The Mystery Elf Cartoon: It's Weirder Than You Think 

The Moon shaking it's head sprites and sound effect are from the Sesame St 123 NES game. I always thought that moon was creepy so it fit perfectly here.

If McBragg wanted kids depressed he should have just waited ~15 years social media to be invented.

Why do so many Christmas specials have Santa just giving up? The guy has already seen the atrocities of 2 world wars and survived a coke-based diet, he's badass enough for the 90's.

Santa's personality doing a 180 would actually just be The Night Santa Went Crazy by Weird Al.

The female Soulmate gets turned evil, she bullies and then seems to plot together with the lackey, and then magic happens and they BOTH turn good, with the male Soulmate probably completely unaware that his friend had been turned in the first place. I mean, you could just FEEL the time constraint the writers were under.

Phelous puts a lot of work into getting his content to reveiw doesn't he. He often has tidbits of history on the movies or the company that makes them, will do multiple rips of Dingo videos to get the cleanest visuals paired with the English dubs. And on this particular one after digging around so much for such an obscure cartoon had to splice together two different copies just to get a clean play through. I don't think most other reviewers put that much effort in just the subject of the review for their content.

When I first watched this cartoon last month, I thought to myself "This is EXACTLY the kind of thing Phelous would make fun of." Truly this is a great Christmas gift for us all this year. :)

Angris has a pretty sick guitar riff when he's around. Also, the villain being instantly turned into a good guy via christmas magic reminds me of Stormella from that Rudolph movie.

The early ending gag never gets old

I wish this Soulmates TV show came to fruition. The message about positive thinking in a seemingly negative world is something we could all use in this day and age.

I just realised that the female Soulmate is named Orillia. Orillia is a city in Ontario, and the cartoon was made in Ontario. It also sounds like a genderbent version of Orion's name, who's the male soulmate. Orion is a constellation, in space, and they're aliens, in space. My lord the wordplay is genius and I don't know if I hate it or love it.

I feel like this Soulmate thing was really an effort to soft-reboot the Care Bears. I mean, look at it: Two technicolor creatures who exist far beyond the Earth recieve orders from a giant celestial being to spread caring and hope, and the villain of the special wants to spread despair and apathy, like No-Heart. Even the soulmate magic thing that turns Thomas good reminds me of a Care Bear Stare.

Unimportant Mysteries is brilliant!

“They’re not real characters they won’t find shit!”made me almost lose my ravioli

"Aw jeez Lois, this is worse than that time I was one of Santa's elves."

Repeated Depressed Santa into Early Credits Gag is becoming a yearly tradition

18:41 In addition to finding this "mystery elf" meme or whatever we now know the origins of Happy Time Harry from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

You know, I kinda like the villain in this lost special. He just screwing around during Christmas just because, and seem to enjoy it. He seem like a cool dude to hang out with. Plus, that guitar riff that comes up whenever he's around sounds fantastic.

I THOUGHT the animation looked familiar. I know Braceface was animated by this Chinese founded studio Jade throughout the series run, and neat how Disney even partnered up with them for 15+ years. This short film's been one heck of an intergalactical experience for sure.x)

"And I actually had to go through 3 VCR's and rip it twice and piece rips together to get a clean copy, because it kept distorting during the playbacks..." Phelous... did not fail us. :D

I had this on vhs as a kid. I spent years trying to track this thing down again thinking it was some weird fever dream only to finally be validated by a mystery elf meme. 😂

"Oh God, not another elf!" - J.R.R. Tolkien's friend when Lord of the Rings was read to him.

Not gonna lie. When the hype for this thing being found was still going, I watched this but the more I got into it the more it felt like some sort of weird cult tape mostly due to how they kept going on about the soulmates and the massive exposition dump regarding their missions and all that. Yeah, there are tons of old cartoons that still have that 'WE MUST BRING HAPPINESS TO THE EARTH!' thing that a lot of us grew up with in the 80s and 90s but I guess it was just the combo of this being so obscure and the cliffhanger tone that made me feel a little weird while watching it. However, I did figure it was supposed to be ONE of a series and despite my weird reaction it first brought out, it is sort of sad that it never got a chance to at least continue with a proper made for TV special or something that went more into the Soul Mates' purpose. Hell, I'd argue that Soul Mates deserves a sequel more so than something like...Rapsitti Street Kids. And speaking of Ella...does she have parents? Is she a kid? An adult? When I first watched this I thought she was an adult but looking back, IS she a kid and if so why the hell is there a blind kid living by herself and who the hell would let her walk her dog alone during the middle of winter? Edit: Forgot to mention this, but I want to give you massive props for taking the time to rip the VHS and fixing it for your review. It's really amazing how much work you do for your reviews not just to entertain but in terms of getting the material you need and I can guess the transfer job was not easy. Keep it up, Phelous.

That scream after the gunshot got me good. It sounded so wracked with torment!

Yeah this is pretty weird. I miss the old Christmas movies where angels stop kids from stealing apple juice or burnt out light bulbs come to life. You know, *normal* Christmas stories.

For an obscure project that’s centered around Christmas, I have to admit that the animation is surprisingly smooth in many parts of this special.

I love how Phelous made the comparison to the Santa from Sonic Christmas Blast just as I was thinking the exact same thing. I love that making Santa super depressing and horrible is just a recurring theme, like they're trying to disillusion kids so that they'll be happy to find out Santa isn't real and can't hurt them.

I'm so happy that Old Man found his long lost cousin.

21:10 “YOU’VE SHAVED! I HATE IT! YOU’RE NOT THE MAN I FELL IN LOVE WITH!” That made me laugh harder than I should’ve 😂

It's not Christmas until Phelous starts doing the Christmas cartoons. These are seriously part of my yearly tradition now. Thanks for all the effort you put in, it's appreciated

When I first heard of this mystery and saw the character, my first thought immediately was, "Did Phelous' old man character star in more than we thought?", so I knew you'd get around to this eventually 😂

Imagine if this turned into a series? It’s a shame, I would love to see you review it!

The work Phelan put into this video made it a true gift for the season

Old Man's mysterious elf cousin should join the pantheon of Phelous gag characters, and maybe help out in Old Man's Creepypasta readings!

McBragg selling the gunshot with the Brett Hart scream was just too perfect.

I love how you explain your journey into actually finding the things you review at the beginning. Don't know why that's so fascinating to me, but maybe it's the same part of me that loves finding weird stuff in bargain bins or family attics.

I love these weird old esoteric cartoons.

I never knew that Old Man has an elf cousin alongside Old Mayor. Awesome review as always, Phelous! 💗✨🌸 It's also funny that everybody just agreed that this is the type of cartoon you'd review too. 😆

I love how you included interviews from the creators and how you ripped your own VHS for the best quality even if it was a painful process. Thank you for putting so much effort into your videos they always cheer me up

Someone thought it came from dreamstone, a British cartoon from the 90s. Apparently it aired in Canada under cookie jar. that's possibly the reason why the cartoon is well documented and can be found full on the Internet especially on pirate cartoon sites.

I agree with you on the rushed feeling of this animated special. Found myself vibing to the Soulmate sound bites every time it cut in.🎸😂

Lost Media videos would be 90% more fun with Phelous hosting.

This was honestly the weirdest Christmas special i've ever seen.

Just knew there was gonna be a vid on this cartoon, esp when I noticed the elf’s resemblance to a certain geriatric gentleman

What’s with animated Christmas films associating with light are always the most bizarre.

It appears Old Man has elvish blood in his family tree

When I saw the elf screenshot on Facebook, my first thought was that it was from "Care Bears." It's funny because that cartoon also has a Canadian connection, with Nelvana animation and has a very similar concept to the "Soul Mates."

The moon shaking its head was a wonderfully surreal gag. Love your stuff Phelous, especially obscure cartoons! Keep it up!

It’s pretty amazing that you were able to find so much information on such an obscure cartoon.

To think, it was discovered, identified, and review all within the span of months of it being in the radar of the internet. Thanks for reviewing this peice of found media P.S. Unimportant Mysteries is a killer title for a series

Love that Phelous always gets around to reviewing weird and bizarre things I could have sworn I fever-dreamed at 4-6 years old, because I only saw it once (for obvious reasons), only to find out it was real all along. The amount of random memories I got back thanks to that...

It just isn’t the Christmas season without phelous reviewing an old Christmas cartoon :)

I was waiting for some Phelous Christmas. I've been rewatching all of your Christmas videos like I do every year. This holiday season make sure you don't pay $5 for Yum Cream.

Thanks! You always spoil us every Christmas

This is definitely one of those things that's not TERRIBLE, but it's pretty obvious why it wasn't popular at the time (and will probably remain a curiosity at best)

Has binging the Phelous Christmas playlist become a legit holiday tradition for anyone else?

I liked the reference you made to the NES game, Sesame Street: ABC & 123, as I used to own and play that game when I was a kid.

i love hearing about solved cases like this. i have my own weird childhood movie memory that nobody has been able to figure out, so seeing these ones makes me feel like it actually does exist out there somewhere!

Angris McBragg sounds like he has both the names of an obscure Underdog show character and a kaiju who took on Godzilla.

😂 I love the villain being shot, that was editing gold!

The early credits joke works well here cuz the Soulmates theme song sounds pretty awesome

13:12 It's nice to see that they did different designs for each reindeer, if this were Good Times, all the reindeer would be clones. So it's nice to see the extra effort for these one off charaters lol. 13:26 also, I like this animation of the elf eating the cigar.

I like old cartoons like these cause you never know how weird it'll get.

Blameitonjorge brought this Internet mystery to my attention, since lost and obscure media tends to fascinate me, and I saw Saberspark and a friend watch and comment on this cartoon. Just from what I could see, they really tried to cram way too much into under a half-hour, due to how rushed parts of it were. It was definitely cool to know a little more about the history and making of it, though.

"Mom. Can we get a VHS of Care Bears?" "We already have Care Bears at home." Care Bears at home:

I was hoping this would be the 90's cartoon I vaguely remember and have been looking for. But that was something about rabbits and a snow storm, and these two small characters. At this point I'm starting to think I dreamed it.

Would love to see Phelan cover more Lost cartoons

OMG! You have no idea how happy this makes me that you covered this random cartoon we found! Glad you got such entertainment out of this, and glad we were able to make our small mark on the internet finding it :) (and yes we love the fact the the elf kinda looks like Old Man’s weird Xmas cousin 🤣) I love all the great childhood memories it’s been unlocking for people

14:02 that banshee scream is so freaking funny

I tried to pull the whole "I'm the new Santa!" thing, the elves beat me up

Santa going right past off brand mr Freeze is quite a power move, ngl

I would totally watch the Soulmates in dementia five 🤣

The fact that you put so much effort into finding and telling your viewers EVERYTHING about stuff that you show to us, Phelous, is always amazing and ALWAYS a treat to start off a video! The other fact is that Buttons and Rusty (the bear cub and fox pup on the video cover) show up randomly on the VHS cover and that I remembered who they were was another "OMG!!!" moment... and I'm going to give you credit for that, too! THANK YOU, PHELOUS!!!!

Old Man: I refused to be in this special because all the snow would have made me completely useless now, so I asked my loser cousin to do the job

Also, sometime Old Man and Old Mayor and Mystery Elf should get together for a family reunion.

So the Soul Mates are not only trillions of lightyears away from Earth, they're also in another dimension? Or is that just a very convoluted way of saying they're right by Earth, as the other side of the other side of the universe could technically be construed as where you started... And man, you weren't kidding. The story of this cartoon runs a mile a minute, feels like it's on speed.

Love it when Phalous goes through these time portals into my childhood cartoons... it is like VR Back to the Future Dollar Store edition.

The Old Man Cinematic Universe is starting to rival Dingo's.

That "Evil Moon shaking head" would be the best Majora Mask Moon of the Phelous Cinematic Universe.

Why would Old Man NOT be happy about being the new Santa? He'd be GREAT at the job! :D

It's a early Christmas miracle. Someone found the name of that mystery movie

Oh yeah. If you were wondering, Mystery Elf's actual name is Pops.

The funny part about the "playing bum" is that one of the multiple European traditions that coalesced into Santa was the Norse god Odin, who in mythology has disguised himself as very lowly people to get information.

Could you magic-imagine a universe where this became a series? 😜😎 Also this is the first time I’ve actually SEEN Braille depicted in media so that’s awesome 🤷‍♀️🙂

17:07 "Let's face it, Santa is ruined"

Speaking of forgotten Christmas specials from childhood, I wonder if Phelous or anyone else here is familiar with "Buster and Chauncey's Silent Night" (sometimes shortened to "Silent Night"), a seemingly forgotten Direct to Video film that starred Jim Cummings and Phil Hartman (in what was likely one of his last voice roles) as two traveling mice musicians, with the plot *very* loosely based on the story behind the writing and composing of the song Silent Night by young Austrian priest, Joseph Mohr. It's got a lot of the kind of tropes we've come to know from these DTV animated films--mediocre musical numbers, talking animals, ott villains, contrived plot points--tho I don't recall any of Old Man's cousins being present. And as far as I know, not many people have talked about it (if they have they haven't crossed my radar). So Phelous, if you want any reccomendations for a video review this coming holiday season, I'd be thrilled having someone take the piss out of something that was very much a part of my childhood.

This was totally worth joining Patreon.

Old man: My cousins are completely useless now!

Well you sold me Phelous. Time to add this to my collection.

11:00 Dave Coulie: Jesse ran away from home. And here we are a bunch of Fluffer Nutters!

Maybe Angris McBragg will make an appearance in the Goron Holiday Special. Using their odd powers to ruin Christmas.

22:41 I don't know where that scream is from, but it threw me completely off guard and had me laughing my ass off. 😂

Makes me think how there are things from my childhood that I keep wondering what they were and if I would still like them, but I just can't rememer or find them. Luckily I have managed to figure out some things. But this is one of the things I really like about Phelous. He understands nostalgia and childhood memories in a way I relate to.

The 8 bit sting with the Good Star shaking his head seems like something I've heard before, just not in a review

Phelous and Christmas go together like pbandj.

The whole "Magic Imagining" is a concept that's been around for decades now, and is incredibly popular among athletes to this day. Most famously: it's basically what that book "The Secret" is all about, just called by another name because "magic imagining" sounded a little silly for a mass-market book by the 2000s. Plus no one can copyright the concept, so just change the name and now it's a brand-new method for achieving all your dreams! Or...travel beyond the boundaries of time and space, apparently!

Between this and the Toon Maker Sailor Moon pilot being found, it's a good year for lost pilots!

Always good to see another update from the tsar of reviews!

Love the use of the moon from NES Sesame Street 123. Great running gag.

I think this could've been a decent series? If the writers got the time to develop their world building and esp nowadays I feel like it'd be a bit refreshing as far as the bad guy goes since most cartoons/movies have those reedemable or sympathetic villains that often "have a point" or are "right' but it's their methods that are wrong. also the blind girl is a sympathetic character and her disabilit is seemingly shown in a realistic way? Like it's balanced? She's not shown to be completely and utterly helpless or silly, but she's also not superhuman where her disability is just some sort of tiny inconvenience that doesn't really bother her or alter her life. She still needs a guide dog and brile in order to get around. Maybe she could be like...the soulmates connection on earth(outside of Santa who only is relevant once a year) and their friend or smth.