The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 300 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA.

This film had great source material! However the makers of this film add and subtract the wrong things. What they get right is the tone. What they do wrong is everything else. They add songs (not a bad idea) however these songs are terrible.

They also dumb down the story because since this is made for small children they break the rule about children's show. The makers of this film think children are too stupid to get the subtext and they dumb down the story and dialog.

Based on the popular book by L. Frank Baum, the beloved author of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," comes "The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus". The story starts off many centuries ago, long before toys had even been invented, a baby abandoned at the edge of an enchanted forest was adopted and raised by a beautiful wood nymph, thus beginning the life story of Santa Claus. From his truly magical childhood through the discovery of his life's work of making children happy, discover the origin of every tradition surrounding Santa Claus!

I hope one day someone with more talent will adapt the book into a full length feature film. If done correctly it would become a classic. This however is barely worth watching.

My son loves this and it is beautifully animated. Unlike the 1985 version of this same story, the angel of death is beautifully unthreatening. Let your kids try it out and you might not mind watching either. To quote my son, "It's kind of cheery watching these Christmas shows."

This version is better for little ones. The original version has a bit of darkness, so it's better to stick to the lighter version without having to worry about a little one's reactions to it.

The characters are still enchanting, and it's a very touching, light movie.

It's also an excellent way to open up a child's mind to the best part of Christmas... To bring happiness to the lives of others. It's a lot like the Pagan holiday Yule, so it's not as focused on religion but the Spirit of the Holiday... TO spend time with those you love in celebration and bring happiness to all, making winter a little brighter.

This is definitely a great movie to get to the heart of Christmas spirit.

(If you love this one, be sure to check out 1985 version.)

This version of The Life and adventures of Santa Claus is a pale, saccharine sweet sham when compared to the supurbly done stop motion animation of the 1985 version of this same story done by Rankin / Bass. This felt cheesy and half-hearted whereas the stop motion animated one has the distinct feel of a classic and was more true to the heart and feel of the old story by L. Frank Baum.

The story is good but it feels dumbed down compared to the stop motion version. A seldom known fact, Baum connected this story to his loved The Wizard of Oz by saying the immortal faeries of this story are the ones who enchanted the land of Oz to begin with.

I watched this on YTV every year I could since they started airing it. I love it and so does my sister. My mom likes to watch it too. It gives that very Christmas-y feel to our home and when it came on the TV, we knew it was Christmas. I haven't seen the original stop motion one and I'm sure I wouldn't like it as much if I did considering that I think all of those movies are very dark and not filled with as much cheer as the animated ones. I know that this version is excellent for both adults and children and that its a very good movie for the Christmas season.

Watch it! =P