WASTING TIME (MINE & YOURS)

Friday, December 14, 2007

The best Christmas special that's not Pee-Wee's Christmas


I should have posted this earlier, but I missed the mark. The second greatest Christmas special is the 1985 Rankin-Bass produced The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. I promise you will never find a Christmas special as whacked-out and unique as this one. I saw it when it first aired in 1985 and thought it was incredible. The images will stay with you forever, especially if you are young. A few years later it aired on television again and my mom wouldn't let me watch it. I believe her exact words were "Turn that creepy s#!t off". Of course, that only made me more determined to see it again.

Created with beautiful puppets and stop-motion animation, the story is adapted from the book by L. Frank Baum (yes, The Wizard of Oz author). The story goes something like this:

A human baby is found abandoned in the Forest of Burzee by the Great Ak, the master Immortal woodsman. Necile the Wood Nymph wishes to keep the child and raise him as her own. Accompanied the lioness Shiegra and a variety of forest creatures, the baby is names Claus and is raised in the forest. Claus finds out that he is mortal and is shown the wicked and ugly ways of mankind. In order to counterbalance man's cruelty, Claus moves to the mortal world and begins his good deeds. As he grows old, the Immortals who raised him must decide by council if they will bestow upon Claus the mantle of Immortality.

Strange? Oh, it's far weirder than what you imagine. In the course of the hour-long special, you get to meet the Immortals (among them a slug man and a screeching wind demon) and you see Claus' adversaries who consist of beasts with spiked jewelry. My favorite bit of craziness is when Claus is attacked by the giant spiders.

I'm afraid that this aired this past Tuesday night. I promise to post immediately if it is scheduled to air again. Currently, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is still unavailable on DVD and is a rarity on VHS. Still, it must be applauded for its shear audacity to avoid all stereotypes and subvert both the religious and secular notions of Christmas and Santa Claus in order to create a unique and transcendent story.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's got really cool music too -from the sinister ballad of immortality to a super-catchy kid song about wanting a wood-carved cat with yellow-green eyes.

Anonymous said...

It's got really cool music too -from the sinister ballad of immortality to a super-catchy kid song about wanting a wood-carved cat with yellow-green eyes.

Anonymous said...

I gotta see this. Sounds like some f-ed-up stuff. Hooray for weird stop-action. -- Sam

waltzingmathilda said...

Sure, you can add me to your blogroll...or whateverthehell that means...sorry...been watching too much Futurama and Barefoot Contessa refuns...makes me violent and swarthy...