cincytoby Review of The Year Without a Santa Claus

The Year Without a Santa Claus (2006 TV Movie)

If you loved the Rankin/Bass classic, you'll hate this....

[2/10 · 12 December 2006]

I was absolutely disappointed with this remake. The only reason it didn't get a '1' was that I couldn't bring myself to call it completely 'awful.' There were a couple of relatively decent scenes (Heat Miser -- Snow Miser, and Snow in South Town.) Overall, it was way too long. Santa was too bland, Mrs. Claus too whiny. Mother Nature reminded me of a bad Bride of Frankenstein. There seemed to be hundreds of extraneous characters without any real point (look at the cast list.) It was crude and rude without reason. Why must the animal control officer slam beer on the job and burp in a child's face, then show tattooed sayings on his fat belly about being lazy?? Heat Miser couldn't sing, and ALL the other songs are missing -- no "I Believe in Santa Claus", no "I'll Have a Blue Christmas Without You", no "I Could Be Santa Claus." I kept waiting for songs that never came. The last 15 minutes or so are somewhat redeeming, but good luck getting to that point. I toughed it out, but it was a sadly wasted two hours. Since it was televised so late, I recorded it for my kids, but I'm not letting them watch it. Only the classic for them. I can see one good thing about watching it on DVD -- it would be over that much faster without the commercials!