Santa Claus is Comin' to Townedit

From Christmas Specials Wiki


Directed by:	Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Written by:	Romeo Muller
Release date:	December 14, 1970
Running time:	50 minutes, 27 seconds
Characters:
Available on:	VHS DVD

S.D. Kluger

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a 1970 stop-motion television special produced by Rankin/Bass. The film stars actor Fred Astaire as S. D. Kluger, the narrator, and Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle. The film tells the story of how Santa Claus, and several Claus-related Christmas traditions, came to be. It is based on the Christmas hit of the same name, which was introduced by Eddie Cantor in 1934.

Synopsis

When S. D. Kluger's mail truck breaks down, he decides to share some letters to Santa with a group of off-camera children which in turn prompts him to tell the story of Santa Claus.

The story begins in a gloomy small town called Sombertown, which is ruled by the mean and grouchy Burgermeister Meisterburger. A baby arrives on his doorstep, with nothing more than a name tag that reads: "Claus". The Burgermeister orders his right-hand man, Grimsby to take the baby to the "Orphan Asylum" as he does not want it. On the way to the building, however, a gust of wind blows both sled and baby far away, where he is discovered by an elf family by the name of Kringle, led by their wise Queen, Tanta Kringle. They immediately adopt him, giving him the name Kris.

As Kris grows older, he volunteers to deliver the toys to Sombertown, through the woods. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Kris, the Burgermeister has outlawed all toys in the neighborhood. Before Kris reaches the town, he befriends a penguin who has lost his way to the South Pole and gives him the name "Topper". When Kris and Topper enter the town, Kris meets Miss Jessica, the local school teacher. Kris wins Jessica's affection when he offers her the one thing she'd always wanted for Christmas - a China doll. Kris, seeing the dismal and gloomy state the town is in, decides to raise the children's spirits by handing out toys to the children. Just then, the Burgermeister arrives and chases Kris out of town.

In the woods outside of town, Kris and Topper meet the Winter Warlock, an evil wizard who lives in the woods, and has vowed to capture the interloper. Before the Warlock can finish Kris off, the Kris offers the warlock a toy train. This act of kindness melts the Warlock’s icy heart. Winter shows Kris how to see who is naughty and nice through magic through a Magic Crystal Snowball. They soon see Jessica, who has been looking for Kris to tell him that the kids are requesting more toys since the Burgermeister destroyed the ones Kris give them earlier. Much to the Burgermeister's chagrin, Kris quickly grants that wish. The Burgermeister makes several more attempts to stop young Kringle but to no avail. Soon the Burgermeister and his men start to search every home for toys, and eventually sets a trap for Kris and captures Kris and the others.

Jessica confronts the Burgermeister about the imprisonment only to be rudely rebuffed by him. She sneaks back to Winter's dungeon cell, where the Warlock shows her some of his "magic feed corn", which will give reindeer the ability to fly. With the help of the reindeer, Jessica frees Kris, Topper, Winter and the Kringles from their holding cells, and they all flee into the woods.

After months of being an outlaw, Kris returns to the woods, where he begins to grow his trademark beard. But Tanta, realizing the Kringle name is now dangerous, suggests that he return to his birth name of "Claus." Taking the Queen's advice, he then asks Jessica to share the Claus name with him as his wife. The forlorn group journeys to the North Pole, where they eventually build Santa's Castle and Workshop. As time continues to pass, the Burgermeister regime ends, Kris' legend spreads worldwide, and, having now fully styled himself as Santa Claus, Kris soon accepts that keeping up with the dail toy requests is impossible... leading him to make the fateful decision of limiting his visits to once a year, on December 24th.

Songs

The elderly Santa as seen at the end of the special just prior to the fade to black

"The First Toymakers to the King" sung by Tanta and the Kringles
"No More Toymakers to the King" sung by Burgermeister Meisterburger and Grimsby
"If You Sit On My Lap Today" sung by Kris
"One Foot in Front of the Other" sung by Kris and Winter
"My World is Beginning Today" sung by Jessica
"What Better Way To Tell You" sung by S. D. Kluger
"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" sung by S. D. Kluger and the Westminster Children's Choir

Production Notes

In recent years the special has often been trimmed for network television time constraints. Jessica's rendition of My World Is Beginning Today is usually cut; If You Sit On My Lap Today is occasionally dropped as well.

Sharp-eyed viewers may notice what appears to be writing on the foil covering the back of Grimsby's clipboard during the No More Toymakers to the King scene. The writing is in fact the word "LOTTE" repeated over and over. Lotte is a Korean-owned, Japanese-founded confectionary corporation, which can only mean that Grimby's clipboard was once part of a package of candy.

The special references, or has been referenced in, other Rankin/Bas Christmas specials. Rudolph makes a brief cameo in this special following the introduction of the reindeer, but S.D. tells the audience that he doesn't play a role here, as his backstory is "another story". Also, the painting of Santa in his sleigh at the end of the special also appeared in, The Year Without a Santa Claus; and in Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, continuity with this special is established when Santa refers to Mrs. Claus as Jessica and the two reminisce about the china doll he gave her when they first met.

Broadcast Rights

Currently, the broadcast rights are held by Disney-owned ABC Family (first known as "CBN Cable Network", then "The Family Channel" and "Fox Family Channel") and ABC through Classic Media, which was part of the British-owned Entertainment Rights group until 2009, when Classic's successor, Boomerang Media, bought them out as the current owner of the pre-1973 Rankin-Bass library. ABC Family airs this special as part of their annual 25 Days Of Christmas programming block. Additionally, the special has been showing on ABC, where it first aired for many years starting in 1970.