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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema.

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Speaker 3: This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And

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Speaker 3: today on Weird House Cinema, we are going to be

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Speaker 3: talking about the nineteen eighty five holiday classic, should we

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Speaker 3: say classic Santa Claus. Santa Claus, the movie starring David

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Speaker 3: Huddleston the Big Lebowski from The Big Lebowski as Santa Claus.

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Speaker 2: That's right, this is good. This is our third bona

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Speaker 2: fide Santa Claus movie that we've looked at in Weird

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Speaker 2: House Cinema. We'd previously done episodes on nineteen fifty nine

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Speaker 2: Santa Claus aka Santa Claus Versus the Devil, the Mexican

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Speaker 2: Santa Claus film, Yeah, as well as nineteen sixty four's

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Speaker 2: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

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Speaker 3: I think, in their own ways, both actual holiday classics. Yes,

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Speaker 3: this movie. You know, I don't want to be mean,

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Speaker 3: but I'm going to be honest right up front. This

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Speaker 3: movie is nowhere near as interesting to me as the

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Speaker 3: other two. But I think we're gonna have a great

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Speaker 3: time talking about it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's mostly interesting to me because I saw it

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Speaker 2: as a child. Yeah, and I remember the feeling of now. Honestly,

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Speaker 2: can't remember if I saw it in the theater, which

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Speaker 2: is possible, or I saw it on VHS, which is

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Speaker 2: perhaps more likely, but I remember there being a sense

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Speaker 2: of grandeur and excitement about it because Joe, this wasn't

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Speaker 2: just Santa Claus. This was Santa Claus the movie.

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Speaker 3: Right, and it feels like it's the authorized Santa Claus film.

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Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, it did. It felt like it had

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Speaker 2: an air of authenticity to it.

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Speaker 3: I was a clause the state has approved it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I wasn't familiar with these other two Santa films,

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Speaker 2: the superior Santa films that we've talked about. Really, honestly,

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Speaker 2: I consumed a lot of Christmas media as a kid,

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Speaker 2: but aside from Miracle on thirty fourth Street, which to

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Speaker 2: be clear, keeps it a little bit ambiguous about whether

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Speaker 2: you're deal with Santa or not. Yeah, it's messaging is

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Speaker 2: a little too advanced. Yeah, I don't know that I

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Speaker 2: ever saw anything that was like, here is the story

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Speaker 2: of Santa. Here is the codified mythos of Santa Claus.

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Speaker 3: That's right, This movie does a superhero style gritty origin

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Speaker 3: story for Santa Claus. It's like Batman begins, but for

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Speaker 3: Santa exactly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the first half of the film is Santa Claus begins,

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Speaker 2: and then the second half is Santa Claus Conquer's capitalism,

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Speaker 2: or at least that's what it aspires to be in

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Speaker 2: the second or third rewrite that the script needed, as

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Speaker 2: we were chatting about before we turn on the mics here.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, feels very much like a brainstorming draft of

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Speaker 3: a script. And you can tell that in ways that

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Speaker 3: the subplots never end up really connecting with each other.

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Speaker 3: The Santa Claus never meets the villain of the movie.

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Speaker 3: There are elements that just feel like, feel like somebody

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Speaker 3: threw them in there to try them out, see like

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Speaker 3: would it work to have something about exploding candy in

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Speaker 3: this movie? I don't know. But now it's just suddenly

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Speaker 3: they rushed the brainstorming draft to shooting and I don't

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Speaker 3: know this is how it happened, but that's what it

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Speaker 3: feels like. It feels like they were just kind of

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Speaker 3: getting stuff on the page, thought they'd work it out later,

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Speaker 3: and then and then suddenly the movie was made.

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Speaker 2: You don't make Santa Claus the movie with the script

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Speaker 2: you want, You make it with the script you have.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this is what they had apparently.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, I was drawn to discussing this one because

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Speaker 2: of my past with it, also because it is, for

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Speaker 2: all its faults, they largely cheerful, family friendly Santa movie,

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Speaker 2: and uh huh, I decided that was there. I was

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Speaker 2: tempted to do something like Black Christmas or or something

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Speaker 2: a little something with a much more complicated plot like

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Speaker 2: Terry Pratjet's The Hogfather. Will say one or both of

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Speaker 2: those for another holiday. But I was also fascinated because

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Speaker 2: we've to a Santa movie plays an important role in

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Speaker 2: codifying Santa Claus, defining the legend for the generation of

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Speaker 2: children it's aimed at. Yeah, the nineteen fifty nine Santa

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Speaker 2: Claus movie largely introduced the concept of Santa to Mexico.

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Speaker 2: The sixty four film gave us our first cinematic missus clause. Also,

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Speaker 2: you know, established Santa Claus as an interplanetary figure. What

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Speaker 2: did this movie do? What did this movie teach my

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Speaker 2: generation about Santa Claus. That's a hard question to answer.

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Speaker 3: Well, can I raise a question? I truly don't know

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Speaker 3: if it originated here, but something I remember being aware

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Speaker 3: of when I was a kid. I was born, you know,

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Speaker 3: within a couple of years of this movie coming out,

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Speaker 3: And I never watched this one as a kid, so

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Speaker 3: I don't remember seeing it, but I remember a lot

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Speaker 3: of themes, a lot of Christmas movies with themes of

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Speaker 3: anti commercialism, where it was almost like the idea of

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Speaker 3: a Christmas movie. It was about how commercials for mass

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Speaker 3: manufactured toys are really bad. There's something icky about that,

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Speaker 3: despite the fact that like that's what we all wanted

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Speaker 3: for Christmas. We all wanted like toy, mass manufactured toys.

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Speaker 3: But I don't know, it just seemed like it was

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Speaker 3: part of the media zeitgeist of the season. You know,

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Speaker 3: the Christmas is really about something more important, and the

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Speaker 3: commercialism and the consumerism that's something that's the part that

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Speaker 3: we should eschew, and that is very much a part

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Speaker 3: of this film. It feels only loosely thought through, but

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Speaker 3: those are the themes that are being played with.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's weird because you can try and craft some

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Speaker 2: sort of complex metaphor with it, but at the end

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Speaker 2: of the day, you're generally presented with this scenario, Santa

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Speaker 2: Claus in most cinematic incarnations, brings handmade toys, wooden toys

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Speaker 2: to children. Yeah, and if we're dealing with pretty much

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Speaker 2: any like twentieth century or twenty first century household, we're

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Speaker 2: dealing with children that just don't want that crap anymore.

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Speaker 2: Like it's Yes, we get as grown ups that it's

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Speaker 2: made with love by the Tuapha Diden and or some

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Speaker 2: other mysterious Elvin race, that it's made with magic and

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Speaker 2: love and it's authentic, and it's not mass produced, and

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Speaker 2: it's made to last and so forth. But that's not

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Speaker 2: what children were excited about. You know. Children wanted Transformers

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Speaker 2: and Teddy Rutsman's and you know whatever the latest thing

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Speaker 2: la boo boos, you know, you name it. It's whatever

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Speaker 2: the trend is, and the more mass produced the better.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, we can agree with the basic sentiment that,

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Speaker 2: you know, all this highly commercialized, mass produced stuff isn't

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Speaker 2: as good, but it's still more desirable. But they give

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Speaker 2: us on the screen.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and the movie really does associate some kind

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Speaker 3: of virtue or moral purity with wooden toys as opposed

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Speaker 3: to I don't know, well, I was gonna say plastic toys,

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Speaker 3: but then we don't even really see plastic toys in

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Speaker 3: the movie. The toys that the bad guy makes are

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Speaker 3: teddy bears that are full of nails, dolls that catch

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Speaker 3: on fire, and various forms of poisonous or dangerous candy. Yes.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, One detail that I love about this film is

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Speaker 2: that supposedly they made all these wooden toys for the film. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and then after the production wrap, they did the Christmas

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Speaker 2: y thing and they gave those toys to children, and

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Speaker 2: I'm wondering how many of them just went like right

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Speaker 2: in the trash. Can you know, like, thanks Hollywood, sand

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Speaker 2: I really needed a wooden tricycle.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this lovingly made item. No, thank you. I want

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Speaker 3: the big wheel, big Kahuna rover, whatever it's called. Speaking

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Speaker 3: of things in the script that feel undercooked, did you

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Speaker 3: also notice on your first viewing that the finale of

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Speaker 3: Santa Claus the movie takes place in what I take

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Speaker 3: to be late January.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not even a Christmas Eve finale. Everything up

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Speaker 2: in the weeks that the dreary weeks following Christmas.

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Speaker 3: It's like the least Christmas E time of the entire

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Speaker 3: year is four weeks after Christmas.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's Christmas is almost a year away

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Speaker 2: at that point. Now, you mentioned that that this was

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Speaker 2: not a movie that was inflicted on you when you

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Speaker 2: were a kid. And one of the big reasons for

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Speaker 2: this is that despite this being a big budget film,

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Speaker 2: it was a flop in the United States. It was

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Speaker 2: a US UK co production, and famously it was a

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Speaker 2: hit in the UK. It really resonated with UK audiences,

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Speaker 2: and folks such as John lilithco have have pointed out

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Speaker 2: that when they go to the UK like people ask

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Speaker 2: about this movie. Lets Go has said that this is

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Speaker 2: this is one of the things that he was for

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Speaker 2: the longest time, most half of his popularity was due

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Speaker 2: to this movie.

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Speaker 3: In the UK, he doesn't have kids running up to

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Speaker 3: him asking to autograph their picture of Doctor Lizardo.

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Speaker 2: No, it's all about the villain of this film BZ.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So I find that quite interesting because, yeah, this doesn't

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Speaker 2: seem to be a film that really hit in the US.

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Speaker 2: It didn't didn't become annual viewing for the vast majority

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Speaker 2: of households.

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Speaker 3: I actually have a question here, is John Lithgow incredibly

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Speaker 3: tall or were they doing force perspective shots in his

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Speaker 3: scenes with Dudley Moore to make it look like he

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Speaker 3: was much bigger because Dudley Moore is supposed to be

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Speaker 3: an elf.

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Speaker 2: The Internet tells me John Lithgow is six feet four

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Speaker 2: so okay tall. Yeah, I think Dudley Moore, I'm not

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Speaker 2: going to look up his height as well, but I'm

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Speaker 2: under the assumption that he was also a reason he

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Speaker 2: was somewhat shorter than that at any rate.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, the movie makes it look like Lithgow is

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Speaker 3: like at least a foot and a half taller than.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, he's tall. He's taller than me.

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Speaker 4: Shows his teeth a lot. Yeah, we'll have a lot

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Speaker 4: to say about this. This performance probably perhaps the hammiest,

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Speaker 4: Like I would say Litgo's performance here is hammier than

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Speaker 4: when I've seen him do impersonations of.

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Speaker 2: Rudy Giuliani on The Colbert Show. Like it's like this

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Speaker 2: is that's a more restrained performance compared to this.

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Speaker 3: I mean, he's kind of doing an impersonation of Giuliani

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Speaker 3: in this movie. Yeah, a little bit feels feels like it.

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Speaker 3: The teeth kind of thing and the chomping.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, all right, Well I think I already already

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Speaker 2: did my elevator picture for it. This is a this

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Speaker 2: is a holiday double feature. Santa Santa Claus begins, followed

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Speaker 2: by Santa Claus Conqueror's Capitalism, but really, Santa Claus the movie,

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Speaker 2: the motion picture. Let's listen to a little trailer audio.

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Speaker 3: In a world where children are greedy.

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Speaker 5: Every year, the magic happens again, certainly should be until.

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Speaker 3: Now, what are you I'm an elf? An elf? Yeah,

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Speaker 3: you mean o very.

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Speaker 6: I mean I'm talking mutton messages of production here, I'm

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Speaker 6: talking assembly line.

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Speaker 3: I'm going away for the future.

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Speaker 6: Now, someone wants to take the magic out of Christmas.

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Speaker 5: We say, figure, brother's just going to cost your cost cost.

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Speaker 1: Who are the people who buy.

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Speaker 3: The toy for nothing? We're going to give them away free.

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Speaker 2: Well that's how we do it at the North Pole.

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Speaker 2: Well that's not how we do it here. Santa Clause.

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Speaker 3: He's finished.

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Speaker 6: Only one man can stop him, only one man can

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Speaker 6: help us. And he's coming to take you for a

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Speaker 6: sleigh ride. In the Star Alexander self kind Presents Having Heaven.

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Speaker 6: Santa Claus the movie scene is Believey.

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Speaker 2: All right, Well, if you would like to watch Santa

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Speaker 2: Claus the movie. Well, it's widely available for your digital

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Speaker 2: purchaser rental also as a physical release, but check your

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Speaker 2: region because, as we mentioned, more popular in the UK

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Speaker 2: than in the US, so I think some of the

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Speaker 2: more robust looking Blu rays are actually for the UK

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Speaker 2: market and maybe not for the US market. So just

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Speaker 2: make sure you're ordering the right thing as you inevitably

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Speaker 2: double down on a forever purchase for this film.

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Speaker 3: When I streamed it, the version I found was called

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Speaker 3: something like the twenty fifth Anniversary.

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Speaker 2: Edition or something.

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Speaker 3: It's like, wow, okay, so somebody's out there given this

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Speaker 3: film the treatment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it has its fans, and you know it

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Speaker 2: had been you know, if this had been one that

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Speaker 2: my parents said loud for some reason or another, and

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Speaker 2: it had been something we watched every year, or of

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Speaker 2: it just happened to be aired on TV with the

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Speaker 2: regularity that some hallowed classics and holiday favorites have been aired,

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Speaker 2: then I think it could have been a different story.

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Speaker 2: All right, let's get into the people behind this film.

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Speaker 2: The director here is Jane Sewark who lived nineteen thirty

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Speaker 2: seven through twenty twenty five, a French director who had

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Speaker 2: a prolific career as an American TV director across six decades.

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Speaker 2: This guy's filmography is incredible, especially when it comes to

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Speaker 2: television series. A special note to me. He directed nineteen

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Speaker 2: episodes of Rod Serling's Night Gallery, so nearly half of

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Speaker 2: the total episodes, and then includes some of the best episodes.

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Speaker 3: Any of the ones you've done on our anthology series.

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Speaker 2: Possibly not, but like some of them, like the one

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Speaker 2: that's an adaptation of the Clark Ashton Smith story that

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Speaker 2: I believe had Vincent Price in it, The Return of

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Speaker 2: the Sorcerer that was one that he directed. So he

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Speaker 2: had a hand in some of the some some of

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Speaker 2: the big episodes that people remember. And on top of that,

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Speaker 2: he directed episodes of Colombo, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kojak,

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Speaker 2: the nineteen eighties Twilight Zone, Ali McBeal, CSI, Miami Heroes, Smallville, Fringe,

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Speaker 2: Gray's Anatomy. So just you know, this guy was in

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Speaker 2: TV for a long time now. In film, he kicked

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Speaker 2: things off with the seventy two TV horror film Night

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Speaker 2: of Terror and also nineteen seventy three's The Devil's Daughter

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Speaker 2: starring our favorite work best Robert Foxworth. Ah yes, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it was a Heyday for inventive and sort of daring

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Speaker 2: made for TV films, So it's a good era for

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Speaker 2: him to have come up in. Now. I believe his

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Speaker 2: first theatrical film was seventy three's Extreme Close Up, and

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Speaker 2: in seventy five he did a mutant cockroach film called Bug,

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Speaker 2: not to be confused with the Tracy Letts play or

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Speaker 2: it's two thousand and six film adaptation. Plus there have

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Speaker 2: been some other thing, other movies called Bug that have

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Speaker 2: nothing to do with this one.

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Speaker 3: Oh wait, is that film adaptation, the William friedkin one?

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Speaker 2: It is? Yes, Okay, I haven't seen the film adaptation,

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Speaker 2: but I saw an Atlanta area production of the play

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Speaker 2: a long time ago and remember thinking it was quite good.

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Speaker 2: Also very naked. It's a very naked play, one of those. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy eight, though, our director here, so Wark

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Speaker 2: directed Jaws two. You know, this is what we were

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Speaker 2: talking about this off mic before we started here. Jaws

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Speaker 2: two is not one I remember all that.

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Speaker 3: Well. Yeah, I've seen it several times. It's been years

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Speaker 3: since I've seen it. It doesn't really stick in the

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Speaker 3: memory a lot, I think because it is not bad

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Speaker 3: enough to be notably bad. And not good enough to

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Speaker 3: be notably good. It's I think it's kind of like

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Speaker 3: Halloween two in that regard. It's a competently made but

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Speaker 3: unnecessary sequel to a very excellent original horror film. So,

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Speaker 3: you know, the original Jaws. We've just talked recently on

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Speaker 3: the show about how I think it's almost a perfect movie.

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Speaker 3: It's like, so so good, exceptional in all these different ways.

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Speaker 3: Some of the later Jaws sequels are so bad that

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Speaker 3: they are quite memorable, as the Revenge is hilarious, and

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Speaker 3: Jaws two it just doesn't quite go far. And you know,

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Speaker 3: it is neither hot nor cold, so I must spit

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Speaker 3: it out of my mouth.

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Speaker 6: You know.

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Speaker 3: It's a pretty well made, but forgettable shark movie.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay. Nineteen eighty though. He followed this up with

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Speaker 2: Somewhere in Time. I've not seen this one, but it

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Speaker 2: was scripted by Richard Matheson, which is always a great sign,

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Speaker 2: and it started time traveling Christopher Reeve alongside Jane Seymour

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Speaker 2: and Christopher Plumber.

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Speaker 3: Oh my interest, this has my interest.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's supposed to be rather good. He followed

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Speaker 2: this up with the nineteen eighty two spy thriller Enigma

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty four is Supergirl, which this is one of

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Speaker 2: those films that I liked when I saw it as

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Speaker 2: a kid, but then later on I would read people

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Speaker 2: talking about how terrible it was. I don't know, I

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Speaker 2: haven't revisited it, but I don't think I ever really

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Speaker 2: watched the Superman movies in full, but superal Girl I

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Speaker 2: did watch, and I was like, oh, it's pretty fun.

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Speaker 2: I think I saw part of the Superman movie they

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Speaker 2: had Richard Pryor in it. That was the third one.

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Speaker 3: I think, Yeah, you know, I don't know if I've

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Speaker 3: ever seen Superman three all the way through. I've definitely

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Speaker 3: seen the first two, and i've definitely oh, there's a

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Speaker 3: similar thing with well, not with Superman two, because I

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Speaker 3: think the Superman two is actually great, unlike Jaws two.

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Speaker 3: But Superman four is so hilarious it becomes great.

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Speaker 2: It's Superman four the Solar Man.

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Speaker 3: That's the Quest for Peace, Yes, where Alex Luthor has

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Speaker 3: Superman throw all of the nuclear weapons and attaches his

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Speaker 3: DNA to them so that it makes a like a

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Speaker 3: nuclear Man.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Okay, I've seen that one. It's just the first two,

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Speaker 2: the really good ones that I've never seen.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Oh wow, you've never seen the first two supermanen Oh.

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Speaker 2: No, it's weird. It's a big hole in my film viewing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I like them, but yeah, Superman four is very funny.

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Speaker 3: There's one part that always sticks in my head where

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Speaker 3: the bad guy Solar or not Solar Man. I think

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Speaker 3: he's called radio not radioactive man, I don't know, something

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Speaker 3: like that, radiation nuclear man, I think. And he's you know,

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Speaker 3: he's out like attacking Superman and he threatens him by,

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Speaker 3: you know, motioning to a crowd of terrified earthlings, and

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Speaker 3: he says, I will hurt people, and Superman says, no,

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Speaker 3: the people.

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Speaker 2: Tremendous well. Zark follows this up with various other films.

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Speaker 2: It's a nineteen eighty six adaptation of The Murders in

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Speaker 2: the Room Morgue, and his final film before returning to

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Speaker 2: TV was the French dog crime comedy film Hercule and Sherlock,

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Speaker 2: starring Christopher Lambert. I'm not sure if the dogs talk

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Speaker 2: in this one. I'm not sure if anyone's actually seen

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Speaker 2: this movie. It doesn't look like it has a huge

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Speaker 2: footprint out there. I'm not looking to pull it up

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Speaker 2: any time soon. Now speaking of Superman. The writers on

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Speaker 2: Santa Claus the Movie are David and Leslie Newman. This

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Speaker 2: was the married screenwriting duo David lived nineteen thirty seven

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Speaker 2: through two thousand and three Unless We Live nineteen thirty

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Speaker 2: eight through twenty twenty one, best known for their work

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Speaker 2: on the first three Superman films together and critics have

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Speaker 2: long noted some plotting similarities between Santa Claus and the

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Speaker 2: first Superman. I think it has to do with how

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Speaker 2: long you have to watch the movie before the villain

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Speaker 2: is introduced.

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Speaker 3: Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, both of

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Speaker 3: them have extended origin narratives. And you know, I think

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Speaker 3: that the first couple Superman movies are much better scripts

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Speaker 3: than Santa Claus the Movie, much more I don't know,

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Speaker 3: coherent focused, like they tell a better tale, but they

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Speaker 3: do have some similarities. They both have a very g

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Speaker 3: golly quality, a kind of innocent, wholesome, hold onto your

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Speaker 3: hats kind of a sense of fun and adventurer. So

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Speaker 3: that's in common. Like, there were parts of this movie

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Speaker 3: that I think do not work at all, but the

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Speaker 3: parts were, like Santa Claus is trying to execute a

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Speaker 3: stunt on his sleigh, that feel like writing moments in

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Speaker 3: the first couple Superman films.

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Speaker 2: Okay, all right, now these two. Leslie was also a

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Speaker 2: cookbook author, and David's other screenplays included nineteen sixty seven's

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Speaker 2: Bonnie and Clyde, seventy two's Bad Company, eighty four sena

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Speaker 2: Queen of the Jungle, and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.

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Speaker 3: So I'd assume they did not consider Santa Claus the

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Speaker 3: movie their best work. Probably.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I didn't run across them particularly trashing it

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Speaker 2: or anything, but how could they write?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, now, wait a minute. We already mentioned at the

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Speaker 3: top one of the weirdest things about this movie for

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Speaker 3: modern viewers, which is that, at least one of the

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Speaker 3: weirdest things for me. Santa Claus is played by David Huddleston,

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Speaker 3: a character actor known for a bunch of things. But

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Speaker 3: the thing I know him best for is playing the

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Speaker 3: other Lebowski, the Big Lebowski, in the film The Big Lebowski.

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Speaker 3: And so I couldn't but hear his voice delivering Big

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Speaker 3: Lebowski lines while I'm watching this Movie's talking about the

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Speaker 3: naughty children and the nice children, and I'm thinking about

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Speaker 3: him saying, like your revolution is over the bottom's loss.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true. We do have The Big Lebowski himself

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Speaker 2: playing Santa Claus. Here Huddleston, who have nineteen thirty through

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Speaker 2: twenty sixteen enjoyed a very long career playing a variety

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Speaker 2: of characters, but he often excelled in playing heavies and villains,

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Speaker 2: such as to a large degree, The Big Lebowski, but

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Speaker 2: also the brutal gang leader Big Joe opposite a twenty

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Speaker 2: three year old Jeff Bridges and Bad Company, which I

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Speaker 2: referenced just a second ago.

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Speaker 3: I've never seen that.

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Speaker 2: I haven't either, but it looks interesting. It's weird when

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Speaker 2: I see I'm so used to Jeff Bridges from a

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Speaker 2: certain point in his life forward, and when I see

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Speaker 2: really young Jeff Bridges, I almost feel like I'm looking

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Speaker 2: at a computer. The aged Jeff Bridges, I almost get

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Speaker 2: Uncanny Valley from it, despite the fact that that's just

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Speaker 2: how he looked when the dude was in his early twenties.

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Speaker 3: I grew up watching some movies with younger Jeff Bridges,

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Speaker 3: like Tron, so I was familiar with him, but somehow

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Speaker 3: still my brain always sectioned older Jeff Bridges and younger

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Speaker 3: Jeff Bridges into two different actors.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So it's interesting here that David Huddleston again

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Speaker 2: played a lot of heavies is here playing the cheerful

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Speaker 2: or mostly cheerful Santa Claus. But it did remind me

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Speaker 2: it's kind of like the Mexican Santa Claus movie where

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Speaker 2: we had jose LEAs Moreno playing Chris Kringle, and he

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Speaker 2: himself also played a lot of heavies, authority figures and

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Speaker 2: the like, so perhaps similar casting wisdom here. Did Brimley

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Speaker 2: ever play play Santa Claus?

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Speaker 5: Oh?

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Speaker 3: I bet he did? I bet?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's something about it. There's like a there's some

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Speaker 2: sort of a Venn diagram to be made here of

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Speaker 2: the sort of actors that play Santa Claus and the

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Speaker 2: other sorts of roles.

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Speaker 3: They play Henchman types. Did Michael Ironside ever play Santa.

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Speaker 2: Oh there's still time. He's still with us. Get him

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Speaker 2: in there.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I was reading a little bit about Huddleston and there's

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Speaker 2: a quote that pops up in various forms of his

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Speaker 2: obituary where he had said, even when I play heavies,

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Speaker 2: I try to play them with a twinkle in my eye. Besides,

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Speaker 2: it makes him seem much meaner when he does kill,

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Speaker 2: which I thought was interesting, But I guess that means

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Speaker 2: we just have all twinkle here, because Santa Claus never

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Speaker 2: kills anybody. He does Santa Claus.

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Speaker 3: The movie there, but there are moments where he's a

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Speaker 3: little bit menacing. You remember the scene where he first

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Speaker 3: meets the elves and Dudley Moore gets caught inspecting his

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00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:04,320
Speaker 3: sleigh without permission, and then he like pops out from

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Speaker 3: under it, and Claus is just standing there over him

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Speaker 3: with this cold look like he's gonna stomp his face.

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Speaker 3: It is intimidating. Yeah, and he's a big guy in

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Speaker 3: this movie.

433
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:19,880
Speaker 2: He is. He towers over all the elves. So Huddleson's

434
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 2: other roles include Let's See. Other films include nineteen seventies

435
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:28,200
Speaker 2: Rio Lobo, seventy one's Brian Song, seventy four's Blazing Saddles,

436
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 2: seventy seven's Capricorn one, and nineteen eighty eights Frantic. All right,

437
00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:36,680
Speaker 2: we've mentioned this actor already as well, but Dudley Moore

438
00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:40,720
Speaker 2: plays Patch the Elf. Dudley Moore lived nineteen thirty five

439
00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:43,520
Speaker 2: through two thousand and two. British comedic actor who earned

440
00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:46,480
Speaker 2: an Oscar nomination for his role in nineteen eighty two's Arthur.

441
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 2: Other films include nineteen sixty seven's Bedazzled, the Hound of

442
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,440
Speaker 2: the Baskervilles in nineteen seventy eight, and he played Watson

443
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:59,200
Speaker 2: in that opposite Peter Cook. This was a comedy. Peter

444
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 2: Cook and Dudley Moore work together. They had a long

445
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,560
Speaker 2: running comedy act as Derek and Clive Let's see. Other

446
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:10,440
Speaker 2: movies from Dudley Moore include foul Play also from seventy eight,

447
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 2: Blake Edwards ten and seventy nine, and Yeah, he co

448
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:18,320
Speaker 2: wrote be Dazzled with Cook. So Dudley Moore when I

449
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 2: was a case, he seemed to be just a comedy staple.

450
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:22,879
Speaker 2: He was in all these different films you saw. If

451
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:26,240
Speaker 2: you walked into the comedy section of your VHS rental store,

452
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:28,920
Speaker 2: you'd see a lot of deadly Moore smiling back at you.

453
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,199
Speaker 2: I haven't I hadn't watched one of his films in

454
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:36,640
Speaker 2: quite a while. This is probably not a fair selection

455
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,320
Speaker 2: to judge his abilities on. He's fine in Santa Claus

456
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 2: the movie, but man, he's working with some pretty lackluster

457
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:44,920
Speaker 2: comedic material here.

458
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:50,400
Speaker 3: A lot of elf related puns. Any two word compound

459
00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:52,480
Speaker 3: you can think of with the word self in it

460
00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 3: to this movie will use the same thing, but with

461
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:57,879
Speaker 3: the word elf. So he needs to practice a bit

462
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 3: of elf control, a little bit of elf confidence. I'm

463
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 3: entirely elf taught that sort of thing. Also, it's interesting

464
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:10,800
Speaker 3: the role they have him play here, which is that

465
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:14,679
Speaker 3: in a movie where the villain is in some ways

466
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:21,040
Speaker 3: mass production of toys and you know, mechanistic approaches to

467
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:26,400
Speaker 3: bringing children good cheer, Dudley Moore, who is a good character,

468
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:30,199
Speaker 3: essentially embodies the same thing. He's like. He is the

469
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:33,080
Speaker 3: Q branch of the North Pole. He is trying to

470
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:39,880
Speaker 3: introduce technological changes and new mechanical efficiencies and automation processes

471
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:40,680
Speaker 3: to the North Pole.

472
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I kept thinking that his character, Patch not Pitch,

473
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:50,879
Speaker 2: is kind of the satan figure of this piece, but

474
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 2: not in a way that's really explored or thought out.

475
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:54,159
Speaker 3: He's well meaning.

476
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:57,639
Speaker 2: Yeah. He is an ancient being who is part of

477
00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:02,200
Speaker 2: in this case Santa's Kingdom who has brought some new

478
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:05,840
Speaker 2: ideas to the table. Those ideas don't work out, and

479
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:10,680
Speaker 2: he is cast from Santa's Kingdom into the mortal world,

480
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:14,879
Speaker 2: where he begins to create mischief for one reason or

481
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:18,400
Speaker 2: another and ultimately sets him up. He sets himself up

482
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 2: as a direct rival of Santa in the mortal world.

483
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 2: He is a traitor to the North Pofle.

484
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:26,560
Speaker 3: He's a Prometheus figure.

485
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 2: Yeah.

486
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:30,040
Speaker 3: He brings the fire of Olympus, in this case the

487
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 3: golden dust that they feed to the reindeer. He brings

488
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 3: that down to the mortals and it creates big problems.

489
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:41,080
Speaker 2: He is a Promethean figure. This will be yeah, this

490
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:44,000
Speaker 2: will be fun to discuss and think about. Though again

491
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,560
Speaker 2: one does not get the impression that anyone making the

492
00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 2: film gave these ideas much thought. All right, and once more,

493
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:52,480
Speaker 2: our villain Bez. I don't know if we ever find

494
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 2: out what that stands for. But Bez is played by

495
00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 2: John Wiskow born nineteen forty five. Yes, two time Oscar nominee.

496
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:04,119
Speaker 2: A skilled performer capable of bringing to life chilling murderers,

497
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 2: mad men, sympathetic father figures, and comedic buffoons. And here

498
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:11,040
Speaker 2: he just hams it up all the way to play

499
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:16,359
Speaker 2: barely a cardboard cutout, just a sketch of an old

500
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 2: school tycoon who just wants to milk parents out of

501
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:22,879
Speaker 2: their hard earned cash in exchange for dangerous toys that

502
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:26,760
Speaker 2: are loaded with broken glass or high grade magic reindeer fuel.

503
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:31,200
Speaker 3: He is he is a living cartoon. At this level,

504
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 3: the level of overacting really cannot be communicated in words.

505
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 3: You just need to see it. He is a cartoon

506
00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:44,360
Speaker 3: level depiction of a robber, baron, corrupt industrialist.

507
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, it's just a cartoon character. And he's very

508
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 2: entertaining in the role. Like clearly it's a case where

509
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:54,440
Speaker 2: he knew he didn't have much to work with. He

510
00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 2: knew the sort of movie this was and knew exactly

511
00:28:57,200 --> 00:28:59,800
Speaker 2: what levers to pull to give it his best.

512
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 3: Literally chomping a cigar through the.

513
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 2: Phone, Oh my god, shopping it just yeah, the cigar

514
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:08,760
Speaker 2: work alone, it's it's quite intensive.

515
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:12,720
Speaker 3: You can see the structural integrity of the cigar failing

516
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 3: under his teeth as he performs the scene. It's coming

517
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,840
Speaker 3: apart and it's getting in the mouth. And also I

518
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,480
Speaker 3: was quite surprised that this character does direct product placement

519
00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 3: for Peraps Blue Ribbon.

520
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 2: Yes, did they get a say in which characters interact?

521
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 2: Because you hear things about like I don't know if

522
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 2: this is still the case, but for a while, the

523
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:35,479
Speaker 2: story was that Apple was like, Okay, you can have

524
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:38,480
Speaker 2: iPhones in movies, but the villains can't use them. Villains

525
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,960
Speaker 2: have to use something else where. They peraps the blue

526
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:44,200
Speaker 2: ribbon where they're like, yeah, we want, we want the

527
00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:47,800
Speaker 2: villain drinking our beer the evil coup glass or something.

528
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 3: The bad rich man in the movie drinks paps to

529
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 3: blue ribbon. I guess it still makes it look like

530
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:56,720
Speaker 3: a luxury item, but that's one of the main three

531
00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 3: product placements we get in the film. There is mac

532
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 3: in the level integration of McDonald's in a truly hilariously

533
00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 3: bad scene where an impoverished child like stares through the

534
00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 3: glass into a McDonald's wanting to eat all of the

535
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 3: menu items, and you see the different menu items. It's

536
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 3: like he's wanting a big mac. He's wanting nuggets. And

537
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:24,080
Speaker 3: then there's also a scene where the same child is

538
00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 3: given by a rich girl a holiday meal. It's like

539
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:30,720
Speaker 3: a plate with roast dinner and Yorkshire puddings and all

540
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:32,479
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff, and a coke, a can of

541
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:35,000
Speaker 3: coke held out so you can see the label. And

542
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:38,160
Speaker 3: then finally, yeah, the villain pours himself a big, nice

543
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,200
Speaker 3: frosty glass of pbr right when he's about to murder

544
00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 3: a child.

545
00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:45,160
Speaker 2: All right, well he's good. I'm not gonna list all

546
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 2: the things he's been in. Just briefly, I'll say. Yeah,

547
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 2: this is the same guy who was in Harry and

548
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:57,720
Speaker 2: the Henderson's Raising Cane in ninety two Conclave, you know,

549
00:30:57,880 --> 00:30:59,560
Speaker 2: just all over the place, Third Rock from the Sun

550
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:03,240
Speaker 2: on TV. He played a pivotal role in Dexter. Again.

551
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 3: He can do anything the villain and Cliffhanger.

552
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:11,480
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, yeah, he's a great villain performer. He

553
00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 2: doesn't do it all the time, and he's not a

554
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,960
Speaker 2: villain specialist, but when he does it, it's memorable. I

555
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 2: mean here, it's memorable.

556
00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 3: Did you understand who is this character played by Burgess Meredith?

557
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 2: Ah? The Ancient Elf?

558
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 3: Is that what it is? Do they say that is?

559
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:32,360
Speaker 2: I think how he's credited as ancient Elf? An elf

560
00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 2: with a beard so long that it is split in

561
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:36,760
Speaker 2: two and must be held by other elves.

562
00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 3: It's held up like the like the wedding train of

563
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 3: a bride going down the aisle. You know, they got

564
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:46,960
Speaker 3: this long mustache suspended he has. He's a wizard like quality.

565
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 3: Also a strangely Old Testament religious quality.

566
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:53,640
Speaker 2: I would agree. Yeah. When we watched it with my wife.

567
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 2: Weirdly enough, our child was not interested, so it was

568
00:31:56,600 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 2: just the parents watching this one. But when we watched it,

569
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:02,680
Speaker 2: my wife theorized that this guy was sort of like

570
00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:07,040
Speaker 2: the original Santa or he was the prime gift giving

571
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:12,200
Speaker 2: entity who is now dying, and it must pass the

572
00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:14,680
Speaker 2: mantle on to this new mortal that has been brought

573
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:15,960
Speaker 2: into the immortal world.

574
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 3: Interesting theory that I don't think they say that, do they.

575
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:23,360
Speaker 2: No, they certainly don't tell us that. But it's Burgess Meredith.

576
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,360
Speaker 2: And like we were discussing in Clash of the Titans,

577
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:30,200
Speaker 2: he just classes up anything he happens to walk into,

578
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:31,960
Speaker 2: and I think that the same can be said here.

579
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:34,200
Speaker 3: I was wondering if we were gonna have to see

580
00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 3: him like cut the bruise over Santa's eyes and get

581
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:39,800
Speaker 3: the swelling to go down. But no, he doesn't even

582
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 3: show up to give a pep talk later in the film,

583
00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:44,640
Speaker 3: does he. I think we just get one scene of

584
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 3: this guy and that's it, right.

585
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:47,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then he's gone. We don't see him die

586
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 2: or anything or turn into into light. No, he's just

587
00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 2: he gets this one scene. But hey, one of the

588
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:57,000
Speaker 2: great American character actors here, two time Oscar nominee for

589
00:32:57,000 --> 00:32:59,480
Speaker 2: Supporting Roles in seventy six is the Day of the Locust,

590
00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 2: and of course seventy seven's Rocky, So yeah, one of

591
00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:08,240
Speaker 2: the greats. I can't remember what he was actually talking about,

592
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:11,360
Speaker 2: but man, I was enraptured by him while he was

593
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:14,920
Speaker 2: reciting these lines. All right, let's move into some of

594
00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 2: the more minor characters here. We have Missus Clause once more,

595
00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 2: and she has a little more to do, I would say,

596
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:26,760
Speaker 2: than other Missus claus featured films.

597
00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 3: Probably because we get the origin story. We learned that

598
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:30,240
Speaker 3: her name here is Anya.

599
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 2: Yes, Yes, Anya Clause. She's played here by Judy Cornwell

600
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 2: born nineteen forty BAFTA nominated actress, nominated for seventy five's

601
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:44,040
Speaker 2: Cakes and Ale. She was also in nineteen seventies Worthering Heights,

602
00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:47,320
Speaker 2: and she was in Curtis Harrington's nineteen seventy two film

603
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:50,640
Speaker 2: Whoever Slew Anti Roue. That's not a Harrington film I've seen,

604
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:53,880
Speaker 2: but you know of note for stuff to blow your

605
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:59,880
Speaker 2: mind listeners. All right, we also have Jeffrey Kramer playing Cowser.

606
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:04,479
Speaker 2: Towser is Beezy's Toady, he is his Smithers. There are

607
00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:09,960
Speaker 2: even some Smithers adjacent jokes made in the film. And yeah,

608
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:13,399
Speaker 2: Kramer played the character Hendrix in both Jaws and Jaws two.

609
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:15,840
Speaker 2: He was also in nineteen eighty five's Clue.

610
00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:20,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, just wretched subservient helper of the villain who really

611
00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:23,840
Speaker 3: likes the color puce, we will learn, and is aware

612
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:28,279
Speaker 3: of the difference between between puce and other colors on

613
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 3: the color wheel.

614
00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:31,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty much all the character development we have

615
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 2: for this guy. I also note that there's there's a

616
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:38,200
Speaker 2: character named Grizzard, and I'm not sure what role Grizzard

617
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,239
Speaker 2: actually has in the villain power structure here, but he's

618
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:44,440
Speaker 2: played by John Hallam who lived nineteen forty one through

619
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 2: two thousand and six, a British character actor who frequently

620
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 2: played villains, and we previously mentioned him because he was

621
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:53,000
Speaker 2: in both Dragon Slayer and Flash Gordon. But really almost

622
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:54,279
Speaker 2: a background character here.

623
00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:56,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't remember what he does. Oh but wait,

624
00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:59,359
Speaker 3: we got it. You know, you would think that the

625
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:03,239
Speaker 3: main character of Santa Claus the movie would probably be

626
00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 3: a lovable child of some kind a lovable child who

627
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:09,040
Speaker 3: learns about the magic of Santa Claus. But no, as

628
00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 3: we've established the main character of the movie is Santa Claus.

629
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:16,640
Speaker 3: Halfway through the film they do remember to introduce some children.

630
00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:20,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we get one of both types. We have

631
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 2: a rich kid and we have a poor kid. Because,

632
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:27,640
Speaker 2: of course, any consideration of Santa Claus involves the unanswerable

633
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:30,000
Speaker 2: questions of why, you know, why do good things happen

634
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:32,200
Speaker 2: to bad people? And why do bad things happen to

635
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 2: good people? Why do children not get Christmas gifts from

636
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 2: Santa just because they are poor? And so forth. This,

637
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:44,120
Speaker 2: of course, was explored with much more depth in thought

638
00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:48,600
Speaker 2: in the Mexican Santa Claus film. Here they kind of

639
00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:50,319
Speaker 2: swirl their toes around in it a little bit.

640
00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:52,920
Speaker 3: Well, it's a little bit different here too, because in

641
00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 3: the Mexican Santa Claus film we get a different kind

642
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:59,839
Speaker 3: of contrast. We meet two children who are both good, kind, chill,

643
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:03,360
Speaker 3: but one is rich and one is poor. Here we

644
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:05,840
Speaker 3: meet well, actually, I guess both the kids in this

645
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:09,000
Speaker 3: movie are good, but the poor kid has a much

646
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 3: harder edge. She's kind of a little Fonsie like. He

647
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:14,840
Speaker 3: wears a leather jacket, and he's street tough, and he's

648
00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:17,440
Speaker 3: very skeptical of Santa at first, but he's got a

649
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:17,880
Speaker 3: good heart.

650
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is Joe. He is yeah, kind of a

651
00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:26,800
Speaker 2: Dickensian street urchin, Yes, transplanted into nineteen eighties New York City.

652
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:31,279
Speaker 3: He's the artful dodger by way of the Fawns, but

653
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:33,520
Speaker 3: living in modern New York.

654
00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:37,839
Speaker 2: But a child, Yes, and he is played by Christian Fitzpatrick,

655
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:40,640
Speaker 2: a child actor whose only other credit was nineteen eighty

656
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:44,120
Speaker 2: eight vice versa. And then Our rich Kid is Cornelia,

657
00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:47,959
Speaker 2: played by Carrie kai Heim born nineteen seventy three, child

658
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:50,319
Speaker 2: actor who also appeared in nineteen eighty six as the

659
00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:52,840
Speaker 2: parent Trap two. She went on to become a lawyer

660
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:56,320
Speaker 2: and novelist. Now there's a scene in the film where

661
00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,520
Speaker 2: Cornelia is at ballet practice, you know, some sort of

662
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:04,680
Speaker 2: I guess pricey New York City ballet class for little girls,

663
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:08,880
Speaker 2: and she encounters a couple of I think they're just

664
00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:12,360
Speaker 2: billed as braddy kids in ballet bullies. The bullies that

665
00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:16,320
Speaker 2: start pushing her around. Two of them are of note.

666
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,439
Speaker 2: One of them is played by future Canadian British pop

667
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:22,520
Speaker 2: singer Nicole Appleton, and then the other is played by

668
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:26,120
Speaker 2: future pro wrestler Shannon Spurrell, who was known as Daphne

669
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:30,040
Speaker 2: in like WUCW and some other promotions.

670
00:37:30,160 --> 00:37:33,200
Speaker 3: Oh wow, I never would have caught that is Daphne

671
00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:34,520
Speaker 3: a face or a heel.

672
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:41,360
Speaker 2: She played kind of like Banshee, screaming like wild.

673
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:43,239
Speaker 3: Woman type roles. Yeah, okay, cool, Yeah, that.

674
00:37:43,239 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 2: Was kind of her character all right. And finally, the

675
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,120
Speaker 2: score for this movie is by the legendary Henry Mancini

676
00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:52,520
Speaker 2: who lived nineteen twenty four through nineteen ninety four. This

677
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:54,680
Speaker 2: is the guy, of course, gave us the music for

678
00:37:54,719 --> 00:37:57,840
Speaker 2: such films as nineteen sixty one's Breakfast at Tiffany's in

679
00:37:57,920 --> 00:37:59,800
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty three's The Pink Panther.

680
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:02,279
Speaker 3: I love the Pink Panther theme. That was one of

681
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:04,319
Speaker 3: the ones I always tried to plink out on the

682
00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:05,400
Speaker 3: piano when I was little.

683
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:09,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great track. I recently attended a concert

684
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:12,799
Speaker 2: by Russian horror surf band Messer Chups and they did

685
00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:16,520
Speaker 2: a great rendition of the Pink Panther theme song. But yeah,

686
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:19,759
Speaker 2: mensining multiple time OSCAR nominee and winner for Breakfast to

687
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:23,400
Speaker 2: Tiffany's nineteen sixty threes Days of Wine and Roses and

688
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:33,080
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three's Victor Victoria.

689
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 3: All right, you ready to talk about the plot?

690
00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:37,520
Speaker 2: Oh yes, let's get into the plot.

691
00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:39,759
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm not gonna I think we're not going to

692
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:42,840
Speaker 3: do the full, extensive scene to scene kind of breakdown

693
00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:45,439
Speaker 3: we do with some movies. Some parts of this movie

694
00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:48,120
Speaker 3: are kind of light on plot. Other parts. I don't

695
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:50,839
Speaker 3: know how interesting they'd be to cover all the machinations.

696
00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:52,839
Speaker 3: But I think we'll do that thing where we cover

697
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:54,920
Speaker 3: some of the beginning and more detail and then talk

698
00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:59,160
Speaker 3: about the broad strokes later on. So I want to

699
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,759
Speaker 3: say again, alluded to this earlier, I think, but when

700
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:04,319
Speaker 3: the movie started I was really thrown off because I

701
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:08,839
Speaker 3: kept thinking I was watching some sort of prologue which

702
00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:12,880
Speaker 3: would play out before we meet the actual main characters,

703
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:16,840
Speaker 3: presumably again like modern human children the audience can identify with,

704
00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:21,800
Speaker 3: And instead it just kept going and going and going

705
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:25,000
Speaker 3: with the Santa Origins chronicle, and then half the movie

706
00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:30,560
Speaker 3: was over. So it is strange how late the human

707
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:32,480
Speaker 3: children are jammed into the story.

708
00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:36,200
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, yeah. How long are we going to be

709
00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:38,640
Speaker 2: stuck in the Middle Ages for this movie? More than

710
00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:39,600
Speaker 2: you might expect.

711
00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:45,600
Speaker 3: It's like forty minutes basically. So yeah, Anyway, where does

712
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,960
Speaker 3: this origin story begin. It begins sometime in the Middle Ages,

713
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 3: in a far northern region of Europe. I assume this

714
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:55,759
Speaker 3: is supposed to be Laplund, which is interesting because it

715
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:59,279
Speaker 3: put me in mind of the White Reindeer. Another movie

716
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:02,560
Speaker 3: we've covered on house this was the ware Reindeer film

717
00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 3: as in Werewolf, about a woman who consults the help

718
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:09,680
Speaker 3: of a wizard and then is transformed by some kind

719
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:14,280
Speaker 3: of magic into a being that turns into a reindeer

720
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,399
Speaker 3: and kills men. We watched that earlier this year. It's

721
00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:21,120
Speaker 3: set among the people of northern Finland, and that movie was,

722
00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:25,719
Speaker 3: from what I understand, a fairly authentic portrayal of traditional

723
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:29,720
Speaker 3: life in Lapland, which was hugely based around reindeer herding.

724
00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:33,600
Speaker 3: This movie presents a much more idealized vision of winter

725
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:37,279
Speaker 3: life in northern Europe. There's a Thomas Kincaid quality to it,

726
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:40,960
Speaker 3: warm orange light coming out of the cozy windows of

727
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:44,759
Speaker 3: cabins and the snow smoke pouring from the chimney. So

728
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:47,239
Speaker 3: the first real thing we see in the film is

729
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,200
Speaker 3: one of these cozy cabins zooming in on it as

730
00:40:50,239 --> 00:40:53,520
Speaker 3: the narrator sets up the story. The narrator, it's a

731
00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:56,040
Speaker 3: woman's voice. I remember thinking she sounds kind of like

732
00:40:56,080 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 3: Angela Lansbury. And she says, in a certain time, in

733
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:04,040
Speaker 3: a certain land, once there lived, and once there was

734
00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 3: a magic kingdom at the top of the world. If

735
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:10,440
Speaker 3: a traveler came to that cold, freezing place, and no

736
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:13,840
Speaker 3: traveler ever did, all he would see would be ice,

737
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:18,040
Speaker 3: mountains of ice and snow. But on certain nights, when

738
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:21,919
Speaker 3: stars of the sky shined like jewels, a wonderful light

739
00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:25,799
Speaker 3: appeared in the heavens, and then many lights, all the

740
00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:29,160
Speaker 3: colors of the rainbow, and some colors never seen before.

741
00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:33,359
Speaker 3: Way on top, the north Star sparkled. Do you start

742
00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:35,759
Speaker 3: picking up on something weird about this narration that it

743
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:39,279
Speaker 3: starts as like a continuous, you know, there always was

744
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:41,680
Speaker 3: kind of story, and then sounds like it's talking about

745
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:43,800
Speaker 3: a specific time something happened.

746
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:48,799
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it really feels like different drafts, different Dosanta

747
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:50,960
Speaker 2: films kind of were stitched together here.

748
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:53,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so it goes on to say, and suddenly

749
00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:57,280
Speaker 3: the ice mountains cracked open, and beautiful, beautiful lights pierced

750
00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:01,600
Speaker 3: the sky, and then out came the Vendiga, hundreds of them,

751
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:05,160
Speaker 3: all in their bright colored clothes. Rob I looked up

752
00:42:05,239 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 3: vindigums and I didn't do a deep dive, but from

753
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:11,279
Speaker 3: what I could tell, I think this is made up

754
00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:14,360
Speaker 3: for the film. I don't think vindigums are a type

755
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:16,960
Speaker 3: of creature pre dating Santa Claus the movie.

756
00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:20,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, which would be interesting because there are so many

757
00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:23,800
Speaker 2: words for the little people yea, and the little people

758
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:26,839
Speaker 2: adjacent entities. You really have your pick.

759
00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:29,520
Speaker 3: At this point, it's not just voiceover. By the way,

760
00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:31,840
Speaker 3: we can see that an old woman is telling this

761
00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:34,760
Speaker 3: story to a group of children gathered around to fire.

762
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:38,840
Speaker 3: The children ask her what the vindigums are. She explains

763
00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:40,600
Speaker 3: that they are the little men who live in the

764
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:42,959
Speaker 3: ice mountains at the top of the world, which isn't

765
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:46,160
Speaker 3: that what she already just said. Anyway, so we're looking

766
00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:48,800
Speaker 3: at a big family. Now, there's big family keeping warm

767
00:42:48,960 --> 00:42:53,080
Speaker 3: inside the winter, inside the cabin in the winter, and

768
00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:57,719
Speaker 3: they are awaiting the arrival of Uncle Claws, who comes

769
00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:00,560
Speaker 3: to visit every year at Christmas in his sla with

770
00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:04,799
Speaker 3: his wife Anya. And suddenly Claus and Anya arrive in

771
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,600
Speaker 3: a sleigh drawn by reindeer, and Clause comes into the

772
00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:11,120
Speaker 3: cabin with that distinctive big Lebowski voice. He's ordering all

773
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:14,480
Speaker 3: the children stand back as he hauls in this big,

774
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:18,000
Speaker 3: enormous sack of packages. So it seems that the deal

775
00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:21,200
Speaker 3: is every year Claws and and Ya, Klaus and Klaus

776
00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:23,759
Speaker 3: Claws Claus, I think they call him Claws and and

777
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:27,800
Speaker 3: Anya bring with them these copious gifts for all the

778
00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:31,399
Speaker 3: children and all their nieces and nephews, because Claws and

779
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:33,719
Speaker 3: Anya have no children of their own.

780
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:34,480
Speaker 6: Uh.

781
00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:37,000
Speaker 3: And it's explained that Claus is a woodcutter in the

782
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 3: village and he carves all of the toys out of

783
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:43,520
Speaker 3: wood by himself. He makes them all by hand. They're

784
00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:48,040
Speaker 3: and they're like little statuettes, little carvings of figurines, people,

785
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:51,960
Speaker 3: people shaped things. So, after a bit of warm celebration,

786
00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:55,440
Speaker 3: the exchange of gifts that this cabin, Uncle Claus and

787
00:43:55,520 --> 00:43:58,040
Speaker 3: Anya have to move on to another cabin. I guess

788
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:00,479
Speaker 3: they got more nieces and nephews somewhere else to visit.

789
00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:03,200
Speaker 3: So they hitch up their sleigh and their two reindeer,

790
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:07,040
Speaker 3: which are named Donner and Blitzen. It's really snowing hard outside.

791
00:44:07,040 --> 00:44:09,799
Speaker 3: In fact, it's basically a white out blizzard, and then

792
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:12,440
Speaker 3: they like saddle up the sleigh and they just push

793
00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:15,080
Speaker 3: on out into the blizzard and into certain death.

794
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:20,200
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, it's it's a big grim this medieval opening here.

795
00:44:20,440 --> 00:44:22,840
Speaker 3: Yeah. So they get lost in the snow. It's really

796
00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:25,399
Speaker 3: tough going. The snow is piling up in front of them.

797
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:31,320
Speaker 3: The reindeer eventually collapse. Clause gets out of the sleigh

798
00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:33,319
Speaker 3: to like get the reindeer to get back up, but

799
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 3: they won't. It's actually quite sad. And the reindeer are

800
00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:38,799
Speaker 3: their puppets here, which I like, I'm glad they're not,

801
00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:40,280
Speaker 3: you know, cgi reindeer.

802
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:43,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, they look really good. I love the animated here.

803
00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:45,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like the puppet reindeer. They're a little bit

804
00:44:45,560 --> 00:44:48,399
Speaker 3: creepy sometimes, but in a way that I get down with.

805
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:52,840
Speaker 3: And they, you know, they're expressive and very sad in

806
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:56,000
Speaker 3: the way that they appear to be failing and dying here, and.

807
00:44:56,239 --> 00:44:58,400
Speaker 2: So Claus sadness it is.

808
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:00,600
Speaker 3: It's like that. So the Clause goes to Anya and

809
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:03,120
Speaker 3: they like cuddle up and basically go to sleep in

810
00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:07,799
Speaker 3: this driving blizzard, and then later they wake up to

811
00:45:08,040 --> 00:45:14,160
Speaker 3: a kaleidoscopic almost lysurgic vision of this icy northern landscape

812
00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:16,920
Speaker 3: with colors in the sky and a star making this

813
00:45:16,960 --> 00:45:21,000
Speaker 3: big Christmas tree shape of colors in the atmosphere. And

814
00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:24,720
Speaker 3: here they meet an assemblage of little people with bright,

815
00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:29,800
Speaker 3: colorful clothing and long beards, whom Claws initially identifies as

816
00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:33,480
Speaker 3: the Vendigum, though the people here explained that they prefer

817
00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:36,759
Speaker 3: to be called elves. For some reason, the elves here

818
00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:39,719
Speaker 3: reminded me of the pirates in Hook, so I kept

819
00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:42,719
Speaker 3: looking around for David Crosby and Jimmy Buffett. I wanted

820
00:45:42,719 --> 00:45:46,120
Speaker 3: to see a Glenn Close cameo that there was something

821
00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:50,280
Speaker 3: in common there is. There's similar costuming and makeup, sensibility

822
00:45:50,719 --> 00:45:54,319
Speaker 3: and whimsy about them. The leader of the elves is

823
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:58,719
Speaker 3: a guy named Dooley with long, wispy mutton chops and spectacles.

824
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:01,839
Speaker 3: We also hear meet Moore hanging around as the elf

825
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:06,680
Speaker 3: Q branch named Patch. He immediately starts investigating Claus's sleigh

826
00:46:06,719 --> 00:46:10,280
Speaker 3: for technical defects. I don't remember all the elves names,

827
00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:12,440
Speaker 3: but we, you know, see them like they have their

828
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:14,840
Speaker 3: names on their beds. Later and they talk to each other.

829
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:18,080
Speaker 3: They're called things like Honka and Booger and stuff. One

830
00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:22,520
Speaker 3: is called Puffy Puffy, the Elf Puffy, the Elf Puffy,

831
00:46:22,600 --> 00:46:27,280
Speaker 3: the magic Elf lived by the sea. And so Dooley says,

832
00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:29,880
Speaker 3: you know what, clause, this is not a chance meeting.

833
00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:32,239
Speaker 3: We have been expecting you. We've been expecting you to

834
00:46:32,280 --> 00:46:36,080
Speaker 3: come join us for a long time. And the clause

835
00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 3: is like, no, no, We've got to get home. But

836
00:46:38,200 --> 00:46:40,200
Speaker 3: Dooley says, in a way that could be I think

837
00:46:40,239 --> 00:46:42,600
Speaker 3: to the adults. To the adults could be interpreted in

838
00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:45,120
Speaker 3: a kind of sinister way. Dooley says, this is your

839
00:46:45,160 --> 00:46:52,120
Speaker 3: home now. And Dooley reveals the magically disguised elf workshop,

840
00:46:52,239 --> 00:46:56,680
Speaker 3: a massive glowing factory complex in the ice. Again with

841
00:46:56,760 --> 00:46:59,800
Speaker 3: those Thomas Kincaid sensibilities. There's you know, it's a co

842
00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:04,480
Speaker 3: gigantic wooden cabin with light pouring out of the windows.

843
00:47:04,920 --> 00:47:08,080
Speaker 3: And they lead mister and Missus Claws into the shop

844
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:12,280
Speaker 3: and of course on the approach, Patch starts off starts

845
00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:15,080
Speaker 3: the tradition that will continue throughout the film of these

846
00:47:15,120 --> 00:47:18,239
Speaker 3: elf puns. He's like saying, now that clauses here, I

847
00:47:18,239 --> 00:47:20,359
Speaker 3: have a real feeling of elf confidence.

848
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:23,360
Speaker 2: Yes, and if it's not funny the first time maybe

849
00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:24,840
Speaker 2: the fifth or sixth time.

850
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:28,400
Speaker 3: It'll finally hit fifteenth or sixteenth time. I would just

851
00:47:28,520 --> 00:47:32,759
Speaker 3: like to flag that the way the previous scene flows

852
00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:36,040
Speaker 3: into this one, and then the way this scene flows

853
00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:40,239
Speaker 3: into everything else that happens, It really feels like the

854
00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:44,440
Speaker 3: entire movie could be interpreted as the death tunnel hallucination

855
00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:48,319
Speaker 3: of either Anya or Clause's brain as they freeze to

856
00:47:48,360 --> 00:47:51,719
Speaker 3: death in the snowstorm. They're collapse before all this is

857
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:55,080
Speaker 3: staged to look a lot like death, and they're waking

858
00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:59,000
Speaker 3: up to this vision of the elves is highly hallucinatory.

859
00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:01,799
Speaker 2: Oh, absolute, yeah, and it's like, yeah, it's the sense

860
00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:05,200
Speaker 2: of like cosmic light from another realm.

861
00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:05,960
Speaker 3: It is.

862
00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:08,680
Speaker 2: It is really there is a strong sense of they

863
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:12,880
Speaker 2: they have died, but have not truly been permitted to die,

864
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:16,000
Speaker 2: because the elves have intervened and they say, no, no

865
00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:19,680
Speaker 2: death for you, Santa Claus, for you, everlasting life.

866
00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:23,240
Speaker 3: We have such sites to show you, yes, and truly

867
00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:25,160
Speaker 3: they do. Because the next thing that happens in the

868
00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:28,680
Speaker 3: movie is this long stretch of basically touring the elf

869
00:48:28,719 --> 00:48:32,479
Speaker 3: workshop and taking in the weird sights and sounds. We're

870
00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:35,719
Speaker 3: still in origin story mode here. Clause is still a

871
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:38,080
Speaker 3: fish out of water through all of this, and he's

872
00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:41,160
Speaker 3: not Santa Claus yet. He's marveling at all of the

873
00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:45,360
Speaker 3: elfin weirdness, at the bounty of toys manufactured in the shop.

874
00:48:45,600 --> 00:48:48,080
Speaker 3: Rob Any comment on this stretch of the movie.

875
00:48:48,600 --> 00:48:52,120
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, to a certain extent, it's exactly what

876
00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:53,920
Speaker 2: you expect it to be if you've seen any other

877
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:57,799
Speaker 2: Santa films. It's the joyful workshop where the elves are

878
00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:01,239
Speaker 2: making all sorts of again, hand crafted toys that no

879
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:06,640
Speaker 2: child actually wants, that adults may aspire for their children

880
00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:09,920
Speaker 2: to want, or then may themselves think, oh, well, I

881
00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:11,319
Speaker 2: was a kid, I would have loved to have that.

882
00:49:11,440 --> 00:49:13,560
Speaker 2: But for the most part, nobody's asking for any of

883
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:15,960
Speaker 2: this stuff. Though I guess, to be clear, at the

884
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:17,600
Speaker 2: time these were high tech toys.

885
00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:19,600
Speaker 3: These were I guess. I mean, I guess because it's

886
00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:20,160
Speaker 3: the Middle Ages.

887
00:49:20,239 --> 00:49:21,680
Speaker 2: Ye, yeah, it's Middle Age. I mean, they're not, like,

888
00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:24,160
Speaker 2: you know, we're not getting into the realm of automatons here.

889
00:49:24,239 --> 00:49:27,920
Speaker 2: Though some of the Elf technology is atomaton adjacent.

890
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:31,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, it totally is, because some of it's made by Patch,

891
00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:35,120
Speaker 3: and Patch is again C Branch. He's the lucious Fox

892
00:49:35,360 --> 00:49:41,080
Speaker 3: of the of the operation. Uh Patch reveals several fanciful inventions,

893
00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:45,160
Speaker 3: including the idea of central heating with a radiator. Uh

894
00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:48,319
Speaker 3: He describes the concept of an alarm clock, and as

895
00:49:48,360 --> 00:49:50,719
Speaker 3: we will see later in the film, he comes up

896
00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:55,120
Speaker 3: with the idea of automated assembly lines to replace elf

897
00:49:55,239 --> 00:50:00,600
Speaker 3: craftsmen in toy manufacture. Uh So. One thing worth noting

898
00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:05,560
Speaker 3: is that the worldwide toy distribution scheme at Christmas is

899
00:50:05,680 --> 00:50:13,040
Speaker 3: not Santa Claus's idea. The elves have already planned this somehow.

900
00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:16,719
Speaker 3: They have made millions of toys, and now they have

901
00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:21,520
Speaker 3: recruited this human from one of the gates of death,

902
00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:25,359
Speaker 3: this human Clause, to deliver all of the toys they

903
00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:30,120
Speaker 3: have made. And when Clause hears this, he objects, he's

904
00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:32,359
Speaker 3: like looking at this endless hall of toys. He says,

905
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:34,400
Speaker 3: there wouldn't be enough time in my whole life to

906
00:50:34,440 --> 00:50:37,279
Speaker 3: deliver all these toys. And then Duley says, you know,

907
00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:39,839
Speaker 3: don't worry about that, both of you talking to him,

908
00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:45,960
Speaker 3: and Anye says, both of you will now live forever, buried.

909
00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:51,560
Speaker 2: Alive, essentially entombed in Christmas in an endless night of

910
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:52,520
Speaker 2: gift giving.

911
00:50:52,800 --> 00:50:55,520
Speaker 3: That's right, And oh well, Actually we'll get to something

912
00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:57,359
Speaker 3: about that in just a minute, because, yeah, it takes

913
00:50:57,400 --> 00:51:01,200
Speaker 3: on another level once they meet Burgess Meredith. There's another

914
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:04,840
Speaker 3: part here where Clause meets the six in house reindeer.

915
00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:08,480
Speaker 3: His two reindeer, Donner and Blitzen have been added to

916
00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:11,160
Speaker 3: all the others to the team, and they're all magical

917
00:51:11,200 --> 00:51:15,280
Speaker 3: and can fly. Now we also meet Patch here because

918
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:17,479
Speaker 3: you know, we get to see that Patch is really

919
00:51:17,560 --> 00:51:19,719
Speaker 3: nice because he's taking good care of the reindeer. He's

920
00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:23,319
Speaker 3: feeding them liken and he's like, oh, he's all right,

921
00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:25,719
Speaker 3: he'll be all right. He just needs a little elf control.

922
00:51:26,640 --> 00:51:29,359
Speaker 3: And we watch the elves dancing and working a lot

923
00:51:29,360 --> 00:51:30,880
Speaker 3: of whimsical choreography.

924
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:34,760
Speaker 2: No songs though I don't think they singtunity.

925
00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:37,680
Speaker 3: There's music, but I don't recall them singing anything with

926
00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:41,360
Speaker 3: words in it. Yeah. One of the things manufactured in

927
00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:43,520
Speaker 3: the elf workshop, by the way, is coming out of

928
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:46,319
Speaker 3: a big cooking vat that looks like a cottage core

929
00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:50,239
Speaker 3: drug lab, and it's the magic elf dust. It's like

930
00:51:50,400 --> 00:51:52,799
Speaker 3: gold dust which allows the reindeer to fly.

931
00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:55,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think we see that it's it's refined

932
00:51:55,719 --> 00:51:59,520
Speaker 2: from strange cosmic light from another realm.

933
00:51:59,719 --> 00:52:03,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay. After the shock settles in, we see a

934
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:08,120
Speaker 3: montage of Claws becoming Santa, including a suit fitting scene.

935
00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:10,240
Speaker 3: Initially they try to put him in a green suit.

936
00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:12,680
Speaker 3: Seems ill advised to me because wouldn't that draw the

937
00:52:12,719 --> 00:52:13,760
Speaker 3: ire of the fairies.

938
00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:16,920
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's that's a good point. Also, it seems

939
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:20,120
Speaker 2: like this there's always so yon inducing an origin story

940
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:25,719
Speaker 2: works for characters we're very familiar with, Like, yeah, we

941
00:52:25,800 --> 00:52:28,440
Speaker 2: know he ends up in a batcustume. We but do

942
00:52:28,520 --> 00:52:32,080
Speaker 2: we really need to like drag it out and discuss

943
00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:34,040
Speaker 2: why he chooses the bat, Like he chooses the bat,

944
00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:36,960
Speaker 2: he chooses the red jumper. I mean, it's it's just

945
00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:37,520
Speaker 2: how it goes.

946
00:52:37,560 --> 00:52:39,840
Speaker 3: People are going to be in suspense, like, Oh, when's

947
00:52:39,840 --> 00:52:42,359
Speaker 3: he gonna finally look the way I know he's gonna look.

948
00:52:42,520 --> 00:52:43,600
Speaker 2: Yeah.

949
00:52:44,120 --> 00:52:46,680
Speaker 3: Uh, And Anya suggests they try red. So I guess

950
00:52:46,760 --> 00:52:49,040
Speaker 3: that's the moment here where in the in the audience

951
00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:51,200
Speaker 3: there would be going like, Oh, he's gonna do it.

952
00:52:51,239 --> 00:52:54,799
Speaker 3: He's gonna dress up in red? Uh? Oh? Rob, what

953
00:52:54,840 --> 00:52:56,600
Speaker 3: did you make of the scene in here where the

954
00:52:56,600 --> 00:52:59,920
Speaker 3: elves like a symbol to worship a supernova in the sky?

955
00:53:00,160 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 3: I thought that scene was quite strange.

956
00:53:03,200 --> 00:53:05,600
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I love this was this. Were they gathering

957
00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:08,600
Speaker 2: or somehow producing the golden.

958
00:53:08,280 --> 00:53:12,240
Speaker 3: Dust maybe that's what it was. Yeah, they were timing

959
00:53:12,239 --> 00:53:16,120
Speaker 3: out some astronomical thing like with the telescope.

960
00:53:15,719 --> 00:53:18,000
Speaker 2: Like the Great Conjunction or something. There is a sense

961
00:53:18,040 --> 00:53:21,480
Speaker 2: of the skexies to these elves here. You know, they

962
00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:26,520
Speaker 2: have these ancient ways that are very concerned with astronomy

963
00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:32,040
Speaker 2: and distant worlds and strange waves and so forth, you know,

964
00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:37,239
Speaker 2: long life. Yeah, they're they're kind of they'res skexy esque

965
00:53:37,320 --> 00:53:37,680
Speaker 2: for sure.

966
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:41,279
Speaker 3: Totally. So Santa is getting ready to well he's not

967
00:53:41,360 --> 00:53:45,120
Speaker 3: Santa yet, he's still Claws. He's getting ready to launch

968
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:47,879
Speaker 3: on the world for his first ever Christmas delivery tour.

969
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:51,320
Speaker 3: But first he's brought face to face with this ancient

970
00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:55,000
Speaker 3: elder being that we talked about earlier, played by Burgess Meredith.

971
00:53:55,800 --> 00:53:59,480
Speaker 3: And this character again has a weirdly religious quality. I

972
00:54:00,239 --> 00:54:04,720
Speaker 3: found a transcript of his lines here. The elder comes

973
00:54:05,280 --> 00:54:08,239
Speaker 3: up to clause and he says the prophecy has come

974
00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:11,600
Speaker 3: to pass, that there would come to us a chosen one,

975
00:54:11,920 --> 00:54:14,239
Speaker 3: and that he, having no child of his own, would

976
00:54:14,280 --> 00:54:17,719
Speaker 3: love all children everywhere and that he himself would be

977
00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:21,320
Speaker 3: an artisan and a craftsman and a skilled maker of toys.

978
00:54:21,960 --> 00:54:25,440
Speaker 3: And now, chosen one, come forward from this day on,

979
00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:28,520
Speaker 3: now and forever you will bring all our gifts to

980
00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:31,239
Speaker 3: all the children of the world, and all this to

981
00:54:31,280 --> 00:54:35,040
Speaker 3: be done on Christmas Eve. And san At this point

982
00:54:35,080 --> 00:54:37,120
Speaker 3: clauses like, how can I do all this in just

983
00:54:37,239 --> 00:54:41,200
Speaker 3: one night? And then they break it to him. The

984
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:46,680
Speaker 3: elder says, oh, yes, well, know this time travels with you.

985
00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:51,279
Speaker 3: The night of the world is a passage of endless

986
00:54:51,400 --> 00:54:55,680
Speaker 3: night for you until your mission is done. This is

987
00:54:55,719 --> 00:55:00,279
Speaker 3: your legacy and your gift, as is the gift of flight. Now,

988
00:55:00,320 --> 00:55:03,040
Speaker 3: all those within the sound of my voice, and all

989
00:55:03,080 --> 00:55:06,239
Speaker 3: those on this earth everywhere that know that henceforth you

990
00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:10,759
Speaker 3: will be called Santa Claus. And now everyone Merry Christmas.

991
00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:14,080
Speaker 3: So like two things I was taking out of this.

992
00:55:14,120 --> 00:55:17,760
Speaker 3: One is that clause he's not always Santa Claus, it's

993
00:55:17,800 --> 00:55:20,800
Speaker 3: it is a title that is bestowed by the elder.

994
00:55:20,920 --> 00:55:24,840
Speaker 3: Clause becomes Santa Claus as one is given the title

995
00:55:24,920 --> 00:55:27,160
Speaker 3: of Darth by their sith Lord master.

996
00:55:27,640 --> 00:55:27,839
Speaker 2: Yeah.

997
00:55:28,480 --> 00:55:31,640
Speaker 3: And then also this thing about the time dilation on

998
00:55:31,760 --> 00:55:36,600
Speaker 3: Christmas night, it seems the lore is time passes normally

999
00:55:37,080 --> 00:55:42,360
Speaker 3: for Santa Claus during delivery, but his time slows relative

1000
00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:44,680
Speaker 3: to the rest of the world. So it's shades of

1001
00:55:44,800 --> 00:55:49,400
Speaker 3: the jaunt. Millions of years pass for Santa Claus every

1002
00:55:49,480 --> 00:55:52,799
Speaker 3: Christmas night while he delivers the toys. It's it's like

1003
00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:54,280
Speaker 3: longer than you think, Dad.

1004
00:55:55,640 --> 00:55:58,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we should all pass this on to

1005
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:03,240
Speaker 2: young people in our vicinity this holiday. When you're putting

1006
00:56:03,280 --> 00:56:06,400
Speaker 2: out the cookies and the milk and maybe the carrot

1007
00:56:06,640 --> 00:56:09,239
Speaker 2: for Rudolph, you say, let us be generous in our

1008
00:56:09,280 --> 00:56:13,120
Speaker 2: gift giving to Santa for he is cursed with eternal night. Yeah.

1009
00:56:13,160 --> 00:56:16,319
Speaker 3: He is imprisoned for millions of years in this Christmas

1010
00:56:16,360 --> 00:56:18,600
Speaker 3: and every Christmas hints.

1011
00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:20,920
Speaker 2: And must continue until it is done, until there are

1012
00:56:20,960 --> 00:56:24,000
Speaker 2: no more children left to be delivered into.

1013
00:56:24,880 --> 00:56:27,319
Speaker 3: Oh that would be a good Christmas movie if it's

1014
00:56:27,360 --> 00:56:31,000
Speaker 3: like Santa Claus is like a genie. He's like imprisoned

1015
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:33,759
Speaker 3: by this task he has to do, and he would

1016
00:56:33,800 --> 00:56:37,160
Speaker 3: be like seeking release, you know, trying to get out

1017
00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:38,440
Speaker 3: of the pact he can.

1018
00:56:38,560 --> 00:56:41,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, he must deliver gifts until there either are no

1019
00:56:41,880 --> 00:56:45,320
Speaker 2: more children to give gifts too, or all the children

1020
00:56:45,320 --> 00:56:48,120
Speaker 2: are bad. That'll work. If they're no good children, then

1021
00:56:48,160 --> 00:56:49,719
Speaker 2: he can finally rest.

1022
00:56:49,920 --> 00:56:53,239
Speaker 3: So after this we get a montage of Christmas through

1023
00:56:53,280 --> 00:56:55,200
Speaker 3: the Ages, cause Santa goes out and he does his

1024
00:56:55,239 --> 00:56:59,440
Speaker 3: first ever Christmas and we see the years passing in

1025
00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:02,400
Speaker 3: a blur. Oh wait, I forgot to mention this the

1026
00:57:02,440 --> 00:57:05,680
Speaker 3: first time Santa and the reindeer fly out for Christmas delivery.

1027
00:57:06,080 --> 00:57:08,759
Speaker 3: We see Donner getting vertigo looking at the ground. He

1028
00:57:09,200 --> 00:57:10,480
Speaker 3: does a double take and goes.

1029
00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:13,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, some great, great puppetry work here.

1030
00:57:14,120 --> 00:57:17,400
Speaker 3: Yeah. So, but yeah, we get the Christmas through the

1031
00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:20,120
Speaker 3: Ages montage. I think it suggests that this begins in

1032
00:57:20,160 --> 00:57:23,280
Speaker 3: the fourteenth century. The years pass in a blur. We

1033
00:57:23,320 --> 00:57:26,000
Speaker 3: see children all over the world sending notes to Santa

1034
00:57:26,120 --> 00:57:29,760
Speaker 3: and receiving gifts on Christmas. At one point we see

1035
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:35,480
Speaker 3: Duly imply that literacy around the world is increasing because

1036
00:57:35,680 --> 00:57:38,080
Speaker 3: children are so eager to be able to write to

1037
00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:40,919
Speaker 3: Santa Claus and beg for toys that they're learning how

1038
00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:41,800
Speaker 3: to read and write.

1039
00:57:42,040 --> 00:57:45,400
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't remember this from James Burke's Connections, But

1040
00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:46,480
Speaker 2: all right.

1041
00:57:47,520 --> 00:57:51,920
Speaker 3: There's also I loved this part, this bizarre diversion in

1042
00:57:51,960 --> 00:57:55,720
Speaker 3: the seventeenth century to see a little boy practicing animal cruelty.

1043
00:57:56,680 --> 00:57:59,240
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, what was this about? Because looking back, I

1044
00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:01,360
Speaker 2: was like, is this the origin story for the villain?

1045
00:58:01,360 --> 00:58:04,400
Speaker 2: But no, like, it's totally way too early.

1046
00:58:04,160 --> 00:58:07,640
Speaker 3: For It was just to establish random Santa lore. So we're,

1047
00:58:07,720 --> 00:58:09,760
Speaker 3: you know, going this montage through all the year, is

1048
00:58:09,840 --> 00:58:12,520
Speaker 3: not really stopping any place in particular, and then suddenly

1049
00:58:12,640 --> 00:58:15,000
Speaker 3: here we are, in I think it's supposed to be

1050
00:58:15,040 --> 00:58:17,560
Speaker 3: the seventeenth century. We see these little rich kids in

1051
00:58:17,560 --> 00:58:20,360
Speaker 3: a palace somewhere, and this little boy is like torturing

1052
00:58:20,400 --> 00:58:26,560
Speaker 3: a cat, and the and then the girl who's just

1053
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:29,760
Speaker 3: y not like cutting its head off, just like annoying

1054
00:58:29,800 --> 00:58:33,600
Speaker 3: it really bad. And the girl who the cat belongs to,

1055
00:58:34,160 --> 00:58:36,760
Speaker 3: rights to Santa and tattles on the boy for being

1056
00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:39,760
Speaker 3: mean to the cat. And this establishes, for the first

1057
00:58:39,760 --> 00:58:42,800
Speaker 3: time in history that some children do not deserve presence.

1058
00:58:43,240 --> 00:58:45,920
Speaker 3: And at first, Santa Claus is opposed to this arrangement.

1059
00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:48,960
Speaker 3: He's like, everybody's got to get a present. You'll have

1060
00:58:49,000 --> 00:58:52,000
Speaker 3: people saying that Santa Claus only rewards good little boys

1061
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:55,800
Speaker 3: and girls. And Anya Anya is like, isn't that how

1062
00:58:55,840 --> 00:58:58,280
Speaker 3: it should be? So she's cracking the whip. She's like

1063
00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:01,800
Speaker 3: only the good children shall receive. We shall punish the

1064
00:59:01,840 --> 00:59:06,320
Speaker 3: bad children, and he goes for it. They established naughty

1065
00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:07,120
Speaker 3: versus nice.

1066
00:59:07,240 --> 00:59:09,600
Speaker 2: This is fine enough, and we'll never discuss it again.

1067
00:59:09,880 --> 00:59:12,919
Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, don't do they talk about it again?

1068
00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:15,280
Speaker 3: Oh well, no they do, Actually they do. They talk

1069
00:59:15,320 --> 00:59:20,080
Speaker 3: about how Bez the evil guy, he never got to

1070
00:59:20,080 --> 00:59:22,880
Speaker 3: give him Santa as a child because he was never nice.

1071
00:59:22,920 --> 00:59:23,920
Speaker 3: He was always naughty.

1072
00:59:24,160 --> 00:59:27,760
Speaker 2: Yeah. See, this policy led to the creation of Bez

1073
00:59:28,080 --> 00:59:28,480
Speaker 2: Way to Go.

1074
00:59:28,880 --> 00:59:39,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, So people all over the world get more and

1075
00:59:39,720 --> 00:59:42,520
Speaker 3: more used to Santa. They start leaving cookies out for him,

1076
00:59:42,560 --> 00:59:44,840
Speaker 3: and then we also see a montage of Santa eating

1077
00:59:44,880 --> 00:59:48,320
Speaker 3: the cook cookies left out in people's homes. People who

1078
00:59:48,360 --> 00:59:50,840
Speaker 3: have seen the Santa Claus the Claws with a knee

1079
00:59:50,920 --> 00:59:54,000
Speaker 3: with Tim Allen will be familiar with, you know, like,

1080
00:59:54,120 --> 00:59:58,440
Speaker 3: oh no, I'm gaining weight. And this is established in

1081
00:59:58,640 --> 01:00:02,200
Speaker 3: the scene where they read poem Twas the Night before Christmas,

1082
01:00:02,200 --> 01:00:05,280
Speaker 3: when it's hot off the presses. It's like brand new.

1083
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:08,200
Speaker 3: So all the elves gather around. They've got a newspaper

1084
01:00:08,200 --> 01:00:10,200
Speaker 3: from you know, the people of Earth that's got the

1085
01:00:10,200 --> 01:00:12,560
Speaker 3: poem printed in it, and they read the whole thing.

1086
01:00:12,600 --> 01:00:14,560
Speaker 3: You know, he had a broad face and a little

1087
01:00:14,640 --> 01:00:17,040
Speaker 3: round belly that shook when he laughed, like a bowl

1088
01:00:17,040 --> 01:00:20,880
Speaker 3: full of jelly. And Santa's like, what what to read

1089
01:00:20,960 --> 01:00:24,760
Speaker 3: that last part again? And they really draw this out,

1090
01:00:24,840 --> 01:00:27,840
Speaker 3: but he Santa is mortified. He's like, He's like, this

1091
01:00:28,160 --> 01:00:31,000
Speaker 3: is that really what people think I look like? And

1092
01:00:31,160 --> 01:00:34,400
Speaker 3: Anya says, well, it's it's the cookies, and everybody agrees

1093
01:00:34,440 --> 01:00:37,600
Speaker 3: it's the cookies. So this makes missus Claws put Santa

1094
01:00:37,680 --> 01:00:40,720
Speaker 3: on a diet and we see him miserably eating celery

1095
01:00:40,720 --> 01:00:41,600
Speaker 3: sticks for dinner.

1096
01:00:42,280 --> 01:00:46,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, this whole bit was was fairly amusing. Like everything else,

1097
01:00:46,560 --> 01:00:47,960
Speaker 2: I feel like it could have been tightened up a

1098
01:00:47,960 --> 01:00:51,360
Speaker 2: bit and maybe punched up a little, but they have

1099
01:00:51,440 --> 01:00:53,439
Speaker 2: the It was still pretty good.

1100
01:00:53,720 --> 01:00:56,800
Speaker 3: Can I say? Also, this has got to be the

1101
01:00:56,840 --> 01:01:02,080
Speaker 3: most depressive Santa Claus ever rendered on film. There are

1102
01:01:02,640 --> 01:01:05,240
Speaker 3: lots of parts of the movie where Santa is just

1103
01:01:05,360 --> 01:01:08,320
Speaker 3: down in the dumps. He's unhappy here about he doesn't

1104
01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:11,880
Speaker 3: like what people think about his appearance. He clearly is

1105
01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:14,920
Speaker 3: unhappy being on this diet. He's eating the cellery sticks

1106
01:01:14,960 --> 01:01:18,080
Speaker 3: and just looking so bummed out. The whole third of

1107
01:01:18,120 --> 01:01:20,640
Speaker 3: the movie he is depressed. He just feels like, what's

1108
01:01:20,720 --> 01:01:23,440
Speaker 3: even the point of Christmas? Why should I even try?

1109
01:01:23,920 --> 01:01:28,440
Speaker 2: It's really a long, dark night of the soul. Yeah,

1110
01:01:28,560 --> 01:01:31,600
Speaker 2: for Santa Claus here in this film, he's not overflowing

1111
01:01:31,680 --> 01:01:33,560
Speaker 2: with holiday mirth.

1112
01:01:34,360 --> 01:01:37,280
Speaker 3: We also see Santa Claus just really bending under the

1113
01:01:37,320 --> 01:01:39,959
Speaker 3: strain of like all the work that's on his back.

1114
01:01:40,600 --> 01:01:43,439
Speaker 3: It's taken its Christmas is taking a toll on him

1115
01:01:44,120 --> 01:01:46,280
Speaker 3: because one year after he gets back to the North

1116
01:01:46,320 --> 01:01:49,440
Speaker 3: Pole from a delivery run, Santa is like falling asleep

1117
01:01:49,480 --> 01:01:52,760
Speaker 3: in his soup at the table. And they decide the

1118
01:01:52,760 --> 01:01:55,960
Speaker 3: solution is Santa needs an assistant to help lighten the load.

1119
01:01:56,680 --> 01:01:58,400
Speaker 3: And here we get a whole thing. I'm not going

1120
01:01:58,480 --> 01:02:00,640
Speaker 3: to go into huge detail about this, but there is

1121
01:02:00,680 --> 01:02:06,200
Speaker 3: a contest between the two lead elf you know, contestants

1122
01:02:06,200 --> 01:02:10,680
Speaker 3: for the role of Santa's assistant, Patch versus Puffy. Santa

1123
01:02:10,760 --> 01:02:13,400
Speaker 3: says they're they're gonna see who can make the most

1124
01:02:13,440 --> 01:02:17,600
Speaker 3: good toys, and Puffy does. He commands a you know,

1125
01:02:17,640 --> 01:02:20,360
Speaker 3: a whole team of elves to make toys the normal way,

1126
01:02:20,480 --> 01:02:24,440
Speaker 3: and they make some toys, but Patch builds a mechanical

1127
01:02:24,520 --> 01:02:28,520
Speaker 3: assembly line, an automated assembly line, to really crank him out.

1128
01:02:28,520 --> 01:02:30,480
Speaker 3: They're coming out on a conveyor belt, and he makes

1129
01:02:30,560 --> 01:02:33,920
Speaker 3: ten times as many toys as Puffy. So Santa gives

1130
01:02:34,000 --> 01:02:37,280
Speaker 3: Patch the contract. He win, you know, he gets the bid.

1131
01:02:37,840 --> 01:02:41,680
Speaker 3: But we can see trouble brewing because we notice that weld,

1132
01:02:41,720 --> 01:02:44,720
Speaker 3: Like we get to see inside the machinery and notice

1133
01:02:44,760 --> 01:02:48,560
Speaker 3: there are malfunctions with Patches equipment. Not doing it by

1134
01:02:48,600 --> 01:02:52,960
Speaker 3: hand is leading to bad consequences like screws are not

1135
01:02:53,000 --> 01:02:54,440
Speaker 3: getting screwed in and stuff.

1136
01:02:54,680 --> 01:02:56,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, this is gonna be a problem.

1137
01:02:56,760 --> 01:03:00,960
Speaker 3: So here we come to our first modern cres. This

1138
01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:03,680
Speaker 3: is where Santa first meets the main children of the film.

1139
01:03:03,720 --> 01:03:05,680
Speaker 3: We already talked about them in the cast section. But

1140
01:03:05,720 --> 01:03:09,600
Speaker 3: again you have Joe, the poor child, who is it

1141
01:03:09,680 --> 01:03:11,760
Speaker 3: established that does he just live on the streets. We

1142
01:03:11,840 --> 01:03:15,040
Speaker 3: never see him in his own home at all, so

1143
01:03:15,080 --> 01:03:17,120
Speaker 3: maybe he just lives on the streets. But he wears

1144
01:03:17,120 --> 01:03:20,080
Speaker 3: like a leather jacket and finger gloves and he's got

1145
01:03:20,120 --> 01:03:23,080
Speaker 3: a flat hat, I think, and he's just like a tough,

1146
01:03:23,120 --> 01:03:24,600
Speaker 3: little street wise kid.

1147
01:03:25,640 --> 01:03:28,760
Speaker 2: Again, it's just totally Dickensian in its presentation. This is

1148
01:03:28,840 --> 01:03:32,920
Speaker 2: not an accurate depiction of what it is or what

1149
01:03:32,960 --> 01:03:36,280
Speaker 2: it was to be unhoused in nineteen eighties New York.

1150
01:03:36,120 --> 01:03:38,160
Speaker 3: City, of course not yeah, but he's in New York.

1151
01:03:38,240 --> 01:03:42,000
Speaker 3: You see him looking in windows, yearning for McDonald's. And

1152
01:03:42,040 --> 01:03:45,480
Speaker 3: then you also see the little girl, the little rich girl, Cornelia,

1153
01:03:45,640 --> 01:03:50,480
Speaker 3: who is I believe her parents have passed away, I think,

1154
01:03:50,520 --> 01:03:52,800
Speaker 3: and so she's just taken care of by her nanny

1155
01:03:52,880 --> 01:03:55,040
Speaker 3: in this big house in New York. And you see

1156
01:03:55,080 --> 01:03:57,840
Speaker 3: her looking out the window at Joe, the little child,

1157
01:03:57,880 --> 01:04:01,400
Speaker 3: and sympathizing with him. And at one point she goes

1158
01:04:01,400 --> 01:04:04,840
Speaker 3: out and leaves a plate of Christmas dinner out for

1159
01:04:04,960 --> 01:04:07,040
Speaker 3: him and a Coca Cola for him to have, and

1160
01:04:07,760 --> 01:04:10,760
Speaker 3: Joe is, you know, he's his heart is warmed by that.

1161
01:04:11,680 --> 01:04:15,160
Speaker 3: Also another person to take pity on Joe is Santa Claus.

1162
01:04:15,200 --> 01:04:17,720
Speaker 3: When he flies into the city and sees Joe, He's like, oh,

1163
01:04:17,800 --> 01:04:20,160
Speaker 3: I need to visit this kid. So he goes down

1164
01:04:20,240 --> 01:04:22,320
Speaker 3: to like stand next to him while he's warming with

1165
01:04:22,440 --> 01:04:24,920
Speaker 3: Joe is warming his hands by a flaming garbage can,

1166
01:04:25,440 --> 01:04:27,640
Speaker 3: and Santa Claus shows up there and he's like, hey,

1167
01:04:27,720 --> 01:04:29,440
Speaker 3: do you know who I am? And Joe says, sure,

1168
01:04:29,520 --> 01:04:32,400
Speaker 3: you're a nut. And Santa Claus says I'm Santa Claus,

1169
01:04:32,440 --> 01:04:36,000
Speaker 3: and Joe says, right, I'm the tooth Fairy. But Santa

1170
01:04:36,000 --> 01:04:39,280
Speaker 3: Claus proves his real identity by doing magic and then

1171
01:04:39,440 --> 01:04:44,080
Speaker 3: takes Joe on a flying tour around the city where

1172
01:04:44,120 --> 01:04:46,520
Speaker 3: there are a couple of notable things here one. I

1173
01:04:46,560 --> 01:04:49,000
Speaker 3: hope this is not correct, because oh, this would be

1174
01:04:49,120 --> 01:04:52,120
Speaker 3: bad coincidence, but I think there might be a part

1175
01:04:52,120 --> 01:04:54,920
Speaker 3: where the sleigh almost flies into the World Trade Center.

1176
01:04:55,560 --> 01:04:59,680
Speaker 2: This does happen, yes, yeah, okay, it was again obviously

1177
01:05:00,280 --> 01:05:01,600
Speaker 2: time well.

1178
01:05:01,520 --> 01:05:03,360
Speaker 3: They didn't know what they didn't Yeah, it's.

1179
01:05:03,120 --> 01:05:05,840
Speaker 2: Like but but it did make the whole scene a

1180
01:05:05,880 --> 01:05:08,240
Speaker 2: little creepy to watch, yes, because I'm just like.

1181
01:05:09,760 --> 01:05:15,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they almost fly the sleigh into the towers

1182
01:05:15,240 --> 01:05:19,200
Speaker 3: and then also Santa tries to pull off a move

1183
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:21,720
Speaker 3: that you know. So the kid is like, what can

1184
01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:24,480
Speaker 3: your reindeer do? And Santa says they can do everything

1185
01:05:25,040 --> 01:05:28,440
Speaker 3: except the super duper looper. I was thinking, why does

1186
01:05:28,440 --> 01:05:30,400
Speaker 3: it have a name if they can't do it, it's

1187
01:05:30,440 --> 01:05:32,600
Speaker 3: the only thing they can't do. It's apparently it's the

1188
01:05:32,640 --> 01:05:35,280
Speaker 3: only thing they can't do. Would it surprise you to

1189
01:05:35,320 --> 01:05:37,480
Speaker 3: know that this move is something that the reindeer are

1190
01:05:37,480 --> 01:05:39,120
Speaker 3: going to have to do at the end of the film.

1191
01:05:39,200 --> 01:05:40,560
Speaker 3: It's gonna be the finale.

1192
01:05:40,640 --> 01:05:43,960
Speaker 2: It's it raises questions like what is it? Why would

1193
01:05:44,000 --> 01:05:47,400
Speaker 2: you want to do it? Yeah, And you'll still have

1194
01:05:47,440 --> 01:05:51,000
Speaker 2: those questions later like why was this necessary? Just because

1195
01:05:51,000 --> 01:05:51,640
Speaker 2: it's dramatic.

1196
01:05:51,840 --> 01:05:54,400
Speaker 3: It's just doing an inverted loop like a you know,

1197
01:05:54,520 --> 01:05:56,760
Speaker 3: a backflip basically in this sleigh.

1198
01:05:56,880 --> 01:06:00,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the only way to intercept people falling out

1199
01:06:00,080 --> 01:06:02,160
Speaker 2: of another flying sleigh obviously.

1200
01:06:02,440 --> 01:06:06,000
Speaker 3: Yeah. And so Joe follows Santa around for this Christmas

1201
01:06:06,040 --> 01:06:08,200
Speaker 3: delivering all the toys in New York City that night,

1202
01:06:08,560 --> 01:06:13,040
Speaker 3: and he ends up going into Cornelia's house because Santa

1203
01:06:13,120 --> 01:06:15,920
Speaker 3: is delivering toys to her. And I think in this

1204
01:06:15,960 --> 01:06:18,760
Speaker 3: scene to the kids meet and make friends.

1205
01:06:18,640 --> 01:06:22,800
Speaker 2: They do. Yes, Now, Joe is not dead, right like

1206
01:06:22,840 --> 01:06:25,200
Speaker 2: it'd be. It'd be an easy mistake to make at

1207
01:06:25,200 --> 01:06:27,840
Speaker 2: this point to think, well, Joe froze to death in

1208
01:06:27,840 --> 01:06:28,880
Speaker 2: the street and that's why.

1209
01:06:28,960 --> 01:06:33,040
Speaker 3: Oh that's right, Yes, the meeting of the Lost Souls. Yeah,

1210
01:06:33,080 --> 01:06:36,400
Speaker 3: because Santa is also Yeah, he's from this other nether world.

1211
01:06:36,760 --> 01:06:38,320
Speaker 2: That doesn't seem to be the case. I think Joe

1212
01:06:38,400 --> 01:06:39,200
Speaker 2: is very much alive.

1213
01:06:39,360 --> 01:06:42,000
Speaker 3: He's alive and he's just hanging out with Santa. Santa's

1214
01:06:42,040 --> 01:06:44,200
Speaker 3: decided to show him a good time because he takes

1215
01:06:44,280 --> 01:06:47,160
Speaker 3: pity on him. And so Joe gets to make friends

1216
01:06:47,200 --> 01:06:50,120
Speaker 3: with Cornelia or Corny as he calls her. Her name

1217
01:06:50,200 --> 01:06:53,320
Speaker 3: is Corny. Uh And that will pay off later in

1218
01:06:53,360 --> 01:06:56,000
Speaker 3: the film because when we meet the villain, we're gonna

1219
01:06:56,080 --> 01:07:00,360
Speaker 3: learn that he's basically Corny's only surviving relative, and I

1220
01:07:00,360 --> 01:07:03,040
Speaker 3: guess he's where all her money comes from. So that

1221
01:07:03,120 --> 01:07:06,400
Speaker 3: will put Corny in the Corny and Joe and the

1222
01:07:06,400 --> 01:07:10,720
Speaker 3: crosshairs of an evil toy making business conspiracy. Now there's

1223
01:07:10,760 --> 01:07:14,200
Speaker 3: fallout from this Christmas. After Santa gets back, we learn

1224
01:07:14,360 --> 01:07:18,360
Speaker 3: uh oh, Patch's high tech assembly line, as we saw earlier,

1225
01:07:18,440 --> 01:07:22,240
Speaker 3: was faulty, and it made billions of faulty toys that

1226
01:07:22,480 --> 01:07:25,080
Speaker 3: collapse and fall apart and make children cry. So we

1227
01:07:25,160 --> 01:07:29,000
Speaker 3: see kids riding around on the sidewalk on wooden tricycles

1228
01:07:29,040 --> 01:07:31,480
Speaker 3: that just break and then they fall down and start crying.

1229
01:07:31,680 --> 01:07:34,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, not only the sorts of toys that no child

1230
01:07:34,280 --> 01:07:37,880
Speaker 2: actually wanted, but these are are faulty, and they start

1231
01:07:37,920 --> 01:07:41,800
Speaker 2: returning them, and we see the returns going back to

1232
01:07:42,440 --> 01:07:45,280
Speaker 2: the Elvin realm back to the North Pole like magically

1233
01:07:45,320 --> 01:07:46,960
Speaker 2: falling through a chimney.

1234
01:07:46,720 --> 01:07:50,520
Speaker 3: Dumping down through the chimney. Also in this movie, they

1235
01:07:51,600 --> 01:07:54,840
Speaker 3: the way mailing letters to Santa Claus works is that

1236
01:07:54,880 --> 01:07:56,920
Speaker 3: you don't have to mail them. You just write the

1237
01:07:57,000 --> 01:07:59,840
Speaker 3: letter and then it magically like floats up and floats

1238
01:08:00,080 --> 01:08:01,080
Speaker 3: way to the North Pole.

1239
01:08:01,880 --> 01:08:03,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I guess that's how it works.

1240
01:08:04,280 --> 01:08:06,640
Speaker 3: I'm just surprised given that fact that there are so

1241
01:08:06,720 --> 01:08:08,600
Speaker 3: many people in this world who seem to doubt that

1242
01:08:08,640 --> 01:08:11,800
Speaker 3: Santa Claus exists when there is clear evidence of magical

1243
01:08:11,840 --> 01:08:15,440
Speaker 3: intervention on any letter written to Santa.

1244
01:08:15,200 --> 01:08:17,080
Speaker 2: Well, not any letter you have to believe.

1245
01:08:17,439 --> 01:08:21,799
Speaker 3: Oh okay, yeah, okay. After this, Patch resigns in disgrace

1246
01:08:22,040 --> 01:08:24,960
Speaker 3: leaves the North Pole because obviously, you know, he is

1247
01:08:25,000 --> 01:08:27,719
Speaker 3: shamed for having made all these faulty toys. He feels

1248
01:08:27,720 --> 01:08:30,080
Speaker 3: bad about it, so he decides he's going to go

1249
01:08:30,200 --> 01:08:33,600
Speaker 3: redeem himself, do something, do something good in the human world.

1250
01:08:33,560 --> 01:08:37,200
Speaker 2: Which I get that that's his motivation, but this is

1251
01:08:37,280 --> 01:08:42,080
Speaker 2: ultimately going to take the form of introducing, like betraying

1252
01:08:42,120 --> 01:08:47,440
Speaker 2: the North Pole and bringing highly dangerous Elvin magic, delivering

1253
01:08:47,479 --> 01:08:54,560
Speaker 2: it into the hands of a greedy, immoral of businessman

1254
01:08:55,560 --> 01:08:58,280
Speaker 2: and kind of and essentially setting himself up as a

1255
01:08:58,439 --> 01:09:01,640
Speaker 2: as a Santa imitator on earth. But he's seemingly not

1256
01:09:01,760 --> 01:09:05,439
Speaker 2: conscious that he's setting himself up as a villain, and

1257
01:09:05,479 --> 01:09:07,080
Speaker 2: the film doesn't really explore that either.

1258
01:09:07,360 --> 01:09:10,719
Speaker 3: No, no, no, he's oblivious of all of the moral

1259
01:09:10,760 --> 01:09:16,120
Speaker 3: implications here. So finally we're well into the second half

1260
01:09:16,120 --> 01:09:18,000
Speaker 3: of the movie at this point, I think, but we

1261
01:09:18,040 --> 01:09:21,360
Speaker 3: finally get to meet Beezy, the villain of the film.

1262
01:09:22,200 --> 01:09:25,920
Speaker 3: We meet him in a Senate subcommittee hearing where he

1263
01:09:26,120 --> 01:09:30,479
Speaker 3: is being interrogated by elected officials about all of the

1264
01:09:30,600 --> 01:09:34,479
Speaker 3: dangerous toys that his company has manufactured. So we see

1265
01:09:34,479 --> 01:09:38,000
Speaker 3: that he makes dolls that are highly flammable. It's like

1266
01:09:38,040 --> 01:09:41,320
Speaker 3: they're soaked in kerosene. You know, you light a cigarette

1267
01:09:41,360 --> 01:09:43,880
Speaker 3: near the doll and it just poofs up in flames.

1268
01:09:44,760 --> 01:09:49,439
Speaker 3: They also he was making stuffed toy panda bears for

1269
01:09:49,600 --> 01:09:53,479
Speaker 3: children that are full of nails and sawdust, and he

1270
01:09:53,600 --> 01:09:57,160
Speaker 3: just makes excuses about it. He clearly he does not

1271
01:09:57,240 --> 01:09:59,800
Speaker 3: feel any guilt or remorse. He's just like, oh, you know,

1272
01:10:00,040 --> 01:10:03,559
Speaker 3: this is surely these are isolated incidents, But the Senate

1273
01:10:03,640 --> 01:10:06,080
Speaker 3: is not having it. So Bez is having a public

1274
01:10:06,160 --> 01:10:10,240
Speaker 3: relations nightmare for his toy making company and he wants

1275
01:10:10,520 --> 01:10:13,040
Speaker 3: to be able to do something that will take the

1276
01:10:13,080 --> 01:10:17,200
Speaker 3: heat off enter Patch. Bez comes into his office, and

1277
01:10:21,280 --> 01:10:24,559
Speaker 3: you're right, yes, he tries to call for help. He's like, wait,

1278
01:10:24,560 --> 01:10:26,760
Speaker 3: who's this guy in my office? And Patch is like, look,

1279
01:10:26,800 --> 01:10:28,519
Speaker 3: if you have somebody come in here, I'm just gonna

1280
01:10:28,560 --> 01:10:31,639
Speaker 3: vanish and then you're gonna look crazy, So you might

1281
01:10:31,680 --> 01:10:35,920
Speaker 3: as well just hear me out. So yeah, he's somewhat manipulative,

1282
01:10:36,240 --> 01:10:38,800
Speaker 3: but Patch has got a pitch. Patch has a pitch.

1283
01:10:39,160 --> 01:10:42,760
Speaker 3: He's like, I want you know, I know you're the

1284
01:10:42,760 --> 01:10:45,280
Speaker 3: biggest toy maker in the world, So what I want

1285
01:10:45,360 --> 01:10:48,760
Speaker 3: to do is make a toy to give to all

1286
01:10:48,840 --> 01:10:52,280
Speaker 3: the children of the world for free, using your advertising

1287
01:10:52,280 --> 01:10:56,840
Speaker 3: and marketing infrastructure and uh and together we will do

1288
01:10:56,920 --> 01:10:59,360
Speaker 3: something nice for all the children of the whole planet.

1289
01:10:59,720 --> 01:11:03,680
Speaker 3: And initially when he's like give away for free, that's insanity.

1290
01:11:03,800 --> 01:11:07,240
Speaker 3: You know, you can't do that in free enterprise and

1291
01:11:07,320 --> 01:11:09,559
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff. But he eventually comes around

1292
01:11:10,120 --> 01:11:12,720
Speaker 3: because he gets the idea that ah, this will help

1293
01:11:12,800 --> 01:11:16,120
Speaker 3: him put out the public relations nightmare he's going through.

1294
01:11:16,240 --> 01:11:21,000
Speaker 3: Due to releasing all of these fatally dangerous toys, and

1295
01:11:21,040 --> 01:11:24,679
Speaker 3: so he so he decides he is going to work

1296
01:11:24,720 --> 01:11:29,320
Speaker 3: together with Patch to make a magical toy that will

1297
01:11:29,320 --> 01:11:31,680
Speaker 3: be like the best toy ever. Patch promises, it'll be

1298
01:11:31,680 --> 01:11:34,720
Speaker 3: better than any toy ever created, and we'll give it

1299
01:11:34,720 --> 01:11:37,120
Speaker 3: away for free to all the children in the world.

1300
01:11:37,200 --> 01:11:40,040
Speaker 3: And all he needs is to buy one minute of

1301
01:11:40,120 --> 01:11:43,640
Speaker 3: commercial time on every TV channel in every country in

1302
01:11:43,680 --> 01:11:45,720
Speaker 3: the world to run on Christmas.

1303
01:11:45,280 --> 01:11:48,280
Speaker 2: Eve, which initially just drives BC crazy.

1304
01:11:48,280 --> 01:11:52,400
Speaker 3: He's like, what, yeah, but so what is this toy.

1305
01:11:52,479 --> 01:11:54,960
Speaker 3: There's a whole thing leading up to the creation of

1306
01:11:55,000 --> 01:11:57,639
Speaker 3: this toy. And it turns out the toy that Patch

1307
01:11:57,680 --> 01:12:02,360
Speaker 3: makes for Beezy is a lollipop and not a toy, lollipop,

1308
01:12:02,479 --> 01:12:03,479
Speaker 3: actual candy.

1309
01:12:03,680 --> 01:12:06,160
Speaker 2: It makes sense because he is banned at this point

1310
01:12:06,320 --> 01:12:10,720
Speaker 2: from distributing toys within the United States. They didn't say

1311
01:12:10,720 --> 01:12:13,680
Speaker 2: anything about candy, and that is the product they're working on.

1312
01:12:14,040 --> 01:12:17,640
Speaker 3: Oh, that makes sense. But the thing is, this is

1313
01:12:17,720 --> 01:12:21,800
Speaker 3: magic candy. It's a lollipop that's puce, a puce lollipop

1314
01:12:22,560 --> 01:12:27,439
Speaker 3: that is infused with the magic golden dust of the elves,

1315
01:12:27,479 --> 01:12:30,160
Speaker 3: and thus when people eat it, they gain the ability

1316
01:12:30,240 --> 01:12:32,720
Speaker 3: temporarily to fly a little bit. They float up in

1317
01:12:32,760 --> 01:12:35,760
Speaker 3: the air and can walk around and fly hover in

1318
01:12:35,800 --> 01:12:38,920
Speaker 3: the air. They're not flying quite like Santa Claus there,

1319
01:12:38,960 --> 01:12:40,519
Speaker 3: but it's hover candy.

1320
01:12:40,720 --> 01:12:40,960
Speaker 6: Yeah.

1321
01:12:40,960 --> 01:12:42,800
Speaker 2: It kind of like gives you a sort of zero

1322
01:12:42,920 --> 01:12:47,560
Speaker 2: G experience. You know, all sorts of problems with this, obviously,

1323
01:12:47,680 --> 01:12:50,920
Speaker 2: but also I remember seeing this as a kid and

1324
01:12:51,000 --> 01:12:54,439
Speaker 2: thinking that is amazing. That would be amazing. Yes, that

1325
01:12:54,520 --> 01:12:56,439
Speaker 2: would be the greatest Christmas gift ever.

1326
01:12:56,800 --> 01:12:59,280
Speaker 3: I would really like that. I would have definitely liked

1327
01:12:59,320 --> 01:13:00,000
Speaker 3: that when I was a kid.

1328
01:13:00,080 --> 01:13:02,479
Speaker 2: But what's the dosage? Like, I have no idea that

1329
01:13:02,520 --> 01:13:05,559
Speaker 2: it was like one lick and you float for a week.

1330
01:13:06,439 --> 01:13:07,920
Speaker 2: You have to eat the whole thing and then you

1331
01:13:07,960 --> 01:13:09,960
Speaker 2: float for five minutes. I don't know.

1332
01:13:10,200 --> 01:13:12,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, they never show when the kids come back down,

1333
01:13:12,360 --> 01:13:12,680
Speaker 3: do they?

1334
01:13:12,880 --> 01:13:14,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, how does Yeah? I don't know what the dose

1335
01:13:14,880 --> 01:13:15,080
Speaker 2: is like.

1336
01:13:15,520 --> 01:13:19,080
Speaker 3: So this is a big hit and it rehabilitates Bez's

1337
01:13:19,120 --> 01:13:21,799
Speaker 3: image because they give this to all of the children

1338
01:13:21,840 --> 01:13:25,639
Speaker 3: of the world. I guess, oh, I remember, I maybe

1339
01:13:25,640 --> 01:13:29,679
Speaker 3: getting details mixed up, but basically they build a flying car,

1340
01:13:29,840 --> 01:13:33,200
Speaker 3: a rocket car. I think that's to distribute the lollipops.

1341
01:13:33,240 --> 01:13:35,439
Speaker 3: To every house on Earth on Christmas night.

1342
01:13:36,040 --> 01:13:39,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Christmas high tech sleigh that built again. He's

1343
01:13:39,920 --> 01:13:42,880
Speaker 2: not a villain who's trying to replace Santa Claus, but

1344
01:13:43,040 --> 01:13:46,160
Speaker 2: has created his own high tech imitation slay.

1345
01:13:46,400 --> 01:13:49,720
Speaker 3: He's just trying to do something nice. Anyway. Again, it's

1346
01:13:49,720 --> 01:13:53,360
Speaker 3: a hit, and then it's January, after you know, Christmas

1347
01:13:53,400 --> 01:13:58,799
Speaker 3: is over. The people like these lollipops, and Bez is like, look,

1348
01:13:58,920 --> 01:14:01,679
Speaker 3: we got to capitalize on this. We've seized the moment.

1349
01:14:01,760 --> 01:14:04,280
Speaker 3: We got to seize it again. So I wrote down

1350
01:14:04,360 --> 01:14:06,599
Speaker 3: the line here. Bez says, to Patch, when you've got

1351
01:14:06,640 --> 01:14:08,920
Speaker 3: a hit like we have, Patch, the people don't want

1352
01:14:08,920 --> 01:14:11,240
Speaker 3: to wait a whole year. They're dying for a sequel.

1353
01:14:11,520 --> 01:14:14,280
Speaker 3: A sequel, that's it. We'll bring it out on March

1354
01:14:14,320 --> 01:14:20,720
Speaker 3: twenty fifth, and we'll call it Christmas two. So the

1355
01:14:20,840 --> 01:14:24,560
Speaker 3: idea is, he says, you know this stuff, the stardust,

1356
01:14:24,600 --> 01:14:27,000
Speaker 3: you've got, the reindeer corn flakes. He says, what would

1357
01:14:27,000 --> 01:14:29,800
Speaker 3: happen if you were to juice up the formula, make

1358
01:14:29,880 --> 01:14:34,400
Speaker 3: it stronger? And Patch says, well, it's elf explanatory. It

1359
01:14:34,400 --> 01:14:37,240
Speaker 3: would make them fly so a little bit, and you

1360
01:14:37,320 --> 01:14:40,280
Speaker 3: hover a lot, and you full on fly like the reindeer.

1361
01:14:40,680 --> 01:14:42,920
Speaker 3: So that's what they're gonna do. They're gonna make some

1362
01:14:43,040 --> 01:14:46,840
Speaker 3: candy canes, now, candy canes to come out on March

1363
01:14:46,880 --> 01:14:51,720
Speaker 3: twenty fifth that will be juiced up with super stardust

1364
01:14:52,040 --> 01:14:54,160
Speaker 3: that will allow people to fly like Superman.

1365
01:14:54,360 --> 01:14:58,320
Speaker 2: So like the crack cocaine of Elven flying powder.

1366
01:14:58,640 --> 01:15:02,599
Speaker 3: Really yes, highly concentrated, really powerful stuff.

1367
01:15:03,400 --> 01:15:06,160
Speaker 2: I can't help I love this whole bit about Christmas too, though,

1368
01:15:06,240 --> 01:15:10,960
Speaker 2: and having discussed the various filmmakers' roles in both Jaws

1369
01:15:11,000 --> 01:15:16,080
Speaker 2: two and of course Superman sequels, you can always suspect

1370
01:15:16,160 --> 01:15:18,840
Speaker 2: that there's are they're channeling a little bit of that

1371
01:15:18,880 --> 01:15:19,160
Speaker 2: into it.

1372
01:15:27,479 --> 01:15:27,639
Speaker 4: Now.

1373
01:15:27,680 --> 01:15:29,639
Speaker 3: I mentioned that in the last third of the movie,

1374
01:15:29,720 --> 01:15:32,080
Speaker 3: we see Santa Claus really down in the dumps. He

1375
01:15:32,120 --> 01:15:35,000
Speaker 3: gets depressed. He's like, what's the whole point of Christmas?

1376
01:15:36,280 --> 01:15:38,920
Speaker 3: There's one scene where he's talking to Anya. He says,

1377
01:15:38,960 --> 01:15:41,880
Speaker 3: maybe the whole idea is no good anymore, and she's like,

1378
01:15:42,120 --> 01:15:45,599
Speaker 3: what are you talking about, and he says Christmas. He says,

1379
01:15:45,640 --> 01:15:48,439
Speaker 3: the whole world. The world is a different place now, Anya,

1380
01:15:48,520 --> 01:15:50,760
Speaker 3: you don't see it that people don't seem to care

1381
01:15:50,840 --> 01:15:52,920
Speaker 3: about giving a gift just so they can see the

1382
01:15:53,000 --> 01:15:54,960
Speaker 3: light of happiness in a friend's eyes.

1383
01:15:56,240 --> 01:16:00,719
Speaker 2: And all they want is spacecrack. Now, So we're.

1384
01:16:00,680 --> 01:16:02,639
Speaker 3: Leading up to the conclusion here, and we've got actually

1385
01:16:02,640 --> 01:16:04,360
Speaker 3: a lot of pieces in play. There's a lot of

1386
01:16:04,439 --> 01:16:08,400
Speaker 3: stuff going on. So the of course, the villains are

1387
01:16:08,439 --> 01:16:11,559
Speaker 3: planning to release this candy cane in March, and they've

1388
01:16:11,600 --> 01:16:15,719
Speaker 3: got Patch creating prototypes and they discover that uh oh,

1389
01:16:15,880 --> 01:16:19,760
Speaker 3: the candy canes they're dangerous. Not only dangerous in that

1390
01:16:19,840 --> 01:16:23,240
Speaker 3: they do make you fly, which could be dangerous in itself,

1391
01:16:23,800 --> 01:16:26,800
Speaker 3: but also if they get warm, they explode. It's like

1392
01:16:27,000 --> 01:16:30,960
Speaker 3: you know, it's like gasoline. They ignite and explode.

1393
01:16:31,040 --> 01:16:33,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, they lost a whole factory, we find.

1394
01:16:33,080 --> 01:16:36,519
Speaker 3: Yeah, blew up a building. And they're keeping this secret

1395
01:16:36,560 --> 01:16:38,679
Speaker 3: from Patch right now. He doesn't know that, I think,

1396
01:16:38,720 --> 01:16:40,800
Speaker 3: but they Yeah, they've up to the formula. And so

1397
01:16:40,840 --> 01:16:43,200
Speaker 3: they've got these really dangerous candy canes. But Bez's like,

1398
01:16:43,240 --> 01:16:45,120
Speaker 3: I don't care if they explode. We got to send

1399
01:16:45,160 --> 01:16:45,799
Speaker 3: them out anyway.

1400
01:16:46,200 --> 01:16:48,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is some tubes in just a month.

1401
01:16:48,840 --> 01:16:52,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is sometime in January, though, they say, And

1402
01:16:52,960 --> 01:16:57,520
Speaker 3: they're working on these candy canes and the kids Cornelia

1403
01:16:57,600 --> 01:17:01,040
Speaker 3: and Joe, who have been hanging out a lot together there.

1404
01:17:01,200 --> 01:17:04,960
Speaker 3: They're friends now and they like, overhear this plan and

1405
01:17:05,000 --> 01:17:08,080
Speaker 3: now they've got the scoop on it. Somehow they spilled

1406
01:17:08,080 --> 01:17:11,320
Speaker 3: the Oh they spilled the beans to Santa Claus. Oh no, wait,

1407
01:17:11,400 --> 01:17:13,920
Speaker 3: first they hit the bad guys. Kidnapped the little kid,

1408
01:17:14,000 --> 01:17:18,280
Speaker 3: Joe because they catch him listening. And then Cornelia is like,

1409
01:17:18,360 --> 01:17:20,200
Speaker 3: oh no, he's you know, they've got him locked up

1410
01:17:20,240 --> 01:17:22,160
Speaker 3: in the basement. He's running out of air. What can

1411
01:17:22,200 --> 01:17:23,320
Speaker 3: I do? I got to write in a note to

1412
01:17:23,360 --> 01:17:24,040
Speaker 3: Santa Claus.

1413
01:17:24,400 --> 01:17:26,880
Speaker 2: Oh did you mention that Cornelia's uncle is busy?

1414
01:17:27,040 --> 01:17:29,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mentioned that earlier, but yeah, that's why

1415
01:17:29,200 --> 01:17:33,639
Speaker 3: they Yeah, yeah, he comes to the house and yeah

1416
01:17:33,680 --> 01:17:37,360
Speaker 3: he's the uncle that that sustains the swanky lifestyle there.

1417
01:17:37,960 --> 01:17:41,320
Speaker 3: So he's drinking PBR and scheming and then kidnapping her friend,

1418
01:17:41,920 --> 01:17:44,719
Speaker 3: her little friend. She writes a letter to Santa Claus

1419
01:17:44,840 --> 01:17:48,519
Speaker 3: and then Santa comes to the rescue. But the final

1420
01:17:48,600 --> 01:17:52,320
Speaker 3: showdown happens when it's not really a showdown between the

1421
01:17:52,320 --> 01:17:55,799
Speaker 3: hero and the villain. What happens is Patch and Joe

1422
01:17:56,160 --> 01:17:59,400
Speaker 3: get into Patches rocket car and they're just going on

1423
01:17:59,400 --> 01:18:02,479
Speaker 3: a joy ride. I think they're just like driving around

1424
01:18:02,560 --> 01:18:05,080
Speaker 3: and the candy canes, the exploding candy canes, are in

1425
01:18:05,080 --> 01:18:07,080
Speaker 3: the back of the car. Yeah, and they're getting.

1426
01:18:06,760 --> 01:18:09,480
Speaker 2: Crunk full of just highly volatile candy.

1427
01:18:09,200 --> 01:18:12,720
Speaker 3: Can They're getting hotter and hotter. Meanwhile, Santa Claus and

1428
01:18:12,760 --> 01:18:15,439
Speaker 3: now Corny are flying in the sleigh trying to catch

1429
01:18:15,520 --> 01:18:18,720
Speaker 3: up to them to stop them and save them. And

1430
01:18:18,800 --> 01:18:20,400
Speaker 3: it turns out in the end, the only way they

1431
01:18:20,400 --> 01:18:23,320
Speaker 3: can stop them is the good old super duper looper,

1432
01:18:23,880 --> 01:18:24,960
Speaker 3: which makes no sense.

1433
01:18:25,000 --> 01:18:27,040
Speaker 2: Like, basically, as they are in a sleigh that is

1434
01:18:27,040 --> 01:18:30,839
Speaker 2: about to explode with the energy of a thousand suns,

1435
01:18:31,640 --> 01:18:36,320
Speaker 2: and when that explosion occurs, they're going to fall harmlessly

1436
01:18:36,400 --> 01:18:41,160
Speaker 2: out of exploding sleigh. So one needs to pass underneath

1437
01:18:41,200 --> 01:18:43,679
Speaker 2: them and over them in order to do a complete

1438
01:18:43,680 --> 01:18:46,400
Speaker 2: loop de loop and then catch them as they fall out.

1439
01:18:46,560 --> 01:18:51,439
Speaker 3: Yeah, but they manage its, Yeah, of course, so they're

1440
01:18:51,479 --> 01:18:53,519
Speaker 3: fine in the end. And then what is the inn

1441
01:18:53,560 --> 01:18:56,400
Speaker 3: for Bz. Since we never get a confrontation between him

1442
01:18:56,400 --> 01:19:00,559
Speaker 3: and Santa he gets the Clinton Dole treatment from citizen Kang.

1443
01:19:00,680 --> 01:19:04,200
Speaker 3: He he the police arrived to arrest him because he's

1444
01:19:04,640 --> 01:19:07,160
Speaker 3: you know, if only it worked this way. He was,

1445
01:19:07,240 --> 01:19:10,200
Speaker 3: you know, because he was doing corporate malfeasans. The police

1446
01:19:10,280 --> 01:19:12,720
Speaker 3: arrived to arrest him, and then he's like, you'll never

1447
01:19:12,760 --> 01:19:14,640
Speaker 3: take me alive, and he crams a bunch of the

1448
01:19:14,880 --> 01:19:17,719
Speaker 3: fly you know, flight granting candy canes in his mouth

1449
01:19:17,760 --> 01:19:18,880
Speaker 3: and then flies away.

1450
01:19:19,160 --> 01:19:21,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, he like he eats these jumps out the window,

1451
01:19:22,000 --> 01:19:24,840
Speaker 2: kind of like a you know, you know, villain suicide

1452
01:19:24,840 --> 01:19:27,120
Speaker 2: in version here, but instead of falling to his death,

1453
01:19:27,600 --> 01:19:28,360
Speaker 2: he falls up.

1454
01:19:29,760 --> 01:19:32,320
Speaker 3: But speaking of falling to his death, the effect when

1455
01:19:32,320 --> 01:19:34,759
Speaker 3: he jumps up into the sky looks like when Ronnie

1456
01:19:34,800 --> 01:19:37,320
Speaker 3: Cox falls out the window in RoboCop. He's got the

1457
01:19:37,400 --> 01:19:40,240
Speaker 3: long looking arms and he's floating up into the sky.

1458
01:19:40,600 --> 01:19:42,920
Speaker 2: So honestly looks a little better than the RoboCop.

1459
01:19:43,000 --> 01:19:45,920
Speaker 3: It looks a little better. Yeah, and then the stinger

1460
01:19:46,000 --> 01:19:49,360
Speaker 3: at the end is he he gets, you know, clinton

1461
01:19:49,720 --> 01:19:53,000
Speaker 3: like he's out in space, just like floating away into space.

1462
01:19:53,200 --> 01:19:56,760
Speaker 3: He's still moving around. So it's not suggested that he's dead,

1463
01:19:56,840 --> 01:19:59,040
Speaker 3: but I think the adults will know like, ooh, that's

1464
01:19:59,080 --> 01:19:59,920
Speaker 3: not survivable.

1465
01:20:00,439 --> 01:20:02,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's gonna it's gonna be like Outland here in

1466
01:20:02,280 --> 01:20:05,760
Speaker 2: a minute, he's gonna explode depending on which movie you're

1467
01:20:06,000 --> 01:20:09,000
Speaker 2: you're referencing, He's going to either explode or freeze and

1468
01:20:09,080 --> 01:20:13,080
Speaker 2: shatter or burn up something. He's not gonna last long

1469
01:20:13,160 --> 01:20:13,479
Speaker 2: up there.

1470
01:20:13,640 --> 01:20:17,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's it's gonna be rough. So that's the

1471
01:20:17,840 --> 01:20:19,799
Speaker 3: end of Santa Claus the movie.

1472
01:20:20,400 --> 01:20:25,360
Speaker 2: So Christmas was threatened? Was it saved? Hard to tell?

1473
01:20:25,800 --> 01:20:28,240
Speaker 3: Well, the end didn't take place at Christmas.

1474
01:20:28,120 --> 01:20:31,439
Speaker 2: No, so hard. Yeah, we're moving into the next Christmas

1475
01:20:31,439 --> 01:20:35,200
Speaker 2: where all of the things that made Santa so doubtful

1476
01:20:35,200 --> 01:20:38,519
Speaker 2: are still in play, right. I mean, it's not like

1477
01:20:38,560 --> 01:20:45,760
Speaker 2: we defeated consumerism and capitalism and all these other aspects

1478
01:20:45,800 --> 01:20:49,360
Speaker 2: of modern times that the movie seems to position in

1479
01:20:49,560 --> 01:20:54,800
Speaker 2: opposition to the true spirit of the holidays. All of

1480
01:20:54,840 --> 01:20:58,240
Speaker 2: that's still out there. But I guess everyone's safe for

1481
01:20:58,320 --> 01:20:58,920
Speaker 2: the time being.

1482
01:20:59,280 --> 01:21:02,880
Speaker 3: Yeah. So they prevented the candy canes from being distributed

1483
01:21:02,920 --> 01:21:05,080
Speaker 3: to all the children of the world and exploding and

1484
01:21:05,160 --> 01:21:05,840
Speaker 3: killing them all.

1485
01:21:06,160 --> 01:21:06,559
Speaker 2: That's good.

1486
01:21:06,600 --> 01:21:10,559
Speaker 3: That's good. Yes, So that's good. They I think Santa

1487
01:21:10,560 --> 01:21:14,040
Speaker 3: Claus is it's implied that he is somewhat rehabilitated at

1488
01:21:14,040 --> 01:21:18,120
Speaker 3: the end because he was suffering a low reputation because

1489
01:21:18,160 --> 01:21:20,840
Speaker 3: he gave all those bad toys the year before, and

1490
01:21:20,920 --> 01:21:24,000
Speaker 3: the next year he will be using good handmade toys again,

1491
01:21:24,160 --> 01:21:26,879
Speaker 3: so he will not so his reputation will improve.

1492
01:21:27,720 --> 01:21:31,840
Speaker 2: Patch has perhaps learned the era of his ways. Yeah,

1493
01:21:31,880 --> 01:21:33,840
Speaker 2: and he's going to come back into the fold and

1494
01:21:34,760 --> 01:21:36,479
Speaker 2: be a good elf. I don't know. I mean he's

1495
01:21:36,680 --> 01:21:39,320
Speaker 2: he's a dreamer. He might work some more high tech

1496
01:21:39,360 --> 01:21:41,400
Speaker 2: ideas in who knows what he's picked up from BZ

1497
01:21:41,800 --> 01:21:43,439
Speaker 2: that he can bring back to the North Pole.

1498
01:21:44,120 --> 01:21:45,920
Speaker 3: Do just think if he takes that fairy dusk to

1499
01:21:45,920 --> 01:21:49,600
Speaker 3: Silicon Valley instead of the industrial toy making center, is like,

1500
01:21:49,640 --> 01:21:52,240
Speaker 3: what kind of technological nightmares would they come up with?

1501
01:21:52,439 --> 01:21:55,719
Speaker 2: Can you imagine Santa Claus the motion picture too? Santa

1502
01:21:55,760 --> 01:21:56,559
Speaker 2: Claus the movie too?

1503
01:21:56,640 --> 01:21:58,639
Speaker 3: Rather Santa goes online and.

1504
01:21:58,600 --> 01:22:01,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's like in Silicon Valley, we're trying to

1505
01:22:01,920 --> 01:22:05,200
Speaker 2: crack this new virtual reality headset. We can't get it

1506
01:22:05,280 --> 01:22:06,960
Speaker 2: just right, but does the kids are going to go

1507
01:22:07,040 --> 01:22:10,160
Speaker 2: wild for this. Here comes Patch with a handful of

1508
01:22:10,160 --> 01:22:12,400
Speaker 2: gold and dust and he's like, put this in there

1509
01:22:12,439 --> 01:22:16,280
Speaker 2: and see what happens. Instant timeless immersion in another.

1510
01:22:16,040 --> 01:22:23,120
Speaker 3: Realm, terrifically cyber I would watch Cyber Christmas Christ. Okay,

1511
01:22:23,160 --> 01:22:25,599
Speaker 3: does that do it for Santa Claus? The movie?

1512
01:22:26,000 --> 01:22:29,800
Speaker 2: It does again? This movie is a mess, you know,

1513
01:22:29,880 --> 01:22:36,480
Speaker 2: it's it is not fully baked. It has some interesting ideas,

1514
01:22:36,800 --> 01:22:40,080
Speaker 2: but yeah, one really gets the impression that it could

1515
01:22:40,120 --> 01:22:43,479
Speaker 2: have used a few more rewrites before they actually brought

1516
01:22:43,520 --> 01:22:46,840
Speaker 2: it to production. The film is itself is like one

1517
01:22:47,040 --> 01:22:51,160
Speaker 2: of the mass produced toys from the North Pole that

1518
01:22:51,280 --> 01:22:55,000
Speaker 2: inevitably break and are sent back through the return system.

1519
01:22:55,360 --> 01:22:57,439
Speaker 3: Ah yeah, and maybe in the same way that one

1520
01:22:57,479 --> 01:23:00,240
Speaker 3: of those toys would be interesting to examine if you

1521
01:23:00,320 --> 01:23:03,400
Speaker 3: are like an industrial engineer, to see where the process

1522
01:23:03,439 --> 01:23:06,880
Speaker 3: went wrong. The film maybe something people could learn from.

1523
01:23:07,680 --> 01:23:09,479
Speaker 3: But I sure had a heck of a good time

1524
01:23:09,520 --> 01:23:10,599
Speaker 3: talking about it today here.

1525
01:23:10,880 --> 01:23:13,640
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's a it's a fun film. It's a

1526
01:23:13,640 --> 01:23:16,200
Speaker 2: fun Christmas film. But I would love to hear from

1527
01:23:16,200 --> 01:23:19,000
Speaker 2: folks out there. I want to hear from people who,

1528
01:23:19,200 --> 01:23:22,960
Speaker 2: like me, saw this film as part of its intended

1529
01:23:23,560 --> 01:23:27,400
Speaker 2: childhood audience. I want to hear from people in the UK.

1530
01:23:28,040 --> 01:23:30,760
Speaker 2: I want to know a little more firsthand about the

1531
01:23:30,760 --> 01:23:36,080
Speaker 2: British reception to this strange movie. I understand it had

1532
01:23:36,120 --> 01:23:38,559
Speaker 2: you know, we saw the product integration with McDonald's and all.

1533
01:23:38,560 --> 01:23:40,920
Speaker 2: I think there was a happy meal for this movie.

1534
01:23:41,200 --> 01:23:43,519
Speaker 2: Does anyone have any memories of that? I want to

1535
01:23:43,600 --> 01:23:46,280
Speaker 2: hear about that as well, So all of that is

1536
01:23:46,600 --> 01:23:49,040
Speaker 2: certainly on the table, or just Santa films in general.

1537
01:23:49,040 --> 01:23:52,040
Speaker 2: If you have thoughts on Santa Claus at the movies

1538
01:23:52,680 --> 01:23:55,000
Speaker 2: right in, we'd love to discuss it in the future.

1539
01:23:55,920 --> 01:23:58,040
Speaker 2: Just a reminder that stuck to blow your mind. As

1540
01:23:58,120 --> 01:24:00,960
Speaker 2: primarily a science and culture podcast with episodes on Tuesdays

1541
01:24:00,960 --> 01:24:03,559
Speaker 2: and Thursdays. On Wednesdays we do a short form episode

1542
01:24:03,600 --> 01:24:05,880
Speaker 2: and on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns to

1543
01:24:06,000 --> 01:24:08,680
Speaker 2: just talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema.

1544
01:24:08,800 --> 01:24:11,559
Speaker 2: If you are on letterbox dot com, you can look

1545
01:24:11,600 --> 01:24:13,920
Speaker 2: up weird House Cinema there. That's our username, and we

1546
01:24:13,920 --> 01:24:15,439
Speaker 2: have a list of all the movies we've covered over

1547
01:24:15,439 --> 01:24:18,479
Speaker 2: the years and sometimes a peek ahead what comes next.

1548
01:24:18,760 --> 01:24:20,840
Speaker 2: If you liked our Christmas vibes here, yeah, we have

1549
01:24:20,920 --> 01:24:24,800
Speaker 2: covered a handful of Christmas movies and films that just

1550
01:24:24,840 --> 01:24:29,800
Speaker 2: happen to have a Christmas setting, such as Blue Sunshine

1551
01:24:29,800 --> 01:24:32,760
Speaker 2: from last year, or you know, maybe an action or

1552
01:24:32,840 --> 01:24:35,599
Speaker 2: horror movie here and there that have a definite Christmas setting,

1553
01:24:36,000 --> 01:24:36,840
Speaker 2: or movies.

1554
01:24:36,560 --> 01:24:38,400
Speaker 3: That don't have a Christmas setting at all but just

1555
01:24:38,439 --> 01:24:41,120
Speaker 3: feel like Christmas for some reason, like Robot Shocks.

1556
01:24:41,200 --> 01:24:43,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just feels like it should be wrapped under

1557
01:24:43,160 --> 01:24:43,519
Speaker 2: the tree.

1558
01:24:43,640 --> 01:24:43,920
Speaker 5: Yeah.

1559
01:24:44,160 --> 01:24:48,040
Speaker 3: Huge, Thanks as always to our excellent producer JJ Posway.

1560
01:24:48,320 --> 01:24:49,920
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

1561
01:24:49,920 --> 01:24:52,360
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1562
01:24:52,360 --> 01:24:54,479
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1563
01:24:54,600 --> 01:24:57,360
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

1564
01:24:57,360 --> 01:25:04,920
Speaker 3: your Mind dot com.

1565
01:25:05,160 --> 01:25:08,120
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1566
01:25:08,200 --> 01:25:12,040
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1567
01:25:12,120 --> 01:25:13,920
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.