Customer Reviews

The Secret World of Santa Claus, Vol. 1

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These DVD's are the Americanized version of a French animated series. There are 24 regular episodes and one special two-part expisode (one for every day in December through Christmas). The series is intended to ask the question 'What does Santa Claus do the other 364 days?' The answer is that he has adventures with his elves trying to find the perfect presents for good girls and boys around the world. Often his adventures take him into the real world, but sometimes he has adventures in places that are full of magic as well. The stories are really very clever. I particularly like the one where young Leon leads a semi-political movement against Santa Claus telling all the kids that Santa is just a trick by parents to make them be good. Leon's anti-Santa meetings look like mini-Nuremburg rallys.

I taped a bunch of these shows when they appeared on the old Family Channel. Everyone liked them so much that I bought all 7 disks when they came out last Christmas. The Disks are far superior to the video cassettes that were released a few years back. My children watch them year round.

This is from a television series from some time back. The animation company that made these is responsible for many other terrific children's programs including Franklin, Little Bear, Redwall, George Shrinks, Rupert, and many more. HTey are known for good animation coupled with good scripts and good voice acting. In this enjoyable series, we follow the secret adventures of Santa Claus at home and abroad. Not so much what he does at Christmas, but what happens all year long as he and his helpers prepare for Christmas. I saw these on the family channel long ago and was glad to find them on DVD.
In one episode a special giant pearl that is the the key to Santa's power must be retrieved from the bottom of the sea. In another episode, Santa must pass some tests to prove he is still worthy to be Santa Claus. In another episode someone leads a rebellion of a sort against Santa. In the last, Rudolph needs help.
This good deal includes 4 half hour episodes on 1 DVD. There are 3 volumes in the series as I recall. The animation is very high qualitly, will keep the kids busy and adults will enjoy it too.
The episodes on the DVD in order are:
The Magic Pearl
The Twelve Labors Of Santa Claus
Little Geniuses
Rudolph Is Missing