Mr. Willowby's Christmas TreeSynopsis: This 1995 special is another Jim Henson effort featuring Robert Downey Jr. at his personal, pre-
Iron Man rock bottom as the titular wealthy philanthropist, Leslie Nielsen as his butler (who shows only some glimpses of his comic form) and Stockard Channing, looking a whole lot younger than 50, as a Swedish maid.
The basic plot, taken from a 1960s children's book, follows the titular tree as it is brought into Willowby's house, but is found to be too tall, so the top is cut off and given to the maid. The top is too tall for her room, so the cycle repeats as successively smaller portions of the tree get chopped off, with bears, owls, and finally a family of mice who had been trying to cut off the very top the whole time each getting their piece.
Status: I remember seeing this special exactly once. As with
Emmet Otter, it's either in the Henson Studio name or Disney, though I'm inclined to assume the latter since Kermit the Frog serves as narrator. Bootlegged to Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gvT4x2IkDU