Must Be Santa

I will be the first to admit that this movie is a little hokey at times, but it is a very heart-warming and entertaining family movie.

I highly recommend it for family viewing. Family movies are rare nowadays and when a good one comes along it is really a joy.

When the reigning Santa is no longer fit for duty his helpers must search for a replacement. This leads to a wacky, exhausting hunt and doesn't turn up exactly what Santa's angels hoped for. To make matters worse still, "Santy" winds up being just this side of totally undesirable. This is the worst Christmas tale I've seen yet, and I had no trouble spotting the shameless subliminals. The producers could have picked another genre to promote their silly assed agendas.

A black Santa? And a petty thief, at that? That's the premise of this silly TV movie, as the current Santa dies on-screen (say what?) and a new Santa must be found. Dabney Coleman leads the search. They come up with Arnold Pinnock, the above-mentioned petty thief who has about as much interest in being Santa as the Easter Bunny. Pinnock does his best Orlando Jones imitation while Coleman clearly is just picking up a paycheck. A gal, Deanna Milligan, who vaguely reminded me of Penelope Ann Miller from CARLITO'S WAY plays Coleman's second in command. At least she provided some eye candy. For reasons best known to the filmmakers, Joe Flaherty pops up as Count Floyd from the old Canadian show, SCTV. I would have preferred watching 90 minutes of Count Floyd.

This is one of mine and my daughters favorite CHRISTMAS movie from her childhood. She's 31 now with 3 children of her own. I'm a very BLESSED & PROUD NANA! We are both very disappointed 😥 that her children will never be able to see MUST BE SANTA, since we haven't been able to find it on a DVD anywhere, including the Internet. This makes me very sad 😔 😭😭, because I LOVE 😍 the movie so very much!!

I was tempted to give this only four stars, but I added a fifth because it was an unusual presentation.

The photography and visual effects are great and Brad Turner, who seems to have done a lot of Sci-Fi TV and Species III, did a good job directing, even if we didn't always know where it was going.

But, maybe that was Douglas Bowie's story, which was certainly an unusual approach to a Santa story. There was a lot of religious symbolism evident in the film. The whole idea of Santa being a "regular Joe" and Santa at the same time is reflective of the divinity of Jesus, a man/god thing. There was also a lot of redemption in the story. This was all framed with Christmas music that was more religious than secular.

Not only is the basic story unusual, but the idea of an Africa-American Santa (Arnold Pinnock), who falls in love with an angel (the lovely Deanna Milligan) is also different. Dabney Coleman was around to provide comic relief.

Miligan made this a pleasant experience even if it was so unusual that I could not completely enjoy it. Maybe they were afraid to push too hard with the elements that were taken from The Santa Clause.