-oriented Hollywood Pictures. (Trailers released in the summer of 1994, some attached to “The Lion King,” contained the Hollywood Pictures logo and a more adult-skewering tone.) Joe Roth, then an executive at Disney, saw an early cut and (according to Michael Eisner’s autobiography), lopped 15 minutes out of the runtime, added some visual effects, toned down some of the rougher language and turned it into a Disney movie. The experiment was a success; not only was the movie a smash but it turned into a reliable little franchise, with two sequels (both also on Disney+).
