Pretty Good

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Tonight marks the first time I've seen "Santa Claus: The Movie" in just about 30 years and it brought back a few memories. And as an adult, there's a lot to like about this; good sets. great special effects, David Huddleston puts out just the right genial vibe. I could see a lot of "Superman: The Movie" in this, it's such a white bread and apple pie origin story. But the pacing's off. There are long plodding stretches of flatness while most of the action's kicked to the very end. You've gotta give Jon Lithgow credit for chomping the scenery and I really don't have any serious gripes with this movie. Its heart is in the right place, but it could've used a nit more of a pulse.6/10

You would think that it would be difficult to make a movie about Santa Claus that's absolutely lacking in charm - and yet everybody from Ilya Salkind who produced this to Jeannot Szwarc who directed it to David and Leslie Newman who came up with the story pulled that off magnificently. I suppose that just because it's a Christmas movie and people are more warm-hearted at this time of year it's going to get some kind reviews, but really - this was awful. It's totally charmless, and has a meandering, often pointless story and bland performances all around.First - it bears no resemblance to any legend of Santa Claus that I've ever come across. I suppose coming up with a fictional story about a fictional character isn't really a crime, but at least it should be enjoyable - and it should (sort of, somehow) make sense. Here, Santa (David Huddleston) is a kind man who takes toys to children on Christmas Eve apparently hundreds of years ago who's essentially drafted by elves to become Santa. Some sort of elf- prophecy, apparently. We have an interminable hour or so of virtually no importance at all (but full of awful "elf-puns") until we get to what the story was supposed to be about, and then it's kind of ho-hum. In the present day, one of Santa's elves (played by Dudley Moore) gets discouraged, leaves the North Pole and teams up with an evil toy manufacturer (John Lithgow). Chaos ensues, bad things happen, Santa has to save the day. Yadda, yadda, yadda. And along the way there's a poor, homeless boy whom Santa takes pity on (while apparently ignoring all the other poor, homeless children, who don't get rides in the sleigh and a trip to the North Pole) and an orphan who lives in a big house and has lots of stuff and whose uncle happens to be the evil toy manufacturer.You know how it will all turn out. Santa will save the day. Too bad he couldn't save this movie. (2/10)

This is an ambitious movie. It tries to cover a lot of ground, perhaps a little too much, but it's still a fun ride.The first part of the movie covers Santa's origins. It is charming and sweet, but also decidedly lacking in any kind of meaningful conflict to keep your attention. The reindeer puppeteering is outstanding (considering the technology at the time) and David Huddleson is quite convincing as Santa. It shows him settling into the role of Christmas Toy Delivery Demigod in a believable (if slightly overlong) fashion.Then, the second part of the story adds some badly needed plot, but it does a bit too much. Overachieving elf Patch (Moore) disgraces Santa's entire operation one year when he sacrifices quality for mass production. He flees the North Pole, determined to redeem himself and show Santa he is still deserving of the mantle of Top Elf.I must pause here to point out this is the problem with Patch as a character. While Moore (predictably) plays him with considerably affable charm, he seems to have an overblown ego, which is an issue the movie never really resolves.Enter B.Z., a greedy toy magnate who takes advantage of Patch to pull his own sullied reputation out of the gutter and to profit like never before. John Lithgow's turn as the villain is oh-so-very hammy and outrageously over the top, but extremely fun to watch.Add to the mix a sub-subplot of the friendship of a rich little girl and an Artful-Dodger-esque street urchin, and it all starts to creak under its own narrative weight.But the movie is still dripping with Christmas Charm and I watch it every year. Sure, its got problems, but its still a fun ride.

I saw and liked this as a kid, so I thought I'd see how well it holds up as an adult. The answer is that it doesn't: every scene I found charming as a boy I now find embarrassing. SANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE turns out to be one of the most twee and overly mawkish Christmas movies ever made.The problem with the film is the script, which just meanders all over the place, plotlessly and painfully without focus or insight. It appears that the producers realised they could use the same kind of 'flying' special effects from the SUPERMAN series except swap them for Santa and his reindeers flying through the air. But that's no basis for a movie.It takes an hour or so for the storyline (involving an evil toy manufacturer) to get moving, and before then there are just lots of annoying scenes with the elves, who make the Ewoks look appealing. We get Dudley Moore mugging shamelessly in one of his irritating kid's film performances, and David Huddleston overegging it as a good-natured Santa. One of the sub-plots, involving floating kids, seems to have been stolen from WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.Thankfully, the film does pick up a little in the latter stages when there's actual stuff going on (even if it still isn't much), and we do get a scene-stealing turn from John Lithgow as a remarkably slimy villain. Sadly, his presence isn't enough to stop this from being a film that's a worthless watch for anyone over eight years old.NB. I recently watched this film one more time just to see if I was being too harsh on it above. I guess I was - a little. If you're in the mood for cloying sentimental and feel-good Christmas fare, then I guess it's the film for you. It certainly looks nice in high definition and the early storyline about how Santa Claus became Santa Claus is quite well done. A good kid's film then, although adults may want to pass on it.