Nonureva
Really Surprised!
Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
Raymond Sierra
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Jeffrey Young
Many people unabashedly love, "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" because it and others like, 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer', 'Year Without Santa', 'Charlie Brown Christmas', 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas', 'Frosty The Snowman', represent everything that was warm, comforting, and loving about our collective childhoods. The message of love, compassion, charity, and redemption never outgrows us and remains relevant for our entire lives.Still, why continue watching these beautiful Christmas specials your entire life? It's because it's nice to be happy and positive with yourself and towards others if only during the holiday season. No one should be content becoming and remaining a miserable adult. There's a lot to be said about keeping your inner child alive all through your life, as demonstrated at the end of Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town when it shows adults saying, 'humbug'. These people totally missed the message of Christmas.It's impossible not to see Santa Clause Is Comin' To Town with adult sensibility today in 2017. Would there be criticism depicting Germans as mean-spirited bad people as shown here? But remember when this animatronic special was created, the year, 1970.In 1970, World War 2 has been over for only 25 years. The ugly memories of Nazi Germany, and the necessity for destroying the Third Reich at great cost and sorrow remains strong in the minds of the adults who collaborated to produce this classic great, Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town. Hence you see references to German tyranny as a metaphor for evil still in the world. If produced today, it would be a totally different production with different, more neutral villains.
MissSimonetta
For my family, Christmas is never complete without some Rankin-Bass holiday specials. They can be corny and their animation is a little rough, but they possess such heart, innocence, whimsy, and good faith that's all too rare nowadays in a market infested with hip cynicism.Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is dated in a way that the other R-B specials are not, yet this is not a flaw at all. If anything, the streak of late 1960s sensibilities on love and peace make this cartoon all the more interesting as the years go by. Kris, Jessica, the Winter Wizard, and the Kringles are all colorful non-conformists who rebel against a tyrannical society and must operate outside of it. That Mr. and Mrs. Claus do not get married by a priest or justice and essentially say their vows before God in the midst of nature as they flee society feels mildly hippie-ish. And that's not to mention Jessica's groovy, psychedelic number in the town square.Even without all of that, this is a great special. Its characters are human and memorable, and the story of the young Santa promotes the best qualities of Christmas: love, compassion, and hope for mankind. It's too lovely to pass up, required Christmas viewing.
SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain
A really wonderful Christmas special from Rankin and Bass. I kind of wish I had these growing up, but I'm glad they are still around today. Fred Astaire plays a mailman that decides to educate us about the origins of Santa Claus. This was done in a very original way, and handled a lot of the traditions in a way I hadn't heard before. In the town of Somber, toys are outlawed. Enter Kris Kringle, a man raised by Elves that love to make toys and have no way of delivering them. We are introduced to some wonderful characters, such as The Winter Warlock and Topper the lost penguin. The songs aren't as memorable as other specials, but the film has so much creativity and charm that I was taken in by it all. Will certainly be promoted to my yearly watchings.
MartinHafer
Back in 1964, Rankin-Bass Studios brought the world RUDOLPH, THE RED-NOSED REINDEER and it instantly became a Christmas classic. A few years later, they made the cartoon FROSTY THE SNOWMAN and although it was a lovely film, unlike RUDOLPH it was not stop-motion and seemed to lose a bit in the translation. Fortunately, here with SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN, the studio wisely decided to return to its roots and made the film in the old stop-motion style. And, with several stop-motion films made in between, the resulting film is definitely a bit higher quality even if the story isn't quite as magical as RUDOLPH--and it sure comes close.The film is about the supposed roots of the character "Santa Claus", though the story really has nothing to do with the traditional Santar (that version isn't as much fun, believe me). Instead, it's a bizarre tale involving a town where the mayor, "Burgermeister Meisterburger" refuses to allow children to have toys! And, naturally, it's up to a younger and thinner Kris Kringle to save the day! The film features great voice talents with Paul Frees playing a totally over-the-top Burgermeister Meisterburger and Mickey Rooney playing the voice of Santa. The narrator is Fred Astaire and his beautiful voice really helped give the film an air of quality and class. Well worth seeing without your kids...or without.
