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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind, this is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 1: We're off this week for the holiday, so we have

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Speaker 1: a holiday Weird House Cinema episode for you. This one

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Speaker 1: originally published twelve fifteen, twenty twenty three. It is the

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine Mexican Christmas movie Santa Claus, also known

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Speaker 1: as Santa Claus Versus the Devil. It is a load

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Speaker 1: of fun mystery science theater. Three thousand fans know and

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Speaker 1: love this film, and if you are not familiar with it,

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Speaker 1: we'll dive into this episode. Joe and I talk about

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Speaker 1: it quite a bit.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 3: And this is Joe McCormick. Again. On today's episode of

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Speaker 3: Weird House Cinema, we're going to be talking about the

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Speaker 3: nineteen fifty nine in film Santa Claus.

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Speaker 1: That's right. We've brought this one up a number of

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Speaker 1: times before, not only on Weird House Cinema, but I

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Speaker 1: think it leaks into the core episodes as well. It's

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Speaker 1: just that weird of a film. It is a nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty nine Mexican family fantasy film in which a kind

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Speaker 1: of Doctor Doom Santa in the same way that Marvels.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Doom is a master of both magic and high technology.

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Speaker 1: Well so is Santa, or at least the outsources to

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Speaker 1: people who know what they're doing.

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Speaker 3: That's right. I mean, the Santa in this movie relies

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Speaker 3: a lot on his sort of cube branch, which is Merlin. Merlin,

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Speaker 3: who in this movie is like a cross between Albert

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Speaker 3: Hoffman and John Dee. He is a sorcerer who wears

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Speaker 3: a pointy hat that's got like moons and stars on it,

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Speaker 3: and he's clearly doing magic, but he's also doing a

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Speaker 3: lot of chemistry and coming up with psychoactive substances to

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Speaker 3: affect the minds of Earth's children.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely dabbling in at least some alchemy, if not

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Speaker 1: some outright devil worship based on some of the decorations

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Speaker 1: in the house. But he also seemingly has the aid

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Speaker 1: of a Greek god. And if you haven't seen the

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Speaker 1: full cut of this film before, you might be surprised

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Speaker 1: to find a figure who seems to be Hephaestus aiding

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Speaker 1: Santa Claus in his efforts to bring Christmas to the

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Speaker 1: good children of the world, regardless of socioeconomic situations.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that was one of the big surprises on this viewing.

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Speaker 3: So I had previously only seen this movie in the

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Speaker 3: Mystery Science Theater three thousand cut, which excises some of

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Speaker 3: the weirdest stuff in the film. It excises some merlin

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Speaker 3: stuff and excises the scene where Santa goes to meet

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Speaker 3: with the figure you're talking about, who's clearly he faced

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Speaker 3: us or Vulcan called the Master Blacksmith or the key

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Speaker 3: Master or key Maker or later in the film, key Man.

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Speaker 3: I don't know if you caught that part where Santa

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Speaker 3: is just screaming into the air for help and he

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Speaker 3: calls out key Man.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because he is the one who makes Santa

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Speaker 1: his magical key that like fries open any lock, allows

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Speaker 1: instant access to the interior of your home.

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Speaker 3: And when Santa's first testing this key out, he laughs

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Speaker 3: in an almost unsettling way as he's like realizing the

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Speaker 3: power to unlock any portal.

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Speaker 1: Now, this movie is sometimes referred to as Santa Claus

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Speaker 1: versus the Devil in order to set it apart from

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Speaker 1: the various other Santa movies, because again the title is

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Speaker 1: just Santa Claus came out in fifty nine, initially released

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Speaker 1: to Mexican audiences in fifty nine, and it's credited with

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Speaker 1: popularizing secular Santa Claus traditions in Mexico at a time

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Speaker 1: when most of the emphasis was on the religious aspects

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Speaker 1: of the holiday, you know, carrying over from Spanish Catholic traditions.

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Speaker 1: This is still a big part of Mexican holiday traditions,

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Speaker 1: of course, but this movie really helped to throw Santa

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Speaker 1: Claus into the mix.

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Speaker 3: So Rob, I don't know if you watched the same

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Speaker 3: version I did, but there is the original Spanish language version,

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Speaker 3: and then there is an English dub, and the version

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Speaker 3: that I've seen in all cases, the both the one

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Speaker 3: featured on MST and the full cut that I watched

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Speaker 3: today is the English dub, which adds a layer of

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Speaker 3: comedy to the film that I think is probably not

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Speaker 3: quite there in the in the original language edit because

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Speaker 3: of the vocal performance of the guy who does who

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Speaker 3: plays the role of Santa Claus, who has essentially one

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Speaker 3: vocal gear, and that gear is bellowing.

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Speaker 1: But it's perfect because the actor playing Santa Claus, who

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Speaker 1: will get into in a bit, has that same level

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Speaker 1: of energy with his physical performance, so it's it's weird

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Speaker 1: like the My primary experience, too, is with the English dub,

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Speaker 1: and I primarily watched the English dub for this episode,

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Speaker 1: but I did check in on the original Spanish language

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Speaker 1: version a little bit just to get a feel for

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Speaker 1: the performances. And you know, it's still over the top.

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Speaker 1: It's still campy intentionally, so it's still comedic, but there's

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Speaker 1: something about these uncredited English language dubs that just really

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Speaker 1: help to just strengthen everything and make everything it's already

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Speaker 1: over the top, feel just a little bit more over

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Speaker 1: the top.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. So in the original, I'm sure it

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Speaker 3: was a very enthusiastic performance from the actor who plays

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Speaker 3: Santa Claus, and you can see it there in his

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Speaker 3: physical performance on the screen. But with this English vocal performance,

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Speaker 3: it adds in inflections like oh the devil.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. At times the dubbing is really borderline riffing, Like

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Speaker 1: I didn't get a chance to find out if Merlin

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Speaker 1: makes like little tut tut noises as he moves around

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Speaker 1: in the Spanish original like that felty, we're almost going

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Speaker 1: too far there again, unless it's present in the Spanish

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Speaker 1: original I didn't have a chance to share, but anyway,

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Speaker 1: the English language dub that this comes to us thanks

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Speaker 1: to the work of distributor Kay Gordon Murray, who lived

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Speaker 1: nineteen twenty two through nineteen seventy nine, also the English

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Speaker 1: language narrator, and I think he does one or two

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Speaker 1: other voices in there. There are times where a voice

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Speaker 1: is just way too close to the narration.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there are several roles in the film that sound

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Speaker 3: like they're being performed by the same actor.

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Speaker 1: So this film did receive a limited US theatrical release

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Speaker 1: thanks to Kay Gordon Murray, and apparently it has. It

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Speaker 1: continued to play over the years after that, like it

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Speaker 1: was always a success. It was the kind of thing

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Speaker 1: that theaters would would maybe put on as part of

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Speaker 1: a holiday matinee, much like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

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Speaker 1: I was looking this film up in Michael Weldon's The

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Speaker 1: Psychotronic Encyclopedia film from eighty three, and he closes it

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Speaker 1: out by saying, Hey, if your local theater is playing

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Speaker 1: this for their holiday matinee, go see it. It's a

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Speaker 1: lot of fun. So it's interesting to think about the

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Speaker 1: you know, the continued life of this film as something

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Speaker 1: that at least children would go and see and also

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Speaker 1: maybe a few you know, psychotronically aligned adults.

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Speaker 3: Well yeah, speaking to the psychotronic appear. One thing that's

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Speaker 3: kind of surprising about this is I think you could

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Speaker 3: make an argument that Santa Claus nineteen fifty nine is

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Speaker 3: actually a more science fiction oriented film than Santa Claus

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Speaker 3: Conquers the Martians, because it has more like sci fi

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Speaker 3: gadgets and technology in it. In fact, Santa Claus in

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Speaker 3: this movie operates a really powerful surveillance communications infrastructure that

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Speaker 3: uses these strange sort of biomechanical or cybernetic machines to

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Speaker 3: spy on and locate children and people all around the globe.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I understand Christopher Nollen was directly inspired by this

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Speaker 1: movie when creating The Dark Knight Returns. Is that the

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Speaker 1: second one, The Dark Knight Returns, And that's just the

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Speaker 1: Dark Knight, It's the Dark Knight. Okay, Yeah, but he

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Speaker 1: does return in that film.

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Speaker 3: Yes he does. But so the Santa in this movie

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Speaker 3: raises questions about technological ethics and surveillance surveillance culture.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think a lot of it. I think

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Speaker 1: we can actually understand this a little better now that

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Speaker 1: we've talked about other films by the same director from

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Speaker 1: the same more or less time period, you know, give

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Speaker 1: or take a decade, where we see some of like,

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Speaker 1: you know, the various elements that you see in the

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Speaker 1: Santo films, where there is super science, there is the supernatural,

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Speaker 1: and of course there are also these other like kind

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Speaker 1: of holy and religious elements in there as well, all

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Speaker 1: kind of mixed together in this kind of you know,

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Speaker 1: comic book world that seemed to be like a common

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Speaker 1: touchdone for these genre pictures.

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Speaker 3: It's an intoxicating blend. I enjoy it now.

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Speaker 1: This film also appears in various forms, not only theatrically presumably,

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Speaker 1: but also on home video releases. Many of these were

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Speaker 1: edited in Some highly edited parts of the opening Small

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Speaker 1: World esque sequence that actually pre dates Disney Small World,

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Speaker 1: I believe, are often edited out for cultural sensitivity reasons,

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Speaker 1: and there's apparently one cut of the film that takes

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Speaker 1: the pitch out completely. I don't know how that would work.

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Speaker 1: I guess it would be considerably shorter, and the MST

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Speaker 1: three K version, of course, is edited and leaves a

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Speaker 1: great deal of weirdness on the cutting room floor. As

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Speaker 1: we already mentioned.

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Speaker 3: I'm still scratching my head over how you could edit

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Speaker 3: out pitch the name of the demon who is the

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Speaker 3: antagonist of this film. You would be left with, I

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Speaker 3: don't know. It seems like at least a third of

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Speaker 3: the movie would be gone, and some situations would be

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Speaker 3: inexplicable without him present to cause them.

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Speaker 1: It would seem like the sort of thing you would

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Speaker 1: do if your attitude was, Look, it's just going to

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Speaker 1: be a room full of kids. They're going to be

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Speaker 1: raising a ruckus. They just want to see Santa Claus.

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Speaker 1: They don't know how plot works. Let's just show him

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Speaker 1: everything but the devil, because we don't want to upset them. Okay,

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Speaker 1: So anyway, as we'll discuss, it is a delightfully fun

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Speaker 1: and weird movie. Do not pay any attention to the

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Speaker 1: various star reviews you see on like IMDb and so forth.

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Speaker 1: This movie and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians are quintessential

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Speaker 1: psychotronic Christmas movies, and they both set a high bar

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Speaker 1: for all holiday weirdness that was to come. Do you

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Speaker 1: have an elevator pitch for this one?

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Speaker 3: Joe, Oh?

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Speaker 4: Do?

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Speaker 3: I let's see Santa Claus wants to bring the good

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Speaker 3: spirit of holiday cheer to well behaved children all around

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Speaker 3: the world. But standing a thwart to this ambition is

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Speaker 3: the Demon Pitch, a malevolent being straight from Hell whose

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Speaker 3: goal is to thwart Santa Claus and make the children

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Speaker 3: of Earth behave wickedly. Will the Demon Pitch be able

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Speaker 3: to stop Santa Claus and in fact kill Santa Claus

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Speaker 3: by confining him to Earth where he cannot survive until

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Speaker 3: the next Christmas, Or will Santa prevail with the help

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Speaker 3: of a sort of bat belt of gadgets from Merlin

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Speaker 3: and assorted other Q branch types.

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Speaker 1: Sounds good to me. Let's listen to the classic English

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Speaker 1: language trailer for this.

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Speaker 4: It's like living a story adventure beyond your wildest imagination.

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Speaker 4: From the north pole of fantasy Land comes a feature

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Speaker 4: length table with the most enchanting characters in the whole

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Speaker 4: wide world, headed by the white whisked Fellow, who's the

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Speaker 4: granddaddy of them all. Now, a magic motion picture transports

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Speaker 4: you to an over the rainbow land, past the doors

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Speaker 4: of Satu's towering castle and the strange, mysterious all seeing Eye,

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Speaker 4: into a fantastic crystal laboratory filled with weird and wonderful

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Speaker 4: secrets no one has ever seen before. You'll see them all,

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Speaker 4: and you'll discover how satur can watch every child on

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Speaker 4: earth and every good or bad thing they do. Now

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Speaker 4: meet Merlin, the Wizard of Wizards, the miracle Man of

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Speaker 4: the ages. Till within the show. Huray we go, hurry,

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Speaker 4: mister Merlin. This is no time the horses come face

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Speaker 4: to face with the Devil himself, a mischievous demon determined

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Speaker 4: to mess things up as much as he can. It's yours,

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Speaker 4: nobody show you take it to Peter. They have born.

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Speaker 4: They won't miss it. What does one little doll maner?

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Speaker 3: Don't you see?

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Speaker 4: Leave it to that devil? He strikes to the sidetrack,

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Speaker 4: satah up a tree. What's the jolly hijinks of Santa

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Speaker 4: Claus as he decides to fight fire with fire? Oh?

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Speaker 3: Ho a canon.

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Speaker 2: God?

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Speaker 4: Oh, you will want to miss the entertainment, wonder of

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Speaker 4: the agents, the treat of a lifetime, or anyone who

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Speaker 4: has ever believed there really is a Santa Claus Candy

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Speaker 4: and then that track hasn't come.

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Speaker 1: Sleep now, darling, sleep now, and you will see Pete.

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Speaker 1: When you will do't you find about it?

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Speaker 4: You'll see more wonders than you can wave a wanda

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Speaker 4: as a dazzling panorama unfolds before your startled eyes.

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Speaker 1: All right now, if you want to watch this film,

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Speaker 1: if you haven't seen Santa Claus from nineteen fifty nine,

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Speaker 1: Santa Clauss is the Devil if you will, well like

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Speaker 1: to say, there are a lot of different versions that

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Speaker 1: have come out over the years, various formats. You can

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Speaker 1: catch this on the big screen every now and then.

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Speaker 1: I think I think it aired on the big screen

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Speaker 1: locally in the last year or two here in Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: But I watched the excellent VCI Entertainment special edition. Blu

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Speaker 1: Ray rented this from Video Drum, great picture quality, and

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Speaker 1: it also has really insightful commentary by film historian Daniel Griffith.

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Speaker 1: So some of the information I'll share with you about

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Speaker 1: the film is from that commentary by Daniel Griffith. But

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Speaker 1: if I get something wrong, it's not Daniel Griffith's fault.

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Speaker 1: It's my fault for not listening to him enough. I

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Speaker 1: just want to put that out there. I don't want

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Speaker 1: people to be like, how could he not know this?

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Speaker 1: Did he not hear Daniel Griffith explain it, well, it's

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Speaker 1: because I miss something, all right. Let's get into the

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Speaker 1: people involved in the production of this film, starting at

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Speaker 1: the top. The director and one of the writers is

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Speaker 1: Renee Cardona, who we've talked about on the show before.

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Speaker 1: Lived nineteen oh five through nineteen eighty eight, director, actor, producer, writer,

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Speaker 1: and editor, best remembered as a director in the golden

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Speaker 1: age of Mexican cinema. We've talked about him before because

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Speaker 1: we've covered two other films that he directed. Nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: three's Doctor of Doom, that's a luchador film with a

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Speaker 1: very fun mad scientist, and then nineteen sixty nine Santo

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Speaker 1: in the Treasure of Dracula, a time traveling luchador Dracula

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Speaker 1: movie that is also tremendous fun.

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Speaker 3: I feel like those are two of my favorites that

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Speaker 3: we've covered on Weird House. I love these wrestling movies

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Speaker 3: in the way the freedom with which they incorporate seemingly

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Speaker 3: unlikely other genres such as horror and fantasy and science

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Speaker 3: fiction into the wrestling plot format.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, you can't see a similar energy in

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Speaker 1: this picture, even though there are no luchadors that I

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Speaker 1: know I've involved in it, and there' certainly no lucha characters,

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Speaker 1: but if there were one, they would not be out

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Speaker 1: of place. So anyway, we'll likely cover more Cardona films

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Speaker 1: in the future, so I'm gonna cover less about him

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Speaker 1: now for this episode, other than to stress that, yeah,

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Speaker 1: he was highly prolific work with a number of the

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Speaker 1: biggest stars in Mexican cinema of the time period, and

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Speaker 1: his output ranges from serious dramas and a couple of

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Speaker 1: kids movies to Santo Pictures and the Grimy Night of

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Speaker 1: the blo Eights from nineteen sixty nine.

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Speaker 3: I've never seen that one, but the tasteful title has

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Speaker 3: always appealed to me.

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Speaker 1: It's apparently not a tasteful film. As we mentioned in

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Speaker 1: our episode on Doctor of Doom. It is essentially a

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Speaker 1: remake of some of the elements of Doctor of Doom,

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Speaker 1: but it takes it in a much grimier direction. So

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Speaker 1: I doubt we'll cover that film on Weird House Cinema,

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Speaker 1: but it's out there and it's well known in horror circles,

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Speaker 1: all right. The other writer on this is Adolfo Torres Portillo,

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Speaker 1: who lived nineteen twenty through nineteen ninety six. His other

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Speaker 1: credits include nineteen sixties The Crying Woman, nineteen sixty three's

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Speaker 1: Little Red Riding Hood, and Tom Thumb versus the Monsters

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Speaker 1: from sixty two. I'm very interested in that Los Vampire's

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Speaker 1: from nineteen sixty nine, nineteen eighty three's Mexico two thousand

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Speaker 1: that we've mentioned on the show before, as well as

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Speaker 1: various other fantasies, Luca and comedies. All right, now, getting

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Speaker 1: into the cast, I'm not going to talk about everybody cast,

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Speaker 1: but of course we got to talk about Santa Santa

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Speaker 1: Claus is played by Jose Elias Moreno, who lived nineteen

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Speaker 1: ten through nineteen sixty nine, terrific Mexican character actor who

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Speaker 1: was largely known, apparently for playing heavies and villains rather

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Speaker 1: than anything like Santa Claus. So Griffith, in his commentary

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Speaker 1: says that he he was sort of going against type here.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of like if you'd cast late nineties, early

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Speaker 1: two thousands Brian Cox as Santa Claus very much a

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Speaker 1: similar energy, and I can imagine Brian Cox at nailing

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Speaker 1: it in a similar fashion.

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Speaker 3: Okay, well, I can see that comparison, but I'm gonna say,

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Speaker 3: Moreno just he seems to effortlessly inhabit this role. Again,

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Speaker 3: it's not his voice that I'm used to hearing, because

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Speaker 3: I'm listening to the English stub, But at least the

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Speaker 3: physical performance, it's like he was born to play Santa.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. The physical performance alone is just an absolute delight.

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Speaker 1: He leaves no corner of the scene unshewed, and his face,

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Speaker 1: though martially obscured by that fake Santa Wig, and that

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Speaker 1: fake Santa Beard, is just continually shifting into a host

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Speaker 1: of just extreme emotional expressions, you know, like it's it's

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Speaker 1: just he's just constantly doing something up there. And this

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Speaker 1: is exactly the sort of movie and the sort of

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Speaker 1: role where that kind of energy is rewarding.

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Speaker 3: It has the feeling of a stage performance put on screen.

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Speaker 1: Yes, you want to make sure that people in the

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Speaker 1: very back row know exactly what Santa is feeling just

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Speaker 1: by looking at him. Moreno's other credits include nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: two Is the Magnificent Beast, sixty nine's Night of the

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Speaker 1: Bloody Apes, and he also played an ogre in Cardona's

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty eight movie Polcarcito.

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Speaker 3: Oh, I feel like I saw that word appear in

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Speaker 3: the credits. Is that like a nickname of his that

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Speaker 3: he might have been credited along with that?

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Speaker 1: Is then that that is the name of or the

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Speaker 1: nickname of the child actor who plays Pedro. Ohta's helping. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm not really going to get into him because his

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Speaker 1: is kind of a tragic story. But yeah, that is

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Speaker 1: the small Mexican boy that is aiding Santa in his workshop.

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Speaker 3: But hey, okay, Santa is our hero. Let's hear about

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Speaker 3: our villain who plays the demon Pitch.

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Speaker 1: Yes, Pitch is played by jose Lewis Aguire, whose nickname

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Speaker 1: is Trotsky. There are a lot of nicks in this.

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Speaker 1: I assume that his nickname is a reference to Russian

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Speaker 1: revolutionary Leon Trotzky, who of course lived in exile in

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Speaker 1: Mexico City and died in Mexico. But I don't know

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Speaker 1: if it goes any deeper than that.

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Speaker 3: We were just talking about Brian Cox, who played Trotzky

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Speaker 3: in the in the film Nicholas and Alexandra.

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Speaker 1: Ah, I didn't realize that. Well, there you go. So anyway,

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Speaker 1: Trotsky here the actor was born in nineteen twenty three,

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Speaker 1: and according to IMDb, he's not been in a film

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Speaker 1: since nineteen seventy seven, but there's no death date, which

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Speaker 1: means conceivably he's still alive out there at the age

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Speaker 1: of one hundred. Hard to say. The MO database separate

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Speaker 1: database list credits up through nineteen ninety one, so who knows.

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Speaker 1: But also I couldn't find anything like a death date.

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Speaker 1: Trotsky was also a dance choreographer, and going by his

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Speaker 1: TMD credits, his other parts include a part in Pedro

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Speaker 1: Almodovar's nineteen eighty punk movie Pepe Luca Bahm, which I've

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Speaker 1: not seen, but I've seen other films by this filmmaker,

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Speaker 1: and of course he's pretty famous and very well regarded.

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Speaker 3: So this is also a very broad zany, highly physically

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Speaker 3: expressive performance from Agira or Trotsky. Here is pitch and

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00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:34,680
Speaker 3: he does a really great job. Like watching this as

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Speaker 3: an adult, you can detect a lot of camp energy,

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Speaker 3: and that's the appeal there. But if you think about

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Speaker 3: this movie through the eyes of a child, I think

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Speaker 3: this is a performance that would read as really funny

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Speaker 3: to kids.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Seeah, it is just a deliciously great physical performance.

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Speaker 1: There's prancing energy here, It's just frantic prancing. Again, he

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Speaker 1: had a dance background, so there's a lot of dance,

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Speaker 1: a lot of flourishes to every movement that Pitch makes,

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Speaker 1: and it is easy to focus on that and to

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Speaker 1: focus on the inherent comedy here, and there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of comedy with Pitch, But I don't think the film

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Speaker 1: and Trotsky in particular get enough credit for just how

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Speaker 1: effectively malevolent Pitches at times. As well, there are not

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Speaker 1: many moments where there are a few moments where they

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Speaker 1: really get down to Pitch is evil, especially when he's

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Speaker 1: whispering in the years of sleeping children and adults and

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Speaker 1: telling them to do things like murder Santa Claus and

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Speaker 1: Cold Blood, where he's very menacing, and also some moments

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Speaker 1: where he leans unnaturally over the edge of rooftops and

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Speaker 1: around corners, like he is actually a cast shadow rather

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Speaker 1: than a corporeal being.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I can see what you're saying there, and you're right.

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Speaker 3: There are parts where the character is surprisingly truly wicked

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Speaker 3: and not just comically wicked, like when he's gloating over

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Speaker 3: the fact that Santa Claus is going to die. But

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Speaker 3: there is an interesting contrast as well in the I

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Speaker 3: feel like he's he's the main thing he is is funny,

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Speaker 3: and he's supposed to be funny, and that really the

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Speaker 3: scariest things in this movie are things that I don't

390
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Speaker 3: know if they're probably not supposed to be cute, but

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Speaker 3: they're not like demons. They're things like reindeer or dolls

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Speaker 3: that are like the true nightmare entities in this film.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the automatons. All right, let's go through the

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Speaker 1: rest of the cast real, real quickly. You're not going

395
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Speaker 1: to mention everybody like Lupita is a great character played

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Speaker 1: by a child actor by the name of Lupita Quizadas.

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Speaker 1: I believe this is Pedro or Polgarcito's brother. I'm his

398
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Speaker 1: sister rather, But again, this is like one of only

399
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Speaker 1: two films she was in, so there's not much to

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Speaker 1: say there. However, Lupita's mother is played by Nora Verjan,

401
00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:53,880
Speaker 1: who lived nineteen twenty nine through nineteen ninety eight. This

402
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:56,879
Speaker 1: is probably the most believably dramatic performance in the film.

403
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Speaker 1: She was also in another Cardona Kids film, Adventures of

404
00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:05,159
Speaker 1: Jo Solito and Tom Thumb from nineteen sixty and She

405
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Speaker 1: worked mostly in musicals, dramas and musical comedies, as well

406
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Speaker 1: as at least one telenovella in the mid nineties.

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Speaker 3: There are some moments with Lupita's mom where the movie

408
00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:19,399
Speaker 3: becomes surprisingly tender and really tugs at the heartstrings.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so like her performance does stand out, though

410
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Speaker 1: it is in a stark contrast to some of the

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Speaker 1: other stuff we see.

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Speaker 3: Yeah oh, but wait, let's get to our psychedelic wizard

413
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Speaker 3: Merlin and Not.

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Speaker 1: I don't have a lot to say about him, but

415
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Speaker 1: played by Armando Ariola who lived nineteen oh three through

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight. His other films include nineteen fifty nine's

417
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Speaker 1: El Zarco, which also features Moreno the key Maker or

418
00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:48,919
Speaker 1: the blacksmith or vulcan or whatever she can refer to

419
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Speaker 1: him as. He's a little more interesting because he's played

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Speaker 1: by Angel Di Stefani, who lived nineteen oh six through

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, tall Mexican actor and stump man. I

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Speaker 1: don't think he was aor. I looked around to see

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Speaker 1: if I could find his name in any of the

424
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Speaker 1: lucha data bases, but I don't think he was.

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Speaker 3: But he appeared a secret identity luchador.

426
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Speaker 1: Well that is true, masked luchador's identities or even today

427
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:14,640
Speaker 1: not a matter of public record, so it's entirely possible.

428
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:16,359
Speaker 1: And there's you know, who knows what else is lost

429
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Speaker 1: in the record of some of these films, so it's possible.

430
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Speaker 1: But anyway, he appeared in multiple Cardona films, including a

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine Santo film, nineteen sixty seven's The Panther Woman.

432
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: I think that's a Luchadora film. And he also plays

433
00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:34,440
Speaker 1: the titular as tech Mummy in all three as Tech

434
00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:36,760
Speaker 1: Mummy films. Those are not Cardona films, but they are

435
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:42,680
Speaker 1: certainly well known Mexican horror films. And then the music

436
00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 1: is by Antonio Diez Conde, who died in nineteen seventy six.

437
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:48,200
Speaker 1: He's come up on the show before because he also

438
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 1: scored Doctor of Doom. Just a prolific Mexican composer who

439
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:53,879
Speaker 1: worked on a ton of B pictures during this time period.

440
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,240
Speaker 3: Okay, are we ready to talk about the plot. Let's

441
00:24:57,280 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 3: get into it now. As we go through this, we

442
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:02,359
Speaker 3: are to do one of the more detailed breakdowns of

443
00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:05,520
Speaker 3: this film, but I want a caveat that there are,

444
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,639
Speaker 3: as we've said earlier, multiple different edits of this film.

445
00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 3: So I am watching one of the English releases, which

446
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:15,760
Speaker 3: in addition to English dubbing, might also be a slightly

447
00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:18,359
Speaker 3: different edit. So it's possible the version I'm talking about

448
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:22,120
Speaker 3: here might have or lack some scenes that appear elsewhere

449
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 3: or don't appear elsewhere.

450
00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:26,720
Speaker 1: It's also possible this movie is just magical, and every

451
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:28,480
Speaker 1: time you see it it's a little bit different in

452
00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: ways that other films are not.

453
00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:32,600
Speaker 3: I guess that's true. So the credits role at the beginning,

454
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:34,719
Speaker 3: on what looks like kind of a Christmas card stock

455
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:38,320
Speaker 3: and jingle bells is just blasting on the soundtrack, very

456
00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 3: traditional Christmas film opening. But after the credits things start

457
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:46,199
Speaker 3: getting a little weirder. We see a dark, icy blue

458
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 3: stratosphere with several white castles floating on top of clouds,

459
00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:55,120
Speaker 3: and I believe this is not Castle Braun, Transylvania. Other

460
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,199
Speaker 3: than that, we have no idea where it is at first,

461
00:25:57,359 --> 00:26:01,720
Speaker 3: until the narrator comes in to inform. The narrator says,

462
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:04,960
Speaker 3: away up in the heavens, far out in space, in

463
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,480
Speaker 3: a beautiful golden crystal palace, right above the north pole,

464
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 3: lives a kind and jolly old gentleman, Santa Claus, also

465
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:15,840
Speaker 3: known as Saint Nicholas, the best Friend of boys and

466
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:19,119
Speaker 3: girls everywhere. But let's move in closer for a look.

467
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,760
Speaker 3: Come along, And then through a veil of fog, the

468
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:26,159
Speaker 3: camera zooms in on Saint Nicholas himself, and when we

469
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 3: first see him, he's busy fixing up his Christmas decorations,

470
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:33,240
Speaker 3: including and here's the first of many things in the

471
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:34,679
Speaker 3: movie that I don't know if they were meant to

472
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:37,399
Speaker 3: look scary, but they really do. He's like working on

473
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:41,080
Speaker 3: a statuette of an angel that to me evokes true

474
00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:45,200
Speaker 3: cosmic horror. It's like a somber winged woman with gray

475
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 3: flesh who is about to speak the names of the

476
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:51,880
Speaker 3: nine Hidden Gods, and Santa's, you know, adjusting her clothing.

477
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:54,520
Speaker 3: He's also working on a little Manger scene, like he's

478
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:59,240
Speaker 3: putting Hay in a little manger cradle, and various other decorations.

479
00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 3: There's strings of ten Soul and figurines of Mary and

480
00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 3: Joseph and all that. And the whole time he is

481
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:09,399
Speaker 3: tending to his minis, he emits non stop bellowing laughter,

482
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:14,159
Speaker 3: just super villain laughter at nothing in particular, and I

483
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:14,640
Speaker 3: love it.

484
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, he's just absolutely overflowing with the Christmas spirit.

485
00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:22,359
Speaker 1: You can't blame him and these I also have to

486
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 1: mention this is something that the MST three k Riff

487
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,760
Speaker 1: points out, But it looks like Santa is stuffing like

488
00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 1: bits of his fake beard into the Manger scene, like

489
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,480
Speaker 1: into the Manger itself where the christ child will go,

490
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:38,399
Speaker 1: which feels like it feels kind of animalistic, you know,

491
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:41,639
Speaker 1: like he's a he's a beast building a nest. Yeah, yeah,

492
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:45,399
Speaker 1: I see that. Yeah, but it is interesting too. How again,

493
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,639
Speaker 1: you know, you can imagine this picture going into a

494
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 1: very otherwise religious Christmas culture, and it's firmly establishing the

495
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 1: religious faith of Santa Claus, just to I guess make

496
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 1: sure they're you know, they're no misunderstandings.

497
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:02,600
Speaker 3: Right, the Santa Claus in this movie, he doesn't talk

498
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:04,520
Speaker 3: about it a lot, but it is mentioned at a

499
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:07,760
Speaker 3: few times. This Santa is a Christian, like he mentions

500
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:10,520
Speaker 3: the Baby Jesus a couple times, and here he's clearly

501
00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 3: attending to these angels, assuming these are supposed to be

502
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,480
Speaker 3: Christian angels and not like the joyless angels of the yeah,

503
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:19,400
Speaker 3: the Nine Hidden Gods or whatever. But so yeah, he's

504
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,720
Speaker 3: messing with the angels and he says, it's almost Christmas,

505
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:25,960
Speaker 3: and I must finish the toys for all the good

506
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:28,480
Speaker 3: children on earth. I hope you'll pardon me, but I

507
00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:31,159
Speaker 3: mustn't be late. And then he scampers over to the

508
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:33,359
Speaker 3: other end of the room, singing the tune of Silent

509
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,120
Speaker 3: Night in like these deep la la laws as he goes.

510
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:38,680
Speaker 3: And this Santa, by the way, you gotta imagine a

511
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:43,320
Speaker 3: deep voice. He is a bass Santa Claus. Yes, so

512
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 3: he goes and sits down at his organ keyboard, and

513
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,200
Speaker 3: he starts like honking the knobs and stuff, and the

514
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,920
Speaker 3: narrator tells us that quote, this is Santa's toy Land,

515
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 3: a sort of international toy factory. Here are gathered boys

516
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 3: and girls of different races and creeds. They have come

517
00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 3: from many lands to help Santa bring joy and happiness

518
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:06,440
Speaker 3: to all of the Earth's children. And here begins the

519
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:10,040
Speaker 3: parade of cultural depictions. Rob what you were referring to

520
00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 3: as the sort of it's a small world montage is

521
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:17,760
Speaker 3: showing children allegedly from many different countries and continents and regions,

522
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:21,640
Speaker 3: one group at a time, usually in some stereotypical clothing,

523
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 3: singing a particular song that may or may not normally

524
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:30,480
Speaker 3: be associated with their nationality or region of origin. Obviously,

525
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:33,600
Speaker 3: this segment, I think it was well meaning, like intending

526
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 3: to show Santa inviting children from all around the world

527
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 3: to help with his benevolent toy shop mission. But as

528
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 3: you might guess from this nineteen fifty nine movie, some

529
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,040
Speaker 3: of the ways the different cultures are depicted does not

530
00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 3: feel right. So I can understand why some later edits

531
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 3: of the film cut this section down.

532
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:54,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it does go on a long while. That's

533
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:56,960
Speaker 1: a lengthy segment, but you get those great states that

534
00:29:57,120 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 1: you'll show one group of kids, then you'll switch back

535
00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 1: to Santa playing the organ. And it's great because obviously,

536
00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 1: like a lot of actors in films, Sant is not

537
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: the actor of Mareno is obviously not playing a piano

538
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 1: or an organ here, but he is acting like he is,

539
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 1: and boy is he acting hard. It is just a

540
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 1: sight to behold.

541
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 3: Oh, he's feeling it. He's like he looks like he's

542
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 3: playing the organ part in like in a God Davida.

543
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:25,960
Speaker 3: You know, he's just grooven, really feeling the music. And

544
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:28,040
Speaker 3: also I think it's clear that like he could not

545
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:31,440
Speaker 3: see what we're seeing when the children are being shown

546
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:33,280
Speaker 3: in these scenes that they're just telling him like act

547
00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:35,280
Speaker 3: it up, like you know, you're looking at the children,

548
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,200
Speaker 3: but he's just gazing off to the side somewhere while

549
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:39,720
Speaker 3: while feeling the organ music.

550
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing.

551
00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:44,240
Speaker 3: But also there's a weird thing during this segment that

552
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:48,959
Speaker 3: compounds on the on the questionable cultural depictions, which is

553
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:52,320
Speaker 3: that some of these segments are also hilarious because of

554
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:55,400
Speaker 3: how bored and confused many of the children look and

555
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:59,320
Speaker 3: for the song selections. For example, they never actually show

556
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,800
Speaker 3: the group of children from England. We just hear the

557
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:05,320
Speaker 3: narrator mentioned there are children from England, and then we

558
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 3: hear kids singing London Bridge is falling down British classic.

559
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 3: But then we do see the delegation of kids from

560
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:16,280
Speaker 3: Russia who are singing this really like energetic, aggressive Russian

561
00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:19,120
Speaker 3: folk song with like shouts in it. But for some reason,

562
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 3: one of the children is shown driving a car.

563
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:22,959
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.

564
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:26,240
Speaker 3: A few other funny things from around here. I noted

565
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:29,280
Speaker 3: that the a number of the groups of children are

566
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 3: heavily armed with rifles and other weapons, and this this

567
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:35,440
Speaker 3: is not the only time in the movie where like

568
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:38,680
Speaker 3: it's kind of surprising for a Christmas film about Santa.

569
00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:42,080
Speaker 3: How many guns there are in it. Also, the kids

570
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:45,200
Speaker 3: from the USA are dressed as cowboys and singing. Mary

571
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:48,240
Speaker 3: had a little lamb, and I would say that the

572
00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:50,680
Speaker 3: kids who do the best job of selling the song

573
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 3: they're given to perform are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Mexican delegation.

574
00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:57,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they really shine.

575
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:00,120
Speaker 3: But eventually Santa gets you know, he's had enough that

576
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 3: this does go on for like seven minutes. I timed it.

577
00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 3: And then so he goes off to say, okay, done

578
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:07,000
Speaker 3: to the organ. I'm going to meet up with some

579
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 3: of my top Hinch children. And one of the workshop

580
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,480
Speaker 3: kids brings Santa a demon shaped firecracker on a stick

581
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:18,680
Speaker 3: and says, Santa, do you like this devil? And Santa's

582
00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:21,120
Speaker 3: a little perplexed by it. He doesn't recall any of

583
00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 3: the good children of Earth asking for this toy in

584
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 3: their letters to Santa Claus, So he says, oh, this

585
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:29,520
Speaker 3: is one of his very memorable quotable lines. He says,

586
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:31,920
Speaker 3: how does it work? What is the sense of it?

587
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:36,160
Speaker 3: But the kid shows him you got to light the fuse,

588
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:38,480
Speaker 3: and then the devil spins around on the end of

589
00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 3: the stick and from this firecracker, we smash cut to

590
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:46,400
Speaker 3: a real live devil twirling around in a similar manner

591
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 3: in Hell by the Way, which is represented as a

592
00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:53,840
Speaker 3: cavern full of shadows and belching flames. And this is Pitch,

593
00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 3: our antagonist for the film. He's got horns, he's got

594
00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:01,520
Speaker 3: pointy ears, a goatee, he's cherry red from head to

595
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:04,080
Speaker 3: toe except for his dark goatee and a few sort

596
00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:08,080
Speaker 3: of accents on his costume. Read all over, and we

597
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,080
Speaker 3: watch Pitch and the other devils do a large coordinated

598
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:14,920
Speaker 3: dance number in the middle of the fiery subterranean recess,

599
00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 3: surrounded by the way by hooded figures in robes, And

600
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 3: I was like, wait a minute, I don't know if

601
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:22,520
Speaker 3: I ever noticed these hooded figures before. Are these like

602
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:24,560
Speaker 3: satanic cult members in Hell?

603
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 1: I think they are supposed to be the souls of

604
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:27,280
Speaker 1: the dance?

605
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:30,040
Speaker 3: Okay, I can see that which.

606
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 1: You won in your Christmas movie of course.

607
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. So you know, the devils are dancing until

608
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 3: the boss shows up and in a terrifying voice which

609
00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 3: I think is the same voice as that of the

610
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 3: narrator by the way, he says he says, stop, I Lucifer,

611
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,920
Speaker 3: King of Hades, command you, and command you to stop

612
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:55,120
Speaker 3: and disappear, begone all of you except Pitch, and then

613
00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:58,560
Speaker 3: Pitch pitches like, what do you want? Master? And Lucifer,

614
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:01,400
Speaker 3: King of Hades, He's gonna give his subordinate demon Pitch

615
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 3: a talking to. So we learn Pitch is the chief

616
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:09,120
Speaker 3: of Satan's minions and the time will soon come once

617
00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:12,200
Speaker 3: again that he must leave the Brimstone Pits and go

618
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:14,920
Speaker 3: up to Earth to do battle with his arch enemy,

619
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:19,759
Speaker 3: Santa Claus, whom Satan refers to as that bearded old goat,

620
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 3: which is kind of flipping the script because wouldn't the

621
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:24,799
Speaker 3: demon be the one who's associated with a goat.

622
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:27,440
Speaker 1: I don't know, I mean, especially given the sort of

623
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:29,279
Speaker 1: beard that they've given Pitch here.

624
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:34,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, Billy go beard exactly. But yeah, anyway, Satan, he's

625
00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:36,120
Speaker 3: got an assignment for Pitch. He wants him to go

626
00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:38,640
Speaker 3: out and convince all of the children of Earth to

627
00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:42,280
Speaker 3: do evil, and if he fails, he will be punished.

628
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 3: Instead of his favorite food, red hot coals, Pitch will

629
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 3: be forced to eat chocolate ice cream, and clearly, to Pitch,

630
00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 3: this is a fate worse than death. He begs for mercy,

631
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:55,239
Speaker 3: he says, not chocolate ice cream. It's very bad for

632
00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:58,400
Speaker 3: his digestion. But you know, Satan, Satan is not a

633
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:02,680
Speaker 3: good boss. He offers. He's he's all stick, no carrot.

634
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:05,440
Speaker 1: And this is great and this is comedy for the children.

635
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:09,400
Speaker 3: So Pitch accepts the mission. He says, I promise, so priceless,

636
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:12,319
Speaker 3: Prince of Hades, that by my many whiles, I will

637
00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:15,840
Speaker 3: finish off Santa forever and see that the children commit

638
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:20,640
Speaker 3: terrible deeds and make Santa Claus angry. So you know,

639
00:35:20,719 --> 00:35:22,600
Speaker 3: Pitch has his mission. He goes up to Earth to

640
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:24,399
Speaker 3: carry it out. And by the way, somewhere in here

641
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:27,160
Speaker 3: we randomly just see a newspaper lying on the ground

642
00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:31,440
Speaker 3: with the front page headline. It's in Spanish but translated

643
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:34,880
Speaker 3: to English. The headline is the Christmas Spirit brings peace

644
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:35,480
Speaker 3: on Earth.

645
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:41,320
Speaker 1: Well, you want to feel good story for the holidays, right, yeah, okay.

646
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:44,279
Speaker 3: Pitch burns the newspaper because I guess he doesn't like

647
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:48,319
Speaker 3: the Christmas Spirit. And speaking of demons, we next cut

648
00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 3: to a department store window with children crowding around to

649
00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:54,279
Speaker 3: look at the toys, and one of the toys is

650
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:56,719
Speaker 3: one of one of these things in the movie that

651
00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:59,319
Speaker 3: I think is much scarier than it was intended to be.

652
00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:03,440
Speaker 3: It's this creepy, mechanical Santa Claus that is much like

653
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:07,600
Speaker 3: the real Santa from earlier, laughing maniacally without pause.

654
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:11,400
Speaker 1: It's an excellent automaton, but it is it is creepy.

655
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,440
Speaker 3: To be helped, Yeah, I think it would be. It

656
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:17,520
Speaker 3: would be less scary if it were less good, actually,

657
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:20,960
Speaker 3: like if it was less realistic looking. It's it's sort

658
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 3: of getting into uncanny valley territory.

659
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:24,360
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.

660
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 3: And in this scene, looking at the department store window,

661
00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:29,080
Speaker 3: we meet two children who were going to follow for

662
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:31,080
Speaker 3: the rest of the movie. We meet a little boy

663
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:34,319
Speaker 3: with curly hair who we initially don't learn his name.

664
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:37,440
Speaker 3: The narrator just identifies him as a boy who has

665
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:39,880
Speaker 3: been very good all year. But we also learned that

666
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 3: his father is very rich, so this is the good

667
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:46,600
Speaker 3: little rich boy. And then by contrast, we meet Lupita

668
00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:49,680
Speaker 3: and her mother. Lupita is also a very good child,

669
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:54,440
Speaker 3: but her family is very poor, and Lupita's lifelong dream,

670
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:57,319
Speaker 3: we learn, is to own a doll any doll.

671
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:03,800
Speaker 1: And in this the film introduces some rather deep thoughts.

672
00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:06,640
Speaker 1: I guess that it at least plays with kicks around

673
00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:09,640
Speaker 1: a little bit throughout the course of the picture. Like

674
00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:11,880
Speaker 1: it's almost kind of surprising because on one level we

675
00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:14,600
Speaker 1: do have this just fantasy element Santa Claus and then

676
00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:18,240
Speaker 1: this devil. But then the movie then like really sobers

677
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 1: up at times and it's like, hey, why is there

678
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:23,040
Speaker 1: an equality in the world? Why do bad things happen

679
00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,920
Speaker 1: to good people? Why? And so forth? And it doesn't

680
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:29,279
Speaker 1: really have answers to those questions, but it, like I say,

681
00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:30,480
Speaker 1: it kicks them around a little bit.

682
00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:34,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, this movie in which Santa Claus is real,

683
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:39,080
Speaker 3: also somehow grapples with the question why do poor children

684
00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:41,799
Speaker 3: who are good get fewer toys from Santa than rich

685
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:44,880
Speaker 3: children who are good? And it doesn't really answer that question,

686
00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:45,920
Speaker 3: but it does raise it.

687
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:50,239
Speaker 1: Yeah, it at least acknowledges that question. So it's always

688
00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:53,360
Speaker 1: something that's fascinated me about this picture, Like, yeah, it

689
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 1: doesn't shy away from it, but it doesn't provide any

690
00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:00,280
Speaker 1: convincing answers, because I mean, these are difficult, difficult problems

691
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:03,120
Speaker 1: to bring up in your fantasy Santa film.

692
00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:14,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, hey, there are just too many good children we've

693
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:16,959
Speaker 3: been looking at now are there some real creeps among

694
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,160
Speaker 3: the children here? And yes there are. There are three

695
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:22,239
Speaker 3: mean little boys who rudely push in front of the

696
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:25,760
Speaker 3: others to look in the window at all the toys

697
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:29,440
Speaker 3: and the Santa robot and the narrator scolds them, but

698
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,520
Speaker 3: they do not seem to notice. Also, I wanted to

699
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:35,000
Speaker 3: note that the two of the little bad boys here

700
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:37,760
Speaker 3: are wearing leather jackets like they're in a biker gang,

701
00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:39,200
Speaker 3: but they're like ten years old.

702
00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:41,600
Speaker 1: Oh wow, they got their cuts on. Nice.

703
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:46,920
Speaker 3: Yeah. So the devil Pitch appears and he goads the

704
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:50,200
Speaker 3: three wicked boys into doing some evil. He makes rocks

705
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:53,319
Speaker 3: appear in front of them, and then convinces them to

706
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:57,000
Speaker 3: throw the rocks and break the department store window, pelting

707
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:00,480
Speaker 3: the mechanical Santa Claus. And then somehow magically, one of

708
00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:04,040
Speaker 3: the rocks that was thrown at the robot Santa hits

709
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:06,799
Speaker 3: the real Santa up in his palace in space in

710
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:07,280
Speaker 3: the face.

711
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:12,959
Speaker 1: So more complex theology presented here metaphysics if you will,

712
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:17,480
Speaker 1: like I guess, all representations of Santa are also Santa,

713
00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:20,479
Speaker 1: and therefore anything done to them you do unto him.

714
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:25,080
Speaker 3: Oh wow, it's yes, I can see that it's like transubstantiation.

715
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:29,360
Speaker 3: It's like any representation of Santa becomes literally the body

716
00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:30,640
Speaker 3: of Santa.

717
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:31,799
Speaker 1: I believe. So.

718
00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,440
Speaker 3: So Santa is very annoyed at this devil who he

719
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:38,359
Speaker 3: clearly they already have a relationship. He knows Pitch quite well.

720
00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:41,160
Speaker 3: They've been battling for years. And he explains that if

721
00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:43,520
Speaker 3: he were allowed, he'd go down to Earth right now

722
00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:45,560
Speaker 3: and put that devil in his place. But he can't

723
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:48,480
Speaker 3: go to Earth yet. He's only allowed to go on

724
00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 3: Christmas Eve and not before. But that maybe wonder first

725
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:56,120
Speaker 3: of all, who imposes these restrictions? And second, what would

726
00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:59,720
Speaker 3: happen to Santa if he went before Christmas Eve? Would

727
00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:02,560
Speaker 3: he into flames? Would he bleed from his eyes? How

728
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:03,200
Speaker 3: does it work?

729
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:06,759
Speaker 1: I mean, these are clearly rules that God has put

730
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:10,759
Speaker 1: in place, but beyond that we have no details.

731
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:15,800
Speaker 3: So Santa's main hinch child is the child named Pedro,

732
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:18,160
Speaker 3: and he seems to be the one who like makes

733
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:21,160
Speaker 3: everything work in Santa's palace, like even you know, Santa's

734
00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:25,640
Speaker 3: like Merlin is absent minded. Santa himself even kind of

735
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:28,360
Speaker 3: gets sidetracked on things. It seems like Pedro is like

736
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:30,640
Speaker 3: it's like the chief of staff in the White House,

737
00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:33,759
Speaker 3: Pedro keeps everything on the rails, and he's got some

738
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:37,880
Speaker 3: intel for Santa. He knows about Lupita, the good child,

739
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,799
Speaker 3: whose family is very poor, and Santa wants to make

740
00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:44,399
Speaker 3: sure that she is appropriately rewarded at Christmas, so they

741
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:47,920
Speaker 3: decide to go use the telescope to find her. And

742
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:52,680
Speaker 3: here begins a sequence of displaying all of Santa's array

743
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:58,520
Speaker 3: of eerie psychic technology. He has the Euroscope, the tele

744
00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:02,920
Speaker 3: talker that knows every thing, the cosmic telescope, and the

745
00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:07,319
Speaker 3: Master Eye. And the narrator says, nothing that happens on

746
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:10,200
Speaker 3: Earth is unknown to Santa Claus. And we see this

747
00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:13,080
Speaker 3: room and it involves not only like a sort of

748
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:16,160
Speaker 3: traditional looking telescope, it's like a big tube appearing out

749
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:21,040
Speaker 3: of a window. But there are also strange I don't

750
00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:22,720
Speaker 3: even know what to call it. You know, one looks

751
00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:25,319
Speaker 3: like a one thing looks like a game of Simon says.

752
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:27,840
Speaker 3: Another thing is just like a computer in the wall

753
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:31,920
Speaker 3: that has a face, including like lips that move and

754
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:34,279
Speaker 3: eyes and a big nose that lights up.

755
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:39,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, like big rolling stones or rocky horror lips that

756
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:42,200
Speaker 1: move and talk and seem to be like moist, even ugh.

757
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:46,239
Speaker 3: But Pedro says, by magic powers, look for the child

758
00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:48,520
Speaker 3: we're seeking, whether she is in a cave or behind

759
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 3: a million mountains. And then the lips on the wall

760
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:58,480
Speaker 3: computer start talking. They say already, And then this tentacle

761
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:04,560
Speaker 3: eyeball ends out into space from Santa's communications tower, and

762
00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:07,520
Speaker 3: the helpers announced that they have found the little girl

763
00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 3: in Mexico. But then when Santa's like, oh, you found her,

764
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:12,880
Speaker 3: I'll go take a look, and he looks through that

765
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,359
Speaker 3: telescope eyepiece to see her, and it's like a view

766
00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:17,800
Speaker 3: of the entire earth. I remember there being a funny

767
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:20,279
Speaker 3: riff about this in the Mystery Science Theater with her like,

768
00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:24,440
Speaker 3: oh yeah, really zoomed in on her. But eventually we

769
00:42:24,480 --> 00:42:27,920
Speaker 3: do tune back in with Lupita, so he finds Lupita directly,

770
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:31,920
Speaker 3: and when he does, she's watching this grotesque puppet show.

771
00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:34,000
Speaker 3: It's one of these slapstick shows where the puppets are

772
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:37,399
Speaker 3: hitting each other. Lupita is not laughing at the show,

773
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:40,560
Speaker 3: though she looks very sad. She's sad because she is

774
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:43,719
Speaker 3: still thinking about the doll that she wants for Christmas,

775
00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:46,040
Speaker 3: and as her mother takes her by the hand and

776
00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:48,600
Speaker 3: leads her away. They pass a vendor in the street

777
00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:52,080
Speaker 3: selling dolls from a table, and here we get to

778
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:57,560
Speaker 3: the will Lupita steal scene. Oh boy, so Lupita, you

779
00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:01,000
Speaker 3: know she wants a dolly, but the narrator warns, no, Lopita,

780
00:43:01,080 --> 00:43:04,240
Speaker 3: do not steal. Put it back, and so at first

781
00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:06,480
Speaker 3: she makes like she's gonna do it. She tucks a

782
00:43:06,520 --> 00:43:10,600
Speaker 3: doll into her behind like her jacket, and she walks away,

783
00:43:11,239 --> 00:43:13,799
Speaker 3: and then Pitch appears, trying to convince her to take it.

784
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 3: Pitch says, it's yours. Nobody saw you take it. What

785
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:20,799
Speaker 3: does one little doll matter? And Pitch is grinning ferociously

786
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:23,160
Speaker 3: and rubbing his hands together as he tries to talk

787
00:43:23,160 --> 00:43:27,160
Speaker 3: her into it, but the narrator argues back. He says again, no, Lupita,

788
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:31,120
Speaker 3: it's wrong and you'll be sorry. So Pitch is obviously

789
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:33,879
Speaker 3: the devil on her shoulder, but the narrator, I guess,

790
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:36,600
Speaker 3: is the angel on her other shoulder. They go back

791
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:38,799
Speaker 3: and forth, and then the end Lupita puts the doll

792
00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:40,160
Speaker 3: back because she is good.

793
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:43,560
Speaker 1: I love Pitch's energy though, as he's trying to convince her,

794
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:46,400
Speaker 1: because he's like, you want the doll. You should be evil.

795
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:48,520
Speaker 1: You should be evil, And she's like, I don't want

796
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:50,279
Speaker 1: to be evil. He's like, like, you want the doll,

797
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:52,399
Speaker 1: he should be evil. Like he's just like getting cut

798
00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:54,520
Speaker 1: and right to the chase there, and it's like, just

799
00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:57,279
Speaker 1: be evil. We're not even it's not even sugarcoating it

800
00:43:57,320 --> 00:43:59,239
Speaker 1: by being like, well, he does a little bit. He's like,

801
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:01,640
Speaker 1: you know, they won't miss it, but he just goes

802
00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:04,720
Speaker 1: goes for the bigger cell and it's just like, commit

803
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:08,560
Speaker 1: your heart to darkness, now, my child. Well, Lupita's doo

804
00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:08,920
Speaker 1: good for that.

805
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:12,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, So she resists, Yes, that's right, she is morally

806
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:15,080
Speaker 3: pure and she will not take the doll. She puts

807
00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:17,799
Speaker 3: it back. Pitch is very angry. He's like flexing his

808
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:20,840
Speaker 3: jaw in frustration, like a thwarted cat looking out the

809
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:23,840
Speaker 3: window at a bird. And he says curses, and he

810
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:26,760
Speaker 3: tells her that little girls must steal or do without

811
00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:29,560
Speaker 3: the things they like. So the narrator argues again, but

812
00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 3: this time the delivery is funny because of the strange

813
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:35,680
Speaker 3: inflection on the line, which makes it sound almost like

814
00:44:35,719 --> 00:44:39,480
Speaker 3: the narrator is mocking her. So the narrator says, that's

815
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 3: not true, Lupita. If you're good, somehow, you'll be rewarded.

816
00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:47,800
Speaker 3: It almost sounds like the narrator is holding back laughter

817
00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:48,920
Speaker 3: as he says this.

818
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:52,279
Speaker 1: Oh wow, I know what I'm talking about. I didn't

819
00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:55,000
Speaker 1: quite get that feeling from it, but the line always

820
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:57,359
Speaker 1: stuck out at me because of like somehow, like she'll

821
00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:00,640
Speaker 1: be rewarded again, dancing around this pro problem that they

822
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:03,360
Speaker 1: are addressing elsewhere in the film. You know, why do

823
00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:06,080
Speaker 1: bad things happen to good people? Why do good children

824
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:09,920
Speaker 1: not get gifts from Santa if they are poor? The

825
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:13,440
Speaker 1: question again, that is directly asked by this picture, but

826
00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:16,680
Speaker 1: the picture does not provide any answers to this difficult problem.

827
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:18,799
Speaker 3: Well, it kind of side steps it with magic at

828
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:21,000
Speaker 3: the end because just Santa does give her the gift

829
00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:24,279
Speaker 3: she wants at the end through magic, So it kind

830
00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:27,840
Speaker 3: of gets around the real world problem, right. But anyway,

831
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:30,239
Speaker 3: so in the film back at the Crystal Palace in

832
00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:33,160
Speaker 3: outer Space, Santa is very proud of Lupita. He exclaims

833
00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:35,720
Speaker 3: to his helpers that all of his friends can't ignore

834
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:39,320
Speaker 3: the devil, and then they kick off the surveillance process

835
00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:42,760
Speaker 3: once again to find the other children from outside the store.

836
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:45,759
Speaker 3: This time they tune in on the good boy, whose

837
00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:48,279
Speaker 3: family is rich, and he's asleep when they find him.

838
00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:52,280
Speaker 3: So Santa's like connect to the antenna for the dream scope,

839
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:56,880
Speaker 3: and they invade the little boy's dreams and they witness

840
00:45:56,960 --> 00:45:59,759
Speaker 3: in his dreaming mind that he wants to come down

841
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:03,840
Speaker 3: the airs on Christmas morning to these two giant boxes.

842
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:07,600
Speaker 3: And the narrators like, what large gift boxes? Would these

843
00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:10,600
Speaker 3: be toys? But no, what they contain? What a child

844
00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:14,719
Speaker 3: loves best his parents? And Santa Claus gets very, very

845
00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:17,920
Speaker 3: sober here, and he says, a dream is a wish

846
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:21,640
Speaker 3: the heart makes, and Santa explains that even though the

847
00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:24,279
Speaker 3: little rich boy can have any possession he wants just

848
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:26,960
Speaker 3: by asking, all he really wants is the love and

849
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:30,080
Speaker 3: attention of his parents, and whether they truly love him

850
00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:32,360
Speaker 3: is yet to be seen. And Santa says this with

851
00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:35,960
Speaker 3: a heavy sigh. But what about Lupita's dreams? Well, here

852
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:38,760
Speaker 3: we're going to resume the stealing debate. So they tune

853
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:41,200
Speaker 3: in on the dream scope to Lupita. She's asleep in

854
00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:43,960
Speaker 3: her bed and we see a little by the way,

855
00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:47,320
Speaker 3: we see her parents talking and Lupita's mother explains to

856
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:50,080
Speaker 3: Lapita's father that when she was young, she would dream

857
00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:52,600
Speaker 3: of growing up and having great riches, but at the

858
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:55,200
Speaker 3: time she would also dream of the devil. I guess

859
00:46:55,239 --> 00:46:58,160
Speaker 3: she would be afraid. And then Pitch appears in the

860
00:46:58,200 --> 00:47:02,560
Speaker 3: house and like blows back dreams into Lupita's brain, and

861
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:05,319
Speaker 3: we see Lupita standing in this big room that looks

862
00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:09,080
Speaker 3: like a giant like walk in freezer warehouse, and it's

863
00:47:09,120 --> 00:47:12,319
Speaker 3: full of fog, and there are these big boxes, kind

864
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:14,160
Speaker 3: of like in the last scene where the kid's parents

865
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:16,080
Speaker 3: were in boxes, but instead this is a lot of

866
00:47:16,520 --> 00:47:20,080
Speaker 3: adult sized boxes and what comes out of them just

867
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:23,320
Speaker 3: a nightmare of giant robotic doll ghouls.

868
00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:26,719
Speaker 1: For some reason, this whole sequence, which again is very

869
00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:30,560
Speaker 1: clearly intended to be disturbing, perhaps too disturbing, even though

870
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:33,480
Speaker 1: it doesn't have actual devils in it, Like it almost

871
00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:37,480
Speaker 1: feels like like this one is by guest director Mario Bavas.

872
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:40,360
Speaker 1: You know, it's like it reminds me of the planet's

873
00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:42,480
Speaker 1: surface and Planet of the Vampires.

874
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:45,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and these these dolls are a horror creation.

875
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:47,719
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's it's supposed to be a

876
00:47:47,719 --> 00:47:50,719
Speaker 3: bad dream. Even though she is she does want doll.

877
00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:54,239
Speaker 3: These are evil dolls that encourage wickedness, and we see

878
00:47:54,239 --> 00:47:56,040
Speaker 3: them dance around a lot. They do like a dull

879
00:47:56,200 --> 00:48:00,400
Speaker 3: ghoul ballet in the fog. And then the arguments with

880
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:05,000
Speaker 3: this dull puppet faced figure who screeches in this evil witch.

881
00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:07,320
Speaker 1: Voice, total Babba Yaga voice.

882
00:48:07,520 --> 00:48:11,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Bobby ya exactly Bobby Yaga. She's like, you

883
00:48:11,239 --> 00:48:14,320
Speaker 3: must steal us all, Lupita, and Lupita says no because

884
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:16,719
Speaker 3: I do not want to steal, but you must learn

885
00:48:16,760 --> 00:48:19,839
Speaker 3: to steal. No, because stealing is bad and I want

886
00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:22,600
Speaker 3: to be good. We dolls only like girls who steal.

887
00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:25,560
Speaker 3: No to steal would be evil, and I do not

888
00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:27,920
Speaker 3: want to be evil. You must be evil if you

889
00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:30,480
Speaker 3: want the doll. And it just goes on and on,

890
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:35,560
Speaker 3: back and forth. I don't know. This is one of

891
00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:38,680
Speaker 3: my favorite parts of the movie. I can't quite explain

892
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:41,239
Speaker 3: how funny and good the energy of this back and

893
00:48:41,239 --> 00:48:44,920
Speaker 3: forth is. But it's peak Santa Claus, just.

894
00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:47,279
Speaker 1: A real hard sell for evil again. It's like it's

895
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:50,560
Speaker 1: like a timeshare situation going on here.

896
00:48:50,960 --> 00:48:52,520
Speaker 3: The more you steal, the more you save.

897
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:54,080
Speaker 1: Yeah.

898
00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:57,520
Speaker 3: But eventually Lupita wakes up distressed and she's comforted by

899
00:48:57,520 --> 00:49:00,600
Speaker 3: her mother. Now we check in on some of the

900
00:49:00,600 --> 00:49:02,920
Speaker 3: other kids we saw earlier, the three little boys who

901
00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:06,480
Speaker 3: broke the window at the store. They are once again.

902
00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:10,160
Speaker 3: They come under the surveillance of Santa's sophisticated magical equipment,

903
00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:13,960
Speaker 3: and they're talking about how they plan to do more crimes,

904
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:16,560
Speaker 3: and they also say they plan to write letters to

905
00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:19,400
Speaker 3: Santa Claus, claiming that they have been as good as

906
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:22,080
Speaker 3: angels all year, and Santa will never know the difference

907
00:49:22,120 --> 00:49:25,560
Speaker 3: because he is far away and old. And Santa starts

908
00:49:25,560 --> 00:49:28,800
Speaker 3: getting really offended. He's like, I'm not old. The devil

909
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:33,360
Speaker 3: is older than me. But obviously, you know Santa, he

910
00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:35,440
Speaker 3: knows everything, so he's not going to be fooled by

911
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:38,879
Speaker 3: these rascals. He understands what they're up to and their

912
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:43,359
Speaker 3: letters will not trick him. And then there's a scene

913
00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:46,160
Speaker 3: of children all around the world writing letters to Santa

914
00:49:46,239 --> 00:49:48,959
Speaker 3: asking for what they want most, and these letters are

915
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:52,840
Speaker 3: sorted at the post office, the letters to Santa like

916
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:54,920
Speaker 3: they put them all in a pile and then dump

917
00:49:54,960 --> 00:49:57,839
Speaker 3: them into the furnace in the post office. But then

918
00:49:57,840 --> 00:50:00,759
Speaker 3: by magic, instead of falling into the fire, they get

919
00:50:00,840 --> 00:50:04,120
Speaker 3: sucked up through the chimney and out into outer space,

920
00:50:04,160 --> 00:50:07,479
Speaker 3: where they funnel into Santa's crystal palace and then rain

921
00:50:07,600 --> 00:50:09,600
Speaker 3: down on Santa out of a hole in the wall.

922
00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:12,960
Speaker 3: And Santa seems to get real pleasure from being buried

923
00:50:13,040 --> 00:50:14,160
Speaker 3: under all these letters.

924
00:50:15,080 --> 00:50:19,040
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's terrific scene. It's just like it's just raining,

925
00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:23,880
Speaker 1: raining letters from the children on him, and he's just ah,

926
00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:25,560
Speaker 1: it's amazing.

927
00:50:25,719 --> 00:50:28,960
Speaker 3: He's literally rolling in the mail, like wallowing in it.

928
00:50:29,160 --> 00:50:32,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of like any it's like a danger

929
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:35,399
Speaker 1: diabolic except with the money on the bed. It's it's

930
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:37,760
Speaker 1: children's letters to Santa on the floor.

931
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:40,560
Speaker 3: So he like looks at some of these letters. There's

932
00:50:40,560 --> 00:50:42,680
Speaker 3: a funny moment where he starts reading one of these

933
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:45,399
Speaker 3: letters and it's from a kid who asks for too

934
00:50:45,400 --> 00:50:49,520
Speaker 3: many things, including like a nuclear laboratory. I think uh.

935
00:50:49,760 --> 00:50:52,560
Speaker 3: And then there are also children who tell falsehoods in

936
00:50:52,600 --> 00:50:55,840
Speaker 3: their notes and they have their letters deposited into the

937
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:59,480
Speaker 3: liar's box. And then there's another thing where children who

938
00:50:59,520 --> 00:51:02,600
Speaker 3: ask for a younger sibling they have their notes handed

939
00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:06,799
Speaker 3: off to the stork. But anyway, Christmas Eve is almost here,

940
00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:10,080
Speaker 3: so Santa makes a big speech to his helpers telling them, Okay,

941
00:51:10,080 --> 00:51:12,120
Speaker 3: we got to put the effort in. It's almost time.

942
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:14,759
Speaker 3: It's you know, we got a big show coming, you know,

943
00:51:14,800 --> 00:51:16,920
Speaker 3: we really got to push it to the finish line.

944
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:22,120
Speaker 3: And then we get the introduction of Merlin. Yes, yes, Merlin,

945
00:51:22,360 --> 00:51:26,080
Speaker 3: it's time for Merlin. As I said earlier, he's part alchemist,

946
00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:31,480
Speaker 3: part Archimedes inventor, part sorcerer and magician. They you know,

947
00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:34,080
Speaker 3: he's sort of John Dee a little bit. And there

948
00:51:34,239 --> 00:51:37,200
Speaker 3: there is some real occult imagery in his office.

949
00:51:37,680 --> 00:51:42,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's like a pentagram of sorts above the above

950
00:51:42,360 --> 00:51:45,239
Speaker 1: the hearth. There's also some sort of a goat's head

951
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:48,680
Speaker 1: above the hearth, and then just again, so many beakers

952
00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:55,400
Speaker 1: of smoking liquids and infuming liquids and tubes. Also you know,

953
00:51:55,800 --> 00:52:00,680
Speaker 1: astronomical looking artifacts as well. It's it's quite a set.

954
00:52:01,360 --> 00:52:04,800
Speaker 3: The narrator tells us that Merlin is Santa's most devoted ally,

955
00:52:04,960 --> 00:52:07,239
Speaker 3: though he is a bit absent minded, and when we

956
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:10,000
Speaker 3: first meet him, he tells us he's busy grinding up

957
00:52:10,120 --> 00:52:13,719
Speaker 3: rainbows in his mortar and pestle, and then he's going

958
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:16,799
Speaker 3: to reveal to Santa the secret of the magic stardust

959
00:52:16,960 --> 00:52:21,120
Speaker 3: and one of the ingredients he lists is plutonium, another

960
00:52:21,360 --> 00:52:25,720
Speaker 3: is pollen from moon flowers, and dust from butterfly wings,

961
00:52:25,719 --> 00:52:28,120
Speaker 3: and we see him like fiddling around with this giant,

962
00:52:28,239 --> 00:52:33,279
Speaker 3: you know, almost man eating sized flower. Also, I noticed

963
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:36,960
Speaker 3: a little we get one long distant shot where you

964
00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:39,520
Speaker 3: can see Merlin's feet and he's got shoes with those

965
00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:41,000
Speaker 3: curled up pointy toes.

966
00:52:41,360 --> 00:52:42,399
Speaker 1: Oh, of course he does.

967
00:52:43,520 --> 00:52:46,480
Speaker 3: Anyway, Merlin mixes up the magic stardust in an urn

968
00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:48,719
Speaker 3: over a Bunsen burner, and then he pours it off

969
00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:53,280
Speaker 3: into Santa's Magic Wizard bag. So Merlin, as we said earlier,

970
00:52:53,320 --> 00:52:56,320
Speaker 3: he's basically the source of all of Santa's batman gadgets.

971
00:52:56,360 --> 00:52:59,600
Speaker 3: Other equipment in addition to the stardust includes one of

972
00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:03,799
Speaker 3: my favorite. It's the flower to Disappear. This is a

973
00:53:03,800 --> 00:53:08,440
Speaker 3: flower that's Santa Claus can sniff to become invisible or

974
00:53:08,520 --> 00:53:09,560
Speaker 3: also to teleport.

975
00:53:09,640 --> 00:53:13,000
Speaker 1: I think it's a little unclear if he is becoming

976
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:15,239
Speaker 1: invisible and then walking away and going where he needs

977
00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:18,000
Speaker 1: to go, or if yeah, he vanishes and teleports to

978
00:53:18,040 --> 00:53:21,440
Speaker 1: wherever he needs to go. Either way tremendous effect.

979
00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:25,400
Speaker 3: Onto the next weird ally of Santa's the Master blacksmith

980
00:53:25,520 --> 00:53:28,680
Speaker 3: or key maker of the palace. This is the guy

981
00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:31,520
Speaker 3: who you identified as he faced Us or Vulcan. He's,

982
00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:34,600
Speaker 3: you know, hammering on his divine anvil. He's got a

983
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:37,840
Speaker 3: bunch of strange metal implements all throughout the room and

984
00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:41,880
Speaker 3: a big fire and hammers and tongs and all that stuff.

985
00:53:42,160 --> 00:53:46,600
Speaker 3: And here he oh he also, I don't know, like

986
00:53:46,680 --> 00:53:49,920
Speaker 3: he's got a chest hair on his chest. That is

987
00:53:49,960 --> 00:53:53,040
Speaker 3: the fakest movie chest hair I've ever seen. It's like

988
00:53:53,080 --> 00:53:55,719
Speaker 3: an arrow of hair. Yeah.

989
00:53:55,840 --> 00:53:59,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, And again, if you've only seen the MST three

990
00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:01,920
Speaker 1: K version of this, you've missed this segment entirely.

991
00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:05,680
Speaker 3: So here Santa Claus gets the quote the golden key

992
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:08,359
Speaker 3: that opens all doors. He gives it a test run.

993
00:54:08,640 --> 00:54:12,360
Speaker 3: It opens doors by like creating an electrical arc with them,

994
00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:15,000
Speaker 3: and he's like laughing as he tests it out. He's like,

995
00:54:15,040 --> 00:54:16,319
Speaker 3: I will get through any door now.

996
00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:19,160
Speaker 1: And then in fact, they do a test run on

997
00:54:19,239 --> 00:54:20,200
Speaker 1: multiple doors.

998
00:54:20,320 --> 00:54:23,319
Speaker 3: Yes they do. Yes. And then the next thing is,

999
00:54:23,760 --> 00:54:27,040
Speaker 3: this is so strange Santa is using I think this

1000
00:54:27,120 --> 00:54:29,640
Speaker 3: is supposed to be a joke about some like nineteen

1001
00:54:29,719 --> 00:54:34,320
Speaker 3: fifties gimmick weight loss devices. Santa is using some machine

1002
00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:38,400
Speaker 3: that looks like it's like mechanically running a sander belt

1003
00:54:38,480 --> 00:54:41,640
Speaker 3: over his belly, and it looks like a thing that

1004
00:54:41,680 --> 00:54:44,600
Speaker 3: would really like be sold by Catalog in the fifties,

1005
00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:46,280
Speaker 3: claiming to melt off the pounds.

1006
00:54:46,719 --> 00:54:49,360
Speaker 1: I feel like I've seen this device so many times

1007
00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:52,480
Speaker 1: in the past, in like Looney Tunes cartoons perhaps, you know,

1008
00:54:52,680 --> 00:54:56,479
Speaker 1: or or maybe old timey television, to where I don't

1009
00:54:56,480 --> 00:54:58,799
Speaker 1: even think about it when I see it because it's

1010
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:02,719
Speaker 1: so it's so established. And again probably old cartoons or

1011
00:55:02,760 --> 00:55:05,799
Speaker 1: old TV shows. But again, you know, Santa likes his tech.

1012
00:55:06,480 --> 00:55:09,680
Speaker 3: He does, yeah, yeah, and he claims that it works.

1013
00:55:09,719 --> 00:55:12,759
Speaker 3: He claims that before he before he used it, he

1014
00:55:12,800 --> 00:55:15,919
Speaker 3: couldn't fit down chimneys anymore. But then he tests out

1015
00:55:16,280 --> 00:55:18,480
Speaker 3: a chimney in his gym, I guess in the palace,

1016
00:55:18,520 --> 00:55:22,120
Speaker 3: and he's like, yep, I fit down now. So the

1017
00:55:22,120 --> 00:55:24,640
Speaker 3: next thing is we check out Santa's reindeer, and I'm

1018
00:55:24,680 --> 00:55:28,000
Speaker 3: sorry I have to keep emphasizing the creepiness of various elements,

1019
00:55:28,040 --> 00:55:31,279
Speaker 3: like the robot Santa Claus in the department store, but

1020
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:34,319
Speaker 3: this is another one of these mechanical creatures that are

1021
00:55:34,360 --> 00:55:37,800
Speaker 3: just like a soulless virus from hell. These things are horrifying.

1022
00:55:37,800 --> 00:55:39,799
Speaker 3: When they start moving their jaws, I think they have

1023
00:55:39,960 --> 00:55:44,000
Speaker 3: yellow eyes, and oh boy, they're creepy.

1024
00:55:44,440 --> 00:55:47,080
Speaker 1: They I think they laugh. I'm not sure there's like

1025
00:55:47,120 --> 00:55:51,680
Speaker 1: a laughing sequence. And then we were told additional facts

1026
00:55:51,719 --> 00:55:54,480
Speaker 1: about them that do not make them seem less creepy.

1027
00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:58,200
Speaker 1: I can't stress enough that the mechanical reindeer here eat

1028
00:55:58,239 --> 00:56:02,640
Speaker 1: food made from clouds, and sunlight will turn them to dust.

1029
00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:05,839
Speaker 1: Like if Santa's not back in one night like he's

1030
00:56:05,840 --> 00:56:08,480
Speaker 1: supposed to be, the light of the sun will just

1031
00:56:08,560 --> 00:56:10,200
Speaker 1: turn these things into powder.

1032
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:13,000
Speaker 3: Yeah. This is part of a longer conversation about the

1033
00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:17,640
Speaker 3: consequences of Santa not returning on time. So Santa says

1034
00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:21,279
Speaker 3: that if he can't make it back by mourning. First

1035
00:56:21,320 --> 00:56:24,480
Speaker 3: of all, he would not survive on Earth because he

1036
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:28,080
Speaker 3: is used to a diet of crystal palace food, which

1037
00:56:28,280 --> 00:56:32,279
Speaker 3: is made up of pastries and ice cream made of clouds.

1038
00:56:32,600 --> 00:56:35,600
Speaker 3: And he says, on Earth they eat plants, animals, everything

1039
00:56:35,640 --> 00:56:39,439
Speaker 3: in sight, even smoke and alcohol and pedro gasps when

1040
00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:42,720
Speaker 3: he says this, But the implication is that Santa cannot

1041
00:56:42,719 --> 00:56:45,280
Speaker 3: eat such things and would starve to death on planet

1042
00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:49,600
Speaker 3: Earth and his reindeer. If the sun comes up on them,

1043
00:56:49,880 --> 00:56:52,160
Speaker 3: they will turn to dust and he won't be able

1044
00:56:52,200 --> 00:56:54,200
Speaker 3: to come back. So he's got to be back by

1045
00:56:54,360 --> 00:56:55,680
Speaker 3: sunriser he will die.

1046
00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:58,040
Speaker 1: Yeah. Again, I don't think it's a great sign when

1047
00:56:58,040 --> 00:57:03,839
Speaker 1: you're strange comatans are destroyed by sunlight. I don't know.

1048
00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:06,480
Speaker 1: It seems like a red flag for any kind of

1049
00:57:06,520 --> 00:57:08,919
Speaker 1: supernatural entity, but against Santa's a special case.

1050
00:57:08,960 --> 00:57:11,920
Speaker 3: I guess. Well, one of his hinch children does suggest

1051
00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:14,360
Speaker 3: replacing them. While he's like getting the sleigh out, the

1052
00:57:14,480 --> 00:57:19,280
Speaker 3: Russian child comes up and I think says something in Russian,

1053
00:57:19,960 --> 00:57:22,880
Speaker 3: but we are to understand that he has suggested that

1054
00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:27,080
Speaker 3: Santa replace his sleigh with sputnik topical.

1055
00:57:27,160 --> 00:57:30,080
Speaker 1: What if you just replaced the reindeer with Sputniks and

1056
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:34,080
Speaker 1: you had, like, you know, a dozen Sputniks pulling the

1057
00:57:34,160 --> 00:57:36,440
Speaker 1: slide through the sky. That could be kind of cute.

1058
00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:40,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, So Santa he's like, yeah, nice suggestion, but he

1059
00:57:40,440 --> 00:57:44,000
Speaker 3: can't replace his white reindeer. They are too precious to him, clearly,

1060
00:57:52,400 --> 00:57:54,720
Speaker 3: So Santa's helpers come. They load up the sleigh with

1061
00:57:54,800 --> 00:57:57,200
Speaker 3: gifts for all the children of the world. And as

1062
00:57:57,200 --> 00:58:00,880
Speaker 3: Santa is leaving his palace after he winding up his

1063
00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:04,440
Speaker 3: mechanical reindeer with a key, he asks that Jesus, the

1064
00:58:04,440 --> 00:58:06,800
Speaker 3: Son of God, join him on Earth so that all

1065
00:58:06,840 --> 00:58:09,640
Speaker 3: may have joy and goodwill. And then we see him

1066
00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:13,240
Speaker 3: flying through space to Earth, and there's a moment where

1067
00:58:13,280 --> 00:58:15,880
Speaker 3: the narrator lets us know, like, whew, that was close.

1068
00:58:15,920 --> 00:58:17,560
Speaker 3: He almost ran into the moon.

1069
00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:21,280
Speaker 1: That that feels like this is Murray just getting in

1070
00:58:21,320 --> 00:58:23,440
Speaker 1: some extra fun with the narration, you know.

1071
00:58:23,960 --> 00:58:26,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know if that's in the original. But

1072
00:58:26,960 --> 00:58:30,120
Speaker 3: down on Earth, we check in with, first of all,

1073
00:58:30,160 --> 00:58:32,560
Speaker 3: the little rich boy, whose parents tuck him into bed

1074
00:58:32,600 --> 00:58:35,840
Speaker 3: and then go out on a date. It's Christmas Eve,

1075
00:58:35,880 --> 00:58:37,920
Speaker 3: but they're like going out to a restaurant. I mean,

1076
00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:39,640
Speaker 3: I guess that's the thing some people do. I don't know,

1077
00:58:40,480 --> 00:58:44,160
Speaker 3: but he goes out. Obviously, the little boy wishes that

1078
00:58:44,200 --> 00:58:46,880
Speaker 3: his parents would stay home with him, but his mother

1079
00:58:46,960 --> 00:58:48,640
Speaker 3: tells him that if he gets bored, he can go

1080
00:58:48,720 --> 00:58:50,400
Speaker 3: practice his piano lessons.

1081
00:58:50,760 --> 00:58:52,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, kids love that.

1082
00:58:54,880 --> 00:58:57,280
Speaker 3: And then we also check in with the three bad

1083
00:58:57,320 --> 00:59:00,440
Speaker 3: boys from earlier. They are discussing a plan to capture

1084
00:59:00,480 --> 00:59:03,120
Speaker 3: an enslave Santa Claus so that all of his toys

1085
00:59:03,120 --> 00:59:06,880
Speaker 3: and powers would become there. So these are power hungry children, These.

1086
00:59:06,760 --> 00:59:07,800
Speaker 1: Are bad kids.

1087
00:59:08,080 --> 00:59:12,080
Speaker 3: Yeah. Then there's also oh I mentioned earlier that there

1088
00:59:12,120 --> 00:59:16,280
Speaker 3: are like these surprisingly tender scenes with Lupita and her mother.

1089
00:59:16,920 --> 00:59:19,240
Speaker 3: One of them comes up here, and this is, you know,

1090
00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:22,920
Speaker 3: the one that addresses the central question. Lupita asks questions

1091
00:59:22,920 --> 00:59:26,000
Speaker 3: about Santa Claus, and she wonders if Santa doesn't like

1092
00:59:26,080 --> 00:59:28,600
Speaker 3: her because he has never brought her a doll, and

1093
00:59:28,720 --> 00:59:33,080
Speaker 3: Lupita's mother is trapped because she can't explain the real

1094
00:59:33,200 --> 00:59:35,800
Speaker 3: reason Lupita has never gotten a doll, which is that

1095
00:59:35,880 --> 00:59:38,920
Speaker 3: they can't afford it without spoiling, you know, belief in

1096
00:59:39,000 --> 00:59:42,960
Speaker 3: Santa Claus. But she doesn't want Lupita to think that

1097
00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:45,320
Speaker 3: Santa doesn't like her or believes her to be a

1098
00:59:45,320 --> 00:59:48,280
Speaker 3: wicked child. And you can just see the desperation on

1099
00:59:48,320 --> 00:59:51,680
Speaker 3: her mother's face. She's in a bind, so she just

1100
00:59:52,520 --> 00:59:54,600
Speaker 3: she says they can pray for it, and she tells

1101
00:59:54,640 --> 00:59:58,560
Speaker 3: the story of how Christmas is about commemorating the birth

1102
00:59:58,600 --> 01:00:01,800
Speaker 3: of Jesus, who was even poorer than they are, and

1103
01:00:01,840 --> 01:00:05,240
Speaker 3: then Lupita decides that she will ask Santa for two dollies,

1104
01:00:05,480 --> 01:00:07,440
Speaker 3: and if she gets them, she will give one to

1105
01:00:07,480 --> 01:00:11,120
Speaker 3: Little Jesus and amidst all of the weird stuff going on,

1106
01:00:11,320 --> 01:00:15,360
Speaker 3: this this sort of complex situation really does grab the

1107
01:00:15,400 --> 01:00:19,360
Speaker 3: heartstrings and like asks weird, hard questions about the world.

1108
01:00:19,840 --> 01:00:22,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, it almost feels like it belongs in another movie

1109
01:00:22,800 --> 01:00:26,680
Speaker 1: in which Santa is not clearly real. Yeah, yeah, it

1110
01:00:26,720 --> 01:00:29,760
Speaker 1: always it throws everything out of line when Santa is real.

1111
01:00:29,800 --> 01:00:32,760
Speaker 1: It's kind of like watching ted Lasso. Eventually, it is

1112
01:00:32,840 --> 01:00:36,000
Speaker 1: revealed that in the tad Lasso universe, Santa Claus is real,

1113
01:00:36,360 --> 01:00:38,920
Speaker 1: which raises all sorts of questions about everything else that

1114
01:00:38,960 --> 01:00:43,520
Speaker 1: happens in that tvcery, Like, what else is real? Santa

1115
01:00:43,560 --> 01:00:45,880
Speaker 1: is real, We've opened the gate ted Lasso. What's what

1116
01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:46,680
Speaker 1: else is out there?

1117
01:00:46,880 --> 01:00:51,520
Speaker 3: Good question? All right? So meanwhile, we've got Santa arriving

1118
01:00:51,560 --> 01:00:53,960
Speaker 3: on Earth. Pitch has been hanging out on Earth waiting

1119
01:00:54,000 --> 01:00:56,040
Speaker 3: for Santa to get here so he can you know,

1120
01:00:56,320 --> 01:00:58,800
Speaker 3: play tricks on him. And Pitch is cold. He doesn't

1121
01:00:58,880 --> 01:01:01,280
Speaker 3: like Earth because you know, he wants his brimstone pits

1122
01:01:01,320 --> 01:01:04,200
Speaker 3: where it's hot. And this begins the sort of trick

1123
01:01:04,280 --> 01:01:06,600
Speaker 3: or treat section of the movie. For a while we

1124
01:01:06,720 --> 01:01:09,560
Speaker 3: just watch Santa going around to various houses. He's doing

1125
01:01:09,600 --> 01:01:13,120
Speaker 3: his business delivering toys, and along the way, Pitch is

1126
01:01:13,200 --> 01:01:16,800
Speaker 3: playing pranks on him and trying to harm Santa. So,

1127
01:01:17,000 --> 01:01:19,840
Speaker 3: for example, at one house, Pitch moves the chimney out

1128
01:01:19,880 --> 01:01:22,280
Speaker 3: of the way so Santa won't be able to get inside.

1129
01:01:22,360 --> 01:01:25,960
Speaker 3: I have questions about the mechanics of this, but Santa

1130
01:01:26,080 --> 01:01:28,680
Speaker 3: gets around this by jumping down to ground level using

1131
01:01:28,720 --> 01:01:31,560
Speaker 3: his magic parasol and then just going through the door.

1132
01:01:32,560 --> 01:01:35,160
Speaker 3: And in this house, some children wake up and they

1133
01:01:35,200 --> 01:01:38,000
Speaker 3: sneak out to get a glimpse of Santa. But Santa

1134
01:01:38,080 --> 01:01:41,360
Speaker 3: throws Merlin's magic sedative dust at them and it makes

1135
01:01:41,400 --> 01:01:43,160
Speaker 3: them go back to sleep. In fact, not just go

1136
01:01:43,280 --> 01:01:45,960
Speaker 3: back to sleep, it makes them collapse face down on

1137
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:47,840
Speaker 3: their blankets. So it's strong stuff.

1138
01:01:47,960 --> 01:01:50,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, essentially, you have two entities here that

1139
01:01:50,480 --> 01:01:54,800
Speaker 1: each have like Infinity Stone level powers, but the nature

1140
01:01:54,840 --> 01:01:57,200
Speaker 1: of their attacks are are fairly whimsical.

1141
01:01:57,560 --> 01:02:01,000
Speaker 3: Yes. At the next house comes up with a plan.

1142
01:02:01,160 --> 01:02:03,880
Speaker 3: He says he's going to immolate Santa Claus with a

1143
01:02:03,920 --> 01:02:06,840
Speaker 3: blast of fire from the fireplace as he's coming down

1144
01:02:06,920 --> 01:02:10,600
Speaker 3: the chimney. Fortunately, Santa only gets a bit scorched on

1145
01:02:10,640 --> 01:02:14,840
Speaker 3: the haunches. He's still alive, but since Santa can't come

1146
01:02:14,880 --> 01:02:17,240
Speaker 3: down the chimney, he goes down and again comes in

1147
01:02:17,240 --> 01:02:20,360
Speaker 3: through the front door. And here Pitch pulls a home

1148
01:02:20,400 --> 01:02:23,240
Speaker 3: alone and uses his demon breath to heat up the

1149
01:02:23,320 --> 01:02:27,000
Speaker 3: door knob until it glows red. But Santa outwits the

1150
01:02:27,040 --> 01:02:29,560
Speaker 3: devil again. Instead of going through the front door, he

1151
01:02:29,600 --> 01:02:32,600
Speaker 3: sneaks in through a window, sneaks in behind Pitch, and

1152
01:02:32,640 --> 01:02:36,480
Speaker 3: then shoots Pitch in the buttocks with a toy cannon

1153
01:02:36,520 --> 01:02:40,600
Speaker 3: that launches darts. Is this a real toy, Santa? I

1154
01:02:40,720 --> 01:02:42,680
Speaker 3: question what you were giving to the children.

1155
01:02:43,440 --> 01:02:47,120
Speaker 1: I mean, this was nineteen fifty nine, so it's sam

1156
01:02:47,200 --> 01:02:50,120
Speaker 1: Maybe so, but it does seem extraordinarily dangerous. But the

1157
01:02:50,160 --> 01:02:53,600
Speaker 1: real lesson is you can't home alone, Santa Claus. He

1158
01:02:53,680 --> 01:02:56,640
Speaker 1: will always out home alone, you like he practically invented

1159
01:02:56,640 --> 01:02:57,240
Speaker 1: home aloney.

1160
01:02:57,640 --> 01:02:59,640
Speaker 3: Yes, he does usually get the better of Pitch, though

1161
01:02:59,640 --> 01:03:02,480
Speaker 3: there is one scene coming up where Pitch will at

1162
01:03:02,560 --> 01:03:04,800
Speaker 3: least temporarily get the better of him. We'll get to

1163
01:03:04,800 --> 01:03:07,240
Speaker 3: that in just a minute. So next we check in

1164
01:03:07,280 --> 01:03:09,920
Speaker 3: on the good little rich boy. You know, he's home alone.

1165
01:03:10,000 --> 01:03:13,080
Speaker 3: His parents are out clubbing. They're out going to the

1166
01:03:13,160 --> 01:03:16,720
Speaker 3: night club and the restaurants, and he wanders around the

1167
01:03:16,720 --> 01:03:20,600
Speaker 3: halls of his big house lonely, and the narrator tells

1168
01:03:20,640 --> 01:03:22,200
Speaker 3: us that even though he has all the toys he

1169
01:03:22,200 --> 01:03:24,560
Speaker 3: could ever dream of, he's poor at heart because he

1170
01:03:24,600 --> 01:03:28,800
Speaker 3: doesn't have his parents home with him and Santa he

1171
01:03:29,000 --> 01:03:31,480
Speaker 3: like falls asleep in a chair, and then Santa causes

1172
01:03:31,520 --> 01:03:35,520
Speaker 3: the little boy to quote awaken while he is dreaming. Oh,

1173
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:40,760
Speaker 3: and he explains that the boy's parents love him, even

1174
01:03:40,800 --> 01:03:44,280
Speaker 3: though he and his parents don't understand each other. Then

1175
01:03:44,760 --> 01:03:47,440
Speaker 3: we cut to the little rich boy's parents out at

1176
01:03:47,480 --> 01:03:50,520
Speaker 3: a fancy restaurant. Again. This is like, I guess, supposed

1177
01:03:50,560 --> 01:03:53,200
Speaker 3: to be midnight on Christmas Eve, and we see a

1178
01:03:53,320 --> 01:03:57,360
Speaker 3: disembodied hand bring a tray over to their table with

1179
01:03:57,480 --> 01:04:01,360
Speaker 3: two cocktails on the tray, and the cocktails are emitting

1180
01:04:01,440 --> 01:04:04,320
Speaker 3: some kind of gas or fog, and the mother says,

1181
01:04:04,400 --> 01:04:07,040
Speaker 3: that's a strange cocktail, and then the waiter says, in

1182
01:04:07,200 --> 01:04:10,240
Speaker 3: Santa voice, it is the cocktail of remembrance, which only

1183
01:04:10,280 --> 01:04:12,840
Speaker 3: I can prepare. Whoever drinks it will think of that

1184
01:04:12,880 --> 01:04:15,640
Speaker 3: which is most dear, and which, at times, for some

1185
01:04:15,880 --> 01:04:19,400
Speaker 3: unknown reason, we seem to forget, and then the waiter

1186
01:04:19,480 --> 01:04:22,160
Speaker 3: gives a speech about how the greatest reward for giving

1187
01:04:22,240 --> 01:04:26,120
Speaker 3: love is love itself and then concludes with, so drink

1188
01:04:26,160 --> 01:04:28,880
Speaker 3: my cocktail and you will become aware of that love

1189
01:04:28,920 --> 01:04:32,080
Speaker 3: which is closest to your hearts. And the mother says,

1190
01:04:32,240 --> 01:04:35,440
Speaker 3: and those without love, he says, they couldn't drink this

1191
01:04:35,560 --> 01:04:39,720
Speaker 3: cocktail as it would burn their throats. So he's doing

1192
01:04:39,760 --> 01:04:41,960
Speaker 3: a great job of upselling it. And then they just

1193
01:04:42,000 --> 01:04:44,040
Speaker 3: like grab the glasses and have a little chug.

1194
01:04:44,400 --> 01:04:46,360
Speaker 1: Well, I mean it's only a little different than any

1195
01:04:46,400 --> 01:04:47,040
Speaker 1: other cocktail.

1196
01:04:48,680 --> 01:04:52,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so they're like, oh, wow, wait a minute,

1197
01:04:54,000 --> 01:04:55,840
Speaker 3: I want to be home with our child, and they

1198
01:04:55,880 --> 01:04:58,080
Speaker 3: have the sudden urge to go home and see their son,

1199
01:04:58,480 --> 01:05:01,800
Speaker 3: who is finally revealed is named Billy. I think this

1200
01:05:01,840 --> 01:05:05,000
Speaker 3: is the first time we hear his name, So they

1201
01:05:05,000 --> 01:05:09,560
Speaker 3: go home to him. Up next, more tricks. Pitch first

1202
01:05:09,560 --> 01:05:12,280
Speaker 3: of all, convinces the three naughty little boys who wanted

1203
01:05:12,320 --> 01:05:15,680
Speaker 3: to capture Santa Claus to injure him with a trip wire,

1204
01:05:15,800 --> 01:05:19,320
Speaker 3: but they fail at this. Santa I can't tell exactly

1205
01:05:19,320 --> 01:05:21,120
Speaker 3: what he sort of like hits them with a stun

1206
01:05:21,160 --> 01:05:25,000
Speaker 3: grenade like some kind of bright flash goes off around

1207
01:05:25,040 --> 01:05:28,520
Speaker 3: them and they are I don't know, they fail at

1208
01:05:28,560 --> 01:05:32,680
Speaker 3: trying to trip him. But then right after this, they're like, oh,

1209
01:05:32,800 --> 01:05:34,840
Speaker 3: that was Santa, so he's been here. Let's go see

1210
01:05:34,880 --> 01:05:37,680
Speaker 3: what toys he brought us. And they each get an

1211
01:05:37,680 --> 01:05:40,800
Speaker 3: old show and you know, because they're not gonna get

1212
01:05:40,800 --> 01:05:43,800
Speaker 3: anything because they've been bad, and Pitch then tricks them

1213
01:05:43,800 --> 01:05:47,160
Speaker 3: into fighting each other and at least here's one win

1214
01:05:47,280 --> 01:05:49,600
Speaker 3: for Pitch. He says, Lucifer will be very pleased at

1215
01:05:49,640 --> 01:05:50,520
Speaker 3: the way they are fighting.

1216
01:05:51,000 --> 01:05:52,400
Speaker 1: I like this scene too. This is another one of

1217
01:05:52,400 --> 01:05:54,000
Speaker 1: those scenes where I feel like, I think the music

1218
01:05:54,040 --> 01:05:57,240
Speaker 1: gets a little creepier and yeah, it's like it shows that,

1219
01:05:57,280 --> 01:05:59,640
Speaker 1: you know, like the devil doesn't really have any favorites

1220
01:06:00,920 --> 01:06:03,400
Speaker 1: and when he's done with you, he's just going to

1221
01:06:03,840 --> 01:06:06,400
Speaker 1: use you against each other. All he wants is your misery.

1222
01:06:06,760 --> 01:06:09,160
Speaker 1: And so some nice villain work here from Pitch.

1223
01:06:09,720 --> 01:06:12,840
Speaker 3: So after this, Pitch tries to steal Santa's sleigh, but

1224
01:06:12,880 --> 01:06:15,320
Speaker 3: that doesn't work. I think Santa has like some biometric

1225
01:06:15,400 --> 01:06:18,720
Speaker 3: security protocols in place, so Pitch can't make the reindeer go.

1226
01:06:19,520 --> 01:06:21,560
Speaker 3: But even though he can't steal the sleigh, he still

1227
01:06:21,800 --> 01:06:26,680
Speaker 3: causes more mischief. He manages to puncture Santa's wizard bag

1228
01:06:27,000 --> 01:06:30,000
Speaker 3: so all of the magic powder leaks out, so now

1229
01:06:30,080 --> 01:06:33,280
Speaker 3: Santa can't put anyone to sleep, and he also causes

1230
01:06:33,320 --> 01:06:36,960
Speaker 3: Santa to drop the flower to disappear. So at the

1231
01:06:37,000 --> 01:06:40,240
Speaker 3: next house, Santa is going in through you know, he's

1232
01:06:40,240 --> 01:06:43,200
Speaker 3: going it's like a big, you know, mansion and a compound.

1233
01:06:43,480 --> 01:06:45,320
Speaker 3: And Santa goes in through the gate and he is

1234
01:06:45,360 --> 01:06:48,600
Speaker 3: attacked by a guard dog. And at first he's like, oh,

1235
01:06:48,680 --> 01:06:50,920
Speaker 3: this will be fine. I will use my Merlin tools,

1236
01:06:50,920 --> 01:06:53,520
Speaker 3: but he doesn't have any, you know, His powder's all gone.

1237
01:06:53,640 --> 01:06:56,120
Speaker 3: His flower to disappear is gone, so he has no

1238
01:06:56,240 --> 01:06:58,919
Speaker 3: choice but to climb a tree and hide from the dog.

1239
01:06:58,960 --> 01:07:00,760
Speaker 3: And the dog is at the base the tree barking

1240
01:07:00,800 --> 01:07:03,920
Speaker 3: at him. So he's just stuck there and the devil

1241
01:07:04,320 --> 01:07:07,480
Speaker 3: taunts him. Pitch explains that he will cause mischief by

1242
01:07:07,480 --> 01:07:11,240
Speaker 3: speaking to people through their imagination while Santa is stuck

1243
01:07:11,280 --> 01:07:13,760
Speaker 3: there in the tree. And then I laugh out loud

1244
01:07:13,800 --> 01:07:16,720
Speaker 3: moment for me, Santa in the tree yelling to the

1245
01:07:16,760 --> 01:07:20,600
Speaker 3: sky Merlin key man.

1246
01:07:22,120 --> 01:07:24,480
Speaker 1: This sequence is great because on one hand, it's just

1247
01:07:24,520 --> 01:07:27,800
Speaker 1: so ridiculous we've built up to the point in this

1248
01:07:27,880 --> 01:07:30,720
Speaker 1: movie where Santa is treed by a dog. Yeah, and

1249
01:07:30,920 --> 01:07:33,680
Speaker 1: all Christmas is threatened because of it. And yet at

1250
01:07:33,680 --> 01:07:36,760
Speaker 1: the same time it's kind of interesting, and you know,

1251
01:07:36,800 --> 01:07:39,080
Speaker 1: we have this kind of close proximity between Santa and

1252
01:07:39,120 --> 01:07:43,200
Speaker 1: God and this film the Christian God, and yes, and

1253
01:07:43,280 --> 01:07:46,480
Speaker 1: here he is stuck up in a tree, almost kind

1254
01:07:46,480 --> 01:07:49,280
Speaker 1: of an odentic figure in the same way you know

1255
01:07:49,320 --> 01:07:53,400
Speaker 1: that Odin dies in the Great World Tree and you know,

1256
01:07:53,480 --> 01:07:55,640
Speaker 1: reminds us a little bit of certain things in Christian

1257
01:07:55,760 --> 01:08:00,480
Speaker 1: iconography as well, though not necessarily in an intentional way.

1258
01:08:00,200 --> 01:08:02,280
Speaker 1: But if you really want to read a lot into it,

1259
01:08:02,280 --> 01:08:04,000
Speaker 1: perhaps you could play with that idea.

1260
01:08:03,840 --> 01:08:06,680
Speaker 3: That Santa is being crucified upon the tree.

1261
01:08:06,800 --> 01:08:09,040
Speaker 1: But yeah, whilst the devil mocks.

1262
01:08:08,840 --> 01:08:12,840
Speaker 3: Him, yes, exactly. So Pitch gets up to all kinds

1263
01:08:12,880 --> 01:08:15,440
Speaker 3: of trouble while Santa is stuck. He goes inside and

1264
01:08:15,520 --> 01:08:19,200
Speaker 3: convinces the family that there is an assassin outside in

1265
01:08:19,240 --> 01:08:22,240
Speaker 3: the tree, and so all the family they get woken

1266
01:08:22,320 --> 01:08:25,120
Speaker 3: up and start gathering weapons that the father in the

1267
01:08:25,120 --> 01:08:31,160
Speaker 3: family is hilariously cowardly. He also Pitch contrives to have

1268
01:08:31,240 --> 01:08:34,320
Speaker 3: all of the police and fire department summoned like, he

1269
01:08:34,840 --> 01:08:39,720
Speaker 3: calls up the fire department and causes flames to come

1270
01:08:39,800 --> 01:08:43,760
Speaker 3: out of the speaker of the phone at the fire

1271
01:08:43,800 --> 01:08:46,360
Speaker 3: department end, so they're like, Wow, that place must really

1272
01:08:46,400 --> 01:08:49,799
Speaker 3: be on fire, so they're going to send a fire engine. Meanwhile,

1273
01:08:49,840 --> 01:08:53,840
Speaker 3: at Lupita's home, Pitch goes there and whispers despair into

1274
01:08:53,880 --> 01:08:56,400
Speaker 3: the ear of sleeping Lupita. He says, you'll never get

1275
01:08:56,400 --> 01:08:59,280
Speaker 3: a doll, You'll never get anything you want. Santa has

1276
01:08:59,320 --> 01:09:02,439
Speaker 3: abandoned you. And then the last line of his speech

1277
01:09:02,520 --> 01:09:06,360
Speaker 3: is you are poor. Then back at the house where

1278
01:09:06,400 --> 01:09:09,040
Speaker 3: Santa is stuck, the police and the fire department around

1279
01:09:09,040 --> 01:09:13,040
Speaker 3: the way, we hear the sirens coming, and the whole

1280
01:09:13,040 --> 01:09:15,800
Speaker 3: family has woken up and armed themselves, and they're going

1281
01:09:15,840 --> 01:09:20,080
Speaker 3: outside to investigate, and the devil taunts Santa, telling him

1282
01:09:20,120 --> 01:09:22,679
Speaker 3: that he will be caught by the police, trapped on Earth,

1283
01:09:22,840 --> 01:09:25,360
Speaker 3: unable to fly back to space, and that in this

1284
01:09:25,479 --> 01:09:27,680
Speaker 3: state he will starve to death, and his reindeer will

1285
01:09:27,720 --> 01:09:31,000
Speaker 3: turn to dust, and Satan will rule the planet Earth.

1286
01:09:31,400 --> 01:09:35,559
Speaker 1: And now how does that last part? That's a line

1287
01:09:35,560 --> 01:09:37,040
Speaker 1: in the film where I feel like, WHOA. There's a

1288
01:09:37,080 --> 01:09:38,759
Speaker 1: lot more on the line. Here than I thought.

1289
01:09:39,560 --> 01:09:43,880
Speaker 3: But in the end Santa's prayers are answered. Pedro and

1290
01:09:43,920 --> 01:09:47,400
Speaker 3: Merlin come to the rescue. Pedro figures out what is happening.

1291
01:09:47,560 --> 01:09:50,000
Speaker 3: As usual, he's the one on the ball, he's the

1292
01:09:50,080 --> 01:09:52,639
Speaker 3: you know, he's the chief of staff. He gets everything fixed.

1293
01:09:53,280 --> 01:09:56,479
Speaker 3: So he gets Merlin to come to the observatory and

1294
01:09:56,520 --> 01:10:00,880
Speaker 3: then they communicate with Merlin by like Rline communicates with

1295
01:10:00,920 --> 01:10:04,560
Speaker 3: Santa Claus by talking into a microphone, and Santa communicates

1296
01:10:04,560 --> 01:10:07,559
Speaker 3: with Merlin just by shouting into the sky. So he says,

1297
01:10:07,560 --> 01:10:10,200
Speaker 3: they've got me in a tree. Merlin, I dropped to

1298
01:10:10,200 --> 01:10:13,240
Speaker 3: the flower to disappear, and also the powder for dreaming,

1299
01:10:13,479 --> 01:10:15,840
Speaker 3: and now this beast won't let me down. All of

1300
01:10:15,880 --> 01:10:20,000
Speaker 3: this prepared by mister Pitch. So it looks like Santa's

1301
01:10:20,000 --> 01:10:22,240
Speaker 3: goose is cooked. You know, the police are coming. How's

1302
01:10:22,280 --> 01:10:24,240
Speaker 3: he going to get out of this jam? Well, Merlin

1303
01:10:24,400 --> 01:10:27,160
Speaker 3: thinks up a clever idea. Merlin's thinking, how do you

1304
01:10:27,160 --> 01:10:30,160
Speaker 3: stop a mad dog? And he has an ingenious solution.

1305
01:10:30,280 --> 01:10:34,280
Speaker 3: He says, a cat. So he convinces Santa to distract

1306
01:10:34,320 --> 01:10:37,400
Speaker 3: the dog with a wind up toy cat from his

1307
01:10:37,479 --> 01:10:41,040
Speaker 3: bag of gifts, and Santa does this the police arrive,

1308
01:10:41,520 --> 01:10:45,200
Speaker 3: the heavily armed family there outside. They get sprayed but

1309
01:10:45,320 --> 01:10:48,120
Speaker 3: with water by the fire department, which is fire department

1310
01:10:48,160 --> 01:10:51,800
Speaker 3: seems fairly bumbling. The firefighters are going around trying to

1311
01:10:51,840 --> 01:10:54,519
Speaker 3: find the fire, and eventually they do come upon a

1312
01:10:54,520 --> 01:10:56,679
Speaker 3: cloud of smoke and they spray it with their hose,

1313
01:10:56,760 --> 01:10:59,679
Speaker 3: but of course the smoke is just coming off of Pitch.

1314
01:11:00,160 --> 01:11:02,200
Speaker 3: He's a devil, and I guess sometimes he emits smoke

1315
01:11:02,280 --> 01:11:03,320
Speaker 3: and he gets drenched too.

1316
01:11:04,439 --> 01:11:06,719
Speaker 1: Serves him right, serves him right, for all this despair

1317
01:11:06,800 --> 01:11:07,919
Speaker 1: he's trying to spread.

1318
01:11:08,560 --> 01:11:13,479
Speaker 3: But Santa has escaped, and you know, so Merlin tells him,

1319
01:11:13,520 --> 01:11:15,160
Speaker 3: you're out of time. You've got to come back to

1320
01:11:15,200 --> 01:11:18,240
Speaker 3: the Crystal Palace at once. The sun's about to come up,

1321
01:11:18,320 --> 01:11:20,960
Speaker 3: but no, Santa says he has one more friend to

1322
01:11:21,040 --> 01:11:23,800
Speaker 3: visit before he leaves Earth, and then he shouts at

1323
01:11:23,800 --> 01:11:27,160
Speaker 3: the sky to Merlin, I'll see you later, if possible.

1324
01:11:28,439 --> 01:11:30,479
Speaker 3: Who's it going to be? Of course it is the

1325
01:11:30,520 --> 01:11:35,040
Speaker 3: most perfect child who ever lived, Lupita. And so somehow

1326
01:11:35,080 --> 01:11:39,320
Speaker 3: the Flower to Disappear has fallen into Lupita's house and

1327
01:11:39,360 --> 01:11:43,480
Speaker 3: we see Lupita's in bed. Her father comes home, Lupita's

1328
01:11:43,479 --> 01:11:46,519
Speaker 3: mother lets him inside and she says, did you find

1329
01:11:46,560 --> 01:11:50,360
Speaker 3: any work? And he's dejected and he says, nothing, my dear, nothing,

1330
01:11:50,880 --> 01:11:53,160
Speaker 3: And I like, on one hand the scene is like

1331
01:11:53,280 --> 01:11:55,680
Speaker 3: there's great pathos and it works, but on the other hand,

1332
01:11:55,680 --> 01:11:57,960
Speaker 3: it's like, wait, he was out looking for work in

1333
01:11:58,000 --> 01:12:00,679
Speaker 3: the dark before sun rise on cre Ristmas Day.

1334
01:12:01,280 --> 01:12:02,960
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, they're kind of laying it on a bit

1335
01:12:03,000 --> 01:12:04,240
Speaker 1: thick perhaps.

1336
01:12:04,320 --> 01:12:06,640
Speaker 3: But Lupita wakes up. She tells her mother that she

1337
01:12:06,720 --> 01:12:08,920
Speaker 3: has dreamed of Santa Claus, that he left her a

1338
01:12:08,960 --> 01:12:11,760
Speaker 3: dolly out on the patio, and her mother tells her

1339
01:12:11,920 --> 01:12:15,120
Speaker 3: go back to sleep, but Lupita goes to check and

1340
01:12:15,200 --> 01:12:18,240
Speaker 3: there it is. There really is a doll, and it's huge.

1341
01:12:18,280 --> 01:12:21,400
Speaker 3: It's like almost the same size as Lupita, and Lupita's

1342
01:12:21,439 --> 01:12:24,280
Speaker 3: parents are amazed. Her mother makes the sign of the Cross,

1343
01:12:24,520 --> 01:12:27,000
Speaker 3: and Lupita looks out the window and begins praying to

1344
01:12:27,040 --> 01:12:30,400
Speaker 3: Santa Claus, and we see the sleigh making the journey

1345
01:12:30,600 --> 01:12:33,439
Speaker 3: back through outer space, and the narrator tells us that

1346
01:12:33,520 --> 01:12:36,640
Speaker 3: once again, Santa Claus returns to his palace from his

1347
01:12:36,760 --> 01:12:39,880
Speaker 3: yearly Christmas rounds. He is happy and gay for once

1348
01:12:39,960 --> 01:12:43,560
Speaker 3: again he has brought joy to the children of the world,

1349
01:12:43,720 --> 01:12:45,800
Speaker 3: and we get a sort of title card at the

1350
01:12:45,920 --> 01:12:48,559
Speaker 3: end that said, Blessed are those who believe, for they

1351
01:12:48,560 --> 01:12:52,600
Speaker 3: shall see God, peace on earth, goodwill toward men. So

1352
01:12:53,520 --> 01:12:56,439
Speaker 3: sidestepping some of the hard issues with magic, as we've said,

1353
01:12:56,479 --> 01:13:00,720
Speaker 3: but also it's a sweet ending. And and I guess

1354
01:13:00,880 --> 01:13:02,519
Speaker 3: what is the last thing we see of Pitch. The

1355
01:13:02,600 --> 01:13:04,519
Speaker 3: last thing is he just gets sprayed with water.

1356
01:13:04,640 --> 01:13:07,759
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, yeah, there's no scene where he actually

1357
01:13:08,000 --> 01:13:09,800
Speaker 1: has to go back to Hell and eat ice cream,

1358
01:13:10,240 --> 01:13:13,439
Speaker 1: but you know, he's roundly defeated. It does seem like

1359
01:13:13,439 --> 01:13:15,000
Speaker 1: maybe he should have had a little bit more of

1360
01:13:15,000 --> 01:13:17,599
Speaker 1: a comeupance there than just getting a bit wet because

1361
01:13:17,760 --> 01:13:20,840
Speaker 1: he was he was setting up the public murder of

1362
01:13:20,880 --> 01:13:21,960
Speaker 1: Santa Claus.

1363
01:13:21,640 --> 01:13:23,960
Speaker 3: Here, that's right. Yeah, and he got really close to

1364
01:13:24,000 --> 01:13:25,799
Speaker 3: having Satan rule over the earth.

1365
01:13:26,160 --> 01:13:29,240
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I mean, I guess it. I mean, you know,

1366
01:13:29,800 --> 01:13:31,800
Speaker 1: a lot of authors have explored this. I mean, the

1367
01:13:31,840 --> 01:13:35,439
Speaker 1: holidays have their roots and very old traditions that you

1368
01:13:35,439 --> 01:13:37,720
Speaker 1: know are about you know, the dying of the earth

1369
01:13:37,800 --> 01:13:40,479
Speaker 1: during the winter and the resurgence of the world in

1370
01:13:40,520 --> 01:13:43,840
Speaker 1: the springtime, and that this is a threshold you have

1371
01:13:43,880 --> 01:13:46,560
Speaker 1: to cross, and you know there's a certain amount of

1372
01:13:46,600 --> 01:13:49,040
Speaker 1: sacrifice wound up in all of this, so you know

1373
01:13:49,080 --> 01:13:52,160
Speaker 1: it's not completely out of character, but they do start

1374
01:13:52,240 --> 01:13:54,559
Speaker 1: laying on just how dire the situation is right at

1375
01:13:54,560 --> 01:13:56,679
Speaker 1: the end where it's like, oh yeah, if Santa goes,

1376
01:13:57,320 --> 01:14:00,960
Speaker 1: Satan rules the world, like it's the end of it everything.

1377
01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:03,960
Speaker 3: And thus concludes the tale of Santa Claus.

1378
01:14:04,439 --> 01:14:08,800
Speaker 1: What is the sense of it? Tremendously fun holiday picture,

1379
01:14:08,920 --> 01:14:12,160
Speaker 1: Like I say this and Santa Claus Congress the Martians

1380
01:14:12,160 --> 01:14:15,280
Speaker 1: set the bar. There are other weird holiday films out there,

1381
01:14:15,479 --> 01:14:18,120
Speaker 1: but you you, you almost can't consider any of them

1382
01:14:18,600 --> 01:14:23,439
Speaker 1: except in comparison to these pictures. Yeah, and I wish

1383
01:14:23,479 --> 01:14:25,320
Speaker 1: we could have had a crossover with the two Santas.

1384
01:14:25,320 --> 01:14:29,080
Speaker 1: They're both excellent Santa Clauses or pitch. I mean, there's

1385
01:14:29,080 --> 01:14:30,040
Speaker 1: so many ways you could go.

1386
01:14:30,640 --> 01:14:33,200
Speaker 3: But Dropo wasn't A wasn't really the villain. What's the

1387
01:14:33,280 --> 01:14:35,439
Speaker 3: villain in Santa Claus Congress the Martians? The guy with

1388
01:14:35,479 --> 01:14:39,800
Speaker 3: the mustache, Oh, oh goodness, I forgetting his name. I

1389
01:14:39,840 --> 01:14:46,080
Speaker 3: want to say Zoltar or something Boldar, something like that, Voldar, Voldar.

1390
01:14:46,280 --> 01:14:53,760
Speaker 1: That's it. Voldar. Yeah, don't forget Winky and choke him.

1391
01:14:53,880 --> 01:14:55,639
Speaker 3: Okay, I think that's it for today.

1392
01:14:55,960 --> 01:14:57,640
Speaker 1: All Right, we're gonna go ahead and close out this

1393
01:14:57,760 --> 01:15:00,760
Speaker 1: holiday episode, but we hope you enjoyed it as much

1394
01:15:00,760 --> 01:15:04,120
Speaker 1: as we did. The Santa Claus Conquers the Martian episode

1395
01:15:04,120 --> 01:15:06,680
Speaker 1: will also rerun over the next couple of weeks if

1396
01:15:06,720 --> 01:15:08,000
Speaker 1: you haven't listened to that one, or if you want

1397
01:15:08,000 --> 01:15:10,840
Speaker 1: to listen to it again. If you want to keep

1398
01:15:10,880 --> 01:15:12,960
Speaker 1: up with the movies we've covered on Weird House Cinema,

1399
01:15:13,120 --> 01:15:14,519
Speaker 1: and in some cases we want to get a hint

1400
01:15:15,040 --> 01:15:17,360
Speaker 1: of what's coming up next, we can go over to

1401
01:15:17,439 --> 01:15:19,519
Speaker 1: letterbox dot com. It's l E T T e r

1402
01:15:19,600 --> 01:15:22,439
Speaker 1: box d dot com. We are a weird house on there,

1403
01:15:22,439 --> 01:15:24,400
Speaker 1: and we have a nice list prepared of all the

1404
01:15:24,400 --> 01:15:27,639
Speaker 1: movies we've covered so far. We're primarily a science podcast

1405
01:15:27,680 --> 01:15:29,559
Speaker 1: on stuff to blow your mind, with core episodes on

1406
01:15:29,640 --> 01:15:32,320
Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Fridays we set aside most

1407
01:15:32,320 --> 01:15:34,639
Speaker 1: serious concerns to just talk about a weird movie here

1408
01:15:34,720 --> 01:15:35,920
Speaker 1: on Weird House Cinema.

1409
01:15:36,000 --> 01:15:39,840
Speaker 3: Here's thanks, as always to our excellent audio producer Jjposway.

1410
01:15:40,080 --> 01:15:41,640
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

1411
01:15:41,680 --> 01:15:44,160
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1412
01:15:44,160 --> 01:15:46,120
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello.

1413
01:15:46,280 --> 01:15:48,880
Speaker 3: You can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

1414
01:15:48,880 --> 01:15:56,560
Speaker 3: your Mind dot com.

1415
01:15:56,720 --> 01:15:59,600
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1416
01:15:59,680 --> 01:16:03,560
Speaker 2: more podcasts myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1417
01:16:03,640 --> 01:16:05,439
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.