A Director's Cut was released on Blu-ray in 2023 by Synapse Films. When the original version was made in 2013, several scenes were cut in order to release the film by Christmas. After the release, these scenes were animated and re-inserted into the film. This dramatically changed the pacing, so the whole film was re-edited. Some scenes and shots from the original version were removed. Many shots in the original version had floating pixels, wrong/missing expressions, and other mistakes. Other shots were rushed and didn't have as much movement or detail as intended. These were re-animated for the Director's Cut. Full list of changes:
-New Burnt Reindeer Films Logo
-1:01 - New Main Title. Audio was added to match the new animation
-1:16-6:40 - extra movement added to Santa throughout
-7:44-7:55 - shadows in background that Santa walks through changed from transparent to pure black (transparency revealed animation that was supposed to be hidden)
-16:23-22:10 -Floating pixels removed throughout, Bunny mouths and expressions re-animated to match dialogue
-22:05-29:36 - scene cut from the original script that was animated and put back in the film
-39:44-41:10 - movement added to numerous shots where Santa was static to match existing shots
-41:11-57:56 - major changes throughout this entire section. Multiple scenes and shots were removed. Scenes were trimmed. Shots of b-roll were replaced or cut entirely. Scenes were re-ordered through intercutting. The overall pace was sped up considerably.
-42:28-43:15 - scene cut from the original script that was animated and put back in the film
-43:32-44:15 - scene cut from the original script that was animated and put back in the film
-47:39-47:42 - shots of Santa re-animated to add body movement
-57:08-57:09 - closed mouth replaced with open one
-59:00-59:34 - old scene cut, new scene animated using old scene's dialogue
-1:01:56 - Santa was missing mouth, added one
-1:06:34-1:07:15 - scene moved from 1:14:27 to indicate passage of time
-1:06:50-1:07:05 - shots re-animated to remove floating pixels
-1:13:21-1:13:36 - shots re-animated to remove registration dashes from Martha's neck
-1:15:04-1:15:25 - shots re-animated to remove floating pixels
-1:16:06 - profile shot of sleigh removed
-1:16:11-1:16:15 and 1:20:53-1:20:54 - glow in sleigh's right jet was not attached in previous version. It was re-attached.
-1:21:05-1:24:08 - numerous flying and action shots were cut
-1:30:09-1:30-10 - Santa's expression fixed to match emotion
-1:31:37 - overhead shot cut
-1:33:58-1:34:00 - all character movement re-animated to add subtlety
-End credits redone to fix a compositing error
-Post-credit scene added
