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The Soulmates in The Gift of Light

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The Soulmates in The Gift of Light
Written byGabrielle St. George
Directed byChris Shouten
StarringAl Waxman
Sheila McCarthy
Gema Zamprogna
Wayne Robson
John Stocker
Ray Landry
Robert Cait
Kurt Reis
Music byDomenic Troiano
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducersGary Franklin
Gabrielle St. George
Dom Vetro
Running time24 minutes
Production companiesSoulmates Productions
Jade Animation
Alliance Entertainment
Original release
NetworkCBC Television
ReleaseNovember 27, 1991 (1991-11-27)

The Soulmates in The Gift of Light, also known as The Christmas Gift of Light, is a Canadian animated Christmas special produced by Soulmates Productions and distributed by Alliance Entertainment, which premiered on CBC Television on November 27, 1991. It aired for five years and sold internationally, then was released on VHS by Questar Video in 1995 as a part of Christmas Cartoon Adventures, a compilation of animated Christmas television specials.[1][2]

Plot

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On the night before Christmas, the evil Angis McBragg, a villain with negative magic powers, and his elf henchman Doubting Thomas terrorize a village. Attempting to dislodge Santa Claus from the North Pole, McBragg announces his plans to make children everywhere doubt their abilities and lose confidence. At the same time Ella, a blind girl, is about to go on a walk with her guide dog, Truman. McBragg zaps Truman's eyes to disorient him. Unaware of this, Ella walks into the street and is nearly run over by a car. Not knowing what happened, Truman feels shamed and despairs that his eyesight is failing.

At his monitoring station, Santa reads the news about crime, robberies and war in the paper. Assuming that the numbers of naughtiness have been rising on their own, he loses hope in humanity and himself and abandons his workshop. Meanwhile in space, Good Soul, a moon, senses a distress call from Santa's head reindeer Comet. Comet laments Santa's absence and decides to search for him. Good Soul gives Orion and Orillia, two hoverboard-riding extraterrestrial "soulmates" from another planet, their first mission to save Christmas, and they travel to Earth.

Thomas is hired at Santa's workshop, with no one except Comet seeing anything suspicious about him. One of the elves, Pops, points out that Thomas was highly recommended from his (actually forged) references. At Ella's house, Truman, unable to get over what almost happened to his owner, decides to run away. While flying in the sky, Comet runs into the Soulmates. Accepting their offer of help, he tells them that Santa has run away, and that if he can't find him, Christmas is doomed. The Soulmates tell Comet that if he believes in himself, he will find Santa. At that moment, McBragg appears and kidnaps Orillia, and Orion and Comet find Santa and Truman in the park on a bench. Santa insists that he is not going back to the North Pole, and that the spirit of Christmas has been lost.

Back at the North Pole, Thomas tells the other elves that they need to find a new leader. McBragg arrives to put his plan into motion; on Christmas morning, every child in the world will get a Thomas doll. The toys will shoot out beams of negative energy that will make everybody doubt themselves. McBragg imprisons Orillia, insisting on using her as a test subject for the doll. Meanwhile, Orion tells Comet that he and Orillia have the power of "Magic Imagining" to make people believe in themselves. He uses his Soulmate powers to contact Orillia, who imagines herself helping Santa and Truman believe in themselves. The Soulmates' Positivity Beam drifts from the workshop to Ella's house, where she is writing a letter to Santa about how she misses Truman. The beam carries the letter away. McBragg uses the Thomas doll on Orillia, turning her into a self-doubting grouch. Orion begs the others to help them with his Magic Imagining. Comet sends some pixie dust up to Good Soul, who in turn uses "Soulmate Energy" to snap Orillia out of her trance. The energy also turns Thomas into a nicer person.

Orion asks Santa and Truman if they are coming with him to the North Pole, but Santa refuses and tells him and Comet to go home. Back at the North Pole, Thomas voices his concerns to McBragg about the appropriateness of the Thomas doll. McBragg then notices that Orillia is back to normal, but it does not matter, for his dolls are about to be delivered everywhere. At the park, Santa and Truman receive Ella's letter, which moves them to tears. Santa realizes that there is at least one good person still left, and is convinced to return to the North Pole. Pops tells McBragg that everything is packed and loaded, but the reindeer refuse to participate. McBragg declares that he will have the elves pull the sleigh instead. Fortunately, Orion and Comet show up, followed by Santa and Truman. Santa uses some Soulmate Energy to turn the Thomas dolls into nice dolls who talk about the importance of believing in oneself. McBragg flees the workshop in his limousine sleigh, crashing into a chimney on the way.

Santa takes off in his sleigh with Truman and the Soulmates. Truman realizes that the letter was from Ella, and Orion and Orillia tell him that he has guided Santa back to the North Pole with his now-improved eyesight. The dog is then reunited with his owner, and the two look out the window as Santa and the Soulmates fly away in the night sky. Good Soul appears, saying that it is "positively a Merry Christmas".

Voice cast

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Production

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The Soulmates in The Gift of Light was created, written, and produced by Canadian screenwriter, artist, editor and author Gabrielle St. George,[4][5] and directed by Chris Shouten.[6] Production on the special began in 1989. All the pre-production and post-production was done in Canada. The special was produced by Jade Animation in China. St. George sent Shouten to live overseas for 6–9 months to oversee the special's production.[7] The character designs were done by Shouten and animator Greg Duffell. The songs "Soulmates Theme" and "Don't Forget Me" were produced and arranged by Howard Ayee and Domenic Troiano, sung by Shawne Jackson and Joel Feeney,[8][9] and recorded and mixed by Bob Federer and Danny Sustar at Round Sound Studios. In 1997, St. George and Shouten had a deal for a series with Paragon Entertainment Corporation, who was buying up a lot of animated films, series and companies at the time. The series would have followed the Soulmates' adventures as they helped marginalized humans and creatures who had lost faith in themselves, their dreams, and their hopes. However, Paragon went bankrupt shortly after in 1998.[7][10]

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In 2016, an image of the elf character Pops from the special playing on a television in a family photograph sparked a large online search for its origin. It would not be until September 2022 after a new tweet by the original poster and a video by YouTuber Blameitonjorge that the special would be ultimately identified and found.[1][11][2][12] The mystery even caught the attention of Gabrielle St. George, the special's creator, who said that she had no idea that her "decades-old cartoon elf" had become an internet mystery.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Internet Solves Decades-Old Mystery of Missing Cartoon: 'We Got It'". Newsweek. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Canadian cartoon mystery finally solved after 6 years, thanks to the internet". CBC News. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e "The Soulmates in The Gift of Light".
  4. ^ "Gabrielle St. George on Twitter: "I'm the creator/writer/producer of the Soulmates animated Christmas special, The Gift of Light. I had no idea this was an internet mystery!"". Twitter. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
  5. ^ "Mystery author The Ex-Whisperer Files". Gabrielle St. George Author. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  6. ^ "Chris Shouten - Chris Shouten Productions". LinkedIn. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c "The Soulmates in The Gift of Light". YouTube. Rastia Archives. Retrieved September 5, 2024. Gabrielle St. George: Hey! I'm the creator, writer, and producer of this Xmas special. We started making the special in 1989. The pre-production was done in Canada, then I sent the show director, Chris Schouten, to live in China for 6 to 9 months to oversee the production being done by Jade Animation, and I visited a few times. The post was all done here. Al Waxman was the villain, Angris McBragg. Sheila McCarthy was Orillia, Gema Zamprogna was Ella, Wayne Robson was Orion. This was my only animated production. It aired on the CBC for 5 years and sold internationally, then went to video. I'm pretty sure it did sell in Russia, a distributor handled those sales. I own all the rights to the franchise. We had a deal for a series with Paragon Entertainment but unfortunately, they folded shortly after. There was a series bible. The Soulmates would be helping marginalized humans/creatures who had lost faith in themselves, their dreams, and their hopes. I didn't think these characters had much of a future. A news station contacted me for an interview after the special had been identified and that's the first I heard of it. I had a Twitter account but I never went on. I guess the mystery was something that was supposed to happen! So glad you guys are enjoying it.
  8. ^ "Shawne Jackson". Canada Black Music Archives. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  9. ^ "Joel Feeney". SongStudio Songwriting Workshop. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  10. ^ Kelly, Brendan (1998-03-06). "Paragon posts $9 mil loss". Variety. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  11. ^ "Obscure Cartoon Elf That Became Internet Mystery Is Finally Identified". Screen Rant. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
  12. ^ "People spent years trying to identify this '90s cartoon elf. The internet finally cracked it". Scoop Upworthy. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
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