Customer Reviews

Santa Claus

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Typical manic editing for the dubbed US release, here only given a SEVERELY modest fullscreen (non pan-and-scan) DVD release from Westlake Entertainment(and honestly it seemed to me it was a different 'edit' entirely from the US network television airing of this film I once saw when I was younger... but it could just be my imagination too;).
Still, this version of director Rene Cardona's brilliantly flawed surreal masterpiece is like a Ken Russell Christmas fable. It's metomorphic, yet simple and crude. It has wonderfully bizarre music and set design, as well as beautiful costumes, colors, and lighting (unless this film was originally B&W and I'm not aware). I loved the regional representations of the children, and the awful english dub is obviously a cheesy B-movie fan's lemon or love. I love it.
The print on this DVD is fullscreen and has severe specks and scratches, the picture quality is rough at times... And either a digitally remastered audio track or print has been presented here. It's not really specified on this Westlake Entertainment DVD release. There is NO DTS track, though-- that seems to be incorrectly listed as a feature of this particular 2004 Westlake Ent. DVD release here on Amazoncom.
But it's still worth it to see a goofy gem of an X-Mas film, full of wild ideas and imagery (A TALKING CHILD LOCATOR? YIKES!)--Some of which is very much a precursor to the newer much beloved shows like Pee Wee's Playhouse and HR Puff-N-Stuff (one never knows). Fun film for the whole family in this edited up version for the US audiences. Pitch the devilish demon is harmless pseudo-relgious/spiritual nonsense, while ol' Saint Nick is portrayed like a GOD.
Fun concepts abound, but the dub is BAD. But fun.
Highly recommended, and the DVD has a nice cover that looks almost like a silver-age comic book cover!

Far out in space, but directly over the North Pole, lives Santa Claus in his castle in the clouds. From his majestic home, he oversees the Christmas preparations handled by his team of children from around the world. Though, it seems they spend most of their time performing regional songs in a trance-like state. All seems to be going well this year, until one of Satan's devils, Pitch, is ordered to cause Santa trouble again. As Santa Claus spies on the children below with bizarre gadgets that look to be stolen from Peewee's Playhouse or Sid and Marty Krofft and prepares for his annual journey by gathering supplies from his cohorts, Merlin the wizard and a magical blacksmith, Pitch is busy on the ground teaching children to hate Santa Claus and to steal and vandalize. Pitch focuses his energy on three wicked brothers and a poor little girl named Lupita who is desperate to get a doll for Christmas. Lupita's resistance is unyielding, however, and Santa is determined to reward the unfortunate and tormented child. The three bad little boys, on the other hand, are playing right into Pitch's hands. A fourth little boy is also a subject of concern. The boy is rich, but he's also a good little boy who is neglected by his parents. In order to grant the request in the child's letter, Santa will have to remind the parents how much they love their son, something he does by drugging their drinks while making his rounds with his disturbing, wind-up, albino reindeer that have a vampiric reaction to sunlight. For the most part, though, it's all an epic battle of wits between Santa and Pitch, on which the fate of Christmas all depends!

In 1959, the world of cult-film was given a magical Christmas gift in the form of "Santa Claus," a Mexican film by director Rene Cardona. This brightly colored, completely backwards story of Santa vs. Satan has got to be one of the most bizarre films I have ever seen, surely produced by some sort of "Church of Santa Claus." Despite its utter weirdness, though, it is a highly enjoyable annual experience. People often talk about "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians," a film I have yet to get around to seeing, but I can't imagine it holding a candle to this wonderful travesty. Truth be told, I'm sure this "children's film" would succeed in giving many children nightmares, but for the adult who gets a kick out of the occasional bizarre film, this is one for the library! Santa is downright creepy with his inappropriate laughing fits and the odd faces he makes as he plays his organ for the child laborers he uses instead of elves. And, since when does Santa live in heaven and battle Satan? More importantly though, what's up with those freaky toy reindeer that turn to dust if the sunlight hits them? "Santa Claus," despite being badly dubbed (and, according to various sources, badly edited for the dubbed version) and having plenty of print scratches and flaws, is a must have for the collector of Christmas or bizarre DVDs. To put it plainly, this film is a trip!

As a kid, I saw this film every Christmas at kiddie matinees. It was a tradition, even though it's as dizzying an experience as other movies that bent my young brain from "The Wizard of Oz" to "The Birds". As an adult, I'd mostly forgotten the film until the video generation. No company bothered to release this on VHS, but somehow I found a copy in the $3 bins one Christmas. The VHS tape was recorded at the 6-hour speed, tracking errors from start to finish, drop-outs from cheap manufacturing, etc. It actually put my VCR at risk to even play the tape! But that's ancient history, since we've reached the digital age.

I fully expected to buy 5 or 6 copies of this film before finding a satisfactory copy. The only other edition I own is a lo-fi off-the-air treatment on MST3K. This is the first appearance I have found on DVD, so my expectations were very low (due in part to my endless cynicism earned over the years.) The print is not restored -- and frankly, it's doubtful any historian will ever bother to restore this baby -- but it's still very nice considering the origins and what can usually be expected. No extras or anything like that, which is fine. I don't need filler that I will watch once, if that. The more space available on the disc for the movie itself, the higher the bitrate can be expected. The print is spotty in places, but mostly clean, the brightness and contrast look fine, and the color saturation is bold while never resorting to being hot and muddy.

You can read reviews on the film itself all over the web, I'm just letting you know that for an obscure treasure like this, it's a safe purchase. And the film will likely captivate the younger modern kids still.

By far one one of the best "so bad it's good" movies ever made. I recall this movie as a child - it creeped me out back then in the dark movie theater and it tickles me silly now as an adult. For the lest two years we've played it without sound as background for our Christmas bashes. Always a hit. I can't recommend watching this enough - make sure it's with a bunch of friends and a few bottles of wine.

I, like many who had seen this movie as a child was scared of it. I saw this movie when I was 4-1/2 yrs. old, now I'm 55-1/2 yrs. young.
I've always remembered bits and pieces of this movie. I (in most of my adult life ) always wanted to find this movie. Well, I finally found it and I think the "Devil" in it is funny and not as scary.
It was never "Oscar" material. It has some bad acting, but in general it is a good movie.

"Santa Claus" is perhaps best known as a wonderful season five episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," and I certainly do recommend the MST3K version; this is the original dubbed into English. This film is a hilariously campy and surreal look at Christmas that serves to fill in lots of previously unknown facts about the jolly man in red. Did you know, for instance, that Santa's headquarters floats in the clouds above the North Pole? (Who lives in the other two castles we see floating nearby?) Did you know that Santa (José Elías Moreno) employs a multinational group of child laborers in his workshop? (Perhaps the elves' union wanted wages that were simply too high so their jobs got outsourced.) Most importantly, did you know that Santa had a vast intelligence gathering organization that helps him battle the devil and his minions directly? Here Satan sends Pitch (José Luis Aguirre,) the comic relief devil to battle Santa largely over a trio of Mexican boys and a relentlessly cute little girl, Lupita (Lupita Quezadas.) Lupita resists evil by not stealing a doll, but the boys give in to their baser instincts and devise a variety of ridiculous plans to interfere with Santa. There's also a story of the importance of parental love, which Santa is able to induce in the life of a rich boy by impersonating a waiter and making his parents a cocktail that apparently contains dry ice.

If all this makes you go "Huh?" you are not alone. Santa's creepy mechanical reindeer (which laugh maniacally and turn to dust if they stay out too late,) the ultra-creepy dance of the two-faced dolls (mostly edited from the MST3K version,) the dance of the devils, and a guest appearance by Merlin the Magician (Armando Arriola) who is allied with Santa in the fight against good and evil will ensure you rapidly progress from "Huh?" to "What the...?!?" All this is secondary to my very favorite feature of the film, and that's the singing. Santa himself sings occasionally, and the scene of him singing as if he was possessed during the sleigh loading procedure is priceless. Despite Santa's badly dubbed songstering, the most entertaining thing in the movie is in the first ten minutes of the film when Santa introduces different nationalities of children helping him in his "international toy factory." The kids sing a song (or do a dance) somehow vaguely connected with their ethnicity or nationality with astounding and mesmerizing effect. I was particularly amused by the entries from China and the U.S.A., but the entry from Japan is in a league by itself for harmonic discord and features a note previously undiscovered by musical historians (you'll see why.)

I love this movie: it has horrible production values, is terribly dubbed, features lots of strange gadgets (I particularly like the eyeball on an extendible stalk and the ear on an oscillating fan,) and has one of the most bizarre plots of any movie ever, and is neck-and-neck with "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" (also highly recommended) for weirdest Christmas movie in history. The acting is terrible, the performances are truly over the top (especially from Pitch and Santa,) but this copy has beautiful color (far better than the MST3K print) and could not be more fun to watch. I highly recommend "Santa Claus" for fans of B-movies of any generation. Make watching it a Christmas tradition!

Consider me disappointed. "Santa Claus" had a awesomely stupid premise built for all sorts of amusement: Santa Claus lives in a castle from outer space, his minions are little multicultural children (he mostly captured against their will), he's fighting against Satan, and Satan's minion named Pitch has to making kids do bad things or else he'll be forced to eat ice cream. Those scream the attention of it's-so-bad-it's-good, but after trying to stay awake for an hour an a half, it's really so bad, it's boring.

When it's not boring, the movie can be very peculiar. And by peculiar, I mean 'scary the heck out of little kids'. The design of the movie is so bizarre: the castle had a computer with very suggestive lips, Santa can peeve into children's minds using a dream device ("Eternal Sunshine" and "Inception", be damned), he rides toy reindeer that eerily laugh, and at one point of the movie, there's a dream sequence where the poor little girl is surround by life-size dancing ragdolls with faces in the front and back of their heads; why not add a "Silent Hill" score to play in that sequence while it's at it? It's so appalling to watch, yet amazing all the same. It definitely has a creative spark in its design, I'll give it that for positive terms.

Although the concept of Santa Claus fending off hell's minions seems high, in reality, it's the working day at St. Nick's workshop. He read letters, asked a merlin to use his science to make magical contraptions, listen to legal advice from his minions, prepared to travel around the world, all at a very lengthy arduous pace. When the film began by introduced Santa's helpers from multiple countries, it took SEVEN MINUTES to introduce each nation of the group, including a non-existent middle-eastern country called 'Orient'. Nevermind that their singing national tunes that have nothing to do with the holiday, why did that sequence have to be this long? It could've been shorten to one minute, and that would be enough to cover the entire yuletide united nations. This movie is padded by its own expositions, so much so that there's not much of a conflict between St. Nick and Pitch. Even when there is, Pitch's actions are nothing more than goofy pranks (pushing the chimney, heating a doorknob); if I was the king of the underworld, I would tell Pitch to stab Santa, burn him in front of the lives of children, and then eat him. Oogie Boogie is a bigger threat to Christmas than this lowly villain.

I really wish "Santa Claus" could've done more with the idea. This might be asking too much for a B-movie, but if it's a B-movie, I expect campy goodness even if it's unintentional. The slow pacing and uneventful drivel make this a drowsy viewing; I wouldn't be surprise if kids fall asleep watching this, which is probably the movie's intended audience. Still, it's better than "Surviving Christmas".

This was a very different kind of movie.Something diffrent than the same old christmas tale.Enjoyed it and glad to have it in my collection.

Okay, I'll admit, I haven't seen too many movies about Santa, but out of the ones I have seen, this Mexican version is by far my favorite.

The first 20 minutes or so of the film are drowned in politically correct boredom, where all of the countries of the world receive special recognition, reminding you why you never want to attend a graduation ceremony if at all possible.

But the film picks up soon afterward. We discover that Lucifer doesn't want Santa to have a successful Christmas this year, so he choses Pitch (one of his devils) to be in charge of wrecking Santa's trip.

Pitch figures: Why stop there? Why not spread evil in other ways as well? So he attempts to get a little girl named Lupita to steal a doll. She refuses because she wants to be good, so Pitch finds three other boys to tempt. He gets them to throw rocks at a store window, and when Santa sees this through his weird talking-telescope he ain't happy.

When Christmas Eve comes, Santa winds up his laughing mechanical reindeer and flies his sleigh down to Earth. You see, he actually lives in outer space, ABOVE the North Pole. Pitch gives Santa all kinds of problems, stealing his sleeping powder and his "flower to disappear." As a result, a viscious dog chases Santa up a tree, cornering him. So Santa has to call on Merlin the magician for help.

Because of all the problems Pitch causes, Santa is only able to visit Mexico City, and by my count he was able to make four different households. Yet the movie implies his trip was a success, and so everyone's happy at the end, and Little Girl Lupita gets the doll she wanted after all.

i wanted it in spanish, the orginal language... the only thing i can enjoy are the singing parts where they didnt dubb it... if you are looking for the movie in its original Spanish format, dont buy this