Santa Claus in film
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Santa Claus in film |
Motion pictures featuring
Santa Claus' Visit in 1900 featured a scene with two little children kneeling at the feet of their mother and saying their prayers. The mother tucks the children snugly in bed and leaves the room. Santa Claus suddenly appears on the roof, just outside the children's bedroom window, and proceeds to enter the chimney, taking with him his bag of presents and a little hand sled for one of the children. He goes down the chimney and suddenly appears in the children's room through the fireplace. He distributes the presents and mysteriously causes the appearance of a Christmas tree laden with gifts. The scene closes with the children waking up and running to the fireplace just too late to catch him by the legs. A 1909 film by D. W. Griffith titled A Trap for Santa Claus shows children setting a trap to capture Santa Claus as he descends the chimney, but instead capture their father who abandoned them and their mother but tries to burglarize the house after he discovers that she inherited a fortune. A 29-minute 1925 silent film production titled Santa Claus, by explorer/documentarian Frank E. Kleinschmidt, filmed partly in northern Alaska, feature Santa in his workshop, visiting his Eskimo neighbors, and tending his reindeer. A year later, another movie titled Santa Claus was produced with sound on De Forest Phonofilm.[2]
Over the years, various actors have donned the red suit (aside from those discussed below), including Leedham Bantock in Santa Claus (1912), Monty Woolley in Life Begins at Eight-thirty (1942), Alberto Rabagliati in The Christmas That Almost Wasn't (1966), Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places (1983), Jan Rubes in One Magic Christmas (1985), David Huddleston in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), Jonathan Taylor Thomas in I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998), and Ed Asner in The Story of Santa Claus (1996), Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999), Ellen's First Christmas (2001), Elf (2003), Regular Show: The Christmas Special (2012), Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas (2014), Santa Stole Our Dog: A Merry Doggone Christmas!, and A StoryBots Christmas (both 2017).
Santa's origins
Some films about Santa Claus seek to explore his origins. They explain how his reindeer can fly, where the
The 1985 feature film
The 2019 animated Netflix Christmas comedy Klaus, also features its own telling of the origin of Santa. Where Jesper Johansen, the pampered spoiled son of a postmaster general (played by Jason Schwartzman) is sent to the secluded town of Smeerensburg, as their latest postman. There Jesper learns that due to a local family feud, the town’s people hardly have time for anything else, let alone writing or exchanging letters. There he reluctantly teams up with the titular Santa Claus (played by J. K Simmons) who is portrayed as gruff hermit, with a sad past and a skilled hand for woodcarving and toy making. Together, they not only help end the feud in Smeerensburg, but also create one of the most beloved holiday traditions.
Questioning and believing
Another genre of Santa Claus films seeks to dispel doubts about his existence.
- One of the first films of this nature was titled A Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus (1907) and involves a well-to-do boy trying to convince his poorer friend that Santa Claus is real. She doubts because Santa has never visited her family because of their poverty.
- Miracle on 34th Street (1947), starring Natalie Wood as Susan Walker, revolves around the disbelief of young Susan, whose mother (Maureen O'Hara) employs a kind old man (Edmund Gwenn, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) to play Santa Claus at Macy's; he later convinces Susan that he really is Santa.
- One Magic Christmas (1985) depicts Santa as Saint Nicholas, in charge of Christmas angels (deceased people) in lieu of elves, whom he assigns to restore individuals' Christmas spirit. He assigns Gideon (Harry Dean Stanton) to a woman (Mary Steenburgen) who worries too much about the practical side of life and shows little charity. Gideon shows her a potential Christmas in which her husband is killed by a desperate bank robber whom she has neglected to help, and takes her little girl to Santa, who gives her the last letter her mother sent him as a child and tells her to give it to her. This works to restore her spirit and gives her a do-over of Christmas with her husband and the desperate man, and she greets Santa putting presents under her tree.
- The Polar Express (2004), based on the children's book of the same name, also deals with issues and questions of belief as a magical train conducted by Tom Hanks transports a doubting boy to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus.[3]
- New York Sun in 1897 after her friends tell her that there is no Santa. The newspaper editor tells her that indeed there is a Santa: "He lives, and he lives forever." Francis Pharcellus Church was the real-life editor played by Charles Bronsonin the special.
Santa as a hero
Some
In the 1984 film
In the television show
Succession of Santas
One genre of movies suggests that Santa Claus is not historically a single individual but a succession of individuals.
In Ernest Saves Christmas (1988), Ernest P. Worrell (Jim Varney) joins the challenge of Santa Claus, alias Seth Applegate (Douglas Seale), to convince Florida kids' show host Joe Carruthers (Oliver Clark) to become the next Santa.
In The Santa Clause (1994), Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, who accidentally causes Santa Claus to fall off the roof of his house. After he puts on Santa's suit, he finds himself contractually obligated to become the next Santa. Reluctant at first, his appearance changes over the next year from average to the legendary image: he grows fat, his hair whitens, and his beard grows uncontrollably by magic. He ultimately falls in love with his new role.
A 2001 television special, Call Me Claus, stars
In The Hebrew Hammer (2003), the role of Santa Claus is traditionally passed down from father to son. The system is disrupted when the reigning Santa is murdered by his son, Damian, who then uses the position to attack the competing holidays of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
The 2011 animated film Arthur Christmas portrays being Santa Claus as a dynasty. The first "Santa", Saint Nicholas, established the North Pole workshop and passed the title and responsibilities to his son after 70 Christmases, after which his son passed them on to his son, and so on. In the film, the current Santa initially refuses to retire, due to worry about what he will be if he is not Santa.
Impostor Santas
Several films have been created which explore the consequences should an
One of the first films featuring a fake Santa Claus is the 1914 silent film, The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus, written by Frederic Arnold Kummer. In this film, a bogus Santa steals all the Christmas presents and amateur detective Octavius (played by Herbert Yost) tries to recover them.
The most notorious impostor appears in the 1966 cartoon based on Dr. Seuss's 1957 children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, wherein the Grinch, a hairy and mean-tempered creature, attempts to rob the Whos in Whoville of their Christmas by stealing their presents, food and decorations, but has a change of heart when he sees that he has not stopped them from celebrating after all. This animated feature was made into a live-action movie in 2000, directed by Ron Howard and starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch. A CGI feature film was made in 2018, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of the Grinch.
Another less-than-friendly impostor appears in
Another recent devious mall Santa was played by Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa (2003), a film which gained the normally family-friendly Disney "bad press".[5]
In 2002's The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) must leave the North Pole to find a wife, so his number one elf turns a plastic toy Santa into a life-size robot clone of Calvin to cover for him. The robo-Santa interprets the rules of Christmas literally, convinces himself that all of the world's children are naughty, and dresses and runs the North Pole like a Latin American dictator, constructing an army of giant toy soldiers. When Calvin returns with his wife, he must defeat his clone to regain control of Christmas.
In 2006's The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Martin Short appears as Jack Frost, who is jealous of Santa Claus. He usurps the role from Scott Calvin, turns Christmas into "Frostmas" and the North Pole into a Disneyesque tourist resort, and addicts the worlds' children to toys which their parents must buy from him.
In 2007's Fred Claus, Vince Vaughn plays Santa's jealous older brother who grows up hating Santa and Christmas. He cons his brother (Paul Giamatti) into giving him a large sum of money for a business deal, in return for which he must come to the Pole and help prepare for Christmas. Fred ends up sabotaging his brother by placing all the world's naughty children on the nice list. Meanwhile, another Santa-hater (Kevin Spacey) is auditing Santa, looking for excuses to fire him and the elves. When Santa injures his back, Fred must deliver the gifts in order to save Christmas.
Other, darker impostors have appeared in
David Howard Thornton appears as Art the Clown in a Santa Claus suit in a trailer for Terrifier 3, a film that is also set feature Daniel Roebuck as Santa Claus himself.[7]
See also
- Christmas elves in films and television
- Mrs. Claus in popular culture
- List of Christmas films
- Christmas horror
References
- ^ a b c "Flashback Five - Santa Claus's Most Memorable Starring Roles - AMC Movie Blog - AMC". Archived from the original on 2010-12-20. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
- ^ a b "Celluloid Santas". www.factmonster.com.
- ^ "Celluloid Santas". www.factmonster.com.
- ^ "'Violent Night' Screenwriters Dissect 'Die Hard Santa' and Reveal Why Mrs. Claus Didn't Make the Cut". Metacritic.
- ^ "Bad Disney". Archived from the original on January 27, 2007. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
- ^ "Celluloid Santas". www.factmonster.com.
- ^ DiVincenzo, Alex (April 12, 2024). "Daniel Roebuck Has Joined the Cast of 'Terrifier 3'! [Exclusive]". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on April 12, 2024. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
External links
- Media related to Santa Claus in film at Wikimedia Commons
- Works related to Christmas films at Wikisource