Sadly Over-hyped

Instant Favorite.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This film comes to us via Mexico and features a bit of a different take on Santa Claus. I saw this film as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, as I am sure a good many people did. I do not recall ever seeing this one as a child, and that is probably a good thing as it is bizarre to the max! Santa looks pretty much as one would expect; however, he acts in an almost insane way, his flying fortress that he apparently shares with Merlin the magician has all the most advanced spying technology imaginable and instead of elves this Santa uses children to work in his toy making factory! His reindeer are strange maniacally laughing automatons that will turn to dust if exposed to the sun! That does not even make sense! Santa's biggest nemesis is Pitch, a demon who resides in hell! So, yes, this is quite the different take on Santa with only Santa's look being what one would expect. The movie does look good as the quality and the effects are pretty good especially considering it came out in 1959, but it is just so off the wall and some of the things it depicts will make you wonder how did Santa deliver presents to all the good children in the world as apparently there were only three bad ones.The story starts us off by showing Santa's fortress in the sky as kids from all over the world must make toys for the rest of the world. Not sure how these children became slave labor and it seems an odd choice that they are kids and not elves. They could have given them pointy ears and passed them off as elves, but no, they are children from around the world. Then we meet a girl who wishes to have a doll, a boy who just wants his parents by his side and three bad children that want nothing more than to serve Satan and bring Santa Claus down! We also meet Pitch who does a rather good job in stopping Santa in certain areas, the four houses we see Santa deliver presents to, takes forever! It takes him so long that you wonder how he did get through the entire world! This made for a rather good episode of MST3K because of the sheer weirdness of the whole film! The strange lipped machine that talked, the crazy looking reindeer and the fact Santa was battling the devil left the gang on the satellite of love with plenty of things to riff! I believe this one was even more bizarre than a previous Christmas film that was riffed on the show, "Santa Conquers the Martians" and that is quite a feat because that one was rather bizarre too.So, the film looks good for the time it was made and there are a couple of good scenes within as the scene with Santa making the parents remember their son is somewhat touching. However, the sheer oddness and the lame humor take this film down a few pegs. If I were a child watching this I would literally be worried every Christmas because Santa does make such slow progress in the homes that are shown.

After watching Santa Claus conquer the Martians, this film is a classic. By today's standards, this film looks cheesy but good cheese. The story of Santa Claus who must the devil who really isn't that evil but a nuisance. This Mexican film is quite a treat to watch with its colorful art direction and costumes. The beginning shows children of all cultures in celebrating the Christmas holiday. My film version was dubbed in English with an English narrator. It's the story of good versus bad. The devil here is known as pitch who must answer to Lucifer in hell. Pitch isn't necessarily an evil but funny looking in appearance and mostly causes trouble for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. This film shouldn't scare children too. This film was included in a Christmas DVD collection.

I want to say, right from the start, that this film is boring, the pacing is unbelievably slow, every single scene takes a really long time. The film is also pretty poorly made, with bad set design, and poor acting but those are minor details compared to the all pervading slow pacing. You cannot fathom how boring a film could be until you have seen this, trust me, watching paint dry is more exciting.The lack of action aside, I consider it a pretty good film, not as the children's movie it is supposed to be, because this is not for children. What I like about it is how messed up this stuff is; let me give you a few examples.The film starts with an introduction of Santa's workshop which is not run by elves, but by children, Santa seems to think child labor is a good thing. To make it even more offensive, the children are all a bunch of racial stereotypes. Further more, Santa spies on all the children of the world with his high tech surveillance equipment built by the clearly deranged wizard Merlin. After watching a few of the children's rather creepy dreams, Santa goes down to earth to deliver presents but ends up fighting Satan instead. I tell you, this stuff is bizarre, I just wonder how they were able to make it so boring.

Santa ClausWith his powers of perception, Santa could easily identify and eliminate bad children before they grew up into threats.Unfortunately, the St. Nick in this fantasy has opted out of selective infanticide.Dispatched by the Devil to turn the children of the world against Santa (José Elías Moreno), Satan's main minion Pitch (José Luis Aguirre) unsuccessfully convinces boys and girls to be bad.He then sets out to personally sabotage the robotic reindeers guiding Santa's sleigh and steal the sleeping dust and magic flower that the mage Merlin gave Santa for protection.A Satanic Christmas story from south of the border, this English dubbed Mexican import from 1959 is poorly shot, acted and scripted. But it's low product value and occult themes have established this as a true holiday cult classic.What's more, after his experience with the children of Mexico Santa decided to outsource his toy manufacturing to them.Red Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca