Day 18: A Movie About the Big Guy (Archive Post)

Today was a lot of fun.  We did presents this morning and there were several surprises all around.  Mom loved her bluray player and her jewelry case.  Miss and Mr. J enjoyed their presents a lot, as did Dick, mom's man.  I myself was very happy to recieve a Kitchenaid stand mixer, pizza stone, and cookbook along with Avatar and a trivia game.  All in all, it was a very satisfying Christmas 2 of 3, I even used an Amazon.com gift card that mom bought me to get Gone with the Wind on Bluray for a steal.  Miss J forgot to get me one of the presents she had originally intended for me, so she bought it and had it shipped to Dad's...which made me chuckle.  She felt bad, but I told her not to worry.  I was perfectly satisfied with what I had.  When I get home on Monday I plan to use my mixer to make pizza dough for my stone...should be a damn good time.  Anyway, with all that's been happening, its been hard to do more than archive posts these last few days...but tomorrow will be an original.  Until then, enjoy this archive post on Santa Claus: The Movie.
                                                                   
Tonight we are watching a Christmas classic from my childhood.  I can remember watching this all the time growing up...I believe we recorded it from Showtime or HBO or something back when my father believed in paying for cable (now he doesn't even believe in going to the movie theater anymore...not that I blame him) and it kept me believing in Santa Claus probably a lot longer than I should have.  The 1985 film I'm referring to is, of course, Santa Claus: The Movie.  Opening to successful European crowds and decent American box office, the film was considered the next Christmas classic...despite the fact that it got almost universally negative reviews.  Its not hard to believe really, the film (which was produced by the Salkinds, who were behind Superman: The Movie) follows essentially the same structure of Superman did...it begins as an origin story, explaining how Claus and his wife Anya first came to the elves in the North Pole and how they got him into the toy business and then moves into a contemporary tale involving a rouge elf working for an evil toy maker (much like how Superman moved into a contemporary take with a villain and a sinister plan that the hero must start).  The production design reeks of Superman as well (part III anyway) in that it all looks rather cheap and yet bold at the same time.  The adult actors all do credible jobs, with David Huddleson as Santa, Judy Cromwell as Anya, Dudley Moore as Patch, the fallen elf, and John Lithgow as B.Z. the evil toy tycoon.  The child actors are pretty flat though, as is the norm with movies from this time.  Then again, many people maintain that child actors have gotten worse since then (something I disagree with).  Of course, with all this negativity flying around, you'd probably think that I hate the movie now.  I probably should, but I simply can't.  There's something about watching it that makes me happy in the part of me that still houses my inner child and I think it always will.  If I ever have kids, I hope they enjoy this movie as much as I did.  The trailer is attached below...try not to be too hard on it.

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