Customer Reviews

Life And Adventures Of Santa Claus/Nestor The Christmas Donkey (Double Feature)

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was very pleased to finally have this Rankin/Bass animagic film on DVD. I've waited over a decade to replace the poor quality bootleg VHS copy I had.

I would say that of all the Rankin/Bass Christmas-related stop motion "animagic" work this one is the most strikingly unusual. It has some excellent qualities that are lacking in other productions by the company.

A thumb high up for the script by Julian P. Gardner that manages to reduce the original source material by L. Frank Baum into a concise and remarkably true-to-spirit reworking.

The score by Bernard Hoffer is excellent. Including original songs (with lyrics by Mr. Gardner) that are a welcome departure from other productions that employ Jules Bass as a lyricist. I have no complaint with Maury Laws, the musical director of works like "The Year Without A Santa Claus", his work is always of a high standard. Unfortunately, Mr. Bass often produces labored and strained-for-a-rhyme lyrics to Law's melodies. After Johnny Marks work on "Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer" the bar was raised high and everything subsequently produced by the Laws/Bass team pales by comparison. There is always a striking distance between the song the piece is based on ("Frosty The Snowman", "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town") and the new songs. (I will credit them in one regard, I much prefer the Laws/Bass team's work to the horribly forgettable music written for the "Rudolph" sequel, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Island of The Misfit Toys". But that isn't much of a compliment.)

Other areas where this piece work very effectively are in the actors chosen for voice work: Alfred Drake (noted Broadway musical actor) makes an admirable "Ak", Master Woodsman of The World. As does Earl Hyman (The Cosby Show, Thundercats)make an ominous and threatening King of The Awgwas. And the overall character and production design are beautiful and markedly original in conception. The look of the piece is as magical as the subject matter.

I have given the product itself 4 stars rather than the 5 stars I believe that "The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause" deserves. The reason? Because of two things: Firstly, Warner Brothers failed to digitally remaster this work as they have done with "Jack Frost" and as has been done with most all of the other Rankin/Bass work available on mainstream DVD. I suspect we will see a digitally remastered version of the piece in the coming years and it will certainly be presented in a Blu-ray disc someday. The only drawback to digital remasters is that the clarity revels the black wire (string?) used to prop up and control the puppets and the seams of backdrops and sets. If these films were Disney productions you could be assured that those lines would have been made invisible.

Secondly, I feel the pairing with "Nestor, The Long-Eared Donkey" on this DVD is just plain odd. "Nestor" would make a fitting partner to "The Little Drummer Boy". Those two works share themes and are decidedly more religious in nature than "The Life and Adventures", which has a magical and almost pagan or earth spirit center. "Nestor", though not a personal favorite, is well done and has decent original songs and narration by Roger Miller ("King Of The Road", etc.)

I feared this adaptation of Baum's 1902 work would never be released again as it presents Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas) in a very non-Christian characterization. Still, the lessons and philosophy Baum imparts are very worthwhile. It is an enchanting and, yes, magical retelling of the Santa Claus mythology. I am happy to have it added to my collection and in place with the other stop motion animagic classic, "Rudolph". If it weren't for that original work in the series of Christmas specials from Rankin/Bass Productions I would definitely consider "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" the best of the lot.

The primary question about this work is: "Will children like or love it?". Of that I am certain. I do and I am a child at heart in a great many ways.

Do yourself a favor. Get a copy of this DVD and allow yourself to succumb to its many charms. It is a perfect addition to your Christmas library of films.

This movie is a Rankin/Bass classic and should be treated as such. (This is a DVD-R, unrestored version). About two years ago, WB finally released The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold and Pinocchio's Christmas in a boxed set with other Rankin/Bass classics.

The only Rankin/Bass stop motion Christmas classics that have not been restored and released on DVD as of today (Dec 11, 2009) are:

1. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

2. The First Christmas (aka The Story of the First Christmas Snow)

3. The Little Drummer Boy Book II

All three are owned by WB. Sooooo, hopefully these three will be released in a new Christmas boxed set - perhaps as early as next year - Christmas 2010!!

For afficionados of the Rankin-Bass franchise this strange story is a must-own.

This stop-motion version of L. Frank Baum's wild tale of a group of mythic immortals who (along with Shiegra the lioness) raise the child who will soon be known as Santa Claus is nothing less than a fantastic head trip.

Other reviews have already noted noted the high caliber of the script and score, and I couldn't agree with them more.

For children of the 70s and 80s, however, 'The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus' is probably one of the Christmas specials you've seen once or twice over the years on TV, but not enough times to necessarily remember it in its entirety. Decidedly, fabulously pagan in nature, it wasn't aired with the regularity other Rankin-Bass shows were over the years.

I rate this highly for it's unusual subject matter, and the care with which the story was told with respect to the source material by Baum. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus will tickle the recesses of your memory and transport you back to your youth with it's mythic magic.

I suggest this product for Rankin-Bass fans wanting to complete their collection, those who appreciate a rich reinvention of a well-known tale, or anyone who wants to watch a seriously trippy show.

The most important thing to know about this DVD release is that the video quality is very passable for both episodes. The life & adventures of Santa Claus has been transferred to DVD well. It's hard to say that the video quality is great, if you're used to Blu-ray DVD releases. With that being said, the quality is much better than the VHS version that I bought new about 10 years ago. It's great to finally have this beloved story on DVD. Don't hesitate to purchase this DVD.

Well, it's about time that they finally released the Life and Adventures on DVD. Unfortunately this is a exceptionally poor planned out DVD venture. I'm not sure who exactly is responsible for this release, or even why they bothered. If it is Warner Bros. themselves, then it's just another apparent quick crank it out before the holidays and see how much money we can rake in. Be warned, this is supposedly just a quick DVD-R "COPY" of the movie. So apparently they just tried to make a quick copy of the movie on some kind of poor master, and then just kind of copy it like you would home movies and other stuff on your computer. They probably just quick dragged out a copy of the film out of storage and never even bothered trying to do anything to it. Warner Bros. tends to not give films their proper treatment enough on most of the property rights they own. We tend to be fairly hesitant on purchasing anything from Warner Bros. unless we can investigate the release thoroughly and not simply be stuck with a poor copy of something that we can't return.

I'm not sure of all the problems that Warner Bros. runs into when it comes to all the Rankin/Bass productions. The only thing we're sure of is that Warner Bros. has been giving Rankin/Bass grief for many years about residual money they've been owed due to some terrible bookkeeping on Warner Bros. part. Apparently Warner Bros. has been giving Rankin/Bass the legal run around about some major chunks of money that they legally owed Rankin/Bass, and are claiming that Rankin/Bass ran out of legal time to make their claims. But Warner Bros. seemed to have not acted properly and dragged their feet for a long time and never completely gave them all the accounting information that Rankin/Bass needed to investigate. There was slightly sinister accounting practices enacted and kind of hid some of the money that Rankin/Bass was due for a long time. Warner Bros. even admitted that there seemed to be some wrong doing, but that there is nothing they can do about it because it's been so long. For shame on Warner Bros. for not doing the right thing and giving people their rightfully due money, even when it was clearly their own company's fault.

All these problems have also probably resulted in delays and whatnot in releasing everything, and may even result in slightly more delays for the last of the releases yet to be released. I'd honestly be shocked and flabbergasted if they ever released any kind of totally remastered and cleaned up copies with all kinds of extras and commentaries and whatnot of every single Rankin/Bass stop motion animation film in some kind of super set on DVD (let alone Blueray).

Anyway, despite all those DVD copy problems, the film itself has been a favorite of mine from long ago. In fact this one is actually my favorite "film length" one of Rankin/Bass stop motion animation. Why it's been one of the last ones they've even bothered to try and quick crank out on DVD, I don't know. I've owned a copy on VHS for years, but haven't been able to watch it the past few years because the last of our VHS tape players finally bit the dust, so it's just remained a collector piece (that is until the tape itself turns to dust). The other favorite of mine, which is a "short film", is the First Christmas, which also has yet to be released on to DVD. I've never owned a copy of that one, only just a copy of it on VHS which I recorded off of the Family Channel several years back when they first started putting out practically all of the Rankin/Bass christmas specials during their holiday runs.

Here's hoping that Warner Bros. gets a conscience and does the right thing, and also starts to want to do the right thing and give all those Rankin/Bass films the respect they deserve and try and work with Rankin/Bass to maybe even get everything together and clean everything up and get it all out on release at the same time. I know it's a super long shot, and many corporations never seem to get many morals, but you never know what the future holds for a new set of executives that have morals that we all hope get into Warner Bros.

This production was amazing. You can see how far along the AniMagic process has progressed from the time of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. (Don't get me wrong - Rudolph Rocks big time!) It's a great show to watch and own. I bought a region free import a couple of years back, but, the quality wasn't the greatest, especially with today's high tech HD televisions. I'm looking forward to watching the remastered version on DVD, I purchased from Amazon.com. Anyway you look at it,though, this is a tale not to be missed and can be appreciated by all generations... and I'm sure will be appreciated by generations to come! Don't miss out on this DVD. I'm sure it'll show up on those other online auction sites for a whole lot more money than what's listed here. Buy it from Amazon while it's still around! Happy Holidays! :o)

P.S. WELL, I GOT THE DVD AND THE REMASTERING IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! THE PICTURE AND AUDIO, ARE BOTH, VERY CLEAR. IT WAS SO WORTH PURCHASING, AGAIN! GREAT ADDITION TO ANY CHRISTMAS AND/OR RANKIN-BASS DVD COLLECTION!

P.P.S. HERE'S A VALUABLE TIP... BUT THIS DVD BEFORE CHRISTMAS, 'CAUSE IT IS SURE TO SELL OUT BY THEN!!!

If you do not have this film in any other format - go ahead and buy it. However if you own it on VHS, and have either transferred it to DVD yourself or still have a VCR to play it on - there is absolutely NO reason to purchase this. "Life And Adventures Of Santa Claus" has never been released on DVD and this copy looks EXACTLY the same as the one I have at home which was transferred from VHS to DVD by me - watchable but very grainy - the smaller the TV, the less noticeable the grain is. "Nestor" however HAS been released numerous times before on DVD with great picture and sound quality. Why they chose to pair LAAOSC with this, rather than one of the other Rankin/Bass specials that have yet to see the light of day is beyond me. Oh wait, I remember now ... because Warner Bros are a greedy money-hungry company who have zero respect for these shows which rake in tons of Christmas cash year after year and are just trying to milk as money as possible out of them with the most minimal amount of effort. I can see the cause for many other of Warner Bros "Made-On-Demand" titles which have a very limited audience but these shows are very very popular and this is a slap in the face to fans and the show itself. And don't even get me started on how W/B has totally screwed Rankin/Bass out of their much-deserved royalties, hiding behind a shady filekeeping excuse. Sheesh!!

According to the digital Bits web site, Warner Brothers will be releasing "The Life And Times Of Santa Clause" on 10-11-2011 in a new edition as a single program DVD (Pressed ???). As I bought the title when first released, an exclusive DVD-R at there archives web site, I will pass on this next edition. Sadly, there are many more "Rankin-Bass" holiday shows still hoping for the light of day onto DVD. Perhaps one day we may be privleged to own a "Golden" collection of all the Rankin-Bass materials restored, unedited, and in chronological order much like the forthcoming "Tom & Jerry Golden Collection", or as with the previously released (multi-volumed) "Three Stooges Collection". Perhaps a feature film Rankin-Bass catalogue could also be released as a seperate "Golden" series, along side the television specials "Golden" series ? I can't hardly wait for another "NEW-TO-DVD" release of Rankin-Bass shows ...so I can watch & remember all those fun times again...can you wait ???

Have fun :)

Really enjoyed this dvd...children loved it but the adults in the room also thought the dvd was awesome. I would recommend this purchase to everyone....

These are both very good family entertainment. They have often been overlooked, but are worth spending a small portion of time to enjoy Christmas folklore.