Chip Davis

This tale of good versus evil takes place in a magical land where toys come to life and evil is transformed into good. What makes The Christmas Angel especially entertaining is the combination of graceful skating by such well-known talents as Dorothy Hamill and Elvis Stojko and the emotive music of Mannheim Steamroller. The story tells of an evil gargoyle named Gargon (Stojko) who steals the Christmas angel (Tonia Kwiatkowski) from atop a snowy village's Christmas tree, thereby preventing the arrival of Christmas. A young mother (Hamill), along with a host of toys-come-to-life, follows Gargon into the dark otherworld in an attempt to rescue the stolen angel. In the end, the angel is freed along with a host of lost souls and Christmas is saved. Unfortunately, this engaging 45-minute story is given a hokey framing sequence of Olivia Newton-John and Chip Davis posing as parents reading a Christmas story to their children.

Mannheim Steamroller's music is incredibly moving by itself, but add an enthusiastic live performance by some very animated musicians and an intense multimedia presentation and the result is even more powerful. This 56-minute Christmas concert features many favorite numbers from the album Christmas in the Aire, but "Joy to the World" perhaps best epitomizes that distinctive Mannheim Steamroller sound: powerful synthesized melodies and harmonies, an intense drive and pathos, and skillful ornamentation.