One of my all time favorites.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The classic 1970s animated short is a fan favourite for the festive season, from its stop-motion animation to the catchy Snow Miser and Heat Miser songs, but moviemakers went ahead and tried a live-action remake, directed by Ron Underwood (Tremors, City Slickers, Mighty Joe Young, Pluto Nash). Basically Santa Claus (John Goodman) is not feeling very well, but more than anything he has become disgruntled with the commercialism of Christmas, he thinks that children no longer believe him. Santa decides to quit, to cancel Christmas and not deliver toys and presents this Christmas Eve, despite arguments with Mrs. Claus (Delta Burke), and two of his elves, Jingle (Eddie Griffin) and Jangle (Ethan Suplee). They decide to provide Santa with proof that children still believe in him and the spirit of Christmas, so the elves head to the United States to find a child with Christmas spirit. Before reaching South Town, they have a setback, the jealous, competitive Miser Brothers are arguing about their control of the weather, Snow Miser (Michael McKean) controls the cold conditions, and Heat Miser (Harvey Fierstein) controls the warm weather. The elves find little boy Ignatius "Iggy" Thistlewhite (Dylan Minnette) who believes in Santa and the true spirit of Christmas. But Iggy's father, Mayor Thistlewhite (Robert C. Treveiler), will only believe the elves' story if they can bring snow to South Town on Christmas Day, this has not happened in the southern town for many years. The Miser brothers will not compromise to make sure that this can happen, but Mrs. Claus brings in Mother Nature (Carol Kane), they will have to agree to this, or face the wrath of their mother. Santa decides to go to the city himself, that is when he realises that children really do believe in him, and the spirit of Christmas, his faith is restored thanks to Iggy. So, on Christmas Eve, Santa flies his sleigh around the world, delivering toys and presents to everyone, and he indeed brings snow to South Town, Santa is happy to be back to work, and looks forward to next Christmas. Also starring Chris Kattan as Sparky and Laura Schlessinger as Dr. Laura. Goodman had played Father Christmas twice already in TV and film, so he seems comfortable, Griffin and Suplee add some titters as the bumbling elves, apart from that the other cast members aren't really worth mentioning, this remake keeps to the same basic concept as the original, but it has nowhere near the same charm, the songs are not enjoyable, and new stuff put makes it really messy, a disappointing seasonal fantasy. Adequate!

I have always loved the Rankins/Bass *Year without a Santa Claus*. The scenes with Heat Miser and Cold Miser were hilarious, and Shirley Booth did a wonderful job as the voice of Mrs. Claus. So I was excited when I saw the Heat Miser/Cold Miser clip that NBC placed on youtube.It turns out that NBC placed the only decent moments of this demeaning remake on youtube. Almost everything else disappointed when it didn't outright offend. I was tricked.Many of the jokes seemed to be focused on telling the current generation how much better the previous generation was -- and even then, the jokes were outdated. With the complaints about life of the past twenty years and the rosy-glasses nostalgia, the focus of this version seems to be one long Baby Boomer whine.The people behind this version are so clueless they seem to consider "goth" jokes to be cutting edge fifteen or so years too late! The jokes about "Extreme Santa" might have been clever a decade ago, but now they only show the viewer how out-of-touch these people are if they still think such jokes are clever now. The "hep African-American elf" jokes may have been funny fifteen years ago but are an embarrassment to modern racial relations. The demeaned role of women in this version is nauseating.In the Rankins/Bass tale, Mrs. Claus is an active, intelligent woman determined both to help out the world in general and to bring her stubborn husband to his senses. In this remake, she is nothing more than a passive and obedient wife with an attractive figure. Who could have imagined wasting Delta Burke's talent playing a woman who does nothing except coo in worry? They completely disempower the character of Mrs. Claus: it isn't even her idea for the elves to go down to earth in this version! The disempowering extends to Mother Nature. In the Rankin/Bass special, Mother Nature is an awe-inspiring figure of dread, and Mrs. Claus is courteously cautious about speaking with her. In this tepid remake, Santa Claus is able to summon an obedient Mother Nature with three claps as though she were one of his harem dancing girls! The tale ends with a father guilt-tripped into destroying the hopes of hundreds if not thousands of jobs in a small town for the sake of sticking to old town values. Merry Christmas to his son who now gets a dad who will build snowmen with him, and Merry Christmas to all those workers who discover the day before Christmas they will be unemployed!

Here it is, the script was good. (heck we've seen it before, they just stretched it out by about 30 minutes) The casting was excellent, and the Heat Vixens were, well HOT!!! So, why wasn't I thrilled I stood up to watch it??? Bad directing!!! Lack luster effects, actors not fulfilling their roles and slight variations from the script made this movie DRAG>>>> Of course since this is a made for TV NBC special, what else could you expect. Isn't this the formula they use, good script, great actors and then Blahhh??? NBC, go hire some real directors before you make these dumb a$$Ed made for TV movies and save us all the pain of hope and anticipation. PLEASE!!!!

Yes, I gave this a 2. I wasn't able to pay attention to the whole thing, so I wanted to be fair.1) Was the dubbing SUPPOSED to be off during the film? If you have ever watched a kung-fu movie, then you have some idea of what the dubbing was like. In the beginning of the movie, the dubbing was twice as bad. The voice over work was TERRIBLE. I think film students could have done better after they've partied all night.2) The special effects were TERRIBLE. I swear, I could see wrinkles in a few of the back drops. The effects seemed to be very outdated. The elves didn't really have pointy ears either.3) Skimpy costumes. This was supposed to be a movie for kids, right? Well, black leather and bikinis don't really fit in a Christmas movie, I'm sorry. I would say it had no magic at all.The TV guide review said that this movie didn't capture the magic of the original. I would say it had no magic. I could go on, but I keep twitching when I think of the movie. It was very slow, and unwatchable. Watch it if you must, but it's not really so bad it's funny. It's just plain bad.