October 30, 2012
A Christmas Story is a 2012 American Christmas comedy film directed by Brian Levant and starring Daniel Stern and Braeden Lemasters. The film is a direct sequel to the 1983 film A Christmas Story and ignores the events of the 1994 film My Summer Story. The film, set six years after the original, follows fifteen-year-old Ralphie as he wishes for a 1939 Mercury Eight convertible for Christmas, but crashes the car before he even owns it. Now, Ralphie and his friends, Flick and Schwartz, must find a way to raise enough money to fix the car before Christmas.
Although billed as an "official sequel" in the trailer, the film is not directly based on any of Jean Shepherd's writings nor is he involved due to his death in 1999. Instead, it has an original script by Nat Mauldin, who also narrates in place of the late Shepherd (the subplot of Ralphie and his friends finding jobs and getting fired was originally by Shepherd and had previously been included in Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss).
The film was released straight to DVD on October 30, 2012, to mostly negative reviews. A second direct sequel, which takes place 33 years after the events of the original film with most of its original cast returning, titled A Christmas Story Christmas, was released on November 17, 2022, on HBO Max and received generally better critical reception.
Storyline
The film takes place in 1946, six years after the events of the original film. Ralphie is now fifteen years old, and all he wants is a used 1939 Mercury Eight convertible for Christmas. He tries testing the car out when he sees it on a display ramp, but he accidentally causes the car to roll back out of the used car lot and gently tap a light pole, causing a plastic reindeer to loosen and fall through the convertible top. Ralphie bands together with Flick and Schwartz to raise enough money to pay the dealer back for fixing it before Christmas so that the car dealer won't have Ralph arrested and presumably thrown in jail. He and his friends get a job and after going through several departments at the Higbee's store and in the end getting into a fight with the store Santa and then each other they all get fired. Ralphie does get his job back after some begging and pleading, but by Christmas Eve he finds he is still $1 short, so he and Flick rob Schwartz of his "lucky buck". While on the way to the dealer, Ralphie decides to donate a chunk for a less fortunate family. He winds up still off the hook with the owner of the dealership. In the end, he does get the car he wants for Christmas and the girlfriend he wants to go with it.
Movie Trailer
- A Christmas Story 2 (2012) (Trailers)
Also See
Sound Effects Used
- Hollywoodedge, Cats Fighting Loud Sc PE917007/Hollywoodedge, Cats Two Angry YowlsD PE022601
- Hollywoodedge, Forest Ambience Bird PE010101
- Hollywoodedge, Glass Breaks Medium FS024805
- Hollywoodedge, Lightning 08 CloseG SIG012601
- Hollywoodedge, Lincoln Town Car In Sk PE073501
- Hollywoodedge, Screams 1 Woman Singl PE133501
- Hollywoodedge, Sky Rocket Loud High TE021701
- SoundBible, Electric Shock Zap
- Sound Ideas, HUMAN, BABY - CRYING (2nd and 3rd halves heard during the scene when a group of people are rushing and trying to get attention at once, causing Ralphie to wrap a baby as a present.)
- Sound Ideas, HUMAN, BABY - CRYING, WHINING
- Sound Ideas, ZIP, CARTOON - BIG WHISTLE ZING OUT (Used once as a cartoon gag.)