The Grim Reaper (voice: Greg Eagles) takes Billy (voice: Richard Steven Horvitz) and Mandy (voice: Grey DeLisle) to the North Pole to prove that Santa Claus exists. But once there, they find that Santa (voice: Gilbert Gottfried) has become a vampire. Leaving Billy with Mrs. Claus (voice: Carol Kane), Grim and Mandy journey to the castle of the strangely fastidious Baron Von Ghoulish (Malcolm McDowell) in an attempt to save Santa.
The animated series The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy began with mentally deficient Billy and overbearing Mandy winning a bet with The Grim Reaper, thus forcing him to be their companion forever. There is potential in the idea, and the Jamaican-sounding Grim has many good moments. Mandy, who is strong willed and hates just about everything, is a one note character, but it’s a good note. Billy, on the other hand, with his nose-picking and similar antics, is strictly entertainment for the pre-teen set. The pattern is the same for each episode, with Billy getting into some kind of trouble, Mandy unenthusiastically saving him with the aid of Grim, and The Reaper finding legitimate things to complain about. It’s fun, but repetitious. A few episodes should be enough for anyone.
The extended Christmas episode would be a good choice for that short list of episodes to catch. Santa as a vampire allows for some good gags. It seems the man in the red suite sleeps in a Gingerbread coffin. What else would he do? Mrs. Claus fearfully relates how Santa-vamp attacked and tried to drink the blood of “that poor elf who wanted to be a dentist.” That puts the end of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in a new perspective. Billy and Mandy Save Christmas is filled with pseudo-dark humor that should appeal to most anyone. And it is worth turning on just to hear the line “You’re lucky that Death was here to save you.”