Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Really Surprised!

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Great special effects in some scenes, especially for its time but BORING AS HELL overall!a very fine start for the first 10 or so minutes but then as if everybody from the director to the actors (to even the crew behind the scenes AND the producers?!) is no longer in the mood, the aura just fails to be enchanting as expected and unless it's been intended for certain types of children with a very cliche taste on the topic of Christmas, elves and Santa Clause, it's not the type of show that would keep a grown up interested in fantasy stories awake to watch the entire thing to the very end ... (or maybe it's because i watched it late at night on a relatively too warm SoCal mid-July summer night?)quoting one of the movie's own much repeated quotes by one of the little elves, this show is not "elf-confident" enough! ;-)again, yes, loved some (but not all) of the special effects (and i may want to obtain a high quality DVD copy of this movie for JUST that) but i'm not surprised this otherwise nice movie failed in the box office!

Tonight marks the first time I've seen "Santa Claus: The Movie" in just about 30 years and it brought back a few memories. And as an adult, there's a lot to like about this; good sets. great special effects, David Huddleston puts out just the right genial vibe. I could see a lot of "Superman: The Movie" in this, it's such a white bread and apple pie origin story. But the pacing's off. There are long plodding stretches of flatness while most of the action's kicked to the very end. You've gotta give Jon Lithgow credit for chomping the scenery and I really don't have any serious gripes with this movie. Its heart is in the right place, but it could've used a nit more of a pulse.6/10

Santa Claus is a decent movie with a reasonably well developed storyline and a talented cast, although no one ever gets to show their full potential as an actor. It certainly has good moments and is a very nice Christmas movie that is very strong with the spirit of the season, it is certainly a lot of fun for anyone under the age of ten. The highlight of the entire film for me was John Lithgow, who I believe steals every scene as the villain B.Z., he's ruthless and completely unlikeable, it's an exaggerated performance that easily could have been hurrendous, but Lithgow made it work. My main problem with the film is that the story never really goes anywhere, it's almost two hours long and the adventure only really kicks off at about 75 minutes in, and is resolved by minute 95, the conflict is small and very simple, we never actually lose hope and feel as if the hero may not succeed. Every single character lacks depth or proper arch, none of them are established, not even the title character, we know very little about him before he is made become the Father of Christmas, and Patch the elf is poorly written, despite a good performance from Dudley Moore, the character starts out normal, eventually becomes evil for unknown reasons, and randomly becomes good again, it made little sense to be and it was clear he was just a poorly developed character. It's worth a look if you see it on television, but Santa Claus is definitely not a movie I would insist on watching every Christmas, and you shouldn't go out of your way to see it. A woodcutter soon becomes Santa Claus and must save Christmas from an evil toy manufacturer. Best Performance: John Lithgow

The first half of this film, set hundreds of years ago, shows how the old man who eventually became Santa Claus was given immortality and chosen to deliver toys to all the children of the world. The second half moves into the modern era, in which Patch (Dudley Moore), the head elf, strikes out on his own and falls in with an evil toy manufacturer (John Lithgow) who wants to corner the market and eliminate Santa Claus.This long plot summary really gets to the heart of the problem: this is two movies disguised as one. As much as I like seeing John Lithgow as a bad guy, it just never makes complete sense. We either have the story of Santa (as the title suggests) or we have Santa versus a corrupt and naughty toy maker. We cannot have both, and yet we do.That being said... no recommendation. This is not a lost Christmas classic by any means.