The Year Without a Santa Claus (TV 2006)

Thoroughly disgruntled, Santa (Goodman) opts to take a year off from delivering presents, until a young man helps his rediscover the meaning of the holidays.

Director:

Ron Underwood

Writers:

Larry Wilson (teleplay), Tom Martin (teleplay),

Stars:

John Goodman, Chris Kattan, Ethan Suplee

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Goodman	...	Santa Claus
Chris Kattan	...	Sparky
Ethan Suplee	...	Jangle
Dylan Minnette	...	Iggy Thistlewhite
Eddie Griffin	...	Jingle
Delta Burke	...	Mrs. Claus
Harvey Fierstein	...	Heat Miser
Marcus Lyle Brown	...	Officer Jefferson
Michael McKean	...	Snow Miser
Aaron Beelner	...	Ring Announcer
Jody Thompson	...	Clop
Andrea Powell	...	Julie Kadlubowski-Sanchez
Matthew Carroll	...	Dog catcher
Carol Kane	...	Mother Nature
Jack Watkins	...	Boothe

Storyline

Thoroughly disgruntled, Santa (Goodman) opts to take a year off from delivering presents, until a young man helps his rediscover the meaning of the holidays.

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Plot Keywords:

christmas | based on cartoon | live action remake | remake | santa claus | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Family | Fantasy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 December 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Weihnachtsmann streikt

Filming Locations:

Natchitoches, Louisiana, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros. Television, Wolper Organization, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the Christmas specials that is shown on Jingle's TV is the original The Year Without A Santa Claus.

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Connections

References South Park (1997)

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Soundtracks

"The Heat Miser Song"
Performed by Harvey Fierstein
Original Music Composed by Maury Laws
Original Lyrics by Jules Bass
From the 1974 TV special, The Year Without a Santa Claus

User Reviews

A Year without a pointless Remake, please

When you watch the original claymation films it's always amazing how much visual impact and story they pack into a relatively short amount of time. This remake had nearly the opposite effect and had the viewer begging to reach the conclusion and put this nightmare behind them. Something tells me this will not be a 'classic' for the entire family to gather around and watch together - year after year.

Delta Burke is a beautiful woman with a gentle spirit and wonderful acting style so it's disappointing to see her grouped with the Zany antics of Carole King and the wanna be sympathetic John Goodman. It may just be me but Mrs. Claus' shy nature and quiet voice almost represented Delta being apologetic for her role in this movie.

The film retells the story of Santa's growing frustration with the commercialization of Christmas and the apparent apathy from children all over the world. Santa decides he's had enough and plans to skip Christmas altogether. Two elves and one reindeer leave the North Pole in search of one child who can sway Santa's heart and reverse his decision. Yada yada yada - eventually all the characters and pieces come together and bring the spirit of Christmas back to life.

This version lacks the charm and timeless wit from the original. The live actors appear to intentionally overact as their feeble attempt to capture the claymation's over-animation. The story has been 'updated' to incorporate a techno-saavy Claus and ELF incorporation - hahaha - wow, that's really clever (pause) NOT. The producers of this film would be smart to bundle the ensuing DVD with the original and offer some kind of bonus features in order to push the 2-pack. I can't imagine too many children or adults wanting to add this to their DVD collection. Next time, remake the little drummer boy - nobody liked that one too much anyway.

In ranking this film we should always start off with a 5 - neutral - then give it 2 pts for costume and effects for a 7, remove 1 point for being a remake for 6 pts and 2 more for remaking a classic, 4 pts, finally lose a point for being absolutely horrible for a 3 out of 10. Why the 3 pts you ask? Because this is so bad that any casual fan of the original claymation/puppet version must watch this for themselves in order to fully appreciate how truly bad this really is. I suppose a live action 'Great Pumpkin' is just around the corner, sad :(