Review of Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970) by Trevor M — 19 Dec 2013

With great songs, better acting than its stylistic predecessors, and the best Santa origins story this side of the North Pole, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is the king of all things Santa Claus. This is also the only Christmas movie with a correct view on Santa, making this the way you want your kids to be first exposed to the jolly man in the red suit.

- Details Breakdown -.

The Good: This is THE most welcome relief from the modern Christmas movie and Santa story ever created. While there are other things about this movie that are great and that make it a Christmas classic, the way in which it handles the story of Santa is unparallelled and deserves a gold medal for Best Portrayal of Santa Ever. In a genre full of movies focused so much on the importance of believing in Santa and worshiping him as the god of Christmastime, the fact that this movie sets out to tell a genuine story about Santa and does it so well is an absolute joy. I am a firm believer that lying to children and forcing them to believe and essentially worship a fictional character based off a story of a regular man is a horrible, horrible thing to do and just sets kids up to not believe in anything ever again once they learn they were lied to. Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is a story about a regular man who did his best to change the world and make it a better place and how his MEMORY should be remembered and the point of Santa is to make people understand the importance and joy of giving and real happiness. Khris Kringle just loves people and wants to do his best to make them happy whenever he can since the world is full of so much sadness and that is the point of remembering the story of Santa. This movie explains the story in great detail while also being very respectful. The moral standards of this movie are almost shocking, with warlocks learning to pray, Kris getting married "in the woods and before God" and Kris even mentioning that he wants to spread the love of God through giving away toys. The religious aspects are not focused on too much, which is good because they would be a bit out of place if they were, but the subtle bits that are put in there make the story feel more honest and genuine. This is the story of Santa everyone should want their kids to be brought up with. There's no "believing" in Santa, just remembering what he stood for. Moving on from my soap box on this matter, the quality of work in this movie is far better than that of the other movies in the same Christmas special set since it has much better actors and higher production value. There are really only a handful of movies done in the style that Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is and so the style itself makes the movie memorable and unique.

The Bad: Some of the voice acting is shotty and cheesy. The role of Jessica is annoying at times, especially when they have her sing and she goes into this weird psychedelic music number that is downright confusing. The character of the penguin is a bit annoying as well since it honks to talk, although thankful it is not a big character in the story. There are some slow parts in the movie that should definitely be cut or sped up. In a movie under 60 minutes, having spaces that drag is even more noticeable than in a regular feature.