1970 brought Rankin-Bass' take on Santa's origin story, and offering a much needed reboot to their Santa Claus mythos introduced in Rudolph. Introduced by Fred Astaire as Special Delivery "S.D." Kluger, it uses the classic song as a basis of the story.
Kluger's vehicle breaks down and he reads some letters to Santa he's delivering to the audiences. These ask questions about Santa, and Kluger decides to give us the answers. (Don't open other people's mail, kids.)
The proper story opens in the German-ish town of Sombertown, ruled by the selfish Burgermeister Meisterburger (voiced by Paul Frees). One day, a baby is found on his doorstep with the name "Claus" attached to a license. Burgermeister orders the baby to be taken to the orphanage, but the baby is lost while being pulled on a sled and is taken by forest animals past the Winter Warlock to the home of the Kringles, a family of elves who have been making toys, but are unable to take them anywhere, so they pile up. The happy family take in Claus and call him Kris Kringle.
As Kris (voiced by Mickey Rooney) grows up, he hears how the Kringles used to be the "First Toymakers to the King." Kris is inspired to restore that honor and after he grows up, he goes to Sombertown to deliver toys. But Burgermeister has banned toys, and Kris quickly gets in trouble, and has to flee the town.
On the way back to the town, Kris runs into the Winter Warlock (voiced by Keenan Wynn), who captures him, but when he's presented with a toy train, Kris' generosity thaws his frozen heart and Winter, as he chooses to go by, becomes a staunch ally of Kris and gives him a magic crystal snowball that helps him find schoolteacher Miss Jessica (voiced by Lester Robie) who informs them that Burgermeister has not only destroyed all toys in town, but also ordered all people to keep their doors and windows locked so Kris can't deliver toys through them. So Kris sneaks in through chimneys and leaves toys in stockings.
Burgermeister goes on the offensive and imprisons the Kringles and Winter. He catches Kris coming down a chimney. Jessica gets some magic seed corn from Winter, which makes reindeer fly. She finds some reindeer and they fly Kris, Winter and the Kringles out of prison.
Kris is considered an outlaw, and he begins to change his appearance by growing a beard. The Kringles suggest he go by Claus, the name on the license found on him as a baby. He and Jessica marry, and they, Winter and the Kringles build a new home at the North Pole. (How they managed to walk there is up for anyone to guess.)
As Claus grows older, the Burgermeister's hold over Sombertown eventually ends, and the story of Claus spreads throughout the world. Because it's too much to deliver toys all through the year, Claus decides to deliver only on Christmas Eve.
The special ends with Kluger wrapping up the story and restarting his vehicle (which had broken down, but now works) so he can get the letters to Santa Claus, the credits running over a delightful stop motion sequence set to "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town," ending with Claus stepping out of his home and waving to the viewers.
This was fairly fun and far more good-natured than the grouchy Santa we saw in Rudolph. The models used in this one are completely different from the first Christmas special. Rudolph was teased in this when the reindeer are listed, but Kluger comments "No, that's another story."
One question I had was "Where does the prefix Santa come in to his name?" Never got answered.
Personally, I am a fan of L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, which was written before a lot of Santa lore was standardized, such as Santa Claus living in the North Pole and the names of the reindeer, so he does a very different story. However, Rankin-Bass adapted that as their last stop-motion production, offering yet another version of Santa Claus in their works.
No comments:
Post a Comment