Miracle at the 34th Precinct

"Miracle at the 34th Precinct" is the Christmas episode of the Disney Afternoon animated series Bonkers, originally aired on November 26, 1993. It was the series' 59th episode to air, though it is the 44th episode in production order.

Synopsis[]

Two days before Christmas, Santa Claus, accompanied by the reindeer Blitzen, goes to test out his new sleigh. Unfortunately, they fly into a blizzard and Santa ends up getting jostled out of the sleigh. Blitzen, exhausted and shaken, returns to the North Pole with the remains of the new sleigh. He reports to two elves, Jingle and Bell, about the mishap, telling them that Santa bailed out over Hollywood, California.

Later, the normally-sunny city of Hollywood is shown having an unusually snowy Christmas Eve. In the Piquel household, Lucky is coming down to breakfast when he sees that Dyl has put up Christmas decorations all over the house. As he sits down to breakfast, Lucky asks his daughter Marilyn if she is excited about Santa Claus coming tonight. However, Marilyn tells her father that she's beginning to think that Santa doesn't really exist, the reason being that one of her schoolmates, Susie, told her so. Just then, Bonkers comes in, tossing snow around and singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Marilyn asks him if he believes in Santa, to which he replies by saying that he and Santa have actually gone ice-fishing together. As Bonkers and Lucky leave to go to work, Marilyn tells her mother that she's staying up to wait for Santa this year.

Meanwhile, Fall-Apart Rabbit is about to fix a hole that is now in his roof when he suddenly finds Santa himself on his couch. However, the big guy has amnesia, and Fall-Apart does not know who he is, so he decides to call him Jim. Fall-Apart then offers to take "Jim" to the beach, despite the fact that it's snowing outside. He stuffs the big guy into his toon taxicab and then starts driving, which of course proves to be a little haphazard.

At the police department, Chief Kanifky calls Bonkers and Lucky to his office, telling them they've been assigned to a missing person case - Jingle and Bell have come to them, requesting their help in looking for Santa. As Bonkers deduces that Santa must have crashed somewhere in Los Angeles (noting the coincidence of Santa's disappearance being reported to them right after Marilyn said she didn't believe in Santa), Jingle and Bell notice Lucky and declare that he'd make a perfect substitute for Santa. Upon being told this, Lucky at first does not want to do this, since he is not a jolly person. But Bell throws some Christmas magic into the air, showing Lucky a vision of what will happen if he doesn't help, in which Marilyn wakes up on Christmas morning and is heartbroken to see that Santa didn't come to their house. This convinces Lucky to agree to play the part.

While Jingle and Bell are busy training Lucky, Bonkers goes looking for the real Santa. At the beach, Fall-Apart takes "Jim" water-skiing. But in the process, "Jim" breaks loose from the boat and goes flying up onto the beach, and Fall-Apart loses sight of him. After Fall-Apart crashes his boat onto the beach, Bonkers shows up and asks him if he has seen Santa anywhere. Fall-Apart, not realizing that he's hanging out with Santa right now, tells Bonkers he hasn't seen him. After Bonkers leaves, Fall-Apart finds "Jim", covered in snow, and takes him on a picnic.

Bonkers, in the meantime, heads over to Lucky's house to warm up, and finds Marilyn in her sleeping bag by the fireplace, saying that she's planning to stay up and take Santa's picture when he arrives. While trying to tell Marilyn she's supposed to be asleep when Santa comes, Bonkers accidentally gets his tail caught on fire and rushes outside. After cooling his tail off in the snow, he confides to Dyl that he has to find Santa by midnight, and she wishes him luck.

Jingle and Bell, meanwhile, have been busy trying to coach Lucky on how to act like Santa, by way of voice impression lessons, a flight simulation, and trying to get him to go down a fake chimney, with little success. Eventually, the elves have no time left to train Lucky and fear he may not be able to pull it off due to the difficulty he had getting down their fake chimney. However, Lucky, having gotten more into the spirit over the course of this, is now more willing to do the job.

Fall-Apart brings "Jim", still frosted, back to his house, commenting that they had a good picnic, even though "Jim" kept giving away all their food without even knowing why he did it. Once "Jim" finally defrosts, he sits down on one of Fall-Apart's chairs and gets ejected onto the roof (when asked why, the chair replies "Because it was funny"). Bonkers then comes in, lamenting that he still can't find Santa. Fall-Apart says he'd love to help, but he has to go help his new friend "Jim" off the roof, describing his appearance right before using the same chair to launch himself onto the roof. Upon repeating the description, Bonkers realizes that this "Jim" person Fall-Apart just described is actually Santa and, thanks to Fall-Apart's sofa, also gets ejected up to the roof. On the roof, Fall-Apart is asking "Jim" if he's all right, and it turns out he is, having regained his memory. Upon seeing Santa, Bonkers tells him that he's been looking all over for him and that he needs to come with him.

Meanwhile, the elves bring Lucky to the roof of his house, figuring that he should get started on familiar territory. Jingle hands Lucky the presents to be delivered here, but he then falls off the roof, waking up Marilyn inside. Just then, the elves get a phone call from Bonkers, saying that he found the real Santa and is coming here with him. Lucky, not hearing the elves receiving the phone call, decides to go in through the front door, since it's his own house and comes in just as Marilyn has decided to give up on waiting for Santa. At that moment, Bonkers and Santa arrive outside, and Santa heads up to the roof, taking the bobcat with him.

Santa then goes down the chimney and runs into Lucky. The two of them get into a loud argument over which one of them is really Santa Claus, during which Bonkers stumbles down the chimney to see what's going on. Marilyn then comes back and sees the two Santas, and Bonkers explains that Santa, like most actors, hires stand-ins in case he gets sick. Marilyn wants to know which one of them is the real Santa, saying all she wanted was to know if Santa was real. Santa then gives Marilyn a portable CD player and Lucky a new pair of slippers. After Santa goes back up the chimney, Dyl comes downstairs, wanting to know what's going on, and Marilyn tells her that Santa was just here. She then tells her dad that he's the Santa she likes best. Bonkers, touched at this heartwarming moment, rubs his nose while standing by the fireplace and then suddenly rises up the chimney, where he sees Santa flying away and waves to him.

Trivia[]

• The episode's title is a reference to the classic Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street (which would eventually be owned by Disney following the studio's purchase of its distributor 20th Century Fox).
• While training Lucky, Jingle tells him that Jimmy Malone wants a Mutant Kenpō Karate Iguana toy for Christmas. The toy's name is obviously a spoof of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Cast[]

See also[]

• Santa Who? - Another Disney production using the "Santa gets amnesia" plot

External links[]

• Disney Wiki: Miracle at the 34th Precinct
• The Disney Afternoon Wiki: Miracle at the 34th Precinct
• "Miracle at the 34th Precinct" at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• "Miracle at the 34th Precinct" at the Internet Movie Database