Midnight in Holiday Town

Midnight In Holiday Town is the third and final film of the True Meaning of Christmas Trilogy. It was released to the internet in 2012, and was directed by Jonathan Peel, who previously directed the preceeding films in the trilogy.

Synopsis
‘Midnight in Holiday Town’ is the final film in the True Meaning of Christmas Trilogy. In this epic final chapter, the true origins of the Teddy Bear, Snow Angel, and Ice Queen are revealed, as well as the secret of the magically enchanted wonderland known as Holiday Town. We take a look into the life of protagonist Tony Crochet as he makes his last stand against the dark forces of Snow Valley, hell–bent on destroying Christmas once and for all. This final odyssey begins where the previous film left off, an epic battle between Tony and the evil Ice Queen. After defeating her for the last time, the Ice Queen swears revenge on Tony and his friends once and for all. But, little do they know that their troubles are far from over. The next Christmas season is filled with scary thrill-rides, as the Ice Queen acts out her sworn revenge by terrorizing Tony and Samantha. But they have a powerful ally on their side, known only by the alias ‘Sinter’. With Sinter’s help, along with his old Uncle Ben, and the Teddy Bear, Tony and Samantha rally together to defeat the Ice Queen and restore balance to Holiday Town. The Ice Queen soon appears in the midst of the chaos to finish off Tony and the gang with her last evil spell. But things are about of take a turn for the magical, on the last stand at midnight in Holiday Town. This Christmas season, find out what the True Meaning of Christmas is in this heart-felt finale to an epic holiday Saga.

Plot
The film opens in a surreal setting in which the Ice Queen stands alone in the Enchanted Forest. She then spontaneously bursts into song, and the camera pans to reveal that she is accompanied by The Teddy Bear and The Snow Angel. The three of them continue to dance and sing along to Brenda Lee's rendition of Jingle Bell Rock. All throughout this sequence, The Ice Queen acts nasty towards Snow and Teddy, pushing them around angrily and yelling at them in song.



The musical sequence ends and is followed by a narration. The narration is made up of aseries of flashbacksand explains the story of how Tony and the others met, it also sums up the first film of the series, featuring updated scenes and higher quality effects. The narration is voiced by an unknown woman. The narration closes and the next scene opens. This is the official opening scene of the film; It is a reimagining of the final fight scene in The Ice Queen Returns. This version is not too different from the original, featured only with a new setting and dialogue. The character known as Santa Clause in the last film is now known as Sinter, and is much more stoic and less goofy. He is injured by the Ice Queen, and is brought back to his cabin by Samantha (previously referred to as "Snow Angel"). The Ice Queen, having been defeated, teleports back to an ice bank located on the Western Mountains, she swears that she has been defeated for thelast time.



She then teleports to the Enchanted Forest where Samantha is heading back from her journey to Sinter's cabin. She grabs Samantha's arm, and draws engery from her, which allows her to regain her powerful magic abilities. Samanthas breaks away and blasts The Ice Queen with her snow ray, weakeningher again. Samantha then reveals that she has figured out The Ice Queen's one true weakness, Christmas Cheer. Samantha rushes to Tony's house to warn him, but can only make it by dusk. She runs to Tony who is sitting at the piano. Tony then transforms into The Ice Queen, who explains that Samantha has fallen into a trap. Frightened, Samantha runs upstairs, screaming for Tony. The Ice Queen laughs meniacally, as she slowly follows Samantha up the stairs. Samantha runs into the main bedroom and hears someone knocking on the closet door. Samantha opens the closet and discovers Tony, who has been tied up by The Ice Queen.

The scene transitions to a flashback to 3 hours before the Ice Queen's attack. The Teddy Bear sits in Tony's guest room. A few days have passed since Tony and the others defeated the Ice Queen at the beginning of the movie. Tony opens the door, and asks Teddy if he is ready to return to Winter City, where he lives with Tony's Uncle Ben. Teddy doesn't want to leave, and tells Tony that he is scared that they didn't really kill the Ice Queen, and that she will return. Tony reassures Teddy that the Ice Queen will not return, and leads him down the hall to a broom closet. Tony explains that inside the broom closet is Sinter's Yule-Log Scepter, and that even if the Ice Queen does return, he'll use the scepter to defeat her. But when Tony opens the closet door, he finds that the scepter has disappeared. After he says goodbye to Teddy, Tony is franctic and worried. Then, he notices the front door creep open; as he stares at the open door perplexed, an unseen figure approaches behind him and knocks him to the floor, unconcious. The unseen assalent drags Tony's body away. It is now clear that the unknown figure s the Ice Queen.

The next scene resumes in the time after the Ice Queen's attack. The Ice Queen has disappeared and is nowhere to be found. Tony comforts Samantha and offers her a room to stay in. Samantha is scared to return to the mountains and takes him up on his offer, but also gives him a magic potion in case The Ice Queen returns.



Tony leaves the room and Samantha drifts off to sleep. Later, Samantha is awakened by the faint sound of bells jingling, it appears to be nothing, so Samantha drifts on back to sleep. Again, she is awoken by bells, this time much louder, and sits up to find The Ice Queen sitting at the foot of her bed. Samantha becomes scared as The Ice Queen begins to insult her viciously. The Ice Queen goes on to tell Samantha that she hates Samantha because she is jealous that she never had anyone to love her. Tony hears Samantha scream and rushes into the room, but The Ice Queen is gone. It was all just a dream. Tony offers for Samantha to clear her head by helping him decorate. While decorating, Samantha gets a Psychic vision that The Teddy Bear knows how to stop The Ice Queen. She then hurries out the door to find him, before Tony can even ask where she is going.

After Tony finishes decorating, he heads downstairs and is met by The Ice Queen. He remebers the potion Samantha gave him and sprays it at The Ice Queen, who then vanishes from sight. The scene fades, and we see Samantha walking the streets of Winter City. She walks into a hotel and ascends to the penthouse suite, where we find out The Teddy Bear now lives with Tony's Uncle Ben, who has become rich. Samantha tells Teddy about The Ice Queen and her vision, but Teddy relenctantly says that he doesn't know anything about it, and that her vision must've been wrong.

Morning comes in Winter City, and Teddy stands in a large room looking out a big window, alone. He regrets not being more help to Samantha, who at this point has already departed back to Holiday Town. Teddy knows that something big is coming and that he has to help Samantha before it is too late. He dashes out the door and into the Enchanted Forest.

Back in Holiday Town, it is morning and Tony steps onto his front porch to get the morning paper. Not entirely awake, it takes Tony a minute to realize all the snow has vanished from Holiday Town. He rushes back inside, and sits on the sofa, perplexed and shocked. He examines the newspaper and discovers that the Ice Queen has cast a spell to remove all the snow from the Valley. Tony is appauled at the discable deed the Ice Queen has committed.



Days pass, and Tony lays low in his house, in fear that the ice Queen will return. He looks out the window and sees a mysterious dark figure, dressed in a hooded coat. The doorbell rings and Tony finds that Sinter has come to visit. Sinter says he can't stay long and he just came to deliver something, but Tony insists that he come in and try a batch of his famous hot chocolate. Sinter reluctantly gives in, they grab their mugs, and sit down in the dining room. Sinter gives Tony a blue backpack and explains that its whats inside the backpack that's important, though when Tony opens it he finds nothing inside. Sinter then acts very mysterious and cryptic, and later vanishes suddenly from his chair after asking for another serving of chocolate. Tony is surprised and decides to take another look at the backpack. He finds a very cryptic letter inside from Sinter.

Meanwhile, Samantha is on her journey back to Holiday Town from Winter City. In the mountains, she comes across a mysterious hooded vendor. After making small talk, Samantha decides to purchase some magical items from the vendor's stand. She buys a vile of rare Nog Extract, which can be made into any magic potion possible. She continues on her way to Holiday Town, and we discover that the hooded vendor is actually Uncle Ben in disguise.



Later, Tony sits by the door waiting for Samantha to return. Samantha appears and Tony is quick to ask for arun-down of her journey. Samantha breaks the news to Tony that her vision was wrong and Teddy was of no help at all. Tony begins to panic, thinking that their one hope to defeat The Ice Queen was a flook, but Samantha reassures him that she has generated a new plan. She explains to Tony the significance of her dream.

The next scene opens in a surreal setting. Samantha sits by the fireplace mantel in Tony's House. The house appears to be empty except for her. She fiddles with some of the decorations near the fireplace. She begins to think out loud. She recounts to herself what it used to feel like to be Christmas time, and how a "Merry Christmas" wasn't just something from a fairy tale. She goes on to sing Judy Garland's 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'. After her emotional song, Samantha feels very discouraged, and sits down on the staircase, looking sad. Suddenly, Sinter appears behind her on the staircase, and reassures her that the Christmas spirit has not completely disappeared from Holiday Town. He reminds her that the Christmas Season is a very wonderful time. He goes on the sing 'The Most Wonderful Time of the Year' by Andy Williams. This sparks an idea in Samantha's mind. She thanks Sinter for his help, and rushes off to ready her new plan.

A second narration begins, voiced by the unknown woman from the previous narration. This time, it is the orgin story of the children of the falling star(The Ice Queen, Teddy Bear, and Snow Angel). It expains how the Ice Queen grew to become evil, and how Ben came to find the Teddy Bear.

The narration ends and we see Tony walking in the Enchanted Forest. He sits down, and pulls out a map that has appeared in the backpack, tracing his path with his finger, finally stopping at a point labeled "Wizard's Cabin", at which point, that part of the map illuminates. He folds up the map, and continues walking. He comes to a foggy wasteland, looking confused, he looks at the map. He sees he has stumbled into The Wastes, and locates Sinters cabin.

Tony finally reaches the cabin, but there is no one inside, it seems to be desserted. Tony is discouraged, but still determined, he tells himself he can't give up. He takes a seat on the doorstep of the cabin and looks through the blue back pack for the map. Instead, he surprisingly finds a pistol in his bag. Sinter suddenly appears beside him and explains that he has finally unlocked the bag of gifts. He goes on to explain that the pistol was the same gift Tony wanted in his childhood, with some much-needed modifications. They head inside the cabin, and Tony sits down, only to find Samantha sitting next to him. Tony inquires why Samantha is at the cabin, but is promptly interupted by Sinter who continues to explain the purpose of the pistol. Sinter tells Tony to take anther look inside the bag, and Toy pulls out another weapon--Sinter's fire staff, dubbed the 'Yule Log Scepter'. Sinter tells Tony that using these weapons, he will he invincible against the Ice Queen. Tony panics, saying that he has no knowledge of how to use either of the weapons. Sinter then tells Tony that there is a simple solution to his problem. Sinter explains that he will train Tony to use the magic weapons. A sequences of scenes follow where Sinter teaches Tony how to use the wepons.

Tony and Samantha are walking in the snow. Samantha asks Tony about what happened to him on the night The Ice Queen came to visit. He tells her his side of the story, accompanied by a short flashback. They keep walking. Samantha pulls out her snow ray and tells Tony that its the only way to stop the Ice Queen. She shoots the snow ray off into the air, and its firework-like sparks explode clear above the Enchanted Forest. The Ice Queen, having seen the sparks, appears from behind a group of trees. She runs over to Samantha and grabs her arm, drawing magical energy from it. Samantha pulls away and the Ice Queen smirks and spout some insults at Samantha. A battle between the two ensues, both using their magical abilities against eachother.

Teddy stumbles out of the forest and sees the two fighting. He decides to duck back into ther forest and wait for his time to strike.

Cast
Dylan Foster as Tony Crochet

Avery Taylor as The Ice Queen

Mia Foster as The Snow Angel

Sam Aposhian as The Teddy Bear

Jonathan Peel as Sinter

Trivia & Goofs
Trivia: Goofs:
 * The crew used a small cement water tower for the Ice Queen's Lair, located near Leavenworth, WA.
 * The song playing on the piano when Samantha visits Tony to warn him is 'Silent Night' played in a minor key. The audio was used from www.pandasmash.com as part of Evil Christmas Carols, Volume One.
 * Almost the whole introduction was all CGI (or at least incorporated CGI into clips) and chroma key combined with clips of the actors.
 * During filming of the scene where Tony is trying to find Samantha in the snow, actor Dylan Foster was actually falling down accidentaly because the snow pack was so deep. It was shot on location during winter, right after an abrupt and intense snowstorm hit without warning.
 * Samantha's snow ray was really just a glue gun.
 * The scene where the Ice Queen confronts Samantha in the guest bedroom in her dream was shot once, and completely re-shot a month later. This was because of low-lighting and bad grain quality. The original scene was included on the Trilogy DVD.
 * The scene where the Ice Queen tries to capture the Snow Angel in the forest, along with here reindeer, was shot with the actors standing in front of a 7 foot wide green screen hung over a fence.
 * When Samantha visits Tony's house to warn him, and he turns into the Ice Queen, actor Dylan Foster went through many takes to get the evil face right, and even still didn't get it quite right in the end.
 * This is one of the few movies so far that have had a completely solid script and story line.
 * It took nearly 10 takes for actress Avery Taylor to say the word 'Insignificant' correctly during the bedroom confrontation with Samantha.
 * The china doll that Tony finds in the snow along with Samantha is an American Girl brand doll, which is the same brand of the doll in the first movie of the trilogy that the Ice Queen turned into. This doll was of a different name; Samantha (after Mia Foster's character). The original doll's name was Mia (after Mia Foster).
 * One half of the snow scenes that were shot were originally shot without snow, and CG snow was later matted onto the clips. The other half of the clips were actually shot on location while it was snowing; A rare chance situation for filming, but was good because it made the snow seem more real than some of the CG clips.
 * The scene when Tony is walking through the wastes, it was so windy that the clips had to be voiced over. Also, the scene was shot in Ocean Shores, WA on the beach near the Ocean-Lake Way access road on the day before the fourth of July.
 * When Samatha visits Tony to warn him and the piano is playing, Dylan Foster was not moving his hands, but rather resting them on the piano keys while the music was playing in the background.
 * The films posters original copy spelled the movie title: Midnight in Holiday Towwn. This resulted in revision to the poster. All original copies of the posters with the typo were handed out to the cast and crew.