Santa Claus: The Movie Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Santa Claus: The Movie Blu-ray Movie Review

Sponsored by McDonald's.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III January 19, 2024

Reviewing Santa Claus: The Movie in January? Hey, just think of this a warm-up for Christmas 2 on March 25.

Die-hard fans of Jeannot Szwarc's 1985 film have a reason to celebrate with the unveiling of Studio Canal's recent restoration -- it's available to import on a sparkling 4K UHD combo pack or on this separate Region B Blu-ray edition. Both are a marked improvement over the film's last home video release: Lionsgate's 2010 Blu-ray, which for whatever reason never earned a site review. My middling star rating might read like I don't really care for this questionable cult classic, but far from it -- I watch and actually kinda enjoy Santa Claus: The Movie each holiday season because it's a beloved childhood favorite of my better half. Happy wife, happy life, happy Christmas and all that.

Yet only those with their nostalgia goggles on tightly will be able to ignore all the quirks of this uneven production. Santa Claus starts off well enough as an origin story for the jolly old.. woodcutter, a kindly man named Claus (David Huddleston) who, along with his wife Anya (Judy Cornwell), gets trapped in a fierce blizzard with their trusty reindeer Donner and Blitzen after delivering a batch of handmade toys. They apparently don't make it but somehow end up in the North Pole, where they're greeted by a few dozen expectant elves including Dooley (John Barrard), Puffy (Anthony O'Donnell), and Patch (Dudley Moore), who take them back to their magical factory and explain that their arrival was foretold by Father Time (Burgess Meredith). As Mr. and Mrs. Claus settle in during the next year, they're told they'll live forever and "Santa" is destined to deliver toys to all the children of the world. With the help of their reindeer and six more (and some good old-fashioned magical dust), the stage is set for Santa's first flight around the world.

Soon enough, the outlook of Santa's operation and the film's plot take a sharp turn for the worse. His ever-increasing workload leads to exhaustion and, after the most one-sided competition in history, Santa chooses Patch and his fully automated toy-making system over the old-fashioned way. The quality control plummets and Patch, in despair, sets out to find a new path in life. He's soon paired up with struggling toy magnate B.Z. (John Lithgow), whose own company is struggling but might recover with a few well-placed sprinkles of Patch's magical dust. The innocent elf doesn't realize what B.Z.'s really up to, but meddling kids Cornelia (Carrie Kei Heim) and Joe (Christian L Fitzpatrick) get involved to bring down his sinister plot from the inside. Will the kids save Christmas? Maybe with Santa's help.

There's a lot to unpack after Santa Claus: The Movie careens off the rails around the halfway point. What begins as a thoughtful, well put-together story devolves into something more clumsy, commercial, and frankly kind of baffling, with logic gaps and plot holes big enough to fly a sleigh through. From John Lithgow's kind of enjoyably hammy take on his cigar-sucking tycoon to shameless product placement and the worst excuse to do a "Super Duper Looper" ever, it's the kind of film you just have to go along with. Like The Polar Express, it barely makes sense in the moment and damn sure doesn't add up in hindsight, but the good parts are strong enough to keep it above snow level.

Whether you're a lukewarm apologist of Santa Claus: The Movie or a full-blooded disciple, it's finally been given a fairly definitive home video package that's worth importing; it might make the trip Stateside in the next year or two, but you may not want to wait that long. Although one or two nitpicks keep this from being a perfect release, it's fine treatment for a film that features impressive production design and a fantastic original score by Henry Mancini.

Santa Claus: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

My separate review of the 4K UHD combo pack offers a cursory overview of Studio Canal's brand-new 4K restoration, which was the source of this respectable, silver medal-winning 1080p/SDR transfer. Consider that review as a general guideline for what to expect out of this dual-layered disc, which is a lovingly polished presentation of a very grainy and diffused film that, in the wrong hands, might be a complete mess. While it obviously falls short of its UHD counterpart in the expected areas (fine detail, encoding, contrast levels, and color depth), it's not necessarily a landslide loss across the board, and on small to mid-sized displays should hold up nicely. Encoding might offer the biggest difference here: this disc isn't necessarily starved for real estate but the UHD's comparatively double-sized storage capacity and more efficient HEVC codec translate to a more stable image and one that doesn't occasionally buckle under more complex visuals like the raging blizzard in its early moments or the dazzling, colorful workshop and factory that the elves and Santa call home. Mild macro blocking and black crush are the only sporadic offenders, though, and they're minimal enough not to be a real distraction in motion. Overall, this is still a suitably solid effort under the circumstances and should offer a noticeable improvement over Lionsgate's 2010 VC-1 encoded Blu-ray and earlier releases.

Santa Claus: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Although I don't have Lionsgate's 2010 Blu-ray on-hand for a direct comparison, varying reports indicated that its lone audio track -- an LPCM 2.0 mix -- was of questionable quality, with one user review in particular mentioning a volume imbalance in the left channel. Since Studio Canal's new 4K restoration obviously includes a complete spruce-up of the original audio elements, I'm happy to report no such deficiencies can be heard on this dated but accurate DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track which serves up crisp dialogue, decently prioritized sound effects, and more than enough room left over for Henry Mancini's original score (which I proudly own on CD and, in many respects, enjoy more than the actual film). For what it is, this is a perfectly respectable effort than surely beats the 2010 Blu-ray edition.

Sadly, it doesn't include the outstanding six-channel track originally created for limited 70mm engagements of Santa Claus: The Movie during its original theatrical run. As far as I know, this superior 5.1 mix has only ever been released on DVD and, though limited to lossy Dolby Digital format, it greatly enhanced a handful of specific scenes including the deadly snowstorm that occurs just before Claus and Anya are discovered by the North Pole elves.

Santa Claus: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc set ships in a keepcase with cover artwork that prominently features David Huddleston as Santa but amusingly still doesn't credit him by name. A slipcover was included with first-run pressings, but I missed that boat. The on-disc extras are enjoyable and worth watching, but a vintage audio commentary (featuring director Jeannot Szwarc and special project consultant Scott Michael Bosco) and various trailers are confined to earlier discs.

All extras below are presented in English with optional German subtitles.

• NEW! Interview with Mrs. Claus (8:38) - This recent interview with actor Judy Cornwell finds the 83 year-old in good spirits as she warmly reminisces about her first impressions of the subject matter, the on-set experience, reuniting with a few friends, and of course the film's legacy during the past several decades.

• The Making of Santa Claus (50:16) - This familiar but enjoyable mid-length documentary has been present on all previous home video releases of the film dating back to Anchor Bay's 2000 DVD, but interestingly enough plays smoother this time around -- all the footage looks to have been rescanned from first-generation elements, including clips from the film itself. Worth watching again if you haven't seen it in awhile, as it contains a wealth of candid interviews, on-set footage, and glimpses of the production design team hard at work.

• NEW! Shooting the Press Conference Scene (28:12) - Raw but watchable behind-the-scenes footage from the press conference scene filmed in B.Z.'s office, including line reading rehearsals and candid on-set exchanges between John Lithgow, Dudley Moore, and director Jeannot Szwarc, all featured prominently.

• Deleted Scenes (7:13) - This familiar collection of short deleted scenes is presented in slightly better condition than earlier releases, but the audio is as muffled as ever. It's still worth a once-over, though.

Santa Claus: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Santa Claus: The Movie damn sure isn't flawless holiday entertainment, but it has its charms and anyone who grew up watching it has long since forgiven all the logic gaps, odd detours, and shameless product placement. Lionsgate's 2010 Blu-ray obviously looked better than earlier DVDs, but its VC-1 transfer showed room for improvement; Studio Canal's Region B locked Blu-ray, like the more full-bodied UHD combo pack, is sourced from a sparkling new 4K restoration that helps the film shine like new. Sadly, neither option includes the earlier DVD edition's terrific six-channel surround track and a couple of legacy bonus features, but two new supplements and a few other careful touches help to ease the pain. If you're region-free and won't be equipped for 4K anytime soon, this £10 disc is a very low-risk upgrade.