Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (TV special)
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Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a 1970 stop motion television movie, made by Rankin-Bass. The film is one of their well-known Christmas television specials which include Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The film stars actor Fred Astaire as S.D. Kluger, the narrator, and Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle/Santa Claus (a role which he would frequently play later on). The film tells the story of how Santa Claus and several Claus-related Christmas traditions came to be. It is based on the Christmas hit of the same name, which was introduced on radio by Eddie Cantor in 1934.
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[edit] Plot
At the start of the film, we are introduced to Special Delivery Kluger (Astaire), a mail carrier. His mailtruck breaks down, so he begins to tell the story of Santa Claus, in order to answer children's letters to Santa. It is here, that the story begins.
[edit] Baby Claus
The story begins in a small town called Sombertown, which is ruled by Burgermeister Meisterburger (voice: Paul Frees) (usually referred to simply as "The Burgermeister"). A baby arrives on his doorstep, with nothing more than a name tag that reads: "Claus". The Burgermeister orders his right-hand man, Grimsby (also voiced by Frees) to take the baby to the "Orphan Asylum". On the way to the building, however, a gust of wind blows sled and baby far away, where he is discovered by a elf family by the name of Kringle. They immediately adopt him, giving him the name “Kris”. The Kringle family used to make toys for the king, but since the Burgermeister's rise to power, they have no longer been able to do so.
[edit] A town with no toys
When Kris is old enough, he volunteers to deliver the toys to Sombertown, through the woods. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Kris, Burgermeister has outlawed all toys in Sombertown. Before he enters the town, he runs into a penguin who's lost trying to find his way to the South Pole. He befriends the penguin, and names him "Topper". Kris arrives in the town, where he meets Mistress Jessica (voice: Robie Lester), a local schoolteacher. At first, she is somewhat rude to Kris, but begins to like him after he gives her a China Doll (Something she had wanted since childhood). Burgermeister soon finds Kris, and after a short confrontation, chases him out of town.
[edit] Magic from the Winter Warlock
In the woods outside of town, Kris and Topper meet the Winter Warlock (voice: Keenan Wynn), an evil wizard who lives in the woods, and has vowed to capture the interloper. Before he is finished off, Kris offers him a toy train. This act of kindness melts the Warlock’s icy heart, and he too joins their group. After a few more attempts at delivering presents to Sombertown, Burgermeister manages to capture Kris, the Kringles, Topper, and the Winter Warlock (Who now goes only by "Winter"). Mistress Jessica, who managed to evade capture, climbs up to Winter's jail cell, and manages to get some of his "magic feed corn", which will give reindeer the ability to fly. With the help of the reindeer, the group manages to escape from their holding cells, and escape into the woods.
[edit] Conclusion
After months of being an outlaw, Kris (who has now grown his trademark beard) decides to go by the name of "Claus" (his birthname), and takes Jessica as his wife. In order to escape the Burgermeister, the group journeys to the North Pole, where they build a toy shop. As time goes on, the Burgermeister regime comes to an end, and Kris (now Santa Claus), whose fame has gone worldwide (and toy requests increased accordingly), decides to cut his number of visits down to once a year, on December 24th.
As the film comes to an end, we rejoin S.D. Kluger, who remembers that he still must deliver all of the letters to Santa, which then begins a musical number of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, with several characters from the film.
[edit] Trivia
- Mad Magazine artist Paul Coker Jr. did the character design for this film.
- Mickey Rooney has since gone on to play Santa Claus 5 times after this TV Special.
- The painting of Santa Claus in his sleigh at the end appears again in the Rankin/Bass film, The Year without a Santa Claus.
- For many years, the special has been cut for network television to make room for more commercials. Jessica's song "My World Is Beginning Today" is nearly always cut, and "If You Sit On My Lap Today" is sometimes dropped as well. (ABC and its sister cable network, ABC Family currently run this special annually.) However, the DVD release is fully restored.
