Virtually Christmas

"Virtually Christmas" is the sixteenth episode of the third season of the American animated sitcom Big City Greens, and the 76th episode of the series overall. "Virtually Christmas" originally aired in the United States on December 3, 2022, on Disney Channel.^[2]

"Virtually Christmas"
Big City Greens episode
Promotional poster for the episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 16
Directed by	Anna O'Brian
Written by	Rachel McNevin, Ariel Vracin-Harrell, Destiny Wood, Raj Brueggeman and Kiana Khansmith
Production code	320[1]
Original air date	December 3, 2022 (2022-12-03)
Running time	22 minutes
Guest appearance
Alfonso Ribiero as Mr. Extras
Episode chronology
List of episodes

In this episode, after Cricket gets snowed in at the Remington's, he attempts to recreate his family's Christmas traditions inside of a virtual reality game but must keep its true nature a secret from them.

Plot

Prior to the events of "The Move"^[a], Cricket, tired of his family's same old Christmas traditions, goes to Remy's place to play the virtual reality game Outpost Infinity, which got a Christmas update. Cricket ends up getting snowed in with Remy, but the latter reveals that he left a VR present for him at his house and Cricket suggests that they all go into Outpost Infinity to recreate the family's traditions, hiding the fact that it is a tower defense game.

They recreate Alice's house and then try to complete all of their family traditions, such as finding the fruitcake, while Remy holds off all the waves of monsters and Mr. Extras occasionally appears trying to sell add-ons. By the time they reach the last tradition and Cricket is about to top the Christmas tree with the star, Remy blasts into the house and warns them that a wave of monsters are coming, thus exposing their secret. With no option, the Greens fight off the monsters. They purchase a Christmas Cannon from Mr. Extras to use against the giant monster and later defeat it.

Afterwards, while the rest of the Green family and Remy continued fighting off the next wave, Cricket felt like it wasn't Christmas if he didn't top the tree with his family. Therefore, he takes off the goggles and finds a way through the snow back home. After he returns, the Remington's arrive and, since they didn't have their own Christmas traditions, joined in on the Greens'.

Voice cast

• Chris Houghton as Cricket Green
• Marieve Herington as Tilly Green
• Bob Joles as Bill Green
• Artemis Pebdani as Alice Green
• Wendi McLendon-Covey as Nancy Green
• Danny Trejo as Vasquez
• Zeno Robinson as Remy Remington
• Colton Dunn as Russell Remington
• Lorraine Toussaint as Rashida Remington
• Alfonso Ribeiro as Mr. Extras

Production

Big City Greens was renewed for a third season on January 13, 2021.^[3] "Virtually Christmas" was announced at the New York Comic Con in October 2022.^[4][5] It features Alfonso Ribeiro, who guest starred as Mr. Extras.^[6][7] The 3D animation was produced with Unreal Engine.^[8]

This episode was directed by Anna O'Brian, written by Rachel McNevin, Ariel Vracin-Harrell, Destiny Wood, Raj Brueggeman and Kiana Khansmith, and storyboarded by Ariel Vracin-Harrell, Destiny Wood, Raj Brueggeman and Kiana Khansmith.

Reception

The special received 0.26 million viewers on its premiere.^[9] Tony Betti of Laughing Place listed this episode as one of his favorites from the third season.^[10] Furthermore, he states "I love when Big City Greens ventures into these kinds of special episodes, and this Christmas one has enough charm to make it a staple of holiday viewing in households everywhere, including my own."^[11] He also praised the animation, stating that it's "absolutely gorgeous and it has made me want a Big City Greens video game even more than I already do."^[11]

Notes

1. This episode was originally the next episode to premiere after "Squashed!", but was delayed the following year due to the 3D sequences being unfinished at the time.