SANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE (1985)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Director Jeannot Szwarc has not had the greatest track record for movies ("Jaws 2," "Supergirl" - the latter is one of my guilty pleasures) but at least he tries. What he and the Salkind producers had exactly in mind for "Santa Claus: The Movie" is beyond me. A fairly dark opening sequence and fairly crude and downbeat humor make most of the middle section of "It's a Wonderful Life" seem positively upbeat by comparison. This "Santa Claus" is for kids who like coal in their stockings.
Perfectly cast David Huddleston is Claus, a jovial man in his 50's who delivers toys to children in neighboring villages during a horrific blizzard. As we see him and his wife trying to deliver in a sleigh led by two exhausted reindeer, it is the 14th century and this man is not the magical Santa Claus yet. They struggle but the old couple almost die from freezing weather until they are rescued by the Vendequm, who seem to approach them from the Northern Star (this felt quite religious in its symbolism since I thought Baby Jesus' manger was nearby). The Vendequm are the elves from the North Pole who rescue the couple and tell them that Claus is the Chosen One. And the Ancient Elf (Burgess Meredith) bestows his wisdom and off goes Santa and the reindeer to deliver toys on Christmas Eve to the children everywhere, century after century.
At this point, "Santa Claus" does a fine job of detailing the enormity of the Santa Workshop and the dozens of elves who are put to work to make toys from plywood. Patch (Dudley Moore) is the elf who sees the wave of the future in hydraulics and plumbing (he even quips to Santa at their initial meeting that he has an idea about pipes emitting heat!) But when there is the homeless kid in New York City (which Santa seems to think is the only homeless kid in the world) and the introduction of B.Z. (John Lithgow), a greedy toy maker who hires Patch after Patch is demoted from being Santa's assistant, the movie becomes sour and dreary. Even when the film tries to be magical and instill a sense of wonder about Santa, it fails. The movie is cheerier in its early North Pole scenes.
The movie has little time or patience to consider who Santa is. At one point, Santa questions the tradition of Christmas when things go awry with lollipops that make children fly. But when the film shifts to B.Z. and Patch making explosive candy canes, I was lost and felt I was in some other movie. Huddleston does the part with pride, Moore comes off as a colorful enough elf, and Lithgow is a wacky villain with a touch of Lex Luthor (the Salkinds also produced the Superman films, hence the Luthor comparison). I actually wonder why St. Nick at the end of the movie didn't retire or quit. Who needs this much dreariness?
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