Thanks for the memories!

Please don't spend money on this.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I have no idea what movie those who rated this as the best Christmas movie ever were watching, but it couldn't have been this one. This is definitely not a Christmas Classic as advertised. In fact as an avid Christmas movie fan and collector, I had never even heard of this one before. No wonder! The first 3/4 of the movie SLOWLY develop the things we know about Santa and the last quarter involve what felt like a last minute add on that involved the villain John Lithgow. The script is amateurish and annoying, with bad "self/elf" puns, emo reindeer that you just want to shoot, the cheesiest special effects ever seen since the 50's and the child actors are terrible.Dudley Moore, Burgess Meredith and John Lithgow get top billing to make this movie look like it might be something when in fact, the lead actor is actually David Huddleston who delivers the only good performance despite the bad writing. Meredith's part is merely a short cameo appearance.In the 32 Christmas seasons that this has been out, I have never seen it advertised in the lineups of any of the major networks which shows just how much of a loser this film really is. Don't waste your time

In the middle ages, kindly toymaker Claus and his wife Anya deliver toys to the village children. They and their reindeers, Donner and Blitzen, are caught in a snowstorm. Following prophesy, they are taken in by the elves or Vendequm led by Dooley. The Ancient One proclaims Claus, Santa Claus. As work mount, Claus elevates modern-minded Patch (Dudley Moore) as his assistant but the toys are shoddy and Patch is demoted. Claus befriends two orphans, homeless boy Joe and rich girl Corneli. Patch leaves the north pole and heads to NYC where he works for Corneli's step-uncle, corrupt toy manufacturer B.Z. (John Lithgow).The first half is a Santa Claus origins story. It's functional but lacks much drama. David Huddleston is a big burly guy but I finally realize that he doesn't have enough jolly. Dudley Moore as an elf is silly. Maybe they should make him a drunken elf. There is a change in the middle as the movie arrives in the modern world. First off, the product placements of McDonald's and Coke are jarring. A homeless kid is ill-fitting Dickensian. Lithgow is going overboard into cartoon villainy. "Christmas II" It turns into tacky camp. If that's the point, then the movie should shorten the first half and fully embrace its tackiness.

These are the kind of movies I hated as a kid - message films that told me how to feel, act and behave. This is why Godzilla and King Kong are my idea of holiday films - beasts condemned by the world who only want to destroy the works of man! Feliz navidad!

I saw and liked this as a kid, so I thought I'd see how well it holds up as an adult. The answer is that it doesn't: every scene I found charming as a boy I now find embarrassing. SANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE turns out to be one of the most twee and overly mawkish Christmas movies ever made.The problem with the film is the script, which just meanders all over the place, plotlessly and painfully without focus or insight. It appears that the producers realised they could use the same kind of 'flying' special effects from the SUPERMAN series except swap them for Santa and his reindeers flying through the air. But that's no basis for a movie.It takes an hour or so for the storyline (involving an evil toy manufacturer) to get moving, and before then there are just lots of annoying scenes with the elves, who make the Ewoks look appealing. We get Dudley Moore mugging shamelessly in one of his irritating kid's film performances, and David Huddleston overegging it as a good-natured Santa. One of the sub-plots, involving floating kids, seems to have been stolen from WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.Thankfully, the film does pick up a little in the latter stages when there's actual stuff going on (even if it still isn't much), and we do get a scene-stealing turn from John Lithgow as a remarkably slimy villain. Sadly, his presence isn't enough to stop this from being a film that's a worthless watch for anyone over eight years old.NB. I recently watched this film one more time just to see if I was being too harsh on it above. I guess I was - a little. If you're in the mood for cloying sentimental and feel-good Christmas fare, then I guess it's the film for you. It certainly looks nice in high definition and the early storyline about how Santa Claus became Santa Claus is quite well done. A good kid's film then, although adults may want to pass on it.