Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town Review

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination. Today, children everywhere are making

preparations for an event of world -shaking significance.

The annual visit of Santa Claus. Informed sources

report legions of junior citizens are making

monumental efforts not to cry and not to bow.

Meanwhile... Letters by the thousands have been

flooding postal facilities at the North Pole.

Dark gone thing always conks out, won't you?

Well, hello there. My name's Special Delivery

Kluger, SD for short. Oh, I've got lots of letters

for Santa today. And every year, they're the

same. Some ask for toys, but a lot ask questions.

Like you take this one. I bet one of you wrote

it. Dear Santa, why do you wear a red suit? Uh

-huh. I thought so. And this one. My turn. Dear

Santa, why do you come down the chimney when

I'm asleep? How about these? Why do you have

whiskers? Why do you live at the North Pole?

Why do you leave presents at the beach? Why do

you always come on Christmas Eve? Why do some

people call you Chris Kinga? Why? Why? Why? Now,

hold on, hold on. I can answer all your questions

because I know everything about Santa. Now Santa

is a busy man. He has no time to play. He's got

millions and millions of stockings to fill on

Christmas Day. Merry Christmas, everybody! It's

Steve, you and Mike from Tooncast Beyond, ultimately

on the Geekcast Radio Network. This is our 25

days of Tooncast Beyond Christmas 2016. This

is day two. Joining me once again is Steve Megatron.

Hello! Hello! And today... We're gonna be talking

about Santa Claus is coming to town. He sure

is. This was yet another Rankin -Bass special.

This was done in 1970. So this came out before

a year without a Santa Claus. And it basically

revolves around how Santa Claus became Santa

Claus. Santa Claus. It's basically, you know

Santa Claus's origin story and You know, honestly,

I have nuts like again Some of these are gonna

be ones that I don't watch normally every year

like for me Rudolph the red -nosed reindeer frosted

the snowman how the Grinch stole Christmas Charlie

Brown Christmas, you know Those are my main go

-to some of these that we're gonna be talking

about In this special 25 days to guest me on

Christmas are ones that I haven't seen in a long

time and that kind of thing I remember this but

watching it again for the first time in a very

long time With the origin story I drew a lot

of allusions to this and the Santa Claus one

and two Well because you far off well, yeah,

but I mean You look at at Santa here in this

special and you know His name is Claus He goes

from place to place to place and has a little

adventure adventures a baby He ends up at the

elves house or the elves and elves and gnomes.

I'm like wait What the hell is what the hell

does lawn gnomes have to do with this anyway?

but he ends up at the elves house and all that

and everything else and he eventually ends up

with a bright orange beard. Again, it's Santa

when he's younger. He meets his missus Claus

in Jessica. Do you remember the first time you

saw this one as a kid? Yep. I was a kid. I grew

up with a lot of these from this company because

my mom had watched them all as a kid. We owned

all of them and we went through them ad nauseam

every Christmas. And we still do because it's

a family tradition now. So, so, yeah, I mean,

I saw this probably, you know, probably six,

seven years old when I saw these for the first

time, maybe, you know, maybe a little bit. Younger,

but I can't remember that far back, but I do

remember watching them and how Entertaining it

was especially with the way that this story plays

out Hmm Right Going through the before we get

into the full plot here going through the voice

cast we've got a bunch of cool people we really

really do first of all you got Fred Astaire as

SD Kluger who is the narrator come on people

it's Fred Astaire I mean all we're waiting for

now is Ginger Rogers anyway Mickey Rooney once

again or originally plays Chris Kringle Santa

Claus Keenan Wynn is the Winter Warlock Robby

Lester, Robby Lester, is Jessica slash Mrs. Claus.

And Mr. Paul Freeze is Burger Meister Meister

Burger, the newsreel announcer, Kringle Brothers,

Grimsley, Burger Meister soldiers, Sombartown

civilians, the nervous homeowner, Scrooge -like

man, and he's the CEO. Basically, Paul Freeze

is half the characters in the town. You got Joan

Gardner as Tanta Kringle Summertown civilians

and business store clerk For me because it is

Paul Fries is the villain and I remember him

as the voice of car and night rider This was

really cool. And again, I have not seen this

since I was a kid I remember watching this as

a kid, but my problem is now looking back on

that time. I Remembered nothing from this story

and all as I remembered was listening to Bruce

Springsteen I don't know why. No, I'm serious.

And that's one of the reasons why we're doing

this is so we can find out if there are certain

Christmas specials that we've never seen, if

there are certain, as I mentioned yesterday,

I went through every single US -released Christmas

cartoon listed on Wikipedia that I could find.

I'm not just talking about the Christmas specials

that we all know and love and watch, I'm talking

about like episode, tomorrow you're gonna get

an episode of Dexter's Lab. You know, so I'm

talking about cartoons that have Christmas episodes.

Anything between... God knows how long ago, you

know since since Looney Tunes days anything between

that time You know the 1920s and 30s until now

anything that has had an animated Christmas special

I tried to find then as I said yesterday I found

50 total items for two full years of this this

special to guess beyond 25 days of Christmas,

so Going back and watching through some of this

stuff Found myself wondering like where was I

on some of these because I just don't remember

these as a kid watching this now I absolutely

love it because it's one of those ones where

it takes the song Santa Claus is coming to town

and Basically breaks the song down into full

-on a full -on story that Actually is really

good. I mean I know The Rankin -Bass specials

are excellence non -par to Christmas specials,

but we live in a time now where we expect stories

to be so damn good and some of them just aren't.

This was back in a time when they were so damn

good because they were, you know, they had to

somehow prove something to the world and... Being

able to break down a Christmas song and make

a full story out of it. That's that's just epic

and awesome So the plot here is as I said, it's

mailman special delivery Kluger voice by Fred

Astaire You know, he's telling the story and

we have various bits of the song come in throughout

throughout the story You know we get to the gloomy

city of somber town ruled by the ill -tempered

burger Meister Meister burger So funny Yeah,

and it's so funny the way he says that I'll have

to throw it in the episode somewhere You know

a baby arrives on his doorstep with a name tag

-reading clause and a note requesting that the

burger Meister raised the child He then orders

his law keeper Grimsby Also voiced by Paul phrase

to taking the baby to the orphan asylum on the

way there Augusta wind blows both sled and baby

into the mountain of the whispering winds So

basically Claus ends up as a lost baby until

he finds his himself At at the Kringles And that's

how he gets the name Chris Kringle the name of

the Kringles. Oh my god when they all pop out

when the first one hears the baby thing hitting

the door, when they all pop out and say their

names, I'm like, wait, what, who? What in the

world is going on here? Just, yeah, the Kringles

are a funny, funny family. Oh, they're very funny.

Yep. As the plot continues and goes through,

we see how Chris was originally bringing toys

to boys and girls every day of the year. We do

not need Christmas all the time, folks. Christmas

every day? That was a movie. It was also an episode

of Fairly Oddparents, too. So, as the story progresses,

he meets Jessica because part of the story is

the burgermeister doesn't like toys. So, he basically

outlaws toys in Sombertown. And, you know, you'd

think that they would rename the town after the

end of the movie, like Jollyville or something.

I don't know. And it's just a huge back -and

-forth of the Burgermeister trying to foil his

plot. And I kind of see the Burgermeister's point

where, at first, where Chris was basically just

walking into houses. I kind of see that. He's

trespassing. He's trespassing. Yeah, I kind of

see that. And then he outsmarts him and goes

down the chimneys and... And I just love the

way this thing is so well -paced and so well

-told. What did you enjoy about this one the

most? I liked the progression from birth to old

man Santa throughout this. So that's one of my

favorite things about this. You get to kind of

see how Mrs. Claus and Santa come about. The

winter warlock was just freaky to begin with

and then he was just like whipped because he

had nothing left. He's like, I have these corn

kernels and, you know, kick the can and these

candles and sounded like MacGyver. You know,

what can I throw together this week to create

the most unimaginable thing in the world? flying

reindeer Okay, that sounds great. Let's go So

yeah, I was I was down for that But uh, no, I

mean it was it was very entertaining burger Meister

Meister burger I just probably the worst part

of the movie and and so he should be because

He's evil And kind of a dick So there is that

too But uh Yeah, I mean, I love the movie. Not

as much as the Year Without a Santa Claus. Right.

This gives a nice, like, because you get to see

everything once he is Santa. And I like to put,

like, Rudolph kind of, like, in the middle somewhere.

Yeah. And then put Year Without a Santa Claus,

like, towards the end and then put this one at

the beginning. So it's kind of like you got this

nice, like, progression of time of, like, everybody.

The other thing that doesn't line up is Mrs.

Claus and Rudolph. But we could just say that

that's not in continent continuity just kind

of like, you know a Teen Titans because We have

we have Rudolph and we have mrs Claus with black

hair and this she has red hair and then and you

know She's got white hair in the other one. So

Unless you imagine Santa having multiple but

that's you know Create and Santa would not be

a bigamist or a polygamist. No, no, no, but he

could have multiple claws. Um, I Was around you

so But yeah, I mean it's that's about the only

difference really between them all but uh, I

You know, I I enjoy the film for what it is and

having the narrator in the train This is kind

of weird but Yeah, and I know growing up we all

loved watching these on television Because that's

pretty much the only place we could have them,

but now that they're on DVD physical media I

don't know if this is on digital media or not

I assume I mean everything else is digital nowadays,

so I assume it is I don't know I'm not looking

it up, but You know, I'm looking at some of the

trivia bits here, and one of them is the fact

that when Errol and ABC and ABC Family, you know,

each version has different things cut out. And

I mean, I get it. It's for kids on TV. I understand

that now for nowadays, but for me, I'd rather

just pop in the DVD and watch the full thing

that isn't edited at all. I have the DVDs. Mickey

Rooney would go on to after after Santa Claus

is coming to town voice Santa in the one we talked

about yesterday year of the Santa Claus and then

Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July Which

apparently is the sequel to the year without

a Santa Claus Okay, oh no No, I'm sorry. I read

that wrong Rudolph and Frosty Christmas of July

and then the sequel to a year without the Santa

Claus a my there a miser brothers Christmas Wow

That's funny My dear brothers get it miser brothers

Christmas wasn't nearly as good as Yeah, actual

miser brothers Mmm. I was not as happy with that

So So It takes eight minutes for Chris Kringle

to say his first line in this It does he doesn't

say yeah, it doesn't say doesn't say anything

for the first eight minutes Because that's the

whole point when he's a baby so hmm So yeah,

I really dig this I loved watching this again,

this is so fun Between the burger Meister Meister

burgers villainy and Chris Kringle's heroics

and basically bringing Cheer and goodwill to

all the children. I just absolutely love watching

this again This is this is definitely one that

I will be adding back into my my yearly Christmas

watching because like I said, I haven't seen

this a long time and I always kept Misconstruing

it with the Bruce Springsteen version of the

song. So because honestly, I think that's the

only version I really listen to is the Bruce

Springsteen version of Santa Claus is coming

to town. I think so. Yeah. Hmm. I Mean, it's

not that I it's not that I don't like the regular

version or any of the other song versions It's

just that's the version that I always end up

End up listening to a Christmas time Alright,

so for our ratings here, zero to five stars,

what do you give Santa Claus is coming to town?

Probably about a 3 .5 only because I have, as

much as I enjoyed it, I have a hard time really

wanting to watch it because of the dark undertones

and the dark color palette of like the Burgermeister

and the Winter Warlock at the beginning. Kind

of was a little bit freaky as a kid and even

to this day like it's not one that I like go

out of my way to To watch like I will actually

avoid this one over some of the other ones But

I don't hate it, but it's not again. It's not

my favorite Yeah, I'm gonna give it a four and

a half I like I said I have not seen this in

so long. I really enjoyed this I thought this

was great I'm only taking a half point off for

some of the dark undertones, but for me it comes

down to the voice of the Burgermeister as Paul

Frese, and I just love that man's voice. I think

he's one of the better, one of the great classic

voice actors of this time and this generation.

that these specials are coming out in. So that's

going to do it for today, folks. As I said earlier,

it is on DVD and all that stuff. Thank you for

joining us here on Tooncast Beyond. There are

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where we play all the voicemails if we get any,

so there you go, folks. We hope you enjoyed this

episode of the 25 Days of TubeGast Beyond 2016

and wish you'll join us next time when we will

be giving you our thoughts on Dexter's Lab. Dexter

versus Santa Claus as in Dr. Claw. Is this the

Bender versus Santa Claus? No, I don't remember

if it's Bender. It's in Futurama. No, this is

Dexter's Lab, Tori. I know. I'm talking about

the better version. Oh. Okay, well All righty

then the murder now murderous Santa Claus. Um,

that's cheese Kill the claws. No, he's the murderous

Santa Claus robot It's awesome for now, I'm TfU

and Mike with Steve Megatron Phillips Thank you

for listening until next time Go hang some stockings,

folks.