Monday, December 20, 2010

santa claus - the movie

This movie is a Boyer family favorite. It must be watched every year during Christmas.

Santa Claus: The Movie so completely captures the magic and spirit of the story of Santa Claus. I remember watching this as a child and thinking, "If this place really is real, then this is how it looks and feels."

An old Russian couple gets caught out in a brutal snowstorm on Christmas Eve as they drive from village to village delivering handmade toys to children, and find themselves lost. Their reindeer eventually collapse from exhaustion and the couple huddle together on the sleigh, eventually falling asleep.  When they awaken, they are in a beautiful winterscape and a very bright star is pointing to their final destination, where they arrive to take their rightful places as the king and queen of the Northpole. They learn all the duties and responsibilities from the elves and thus begins the story Santa Claus. The sets are beautiful and old fashioned in a German Christmas sort of way.

Even the modern day (at least it was in 1985) twist is fun with Patch, the head elf (Dudley Moore) unwittingly teaming up with B.Z. (John Lithgow) to destroy Christmas as we know it.  David Huddleston is the epitome of Santa and comes into the save the day, of course.  This story is just plain magic.

Start watching it here. The whole is posted on YouTube.

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