The story centers on Opus the Penguin (a main character in all three of Breathed's comic strips and, at the time, appearing in Outland). Opus is downhearted because, as a penguin, he cannot fly. He orders a machine and assembles it, but when it comes time to test the machine by jumping off a three-mile-high cliff, Opus decides to do something less dangerous; he goes home to make anchovyChristmas cookies. He does not give up on his dream, though, and makes a Christmas wish to Santa Claus for "wings that will go!". On Christmas Eve, Santa is making his usual delivery when he loses his reindeer and crashes into a lake. Opus jumps in and uses his natural swimming skills to pull Santa out. To thank Opus for his daring rescue, a group of ducks pick him up and take him flying through the air.
Dustin Hoffman (uncredited) – Milquetoast the Cross-Dressing Cockroach
Critical reception
Lisa Horowitz of Variety gave the special a positive review, saying that it "crams a lot of action and intelligence into its half-hour". She also praised the animation and vocal performances.[2]
Breathed, who was credited as the writer and executive producer of the special, was disappointed with the overall results. Asked in 2003 in The Washington Post where a copy of the special could be found on VHS or DVD, Breathed replied:
Hopefully in the rubbish pail. We can do better than that and we will with an eventual Opus film... but I'm glad you enjoyed it. I presume your family was on speed when they watched it. I would imagine it helps.
In a 2007 interview, Breathed said that the reason he disliked the special was simply "unspectacular ratings", and that his humor "wasn't meant for television, even if it was done right". He also blamed his own lack of writing experience, as he wrote the script, and that the director was "way over his head". Breathed said he had wanted Sterling Holloway to provide the voice for Opus.[5] Four years later, Breathed said the director inserted numerous inappropriate jokes into the special's background scenes.[6]
^Plume, Ken (May 22, 2007). "Interview: Berkeley Breathed". FRED Entertainment. Archived from the original on November 15, 2011. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
^Zahed, Ramin, Animated People: Berkeley Breathed, Animation Magazine, 16 March 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2017. "[T]he director, who was fired, managed to sprinkle a profane cornucopia of inappropriate flotsam around in the show.... Find a moldy DVD and check out the opening credit sequence: Watch the snowy hills during the pan. Some of them aren't hills. And that train track isn't really going into a train tunnel. Unless it's Sigmund Freud's. It's pretty funny now. Imagine how funny it was when we finally spotted it during final mixing, six days before network broadcast. Keep in mind, this was a Steven Spielberg production of a family Christmas show. I tried but failed to imagine Steven believing me when I tried to disclaim authorship of a woman's snow anus in the countryside. Or the sign in the window of the store that said "For sale cheap: Santa's Balls". Too late to change! This was the pre-digital age. We courageously let it go without telling anyone. I'm glad I'm telling this in a trade magazine and I can feel safe that it won't be going out on the Internet thing".
