Jeannot Szwarc
Cast
David Huddleston - Claus/ Santa Claus
Judy Cornwell - Anya
Dudley Moore - Patch
John Lithgow - B.Z.
Carrie Kei Heim - Cornelia
Christian Fitzpatrick - Joe
Burgess Meredith - The Ancient Elf
John Barrard - Dooley
In the catalog of well established Christmas movies, many of them are considered mandatory holiday viewing. Every decade has a Christmas title that has stuck around year after year after year - It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Miracle of 34th Street (1947), White Christmas (1954), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), Santa Claus is Coming to Town (1970), A Christmas Story (1983), Home Alone (1990), Elf (2003), The Polar Express (2004)… the list goes on. And there are several hugely popular titles I didn't mention, which some Christmas fanatics out there will give me a scornful look for not including. Oh, and I'm not forgetting the number of film adaptations of Charlie Dickins's A Christmas Carol. My personal favorites are the 1951 version with Alastair Sim, and the 1984 one with George C. Scott.
A lot of people fondly remember a lot of movies around the holidays. But aside from lesser known Christmas movies like, say, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) or Santa Claus vs. The Devil (1959) - yeah, those exist - there's one movie I just never hear anyone talk about at all, let alone claim as a personal holiday season favorite. That's Santa Claus: The Movie from 1985. I used to see copies of this movie on the video rental shelf back in day. And I was curious back then to see what Santa Claus's own movie was all about. I never did, though, until last night. I found it streaming on Peacock.
The movie begins in a small village centuries ago as villagers await the arrival of their beloved carpenter who will deliver gifts to the local children.
That woodcutter, Claus (David Huddleston - The Big Lebowski), does arrive. As he hands out gifts to the children, Claus receives a happiness at seeing their joy.
He and his wife, Anya (Judy Cromwell), need to leave to deliver more gifts to the children in the village at the other end of the forest.
Despite a brutal blizzard, Claus and Anya harness their reindeer, Donner and Blitzen, to travel through the forest.
In the middle of their journey, Donner and Blitzen collapse with exhaustion. Santa and his wife are stuck. They huddle together to keep warm.
A celestial light falls upon them. They wake up and are rescued by a band of elves who take them to their magic toy shop in the North Pole which can only be seen by a chosen few.
These elves have evidently long awaited this meeting with Claus. In fact, Dooley the head elf (John Barrard) reveals Claus's coming was prophesied long ago.
After they're shown around the elves's toy shop, it's revealed Claus will stay indefinitely and live forever.
Later, Santa is presented to the ancient elf (Burgess Meredith) who claims the prophesy to be fulfilled. He grants Claus control of time on every Christmas Eve night so he can deliver gifts to all the children in the world. He dubs him "Santa Claus" and gives the magical gift of flight to the reindeer. The other reindeer that famously drive Santa's sleigh were already living with the elves.
So, Santa delivers presents every Christmas for centuries. His lore among the world develops into what we know him to be today. Th elves even read him A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Moore which gives Santa insight into how the world see's him - a jolly old elf whose belly shakes like a bowl of jelly when he laughs.
As the 1980s roll around, Santa is feeling overworked. Also, the world loves material possessions, such as toys for instance, to the point where the act of giving has waned considerably. This is becoming burdensome for the jolly old fat man.
Anya recommends he make one of the elves his assistant to help lighten the load.
One of the elves, Puffy (Anthony O'Donnell) is more traditional when it comes to manufacturing toys. Another elf, Patch (Dudley Moore) is more progressive in that he wants to update the toy-making process.
Santa chooses Patch to be his assistant after the two elves compete for this assistant position.
Meanwhile, on the streets of New York City, a young orphan girl named Cornelia (Carrie Kei Heim), who's living with a wealthy family, befriends a homeless orphan boy named Joe (Christian Fitzpatrick) by giving him food and letting him sleep in the basement of her family's large house.
On one particular Christmas Eve, Santa encounters Joe alone on the street and befriends him. He lets Joe ride in his sleigh, and even take the reins.
They happen to stop at Cornelia's house, and Santa takes Joe down the chimney with him.
Cornelia wakes up and finds Santa and Joe in her living room. She's overjoyed, of course. And this chance encounter solidifies her friendship with Joe.
Cornelia wakes up and finds Santa and Joe in her living room. She's overjoyed, of course. And this chance encounter solidifies her friendship with Joe.
Meanwhile, back at the North Pole, Patch's machines produce faulty and poorly constructed toys. Evidently, when these toys break while children are playing with them, they somehow return to his workshop by coming down his chimney.
Distraught and crestfallen at the number of returned toys, Santa has to fire Patch. But before he can do so, Patch gives up his position to Puffy.
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| David Huddleston as Santa Claus in Santa Claus: The Movie. |
Thinking Santa is too disappointed to want him around, Patch runs away and heads to New York.
There, he sees a commercial for the B.Z. Toy Company. The company, headed by greedy businessman B.Z. (John Lithgow), is in hot water and in the middle of congressional hearings for manufacturing dangerous toys.
Patch goes to visit B.Z. hoping he can land a toy-making job that will somehow catch Santa's attention and redeem himself.
After some persuading, B.Z. hires Patch. The elf's idea is to create a lollipop that gives people the magic power of flight. Patch creates a flying vehicle, similiar to Santa's sleigh, to deliver these lollipops to all children everywhere on Christmas Eve.
The lollipop is a huge hit. This gives B.Z. the idea to implement "Christmas 2" in March so more revenue can come into his toy company, and he can continue improving his public image. During Christmas 2, Patch will deliver magical candy canes instead of lollipops.
B.Z. also happens to be Cornelia's step-uncle. However, the candy canes end up being faulty, too. When they get hot, they explode.
One evening when she invites Joe to take shelter in her basement as there's a rainstorm outside, she and Joe overhear B.Z. talking to his assistant about his plan to end Santa's reign of gift giving and take over Christmas.
B.Z. catches Joe in the basement, and hides him back in his toy factory. Now, it's up to Cornelia, Santa, and Patch to make everything right and save Christmas.
Santa Claus: The Movie starts as an origin story, and carries on portraying Santa doing what everyone on Earth knows Santa does - makes toys and deliver them to kids on Christmas. Midway, the movie seems to realize it needs a plot before it completely looses the audiences' interest and attention.
This is an easy movie to make fun of as it easily dives into being campy and overly whimsical. But I want to be fair rather than simply poke fun at it.
The movie addresses aspects of Santa Claus that children wonder about such as how his sleigh is able to fly, how he can visit so many homes around the world in one night, and how he goes up and down chimneys.
However, a few plot points are unclear. For instance, Claus, Anya, and their reindeer are stuck in the blizzard unconscious when the elves find them. And when they do, a heavenly light shines upon them, from which the elves appear. So, are Claus and everyone else dead? The way the scene plays out gives that impression.
After they rescue them and bring them back to the toy workshop, Claus asks Dooley what the elves plan on doing with all the toys they've made.
Dooley says their toys have been waiting for him.
"What've they got to do with me?" Claus says.
"What've they got to do with me?" Claus says.
"You're going to give them...to your children. You have all the children of the world."
"I won't live long enough for that."
"Both of you will live for ever!" Dooley says.
I was always taught eternal life is more of a situation for the afterlife. So, if Claus and his wife are dead, they're eternity is making toys and giving them away for free. Even if they're not dead, that's their eternity.
Yeah, I know Claus takes great pleasure in giving to children. So, in that regard, it's heaven I suppose. I'm just speculating.
Santa and Anya evidently can't have children of there own. It's hinted at, but not fully explained. When Santa takes a liking to Joe while struggling with the changing world, I sense he's compensating for his inability (or whatever the situation is) to be a father.
When he meets Joe, Santa seems a little too naïve about what some children unfortunately go through - negligence and abandonment. He acts like he's never met a homeless child before, which is odd considering he's been doing this for centuries. Chalk one up for the "chosen one" who would love children everywhere. *Sarcasm intended.
Another scene leaves me baffled. Shortly after Claus arrives to the North Pole, he and Anya watch as the elves open a hole in the roof. They watch in wonderment as the bright North Star is in alignment with the opening in the roof. As soon as that happens, Dooley, who is looking through a telescope shouts, "Now!"
All the other elves are gathered in a circle directly underneath the opening in the roof.
The star begins to brighten up and shine its light upon them.
As they "ooh" and "ahh", snow begins to fall through the hole in the roof.
The elves congratulate themselves for whatever is going on here. And then everyone, Claus and Anya included, begin to dance. The audience, meanwhile, is left clueless as to what this all means. My guess it has something to do with the prophesy. I really have no idea.
Speaking of which, the cliché of a prophesy is already an overused trope, even for 1985's standards. Who chose him to be Santa? Why? And how do they know Claus was "the chosen one?" They just spring it on him. It's such a buildup that seems way too big for this picture.
As Burgess Meredith looks Claus in the eye and recites this prophesy, telling Santa Claus what his mission in life will now be, I was waiting for Meredith to throw out, "You're gonna eat lighting, and you're gonna crap thunder!" I'm being serious, too. What a missed opportunity for a great Rocky callback that could have been talked about for years afterwards.
The movie really wants its audiences to notice where the production money went - basically into the sets and constant use of green screen. And to its credit, the set pieces are imaginative and impressively detailed. Santa's workshop looks like a fun place to be in.
Though some of the green screen effects are poor, the movie manages to impress with its scenes of Santa flying over New York City. Even with the use of green screen, the camera angles are well done to pull off these shots as realistically as special effect techniques of 1985 would allow.
The story is tawdry and kitsch. It's really nothing but heaps of sugar, with a story thrown in because its customary for movies to have one. It comes out bland in the end.
McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer are shamelessly inserted.
One of these product placements take place when young Joe, pitiful and hungry, peers in through the golden arches painted on the window of a small but crowded McDonald's. Inside, folks are laughing and carrying trays loaded with burgers, fries, and drinks. The camera zooms closer to Joe's mournful face as he watches all these happy folks eating their food and having fun. And we certainly get shots of these happy people eating McDonald's. It's contrasted by Joe's sad expression. Had Joe muttered the slogan McDonald's used back in 1985, "It's a good time for the great taste of McDonald's" to the camera before meandering off down the street, still hungry, I would give this movie a huge pass. That's another opportunity missed. Such a scene could have been one of the boldest producuct placement scenes in Christmas movie history. But, I guess even Hollywood and fast food franchises have to maintain some kind of standard. Anyways, it all just adds to the overall Christmas commercialism that serves as the foundation of this movie, and makes Santa Claus sad.
John Lithgow plays his business character in such an over-the-top way, it's hard not to laugh at it. And I mean that respectfully. He puts a lot...and I mean a lot... into his performance. While Huddleston plays Santa with loads of sentimentality, Lithgow as the bad business guy is as cartoonishly villainous as can be. The animation is Lithgow's performance itself, figuratively speaking. And honestly, he's perfectly cast for this role. Lithgow is a great actor, and I cannot say his role in Santa Claus: The Movie is an exception. He is still highly entertaining.
In the scene where Patch meets with B.Z., he asks, "Don't you believe in Santa?"
"Why should I," B.Z. says. "He never brought me anything."
"That's because you were probably a naughty boy," Patch says.
"Yes, I guess I was no angel."
Still, Patch wants to work with him knowing perfectly well B.Z. must have been on Santa's naughty list for so long. That seems off to me.
I'll have to take a point away from this movie for lack of coherent writing.
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| Dudley Moore as "Patch the Elf." |
Some of the acting felt like director Jeannot Szwarc used the first take and didn't bother with shooting any more takes.
By the way, Szwarc's list of movies he's directed includes Supergirl, Jaws 2, and Bug to name a few unpopular movies.
Overall, I found the story forced, haphazard, slow at times, and sappily artificial. But if there's anyone out there who includes Santa Claus: The Movie in their annual holiday movie watching line-up, I get it. I seriously get it. There is apparent effort to make a good movie. It's there. And somewhere underneath the cheesy, cream puff, sugar coating is a small gleam of charm. The movie didn't work for me. Regardless, I can respect any fandom for this movie. To its fans, I say...enjoy Santa Claus: The Movie. Kids, who are clearly the target audience, will surely find joy watching this movie. As they do, I'll watch my Christmas Carol from 1951, and A Christmas Story like I have for the last 35 years.
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