Movie: (1959) Pitch the devil attempts to hinder Santa on Christmas Eve.
First shown: 12/24/93
Opening: A caroling attempt ends in disaster
Intro: Inappropriate gifts are exchanged
Host segment 1: On the SOL, the rock band Santa Klaws performs
Host segment 2: The bots arrange a Nelson family reunion
Host segment 3: An all-inclusive politically correct holiday song: “Merry Christmas…If That’s Okay”
End: On the SOL, it’s a snow day! In Deep 13, Pitch and Santa fight it out
Stinger: Laughing mechanical reindeer
(249 votes, average: 4.77 out of 5)
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• This one, of course, is a perennial favorite, and now that it is on DVD, it can truly be a holiday regular. It’s one of those episodes I’ve seen so many times I can practically recite it, but it’s still entertains me every time. The movie is SO odd (it is a very weird reflection on Mexican culture), the riffing is very strong and the segments are generally pretty good. It doesn’t feel like Christmas until I’ve seen it.
• This one can be found on Shout’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol. XVI.”
• The gift exchange segment may seem a bit dry, even baffling, to our eyes today, but remember that Mike had joined the SOL crew less than ten episodes previous. The point of the segment is that they still barely know each other, so their attempts to give gifts are forced and uncomfortable. But if you didn’t know the context, you could hardly be blamed for not getting the joke.
• The first 15 or so minutes of the movie, when we get a slew of ethnic/national jokes, as Santa’s international cadre of “helpers” are introduced, are great fun. Every four years, when I watch the parade of nations at the Olympic opening ceremonies, I reuse those riffs.
• Does anybody else feel that if Crow had used that “Carmen Miranda rights” joke with Joel, Joel would have ripped at least one arm out?
• Non-spaghetti ball bumpers: pan to beaker; closeup on film canister; pan down to notebook.
• I’ve never been a big fan of the “Whispering Christmas Warrior” segment. It feels a little too restrained. I would have like to see them go more Ozzie Osbourne on the thing. I do like the reaction shots of Frank and Dr. F., though.
• One memorable set of riffs comes when each of them gives notable literary opening line. “I was born in the house my father built” is from Richard Nixon’s then-current autobiography, “The minute Yosarian…” is from “Catch-22.” “Call me Ishmael” is, of course, from “Moby Dick.”
• That’s Pat Brantseg, Mary Jo and Tim Scott as “Mike’s family.”
• One of my favorite moments from this episode is when Santa is preparing to leave his castle to deliver the presents, and as he makes his little benediction, he looks up for no particular reason and M&tB respond by looking confusedly around, as if to see what he might be looking at. It cracks me up every time.
• The Brains seem to think the name “Kringle” is funny. They use it a lot.
• As Santa is putting out presents, Crow has him mumbling: “CableAce award…no, that’s no good…” A little bitterness there.
• On the other hand, the “Merry Christmas…If That’s Okay” song is a holiday classic, right up there with “Patrick Swayze Christmas.” Commenting on PC attitudes about Christmas was not a particularly original comedic idea, but they gave it an original spin.
• Then-current reference: “At home with Carl Rowan.” Rowan was a nationally syndicated columnist and prominent supporter of gun control who became a national punchline in 1988 when he shot a teenage intruder with his unregistered .22. He passed away in 2000. Honorable mention: “A scud!” Scuds are no longer the fearsome terror weapon they were considered back then.
• RiffTrax did an entire re-riff of this movie, with all new jokes and an astonishingly bright and clean print of this movie.
• Memorable host segment line: “More pie, man-goat?” They really did a great job on Paul’s costume/make up. And of course that’s Kevin as Santa, though the credits don’t say so.
• Cast and crew roundup: producer Guillermo Calderon also worked on “The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy.” Importer K. Gordon Murray also brought “Robot Vs. the Aztec Mummy” and “Samson Vs. the Vampire Women to American audiences. Score composer Anthony Diaz Conde also worked on “The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy.”
• CreditsWatch: Host segments directed by Jim Mallon.
• Fave riff: “Suddenly Santa corkscrews into Ypsilanti, Michigan!” Honorable mention: “Well, that’s not strictly true either…”
——————–
Next week we will return to regular order with episode 616- RACKET GIRLS.
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I think my copy is from the same airing as you guys. I remember the annoying Jerky Boys animated commercials with the veiny plumber screaming into the phone. And the 90s Panasonic commercials with MASH technology, whatever that meant.
As for the episode, I love this one. The Ron Reagan joke always gets a huge chuckle. Pitch does look quite a bit like Ron Reagan.
By “you guys,” I mean Sampo, of course.
Triple posting… but I also love the Gift of the Magi segment where Frank shaves his head and gives Dr. F a watch fob.
“Frank, you sold your hair and bought me a watch fob!”
“Sold my hair?? No…”
I always read that as shaving his head had nothing to do with the gift. He just shaved his head. One of my favorite Frank moments.
The windup reindeer are uber freaky. Charming as a Nam flashback. I watched it again on Thanksgiving night for the first time on DVD (tape transcribed to DVD, of course). The perfect kick off to the Christmas season.
Merry Christmas, everybody!
Randy
Jason, #10: There were two songs in Sidehackers, also. The second one is a parody of a song that was in the movie, so not necessarily an original, but “Only Love Pads The Film” is close to my heart :smile:
Merry Christmas, everyone! (If that’s OK…)
Two songs in Pod People – “Hideous Control Now” and “Clown in the Sky”.
“I love this episode, it’s weirdness makes it the Manos of Christmas movies.”
MikeK, you are so right. The opening driving sequence of Manos and the “Children of the World” sequence of Santa Claus are a perfect match — you can’t believe it’s actually been put to film, but it has. And then you laugh non-stop.
To one and all: get down with your bad Santa selves.
Didn’t Lupita go on to have her own reality show? A Shot of Love with Loopy Lupita?
PURE EFFING EVIL.
Commenter #30 i love the same fiff “A pentagram and reindeer laughing. you figure it out” Just cracks me up every time. :grin:
So many great riffs from this episode, I’ll post some of my favorites that haven’t been mentioned yet…
(When we are first introduced to Pitch):
“Jamie Farr!”
—
“In the name of Santa, Merlin and the elves, Amen.”
—
Narrator: “Hopefully the magic flower will not fall into bad hands…”
Crow:”…Like Jose Canseco’s?”
—
“I just him a coupon for half-off a little brother!”
—
Love this episode, and it’s definitely a holiday tradition for me as well! Definitely in my top-5!
I always thought the gift exchange was based on the fact they were trapped in space and had to exchange what was on hand.
Love the episode, not so much the two songs from Mike and the Bots. Come on Shout Factory, isn’t this in ‘Public Domain’?
I was taking a modern art appreciation class when I first saw this episode, and the line about it being very nice of Marcel Duchamp to let the Mexican family use his apartment is one of my favorite riffs of all time. This whole movie has a creepy surrealistic “An Andelusian Dog” feel to it. Now that I think of it, this might be the weirdest MST movie of all.
About Christmas: it’s a weird Holiday. The story of the miraculous birth, and the sostice celebration with evergreen, and Father Time figures with big white beards are all pagan things that the Christians appropriated and plopped Jesus on top of. This is fine with me, and I think taking good stuff from previous religeons is a good thing for a new religeon to do. I just wish the christians hadn’t turned around and then killed most of the pagans they got their stuff from. This antagonistic relationship between pagans and christians is part of what makes the hybrid Christmas holiday as we know it so weird. Just as modern Easter celebrations are rather strange with the juxtaposition of Christ’s coming back from the dead with Easter eggs.
Throw in crass commercialism and rampant greed, our modern Christmas has something to delight and offend just about everyone.
I really wish people would just stop trying to claim that only they have a monopoly on the real meaning of the holiday and that everyone else is wrong and stupid and an *ssh*l*. Like the song says, “for crying out loud can’t we all just get along?”
One more thing: there’s a great somber christmas song by the Chieftains called “The Rebel Jesus” that ends with a line something like:
“I wish you peace, and I wish you well. As a heathen and a pagan, on the side of the rebel jesus.”
So have a merry Chrismas everyone (if that’s OK with you)
I’m declaring a War on the War on Christmas Discussion — let’s please not ruin MSTie with political / religious arguments. The fact that you all love MSTie makes me love you all, regardless of your other beliefs. :)
Regarding the JOIKE sweater — drives my wife nuts. “You don’t knit a sweater from side to side!” she always yells.
Maybe Gypsy made the sweater first and then started to embroider Joel’s name not long before he escaped from the SOL?
One of the all time classics Santa Claus vs. Satan. It doesn’t get any funnier than that.
On a related note, I caught an ad tonight on ABC Family for “Christmas In Wonderland”… starring Patrick Swayze.
Do you think they’ll sing “A Patrick Swayze Christmas”? :eek:
One of my all-time favorite eps.
Favorite riff – “But Santa oppresses the proletariat!”
“Raptorial Talon #18 – I was referring to the association of belly dancing with the Orient, not the age of those involved, you sick monkey. In fact, I did some research by watching “History of the World, Part 2.””
Sir, I may be a debilitated chimp, but I am no sick monkey.
‘sides, you were the one who said it should “never be questioned,” without clarification.
Also, you should really just relax. If you think I was seriously questioning your views on . . . erm . . . that subject, you’ve got me read wrong.
And where can one find HOTWP2 these days? I know it exists but I’ve never been able to find it . . .
“actually the christmas tree comes from germany. it reprensents the station of the cross. That why it always bother me people calling it a holiday tree.”
Um . . . to the best of my knowledge, the evergreen tree tradition now associated with Christmas came from Celtic peoples way back in the day, for whom (as someone mentioned) the ability of the tree to stay green in winter when everything else died back gave it a sort of mystical power – a power over death itself. Early European Christians, rather than compete with well-entrenched local traditions, simply co-opted them into their own practices to avoid direct conflict. Same for Easter, Halloween, etc.
“Holiday tree” is absurdly PC, however. It’s a freaking Christmas tree, damn it. No use hiding reality under euphemisms.
“It just some people want to turn xmas into their own verson of a bland holiday. just imagine someone making your birthday a bland gerneral holiday.”
Well, imagine on your part if someone shared a birthday with you (or heck, maybe not even), and each year they insisted that only their birthday was worth celebrating, and that yours should be mostly ignored. Not too fair, right? That’s sort of what it’s like to be a person of a non-Christian faith during this time of year . . . nearly everybody makes a big deal out of Christmas, but most of the population takes little notice of other major holidays.
I don’t feel that way personally, mind you, but I can see where those folks are coming from. It would be all too easy to feel gypped if society acknowledged one culture’s celebration in a big way, but just sort of looked past your own every time. ‘Course, that also helps keep their celebrations free of excess commercialism, so maybe that’s a mixed blessing . . .
“Re: the war on Christmas, I attribute it to mostly to the culture of outrage that we as a society have allowed to take root in our everyday lives. All political sides are guilty, as are the rest of us for not laughing down the people who we agree with that are perpetuating it. People who take issue with things people of any religious persuasion do to bring happiness to children, build community, bring together families, and promote peace, love, and compassion should probably take a hard look at their priorities.”
I agree that all the conflict is dumb, but Christmas per se *is* about celebrating the birth of Christ, not the other (very admirable) things you mention – at least, not directly. They’re all sort of wrapped up in the spirit of the season, but they’re not the immediate foundation of the holiday. Or at least, not of the holy day.
Speaking of the holy day, a careful reading of the Bible suggests Christ’s birth was sometime in April (something to do with the stars and there being new young lambs around, I think). The December date is the result of another one of those “co-opt the pagan festival” deals.
“If we would all take a few minutes every day away from being outraged, and spend that time instead trying to learn about and appreciate each other, we might find that those folks you spend so much time disparaging are pretty decent people.”
I applaud this sentiment and wish it would spread more widely. Kind of pointless for a season billed as being about peace, joy, and brotherhood to be filled with inter-faction tension.
Unless one of the factions is Satan and his incompetent demons. Screw those guys.
Also, screw Santa if he persists in keeping a sweatshop stocked with children.
Or persists in dropping acid, as was clearly the case in this film.
“Using pine boughs and decorating pine trees predates Christ in quite a few ancient cultures. The fact that they remained evergreen even in winter gave them a mystical quality. I think all that is just different religions stealing customs from each other and incorporating them into their own, using their own interpretations.”
What are some of the other cultures besides the Celts (and possibly Teutons)? I haven’t heard of others practicing it, so it’s be interesting to know just how widespread it was.
“Not sure if this is blasphemous or not, but I prefer Santa Claus to SC Conqueres The Martians. Who couldn’t love Santa vs the Devil?”
*A* devil, Mr. Nervous Nelly!
“The story of the miraculous birth, and the sostice celebration with evergreen, and Father Time figures with big white beards are all pagan things that the Christians appropriated and plopped Jesus on top of.”
The miraculous birth? Really? I thought that was pretty deeply rooted in even early Christian traditions. What culture(s) are you referring to that have similar stories?
I actually feel like I should know some, but I’m drawing a blank . . .
“Just as modern Easter celebrations are rather strange with the juxtaposition of Christ’s coming back from the dead with Easter eggs.”
Heh. IIRC, even the *word* “Easter” comes from Eostre, a Celtic fertility goddess. Hence the rabbits and eggs (symbols of reproduction and rebirth).
“I’m declaring a War on the War on Christmas Discussion — let’s please not ruin MSTie with political / religious arguments.”
Arguments? Come now. All I’ve seen is a very civil, mutually informative discussion in which people have generally taken pains to contribute meaningfully and avoid stepping on each other’s toes. MST3k isn’t ruined by this. It’s elevated, in fact, because this demonstrates that it’s something which has brought us all together despite our differences. It has shown that it can be done. (And that humor is key.)
So, coming from a serious agnostic . . . Happy Nonconflict Seasonal Celebration Day!
Just kidding. Merry Christmas . . . if, of course, that’s OK.
One of my favorite bits in this movie is a shot where Santa is holding forth to his helpers and making a weird hand gesture– first he makes the “OK” sign, then shakes his finger; he repeats that a couple of times. Mike starts sarcastically mimicking him, not saying a word. It’s so subtle that I didn’t notice it for the first ten years.
RT #69:
“I agree that all the conflict is dumb, but Christmas per se *is* about celebrating the birth of Christ, not the other (very admirable) things you mention – at least, not directly. They’re all sort of wrapped up in the spirit of the season, but they’re not the immediate foundation of the holiday. Or at least, not of the holy day.”
I think that I did not make my point exactly clear. My point is that regardless of religion or tradition, people should be happy for the people who are celebrating, not be personally affronted by the celebration. If you are a non-Christian, don’t begrudge the Christians their party, if you are a Christian, don’t begrudge others their parties. We are all harmed by people who strive to make ours a less festive and inviting society.
My advice is that if any group is celebrating their faith and culture, be happy for them. If you get invited to a celebration, go have a good time. You might learn something. You will definately eat well. If you have never eaten a latke, or have not been to an Eid al-Fitr dinner, you are really missing out. Most of all, be appreciative of the people around you and share in the joy. That was my main point.
# 71 (and the others who have expressed similar sentiments): Hear, hear! Truly wonderful to see people express such positive attitudes. :grin: I knew we MSTies were a welcoming and open-minded lot! hehe
# 49 : Odessasteps Magazine, you did a conference paper on MST3K and metatextuality? As a fellow academic, that sounds intriguing. Any chance you have a copy lying around to share? :smile:
So am I the only one who thinks that TV’s Frank shaves his head and then uses that hair to make Dr. F’s new watch fob?
The watch fob thing (MAN, I am just a commenting maniac when it comes to this episode!): notice that Dr. F takes the watch fob and makes several failed attempts to attach it to his wristwatch. (Watch fobs, of course, are intended for pocket watches, not wristwatches.) I always thought that was a clever, subtle little bit of humor by Trace (and at least one of the writers, presumably).
Raptorial Talon #69 – No, I’m not mad. I’m just funnin’ with you. :grin:
“I think that I did not make my point exactly clear. My point is that regardless of religion or tradition, people should be happy for the people who are celebrating, not be personally affronted by the celebration. If you are a non-Christian, don’t begrudge the Christians their party, if you are a Christian, don’t begrudge others their parties. We are all harmed by people who strive to make ours a less festive and inviting society.”
Well, I may not have made mine clear, either. See, I don’t think it’s the *existence* of the Christmas celebration that upsets some people. It’s the fact that the Christmas celebration almost totally pervades our media and our public lives around this time while other traditions can hardly get a word in edgewise. If Christmas were just one more celebration amongst many celebrations of equal stature, hardly anyone would have a problem with it. But because it’s such a huge deal in our country – socially and economically if not culturally and spiritually – people get irked at all the attention it absorbs.
So I’d say it’s the scale of the holiday as a social institution, not its nature as a religious celebration, which causes controversy. You could almost look at it as though people don’t have a problem with the holy day of Christmas, but rather with the socioeconomic “monster” it has spawned. (And some militant Christians don’t help ease the tensions . . .)
All that being said, people should just try to be decent human beings and get along with each other at all times of year, regardless of faith, philosophy, or their cultural or economic background. Things would run a lot more smoothly.
“Raptorial Talon #69 – No, I’m not mad. I’m just funnin’ with you.”
I kinda thought so, but the rollseyes smiley is among the more ambiguous emoticons. Had to be sure. :wink:
Considering the Christmas songs Joel, Mike,
and the bots sung about Christmas, you
wonder what tunes they could have come
up with to celebrate Festivus Day.
Watched some of this last night. The riff, “Ahhh, the classic battle between evil and the narrator,” almost made milk pill shoot out of my nose.
“Oh…this is wrong somehow!” during the puppet show. Sleighs me.
(Bad pun intended.)
I utterly adore this episode. One of my top 5 and a definite Christmas staple. I always skip the “Christmas Warrior” thing though.
Did you know this movie was featured in, of all things, “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”?
Damn.. double post. A friend of a friend who happens to be a high school Spanish teacher was sent this episode and was absolutely floored. Turns out in a few Spanish-speaking countries this movie is like “It’s a Wonderful Life”… it’s played constantly during Christmas and she remembers parades where people were dressed like Pitch from the movie.
#69 – maybe “quite a few” cultures wasn’t quite right, but there was more than one culture besides Celts that decorated pine boughs before Christ. The Celts were the first I’d heard of, too. But there was also an annual festival during the Vernal Equinox dedicated to the god Attis, said to have been born in a cave around the winter solstice. Supposedly the son of Isis, or Cybele. Their followers called them “Father” and “Mother”. She loved her son a little too much and he castrated himself under a pine tree, which became a symbol of his sacrifice. And the followers decorated and cut down pine trees in his memory. (Sorry if this is a little too graphic for this thread).
Back to the movie….
Oh, what a classic!
“Even Hell got an NEA grant” killed me when I first saw this episode.
The narrator really helps make this a great episode too. “No Lupita!” has become one of a few catchphrase this movie has inspired me to adopt. The other is the song “The devil is a weener”, which I sing incessantly. My son watched Santa Claus for the first time a few weeks ago (and loved it), and was very surprised to discover the origin of so many of the baffling things that I say.
As Timmy mentioned, the “battle between evil and the narrator” is an all time MST highlight.
I must say, I was kind of bummed that CT chose SC vs The Martians over Santa Claus to re-riff. It is clearly the more fertile of the two (that said, the new CT release is very funny).
Please, please, please release this on DVD, Shout Factory.
This one, of course, is a perennial favorite, and I sure wish they would put it out on DVD.
—–
Probably because it doesn’t have any Martians in it…
As strange and funny as this episode is, SVTM is my favorite of the two. I think the riffing is probably equal, but in terms of host segments this one fails to live up to it’s predacessor.
Awesome episode. I believe the little moustached character from the puppet show in the movie is supposed to be Cantinflas, who the MST crew have actually referenced quite a few times during the run of the show.
Such a great episode! So wonderfully strange that it’s funny on it’s own, and when you add the misting it’s gold!
I love the Santa vs Pitch thing, and then Merlin is in it, too? Whaaa??? Pitch is one of the great MST characters, way over the top.
And cute little Lupita. I love her stilted dialogue, like when she wakes up from her dream and tells her mom she’s happy now, Santa will bring her a present. And the debate with Pitch about stealing the doll always cracks me up! Count me as one of those who gets a lump in his throat when this little scene stealer is on screen.
The narration is fantastic, overwrought and dramatic. I think the guy that produced the English version does it.
*I sat at the bar all night and not one job offer!* Classic!
I’m not really clear why this isn’t on DVD as I have always heard that it’s in the public domain. It would have been good to have released an MST3K Christmas DVD set with SCCTM, Santa Claus, maybe Jack frost and the Parade of Values turkey day special.
This might be my favorite episode, I watch this more times in a year than any other episode, its so absurd I think the movie would be funny even without the riffing. I will go as far to say that (in my personal view) this is far superior to SCCTM, which has to do everything with the movie and nothing with Joel or Mike (they are equally good)
I also have a fondness for its odd presentation of Mexico as I lived for a few years in El Paso and got to know Mexican culture as well as most gringo’s.
Oh and on the Christmas thing, I’m more bothered by the rampant commercialism than anything else, we (Chirst-ians) do more damage by not fighting rampant commercialism in general (ie all year long) than than anybody else does wagging any kind of war on Christmas. We can’t have it both ways no matter how bad we want that egg nog, our efforts would probably be best spent feeding the hungry than fighting some goofy pundents on suto cable news shows. You know lead by example, and such, not lead by shouting at people.
I never have seen Jesus as being big on Walmart etc, anyways.
I’m off my soap box now :smile:
81: I’m not sure how often it was on, but I do recall seeing “Santa Claus” on TV around 1980. And it must have been on network TV, because we didn’t have cable or a VCR.
On April Fools Day a couple years ago I wrote a positive review of five MST3K movies on my blog(of course I posted my real thoughts on the films the next day). Here’s what I said about Santa Claus:
Santa Claus (1959)
This whimsical tale from Mexico is a reimagining of the classic tales of Santa Claus. All the contraptions in Santa’s headquarters (it’s much too spacious and elaborate simply to be called a “workshop”) look like giant toys. It also works as a morality tale as we follow the trials of little Lupita, who must struggle against the temptations of evil to make the right decisions. Add to that cleverly worked in characters from mythology, and what results is a delightful film to be enjoyed by the whole family.
Mike: Santa’s tendrils reach far and wide. There is no hiding from the Klaus organization.
Wizard of Oz references:
The Central American kids sing their song. M&tB chime in: “The house began to twitch.”
I’m surprised they never said “Rosebud” at any time there was a closeup of those giant lips.
About those giant lips . . . maybe that’s why there was no Mrs. Claus? :shock:
92: It ate her? :shock:
As much as I’d like to let the discussion of the “War on Christmas” be dropped…did anyone here see Stephen Colbert’s Christmas special?
The first song performed was “The War On Christmas”, by some country singer (not Willie Nelson) supposedly expressing his rage at being wished “Happy Holidays”. I probably can’t remember his name due to my shock that the montage video accompanying the song contained perhaps half a minute of stock footage from SCCTM! Most notably, the first time he sings, “There’s a war on Christmas…” we see Torg the robot bash down the doors to Santa’s workshop.
A shame that it had to be the first song, since I laughed so hard that the rest of the special couldn’t help but go downhill. Well, if the second song by Willie Nelson as a 4th wise man giving the gift of peace to baby Jesus in the form of REEFER MADNESS had been saved for later instead of the second song, that might have helped too, but I guess they needed both hooks at the beginning to keep the audience for a whole hour.
Sadly, I have yet to see THIS ep, but hopefully SF is just saving it for their 3rd set, which I’m guessing would be out next fall, just in time for next annual-cultural-event-time. And that would be OK.
“I probably can’t remember his name due to my shock that the montage video accompanying the song contained perhaps half a minute of stock footage from SCCTM!”
There was also a brief clip from the RiffTrax short “A Visit to Santa.” It’s the one with Santa on top of a large rocket/parade float thing.
Oh, and the country singer was Toby Keith.
Love this one. In my top five. I can’t pick a favorite riff, but “Ah, the battle between pure evil and the narrator” is probably the one that crops up most in my life year round.
I watched this one recently after years of forgetting about it. I couldn’t believe how funny it was… and then my tape went bad in the last part and was generally unwatchable. Grr argh. I need them to release this one.
Definitely one of my favorites now.
Its up on the DAP and on youtube, but I will buy it the moment a commercial release is available.
Made it five stars. I had to pull my VHS tape out to get my rememberances, so here goes…
Poor Frank should have cut the spit curl, it was the only thing that was left.
For my review at TV.com I wrote this header: To paraphrase Mike, if seasonal holiday depression had an official movie, Santa Claus would be it.
My brothers used to sing ‘Alfred saved the day’ instead of ‘Joker got away.’
Is the Newberry’s store JJ Newberry’s? I had one in my hometown when I was a kid. I loved to go there and get toys.
Crow and Tom got in trouble for all the things they said about the kids, but I bet most of us were thinking them.
One thing I liked J/M&TB doing that few have talked about is singing Christmas carols when music in the movies started sounding like them. They did this with a twist here: When Santa snuck behind Pitch to shoot him with a toy, Crow started humming some incidental music from Mission: Impossible, though he did it with a ‘fa-la-la-la-la.’ Tom then chimed in with a ‘Hark, are the bells, are the jolly jolly bells!’
Fave riffs: When Lupita wakes from the nightmare, Mike says, ‘I had the ‘Nam dream!’
Also: When Santa stares at his dome, Crow yells, ‘Hey Kringle, snap out of it!‘
And: When Pedro comes in the room and leaves quickly, Mike says, ‘I’m in control now, right after wee-wees.’
For my full review at TV.com, click here and then click on ‘Continue.’
Is there a prize for being the 100th commenter? No? I thought not.
The first 99 of you have pretty much summed this kooky movie up very well, so how about this tangent which leaped to mind after watching it again recently?
The classic riff about the epic battle between evil and the narrator got me to thinking.
There seem to be an awful lot of MST3K movies that had narrators, and I think a lot of the time this was done to cover up bad editing/plot holes/unclear action in the films. The Creeping Terror is probably the one for me that really typifies this reliance on the narrator to explain what was actually going on when the movie itself couldn’t.
But in Santa Claus, and unlike in most movies which have them, the narrator really seems to be sort of his own character, with his own interest in how the plot is progressing, the morality of certain characters, the poor plight of certain other characters, etc. It’s more than a little strange and it seems out of place most of the time, at least to me.
Might I suggest a weekend discussion thread sometime about MST3K movies with narrators, and the filmmakers’ motives for using them, and how effective they were at their job, whether that job was telling the story or whether that job was covering up the faults of the film?
Or is that a tad too esoteric?