TV Reviews : ‘A Mom for Christmas’: Dreary Holiday Package

“A Mom for Christmas,” a Disney family movie airing on NBC tonight (9 p.m. on Channels 4, 36 and 39), is a good idea gone sour.

Based on a lighthearted book by Barbara Dillon called “A Mom by Magic,” this comic, Thorne Smith-type tale of a store mannequin who comes to life to be the mother of a lonely little girl should have been played strictly as fantasy.

But writer Gerald DiPego opts for conflict and lays it on with a trowel. There’s a nasty store detective (Carmen Argenziano) and bitterness between the little girl and her magic mom. More disturbingly, a Santa Claus mannequin who comes to life is run over by a car and dismembered.

Merry Christmas, kids.

The subsequent resurrection scene is equally unsettling--children may find visions of Stephen King dancing in their heads.

Director George Miller further darkens the tale with frequent tears and screams of anguish from his child star. Do we really need to see her shrieking hysterically over Santa’s “body” in the street? And why does no one come out to see what’s wrong?

Olivia Newton-John is the free-spirited mannequin who learns to be human, Juliet Sorcey is the tearful little girl, Doug Sheehan is her widowed dad and Doris Roberts is the mysterious store decorator who makes the miracle happen. They do their best, but they can’t rise above this holiday horror.