A Woody Woodpecker Christmas

A Woody Woodpecker Christmas  is a 2016 traditional animated one-hour Christmas television special directed by Bill Kopp and executive produced by Steven Spielberg for Universal Television and Universal Animation Studios. The special is based on the cartoon characters created by Walter Lantz, and stars the voice of Billy West, reprising his role as the title character from 2002's  ''The New Woody Woodpecker Show. ''It also features the voices of Fallon, Al Roker, Amy Poehler, Mark Hamill, Kristen Bell, John Ratzenberger, Jerry Seinfeld, and country music star Blake Shelton. It celebrates the 80th anniversary of Woody Woodpecker's creation, and is his first appearance in any type of media in 18 years. It premiered on December 4, 2020, on NBC.

Plot
The story begins with Woody getting ready for Christmas, and his best-friend-turned-girlfriend Winnie arranging a first date with him. But due to a series of unfortunate events including a Catholic college planning to tear down his treehouse and replace it with a new high school, and Santa getting kidnapped by Woody and Winnie's old enemy - Buzz Buzzard - it's up to Woody to save Christmas.

Cast
Billy West as Woody Woodpecker/Andy Panda/Wally Walrus

Kristen Bell as Winnie Woodpecker

E.G. Daily as Knothead

Nika Futterman as Splinter

Jimmy Fallon as Santa Claus

Amy Poehler as Ms. Meany

Jerry Seinfeld as Papa Panda

Mark Hamill as Buzz Buzzard

Blake Shelton as Smedley

Tim Allen as Officer Lantz

John Ratzenberger as Officer Stafford

Al Roker as Narrator

Jim Cummings as various characters

Tom Kenny as various characters

Reception
The special received 3.1 million viewers.

A Woody Woodpecker Christmas received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the special a score of 50% based on reviews from 6 critics.

Robert Blanco of USA Today gave the film a positive review, saying "Not only is this one of those specials that will be watched over and over again for years to come, it's also a welcome comeback for one of the most iconic cartoon characters of all time." Eric Adams of The A.V. Club gave the special a C+, saying "Storywise, A Woody Woodpecker Christmas is all over the place, but the classic hyperactive humor that made the namesake character famous all those years still makes it worthwhile - at least for children."

Criticism from religious groups
The special has gained criticism from certain religious and conservative groups. The Family Research Council, an organization labeled as a hate and extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, criticized its alleged "pot shots" at Christians and the alleged "subliminal message about Christmas being hijacked by religious people from the Pegans." The Media Research Center, a conservative "media watchdog group", issued a statement regarding the special, saying "Hollywood's liberal values and attacks on religious belief invade even what's supposed to be a harmless holiday special aimed at children and their families. A Woody Woodpecker Christmas, whose title character has been irrelevant since the 1970's, continues their vicious assault on Christianity in particular by claiming it's "hijacked" the Christmas season from the Pegans. It's no surprise it would air on the liberal NBC network."