A family, fantasy, adventure, Christmas film from 1985 - which has been repeated nearly every year that I can remember on commercial TV.
To summarize it, the film can broken down into two parts. The first part of the film shows how a poor toymaker from a Scandinavian village gains immortality and becomes Santa Claus. He then spreads joy and happiness to all deserving children over the centuries. The second part of the film is definitely stuck in the 80's with its product placement and mass produced commercial existence. In part two, one of Santa's Elves, Patch, leaves the North Pole to make a living for himself. His aim is to prove to Santa that his new mass produced ideas are as good as the ways or hand made toys. In the mortal realm of reality - well, America and not the North Pole - a toy manufacturing big-wig soon enticed Patch into working for him, just so he can make his next fortune by exploiting the Elf. Santa is forced into action, out of season, to save the day.
I remember watching this film as a 5 year old. I didn't like it much as a child, but as I've got older it offends me less - maybe its nostalgia or maybe I grew up and got emotions and a fondness for Christmas. Originally though, this felt to sickly sweet in places; and too cheesy, corny and camp in other places. The film smacks of formulaic 80's movies; it actually tried to make Santa cool - like he's a year-long hero who can save people and not just deliver presents and good tidings of joy. Maybe that's what made me dislike it as a child, my hero's worse cape's or iron body suits, they had gamma poisoning or wielded might hammers - they didn't dress in red and fly on magical sleighs pulled through the air by reindeers. The other thing that bothered me was the Elves - their production never really moved with the times, granted there's Patch and his mass production techniques, but it isn't as much the scale of the operation that bothered me, it was more the output - as child of the 80's watching a film about children of the 80's - I found it difficult to believe that hand carved wooden toys were still being made by the Elves and distributed by Santa. Hence, the Elves never moved with the times and their produce was probably outdated and irrelevant. But hey, listen to me, I'm ranting now.
All in all this is actually a harmless film. It doesn't deliver as much of Christmas message as say "Miracle on 34th Street" or "It's a Wonderful Life", what it does more so is try to use Christmas as a way of commentating on how the consumerism of the 80's isn't all that good. It's still a harmless family movie that you could enjoy with kids if required. Unfortunately the film does look extremely dated by today's standards, so I am not sure how long this may be repeated before its updated or rebooted - but for the time being it's not the worst, or best film, you are likely to watch that has a Christmas theme. 4 out of 10.
To summarize it, the film can broken down into two parts. The first part of the film shows how a poor toymaker from a Scandinavian village gains immortality and becomes Santa Claus. He then spreads joy and happiness to all deserving children over the centuries. The second part of the film is definitely stuck in the 80's with its product placement and mass produced commercial existence. In part two, one of Santa's Elves, Patch, leaves the North Pole to make a living for himself. His aim is to prove to Santa that his new mass produced ideas are as good as the ways or hand made toys. In the mortal realm of reality - well, America and not the North Pole - a toy manufacturing big-wig soon enticed Patch into working for him, just so he can make his next fortune by exploiting the Elf. Santa is forced into action, out of season, to save the day.
I remember watching this film as a 5 year old. I didn't like it much as a child, but as I've got older it offends me less - maybe its nostalgia or maybe I grew up and got emotions and a fondness for Christmas. Originally though, this felt to sickly sweet in places; and too cheesy, corny and camp in other places. The film smacks of formulaic 80's movies; it actually tried to make Santa cool - like he's a year-long hero who can save people and not just deliver presents and good tidings of joy. Maybe that's what made me dislike it as a child, my hero's worse cape's or iron body suits, they had gamma poisoning or wielded might hammers - they didn't dress in red and fly on magical sleighs pulled through the air by reindeers. The other thing that bothered me was the Elves - their production never really moved with the times, granted there's Patch and his mass production techniques, but it isn't as much the scale of the operation that bothered me, it was more the output - as child of the 80's watching a film about children of the 80's - I found it difficult to believe that hand carved wooden toys were still being made by the Elves and distributed by Santa. Hence, the Elves never moved with the times and their produce was probably outdated and irrelevant. But hey, listen to me, I'm ranting now.
All in all this is actually a harmless film. It doesn't deliver as much of Christmas message as say "Miracle on 34th Street" or "It's a Wonderful Life", what it does more so is try to use Christmas as a way of commentating on how the consumerism of the 80's isn't all that good. It's still a harmless family movie that you could enjoy with kids if required. Unfortunately the film does look extremely dated by today's standards, so I am not sure how long this may be repeated before its updated or rebooted - but for the time being it's not the worst, or best film, you are likely to watch that has a Christmas theme. 4 out of 10.