5.3 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Enter the magical fantasy world of Santa Claus' toyshop where he prepares the presents for all the children of the world.
Starring: José Elías Moreno (I), Cesáreo Quezadas 'Pulgarcito', José Luis Aguirre 'Trotsky', Armando Arriola, Lupita QuezadasFamily | 100% |
Holiday | 84% |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Spanish: LPCM Mono
English: LPCM Mono
English: LPCM 5.1
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Sometimes not even the incisive commentary by those incredibly wise pundits at Mystery Science Theater 3000
is enough to fully deal with a film as patently outré as the 1959 Mexican opus Santa Claus. While our trusty
friends at MST3K skewered the René Cardona helmed film (brought stateside by entrepreneurial distributor K.
Gordon Murray) with their usual élan, the fact remains that Santa Claus still manages to defy description,
satirical or otherwise, in a very big way. What can be said about film where Santa Claus is a space alien of
sorts who comes to Earth to battle one of Lucifer’s minions, a red bunny-suited horned demon named Pitch, who is on
a desperate mission to turn the world’s kiddies against the jolly old elf. The fact that there evidently wasn’t much of a
Santa Claus tradition in Mexico in 1959 may help explain the utter weirdness of this film. Maybe. Other more
jaded types may simply come to the understandable conclusion that Señor Cardona was in the grip of some little known
sort of hallucinogenic fever, one which assumed near mythic heights of Good versus Evil, sprinkled with a few elements
of equally strange precognition of things as disparate as “It’s a Small World” and Pee-wee’s Playhouse.
Santa Claus remains one of those films which seems permanently emblazoned on the synapses of a whole
generation of kids who grew up either seeing it theatrically in the sixties or on television in the ensuing decades, but
kind of interestingly it’s also one of those fondly remembered films whose fans don’t seem deluded about. In other
words, few if any people insist Santa Claus is an overlooked masterpiece, and in fact most who have seen the
film simply revel in its absolute awfulness, not to mention a number of completely hilarious non sequiturs, visual and
verbal, which bring new meaning to the phrase “lost in translation.” The film has never had anything approaching a
decent home video release, and even commentator Daniel Griffith sounds perplexed that this strange little movie should
receive a high definition upgrade when so many more iconic films are still waiting in the wings for similar treatment.
Griffith attributes this fact to a Christmas miracle. Whether or not audiences will agree remains to be seen, especially
considering some of the technical problems with this VCI release.
Santa Claus is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Entertainment with a VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Though some of the press materials suggest this was sourced from a negative, it looks much more like a somewhat faded 35mm print, which tends to be VCI's modus operandi. The Eastmancolor, as is its tendency, has faded appreciably over the years, though reds are still incredibly vibrant and help to make this presentation pop at least a little. Flesh tones on the other hand are virtually monochromatic and almost have the look of "colorizing" at times. Once again it certainly appears VCI has gone to the DNR well a bit too aggressively. While this means that the opening credits, for example, look beautifully pristine, once the film actually gets underway, fine detail all but disappears in a number of shots (look at some of the midrange screencaps where faces are little more than blurs for some good examples). There is still occasional damage to be seen on this print, including a couple of persistent scratches that run down the right side of the frame from time to time. Though this appears to have been sourced from a relatively decent 35mm print, a couple of fleeting shots are inexplicably much softer than the rest of the film (none of which is overly sharp to begin with), and though I can't state it definitively, I have to wonder if a few seconds have been interpolated from a 16mm print which may have been in better overall condition.
One of the confusing elements about this VCI release is the different versions which are advertised (which include different languages) and what is actually on the disc. There are actually not two different versions of the film on the disc, simply two different language choices. This is the edited American release (though some of the edited material is presented as supplements, sourced from 16mm), with either an English language or Spanish language track available. Once again, VCI's menu authoring makes these choices a bit difficult to navigate. It's impossible to toggle through all of the audio options with your Audio button on your remote. Instead, you must go to the Setup Menu and choose either the English LPCM 5.1 or LPCM 2.0 (mono) mixes, which will then allow you to toggle through the English language mixes (including the LPCM 2.0 audio commentary by Daniel Griffith) as the film plays. If you choose "Spanish Version" from the Setup Menu, you get to the Spanish LPCM 2.0 (mono) mix, which, probably because of the three English language options, is repeated three times if you try to toggle through that language with your remote. This is one film that probably should not have been repurposed for a 5.1 mix for a couple of reasons. First of all, there's abundant hiss already audible on even the mono mixes, which is only blown up to pretty egregious proportions on the 5.1 mix, since obviously all the remixers have done is "double" various elements in the surrounds to approximate a surround mix. What that has also done is created an almost phase-like situation with the dialogue, which makes everything sound incredibly over-reverbed and boxy. By contrast, the two mono mixes, in English or Spanish, sound relatively decent, albeit with quite noticeable hiss. Other than the hiss, there's no really bad damage to report, and fidelity is at least passable if not overwhelmingly good, especially considering the lo-fi ambience of the film as a whole.
As weird as Santa Claus undeniably is, it's also undeniable the film retains a certain (drug addled?) charm that makes it (for want of a better term) rather "unique". This new Blu-ray has enough technical issues that even fans may want to wait for a repressing, though the supplemental package here is quite inviting, especially to K. Gordon Murray aficionados (and you know who you are). Could Murray's other "classics" (Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood, The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy, Rumpelstiltskin) be far behind? Time will tell.
Remastered Edition
1964
1992
Limited Edition - 2,000 copies
1985
1991
2018
1979
Slipcover in Original Pressing
1990
2015
1991
Collector's Edition
1987
2016
1957
2010
2018
2020
2019
2011
1988
1964-1972
2008