La freccia azzurra

How the Toys Saved Christmas
File:La freccia azzurra.jpg DVD cover
Directed by	Enzo D'Alò
Written by	Enzo D'Alò Umberto Marino
Produced by	Maria Fares
Starring	Mary Tyler Moore Tony Randall Neil Shee
Music by	Paolo Conte
Production companies	Alpha-Film Lanterna Magica Monipoly Productions
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release dates	5 December 1996 (1996-12-05) (Italy) 21 October 1997 (1997-10-21) (North America) (Home Video release)
Running time	78 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

How the Toys Saved Christmas (Original Italian title La freccia azzurra, English: The Blue Arrow) is a 1996 Italian animated film directed by Enzo D'Alò.

Plot

When Santa's helper La Befana falls ill and must take off a Christmas Eve, she recruits Scarafoni to help deliver all the toys. No one but the toys knows is that Scarafoni plans to auction off the toys to the highest bidder, which means the toys won't make it to the children who have been good all year and deserve them. The toys decide to deliver themselves starting with a wind-up teddy bear going to the little boy's bed, and the story follows them as they struggle to avoid the heartless Scarafoni and to find their true homes. Meanwhile, a young boy named Francesco tries to find his true Christmas present - one special friend. In the end, the toys deliver themselves, but Scarafoni still has the money. However, everyone rushes to the toy shop and find Scarafoni with the money and manage to get it back from him, as Scarafoni is sent to prison. Francesco gets his true friend - a new puppy whose name is Jingles (voiced by Sonja Ball).

U.S. version

In 1997, the film was imported to the U.S. and released direct-to-video by Buena Vista Home Video, under the title "How the Toys Saved Christmas" (although, as shown in the previews, originally going to be titled "The Toys Who Saved Christmas"). The film featured Mary Tyler Moore as the voice for the Befana, who was named "Granny Rose", Tony Randall as Scarafoni (whose name suggest "scarafaggio" that means beetle), who was named "Mr. Grimm", and Michael Caloz as Francesco, who was named "Christopher Winter". The film also had some scenes from the original Italian release deleted or placed before other scenes, along with some music scores taken out and new music added in.

In the original version, the story took place during the Epiphany Eve, because in Italian folklore the Befana is a good witch that gives presents and candies to the children during the night between 5 and 6 January.

Cast

Character	Original Italian	English Dub (Miramax version)
Santa		Neil Shee
Granny Rose	Lella Costa	Mary Tyler Moore
Mr. Grimm	Dario Fo	Tony Randall
Mr. Tinker		Walter Massey
Christopher	Alida Milana	Michael Caloz
Jingles the Dog	Monica Bertolotti	Sonja Ball

Home video releases

Buena Vista Home Video released the film in its English-dubbed version on DVD in 2003. Miramax Films re-released the film on DVD in 2011.

External links

• La freccia azzurra at IMDb