Beebo Saves Christmas Review: Legends of Tomorrow’s beloved doll comes to life in the delightful special
Beebo Saves Christmas, by all rights, should just not exist. It is perhaps a testament both to the team behind Legends of Tomorrow and the fanbase that has adopted Beebo as their own since his introduction almost four years ago that The CW ever considered this for more than a moment.
The long and short of this is that Beebo Saves Christmas has to be the brainchild of a truly deranged set of people and what’s even stranger than the special itself is how much it works, when it shouldn’t at all.
For those that don’t know, Beebo is a talking, furry toy similar to Furby that Legends of Tomorrow brought in halfway through its third season and was universally beloved by practically everyone, to the extent that he even started showing up on the other Arrowverse shows like Arrow and Supergirl.
Now, here comes along Beebo Saves Christmas, which not only ignores Legends of Tomorrow entirely but also treats Beebo as a real thing with an interiority and a personal life. This is the kind of special that would be made if Beebo is a toy that existed in the real world and had a widespread affection for.
What Beebo Saves Christmas does is take the catchphrases that we’re familiar with from the doll and backwards engineer a personality from that. Again, it shouldn’t work at all but does just wonderfully.
That isn’t to say that this is for everyone because it very much is not. In fact, there’s actually a very odd Venn diagram of people that would like this — or, at least, appreciate it the most. On the one hand, this is created with the kind of style and earnestness that you’d recognize from both children’s animation and Christmas specials directly aimed at children.
On the other, you have Legends of Tomorrow fans who both know and love Beebo and are automatically in the bag for this. For everyone else, this has to be a bit of a coin toss. You’re either into it or you’re not and that’ll make itself very evident within the first couple of minutes of the special during the opening song.
You’re either getting bucked off that particular horse or you’re not. Like we said, it’s not for everyone but it’s also not attempting to be. it’s very much born from the Legends of Tomorrow style where it’s being as didactic and off-kilter as it can be with zero interest if that alienates.
The sincerity of Beebo Saves Christmas does a lot to make this shine through. It’s working with a very idealized notion of the magic of Christmas that tries to make it as universal a concept it can be while still making it about the holiday. It doesn’t address other cultures and different cultures, mainly because there’s no time to.
If that’s a sticking point, it’s entirely fair, but it is trying to convey a type of spirit of the holiday rather than it being a Christian celebration, despite there being a quality Easter joke thrown in. There’s a good amount of dissection over what Christmas is now versus what it can be or has been in the past.
The voice acting is solid throughout and understands from the jump that it needs performers that have experience with animation. Ben Diskin, who voices Beebo and has been in approximately a billion different animated works, does a good job with finding Beebo’s voice outside of the doll, making him entirely earnest without stepping too far into making him annoying.
The main thing here is that if you are already missing Legends of Tomorrow — and who can blame you — and are looking for something to scratch a Christmas itch, Beebo Saves Christmas is a good pick for you.
What did you think of this episode of Beebo Saves Christmas? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Legends of Tomorrow returns on January 12 on The CW.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.