It's Christmas time and I figure I list all the Christmas stuff that stars Santa Claus.
The company known as Rankin-Bass did all those popular stop motion specials that everyone grew up with. Some aired on local stations, others aired elsewhere on cable(mainly Fox Family/Freeform).
First, I be talking about three Rainkin-Bass specials that has Santa as the main character.
There Santa Claus is Coming to Town
This explains the origin of Santa and how he became the famous gift deliverer as he deals with the evil Burgermeister Meisterburger.
I always got the song "Put One Foot in Front of the Other" messed up by saying putting the foot on top of the other and others who heard said, "And soon you be falling through the door."
There's also A Year without Santa Claus Saint Nick got a cold and wonder if it's worth delivering presents this year.
Despite somehow that some kids doubt Santa is real, Santa quitting Christmas for a year got to be be front page news.
This special also gave us our two breakout stars, Heatmeister and Snowmeister. They're popular for their memorable songs.
Speaking about those two, this special got a direct sequel called, A Meister Brothers Christmas
I know I said I focus on Santa first but this is directly spin off the same movie.
The plot is they have to work together to help Santa. Their evil brother, The North Wind tries to ruin Christmas by causing the two brothers to bicker like no tomorrow and become the big man in red.
The last Santa special made by Rankin-Bass is The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
You can kinda pretend that all the Rankin-Bass specials are in the same universe but I seriously doubt this is.
It's an alternate origin story for Kris Kringle. This time, he is raised by loins and nymphs and they debate if he should be granted immorality.
This is noticeably more darker and serious than most stop motion specials(adult parodies not included) but it's still aimed for general audiences.
Santa Claus: The movie
I remember seeing this on Christmas Day after a few hours after opening my presents and saw again a few years ago. The film is like two separate stories. The 1st half is this magical tale of how Saint Nick encounters the elves and how he became the famous man himself and how he spent year after year delivering gifts.
The 2nd half takes place in modern day has an ashamed elf go in self-exile and made a deal with a greedy businessman who hams out his performance. "FOR FREE!!!", and "CHRISTMAS 2!"
The Santa Clause Trilogy
The 1st one is easily the best of the three. A comical film that has Tim Allen accidently kills Santa and ends up becoming the new Santa himself. He and his son goes out to delivers presents. After that night, Tim thinks his night delivering his gifts was all a dream goes in denial that happened. As time goes on, he ends up accepting his role.
2nd one was not bad, but not as good as the 1st. He on a quest to quickly find himself a wife and get married just before Christmas Eve night and deal with his son's angst issues. While out of town, a Toy Santa clone is set up to help run the place, however he becomes an evil A.I. unit and goes full dictator on North Pole.
3rd one is clearly the worse of the three. Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. However the "beginning" part overstays it's welcome as you see Santa dealing the problem with his muggle in-laws visiting, not knowing he's actually Santa. By the time the main villain's evil plans start rolling, the movie is way beyond halfway over. The middle and end parts are rushed through.
The 3rd film does have it's good parts. The villain known as Jack Frost. This mischievous troublemaker is fun to watch.
The film does go all "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jack Frost rewriting history becomes Santa and turning the North Pole into a tourist attraction and bribing parents to pay him, so he can put their kids on the nice list. Exactly like It's a Wonderful Life because all this what if timeline and the ending is in the last 30 minutes. However that classic is a great film that explains the life of Bailey while this is Claus complaining about his muggle in-laws. Also the villain is defeated by in a hug that warms his heart. This is cheesy, even by these films standards.
Arthur Christmas
Instead of a single man. Santa is a role that's passed down the family. After a Christmas Eve run, the current Santa is getting ready to retire and giving the title to his eldest son. However the younger son, Arthur notice that Santa missed one present but everyone in the family thinks it isn't a big deal but Arthur believes otherwise, so he tries to go on a trip to deliver the present before the night ends.
It's a fun enjoyable flick, also it has ninja gift-wrapping elves.
Klaus is about a spoiled rich kid whose father is fed up with him and send him to a far away North on a Scandinavian island. It's also the worse place to live since there is an ancient rivalry between two clans. The spoiled man known as Jesper is trying to mail 6000 letters so he can get back to his life at home. He meets a mysterious man named Klaus and they work together.
Imagine if Santa was basically a real guy with no connections to elves or magic. It's completely realistic...Or is it?
You may think it's 3D but everything here is 2D hand-drawn. This animation here really stands out.
Christmas Chronicles 1 and 2.
The 1st one is two trouble siblings discover Santa's sled and accidently crashed it and they have to work together to get it together. It is a cute film and all. The 2nd one shows alot more of (Mrs)Claus' village and you learn that he started as Saint Nick and how he ended up as he is. There's is a bad elf who is trying to ruined Christmas. Also, Santa goes all Mario 64 on a giant cat.(Whose the Iceland version of Krampus)
A Boy called Christmas is a tale of Nicolas who is sometimes nicknamed Christmas, whose father disappeared to find the mythical elves. He cared by the worse aunt ever who seriously needs a visit from Krampus. Fed up with her and wanting to find his dad and the elves, he goes out to find them and would end up becoming the famous man in red.
