When Ricky gives her the bear after school, she angrily rejects it and throws it in the trash, causing Ricky to run away upset.Īfter writing a letter to Santa and being teased by Nicole for doing so, Ricky heads to mail off the letters only to drop one of them, resulting in the wind blowing it to Nicole's house. When his class's Christmas gift exchange is coming up, Ricky wishes to give his teddy bear gifted to him from his late mother to his classmate, Nicole ( Paige O'Hara), an affluent and self-centered girl who believes that anything she deems as "cheap" is not worth her time. Ricky Rodgers ( Walter Emanuel Jones) is a poor preteen boy who lives on Rapsittie Street with his great-grandmother ( Debra Wilson). It later garnered a cult following.Īrchived from the Wisconsin State Journal (when WBUW in Madison, Wisconsin aired it): "The 'Rapsittie Street Kids' star in this animated musical, in which Ricky gives Nicole his most treasured possession, his teddy bear, as a holiday gift." Plot A copy of the special was secured from producer and director Colin Slater and uploaded onto the video sharing site Vimeo in 2015. After a small number of broadcasts during the 2002 holiday season, the special was never officially released on home video and faded into obscurity.
Almost every aspect of the special was panned, including its amateur computer animation and plot, although the voice acting received some minor praise. The special is notable for its production history and overwhelmingly negative reception.
Featuring the voices of Walter Emanuel Jones, Mark Hamill, Jodi Benson, Paige O'Hara and Nancy Cartwright, Believe in Santa tells the story of how suburban boy Ricky Rodgers and his friends spend Christmas after the death of Ricky's mother.īelieve in Santa was broadcast throughout December in broadcast syndication in the top 100 markets, though its most prevalent distribution was through The WB 100+ Station Group, which broadcast The WB over cable and broadcast stations in smaller markets (it did not air on The WB itself as part of its primetime schedule). It is one of two films produced by Colin Slater's Wolf Tracer Studios. Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa is a 2002 musical animated Christmas special.