Scrooge Stylistic Analysis

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A scrooge is magically transported to the North Pole and must help Santa save Christmas.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS
ROCKO (20’s) doesn’t believe in Christmas or the holidays. He’s a modern day scrooge. He acts tough, but has a fondness for music. He tells his neighbor he wishes he weren’t with all the morons around him. He falls asleep and wakes up in the North Pole with Santa and a variety of talking animals, including a tough dog, BOSTON. Rocko and Boston immediately clash.
When Santa hurts his back, it’s up to the owner of the town, KERNAL, a St. Bernard, Santa’s elderly sister, CLAIRE, Boston, and Rocko to save Christmas by delivering all the gifts. They don’t know that Santa is faking his back injury, as a plan to help Rocko.
The group crashes …show more content…

They race to locate it to save Christmas, as Sid and Rocko reunite. The sleigh is found and the presents are delivered. Sid gives Rocko a new saxophone. It’s a Merry Christmas after all.

STORY COMMENTS
CHRISTMAS AT KERNAL CREEK is a holiday fantasy that features a modern day scrooge, who hates the spirit of Christmas. The script offers a fantasy-filled, creative world with various, whimsical talking animals. It’s a feel good film.
The theme of saving Christmas isn’t a new concept in the holiday film world. In order to make the script more successful and feels more original, the story really would benefit from creating a stronger, more unique hook. It can still be about helping Santa, but the story needs a stronger hook that makes it more distinctive from other holiday films.
The other area that feels familiar is the idea of the protagonist being a “scrooge” and not believing in the spirit of Christmas. It’s a character that has been seen before.
The other concern about the script is the structure and pace. The first act sets up Rocko’s personality. He clearly has a hard exterior. It feels like he has had a hard life. He gets fired from his job. He’s a loner and he seems to hate the world. For a scrooge type character this works …show more content…

Moreover, Rocko’s only goal seems to be to deliver the gifts. It’s not a strong enough goal for him. His heart isn’t really in it, there’s nothing at stake for Rocko, and it’s unclear why everyone believes that they can’t deliver the presents without Rocko. Without a real goal, it’s challenging for the audience to root for him.
In addition, the idea that the story is really about Rocko reuniting with his long lost father isn’t foreshadowed or set up well enough in the first act. While the planting of the present for “Casper” is appreciated, it’s still not enough to suddenly reveal that the story is about Rocko finding his father. Like in the script FIELD OF DREAMS, the relationship between the main character and his father was well foreshadowed and subtly worked into the storyline, so when the twist came, it felt emotionally satisfying.
One possible way to do this is to open the story with Rocko as a young kid waiting for his father or he listens to his father playing the sax, but then his father leaves and never returns or something like this.
Then perhaps transition the script to showing Rocko listening to a sax player or show him with a sax case at home, but he can’t bring himself to play it. There should be a moment he reveals something about his past to someone that subtly reveals information about his

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