Customer Reviews

The Year Without a Santa Claus

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

The original version of The Year Without a Santa Claus may not have been one of the very best Christmas classics. It must not have been terribly popular -- given that it took quite a while to come out on DVD, and was packaged with a couple of other obscure holiday titles when it was eventually released. Still, it deserved better than this remake.

John Goodman as Santa was about the only good casting choice. Some (Delta Burke) others are okay. Others (Chris Kattan -- "Mango" as an elf?) are just awful.

Jack LaLanne plays a retired Hercules. He and some other non-Christmas-related mythical figures appear in the movie. Maybe it was an homage to The Santa Clause, which featured the mythological characters such as the Tooth Fairy.

Carol Kane (the abusive Ghost of Christmas Present from Scrooged -- "the b**** hit me with a toaster") plays Mother Nature, and does basically the same character. She abuses Heat Miser, Cold Miser, and Chris Kattan's elf character in the same way she abused Bill Murray's character in Scrooged. Come to think of it, maybe that was an odd homage.

Examples of "updates" to the plot and lines, from my notes hastily scribbled during the show:

* The plucky mayor of Southtown is faced with a couple of slick salesmen trying to sell a big retail center (read: WalMart or large mall) in the town, but refuses them because "this town has a history" (the shysters' reply: "ghost towns have histories, too"). The town must hold a Christmas festival to raise money for their "endowment," so that they don't have to let the retail center into town. ("Hollywood has no agenda," part 1)

* In the remake, Iggy is the neglected child of the too-busy Mayor. In the original, Iggy had a non-dysfunctional family and the mayor was unrelated. In the original, the snow in Southtown is for the sake of convincing the Mayor of the elves' sincerity; in the remake the snow is intended to shut down the town so that the Mayor will have to spend time with his son. ("Hollywood has no agenda," part 2)

* Jingle: "What are we doing here?" Jangle: "It's a school; it's where kids hang out. Don't you watch South Park?"

* Heat Miser (attacking Cold Miser): "How's that for Shock and Awe?"

* In the original, Heat Miser and Cold Miser's "minions" were smaller versions of themselves. In the remake, they're scantily clad dancers.

* In the remake, Jingle and Jangle end up in an arcade playing, among other things, Dance Dance Revolution Extreme. The elves can break the laws of physics -- jump high a la The Matrix, get astoundingly good scores on video games. In the original, they were lost and stuck, but in the remake their super-powers make it harder to believe that their predicament is dire.

* Heat Miser vs. Cold Miser in a boxing match.

* Instead of Mrs. Claus going to Cold Miser for help, Santa Claus confronts the Miser Brothers over shooting down his elves. Instead of going to Mother Nature as a last resort, Santa summons her into the boxing ring to deal with her problem children.

* When Santa goes to pick up Vixen from the dog pound... Santa: "I remember you from when you were young." Dogcatcher: "I'm still waiting for that BB gun, Santa." Santa: "You'll shoot your eye out." (An homage to A Christmas Story?)

General thoughts about the remake:

* The original plot is essentially gone. In the original, Santa proves he is real by making it snow in Southtown. The Mayor declares Christmas a holiday for Santa -- sanctioning him to skip Christmas deliveries for a year, as he wished to do. All the kids around the world send letters and presents to Santa, reversing the usual pattern. Santa is moved to not skip Christmas by this outpouring of Christmas spirit. In the remake, Santa is moved by the mention of how the kids in the homeless shelter will miss him. ("Hollywood has no agenda," part 3). Christmas spirit as a motivation is replaced by guilt.

* The second-best song from the original ("So You're Too Old For Santa Claus") is missing from the remake. The best original song ("Heat Miser / Cold Miser") is butchered. The best "borrowed" song (Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas") is missing as well.

* In the remake, Chris Kattan's elf character tries to take over Christmas delivery, in the absence of Santa ("Sparky was my slave name; I'm Extreme Santa now"). He's the head elf -- "the CEO" of the toy-making company. But he is picketed by several elves who demand the real Santa make the deliveries, and then threatens to fire all elves who don't cooperate with him. ("Hollywood has no agenda," part 4). Apparently the remake is not "The Year Without A Santa Claus" so much as "The Year With A Substitute Evil Elf Santa Claus." I wonder why they didn't go with that more honest title.

Who could have read this script and believed it was a good idea to get involved with this project? It was available on DVD within days of being broadcast.

Maybe I'm approaching it with the wrong attitude, and this was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek romp with homages to several different Christmas specials. But why sully the memory of the original by taking its title, and then not even having an actual year without a Santa Claus as the plot?

My recommendation: if you're looking for a DVD, buy the original version The Year Without a Santa Claus / Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey / Rudolph's Shiny New Year instead, it's a fraction of the cost (as of the time of this writing) and about a thousand times better. If you just want to listen to the Heat Miser / Cold Miser song, check out Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's version on the album Everything You Want for Christmas.

I went into this with high hopes, as I'm sure did many who grew up with the stop-motion original. But what a bitter disappointment. The tone was COMPLETELY wrong. I was hoping for something that would recapture some of the joy and innocence that the Christmas season can hold, but this film most certainly did not. The entire opening was very unpleasant in the extreme, with an adult, bitter, cynical tone. (If anyone wanted to know why Santa became disillusioned with the Christmas season, well, he probably watched this film!)

Also, with the first few minutes of the film featuring a very brief (but vivid) clip of a video game in which a character is decapitated amid buckets of blood, and a fellow singing a song all about how "Santa Sucks," I really don't think this film is appropriate for very young viewers---which SHOULD have been the target audience, for goodness sake. As for the bikini-clad dancers in the Heat Miser musical number----well, this isn't the sort of charming fare that brings the feeling of Christmas to the heart.

Again, I'm very, very disappointed. With the wonders that can be worked with modern visual effects, this could have been a totally magical story. Something that kids and adults alike could enjoy---but the tone seemed totally misdirected. I can't imagine ever wanting to watch this again.

Make no mistake we are in "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" territory here. This is about as bad as Christmas movies get. I don't know where to start. Th bad CGI effects, the sets that look like they were built for a middle school play or John Goodman playing "Jolly Old St. Nick" like a grumpy coke addict going through detox. Just say no!!

A charmless live-action remake that is a waste of time. From the lackluster opening credits (really, they couldn't have done better than that?) to the unfunny attempts to be hip to a wasted cast (Delta honey, wake up, the cameras are rolling!), this TV-movie blows colder than the North Wind.

The worst thing this remake does is to fill the movie with all kinds of contemporary references and jokes. This will date the movie forever and will not allow it to age well although considering the DVD is available the day after the network broadcast, the powers that be seem to be hoping this will become a quick buy. Don't bother. And I find it ironic that Santa is horrified by all the new violent video games and toys out there when these are the types of gifts real kids will be wanting this year. A Christmas special really isn't isn't going to change anybody's mind.

One of the dumber moves is to have a scene where characters watch snippets of old movies/specials that feature Christmas such as "Auntie Mame" and the original "Year Without a Santa Claus." This comparison only shows how bad this new special looks. Do yourself a favor and buy those movies instead and skip this one.

I love the animated version of this and when I saw there was a live-action one I thought, "hey--John Goodman, Michael McKean, Harvey Fierstein, how bad can it be?" Really, really bad. When puppets from the early 70s have more charisma than the actors do, something is really wrong with your movie. This could have been good but it never quite figures out if it wants to be an homage, a parody, or a "hip" update. Between that and Chris Kattan chewing up all the scenery--just spend your money on the original.

Ok, recently I watched the original "The Year Without a Santa Claus". Unfortunately, it was just too dated (it was made in 1974), and it wasn't like what my memory thought it was. Well, that's OK, even tho it was good fun then, not all things age well. If you do watch it, just skip to the Heat Miser/Snow Miser song part (still great) and just remember it fondly.

So yes, despite it's original greatness, maybe it was time for a re-make. Hey, John Goodman looks to be great casting, right? Sure, I saw the bad reviews but thought it was likely just "bad to the point of being campy good fun" bad. Like maybe "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" or The Star Wars Christmas Special. Not so.

Now, you guys know I don't like to write bad reviews. Well, this is one of the rare exceptions.

It was "bad to the point of being soul-destroying, mind-numbing, stomach-churning" BAD. It was so horrible that for a while my mind could not even order my fingers to hit "fast forward". Every copy of this travesty should be destroyed, every one involved in it should have their stars jimmied out of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and their SAG cards burned in Effigy (which is a small town right outside Salem). The Producers should be have a sprig of holly hammered through their hearts- which should be a nice trick, since I doubt if you could find them, being smaller than the smallest Grinch heart.

John Goodman plays this as if he had a shotgun aimed at him, forcing him to read his lines- whilst meanwhile going through a very bad day of coffee withdrawal.

Even the "Heat Miser" song is almost ruined. I admit the scantily clad dancers did distract me for a minute.

I found one thing interesting- a "ad" for Goth doll, and oddly there's a doll almost exactly like that flying off the shelves even as I type this.

Please, for the sake of Jolly Old St Nick and your sanity- do not watch this. I did -so you don't have to.

The Year Without a Santa Claus has been my favorite Christmas movie since I was a little girl. When I heard they were doing a live action version, I'll admit I didn't expect greatness. I thought it might be laughably bad, maybe a cute homage to the original, but that was it. Instead what I got was a movie so completely awful that I couldn't finish watching it. The flaws in the first half hour were too numerous to count, but the one thing that I consider to be the absolute worst was the way Iggy's father is represented. In the original movie he's a nice man, a good father, and he still believes in Santa Claus. In this version he's neglectful and more or less a jerk. It was around that part when I decided that I had better things to do.

Do yourself a favor and just watch the original.

A remake of this Rankin/Bass classic was finally made using an idea that I suggested over 5 years ago in an Amazon review (see my review from 2000 under the original Rankin Bass title). In my original review I suggested John Goodman as Heat Miser but then thought Danny DeVito would be better.
It's obvious this one was on a very tight budget and probably a tight deadline to get completed. (Production started in July of 2006).

Beyond the cheese factor, the real problems with this project involve some of the casting. Ironically, in this new 2006 live action remake, John Goodman is Santa Claus ... He was cast adequately. He plays a Santa that even adults can believe in and Delta Burke is also cast well as his cherubic Mrs Claus.

Chris Kattan of SNL fame plays supporting role and through most of the movie, he seems to be suffering from a bad case of conjunctivitis (pink eye) that is annoyingly attemped to be hidden by camera angles, lighting, props and motion. It turns out to be a very distracting part of the movie. He plays a good Mango (old SNL character) but this character just doesn't work for him.

Carol Kane plays a freakily scary Mother Nature but then again I can't imagine Carol Kane playing any normal role, so that one works with her. Although Michael McKean and Harvey Fierstein do ok as the Miser brothers, Jack Nicholson and Danny Devito would have ROCKED in those roles and turned this live action project into blockbuster that people would have gone to the movies to see. In this remake, the replacements for the little mini misers were ok, (I won't spoil it for ya, you'll have to just check it out), but I think using dwarf actors like the Oompah Loompahs in Willy Wonka would have worked better. Besides dwarf actors need work too. I hope they have a union.

Some other cameos by fitness guru, Jack Lalanne and a few others don't seem to add much to this miscast mess.

..anyway this adaptation adds a few modern elements to the old classic without losing the real message of Christmas that the original conveyed. I'm sure Rankin/Bass would have it no other way. The sets and new costumes were a bit hokey but worked ok, and a few scenes are worth a chuckle or two. It's a remake the kids and some adults will enjoy but I hope it gets remade again in a few years with the proper casting.

This movie, could have .. and should have been much better.

If it was possible to give this a negative star rating I would do it. It is difficult not to compare this with the original animated special but even standing on its own it was just terrible. Mrs. Clause is supposed to be the driving force behind this story but is assigned to the roll of semi-frustrated camera takes. Santa is a hot tempered jerk. Both Miser brothers were just unlikable (though Michael McKean was better than Firestein) and ALL of the elves were annoying. Nothing funny here, nothing cute, nothing genuinely touching, poorly acted, poorly written, bad special effects, etc etc.

The attempt here was to modernize the story, including a new character, 'sparky', player by Katan with typical Katan creepiness, as the requisite villain who tries to supplant Santa while pretending to be a loyal employee. Obviously the producers felt that adventure; problem solving and lessons about the season were not enough and added a 'bad guy' to defeat.

The little 'miserlings' who accompany the Miser Brothers in the original have been replaced by dancing girls in metallic bikinis (ok, that part isn't so bad :)).

Overall this was a poorly conceived and executed piece that accomplishes less in two hour than the original did in 40 minutes. Stick with the original.

When I watched on dvd this time I found it better than watching it on television years ago when it first came out.