It’s been many a winter since I indulged into Santa Claus: The Movie, yet this new 4K version from StudioCanal and Park Cirus will find its way to an old and new audience with an impressive 4K 16-bit restoration, taken from the original 35mm negative by the team at Silver Salt Restoration UK. Directed by Jeannot Szwarc and written by David and Leslie Newman (both known for Superman), there’s even music from Henry Mancini, with a cast that includes David Huddleston, Judy Cornwell, Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, Burgess Meredith, plus Christian Fitzpatrick and Carrie Kei Heim.

If you haven’t experienced Santa Claus: The Movie before, this is initially the tale of an everyday woodcutter named Claus (Huddleston), and his wife Anya played by Cornwell and how he became Santa Claus. Placing us in a vague Bavarian/Russian setting – but also English and American – Claus is an ‘Uncle’ to many kids in his home snowy town and knowingly goes from door-to-door giving them presents at Christmas time, and he and his wife love seeing how happy it makes the children.

On one particular intense snowy evening, Claus and his wife (and their two ‘normal’ reindeer) get trapped in a snowstorm and possibly nearly die. It’s not quite the opening I remembered, but it might be more distressing than as a kid because of what follows. While the couple are seemingly frozen, it’s not long before a Northern Lights-esque Christmas Tree emerges in the sky above them, and the bright light awakens them. Then, to make things trippy, a brightly-coloured hoard of happy elves appear out of the sky and rescue them. The elves take Claus, Anya, and their reindeer back to their invisible world, where they tell them they’ll be able to give presents to every child in the world, as they’ve inherited a giant toy factory, and they’re now immortal – which they take very calmly, considering. I mean, there’s a touch of Midsommar in the extreme happiness and ‘welcoming’ nature of the elves, but in an innocence sense – this is a magical move.

Then over the years, the man now called Santa Claus (for reasons I might have missed), makes toys with his elves from the 14th Century up to the ‘modern’ day, for all the children. Along this journey, they develop the naughty/nice list and why he’ll check it twice. He never does check it twice though, which makes me think he’s not that bothered but the elves love their Admin roles, so there’s no harm done. If this was made today, the opening half of the film would be sped up, as it drags here, but there’s nothing but good intentions and even my adult-viewing-experience is enjoyable – and my words here merely a nod to the old British way we see things.

Everything progresses well for centuries, and Dudley Moore’s Patch leads good ideas, yet it starts to go wrong for him in the modern era when his toys start breaking. Racked with guilt and confusion, Patch decides to leave Elf Land/the North Pole (I’m not sure on location) and ends up running away in 20th Century New York City, to see if he can do a better job there, as he doesn’t feel useful anymore – which is sad but he’s an upbeat kinda fella. While, for me, I’m reminded of the huge parallels of Jon Favreau and Will Ferrell’s ELF – and it’s a very similar story. While ELF is much sharper on the comedy element – Moore has a different kind of naïveté, and it’s when we meet John Lithgow’s frankly iconic B.Z. – a villainous and cackling evil toy manufacturer, that things kick off in a hilarious way.

The New York-set element of Santa Claus: The Movie is when we find more stability, which is mostly down to Lithgow having the time of his life as the quintessential Christmas baddie. If you remember his character from Third Rock from the Sun, you’ll know how he inhabits an unhinged comic role and B.Z. is definitely all of that. Touches of Captain Hook filter through, and the initial meeting between Moore’s Patch and Lithgow’s character is brilliant; a smart and sharp crossover of deadpan and comic – here you see Ferrell’s inspiration for ELF – and you can enjoy the ride as the spirit of Christmas is nearly lost but rediscovered through a progression of scenarios.

David Huddleston and Judy Cornwell are perfectly as Santa and Mrs Claus. They inhabit genuine goodness and there’s fun to be had in the final 30 minutes, and all viewers can get lost in the moment. Overall, this 4K restoration (supervised by Jahanzeb Hayat) – with renewed colour grading – gives the film an extra sparkle. There’s over 150 hours of restoration work to manually clean the original negatives and remove any unwanted sparkle (but kept the Christmas type) plus tidy up work on the dirt and scratches, which are easy to occur with such filmic things.

Obviously, any 80s greenscreen will show its age to an older viewer, but it’s so pleasantly done that there’s no need to be downcast on the bigger story. I love the puppet/animatronic Reindeers throughout, they have different personalities, and it works. Moore doesn’t necessarily give a stand-out performance but he’s so effortlessly at ease within the chaos, it’s perhaps easy to take his Patch for granted – especially as the fulcrum to the story – and he’s got elf-related puns throughout.

Overall, this is a fun Christmas film with a restoration that can be applauded as you enjoy the classic Christmas spirit of positivity and doing the right thing, turning into a celebration of a better way, and becoming a better person.

Special Features

While there’s not loads, the few extras have a good runtime, and there’s a wonderful new interview with Judy Cornwell (Mrs Claus). In the interview, she shares her positive stories about the filming, her bonus Fortnum & Mason hamper from the director (which Huddleston also had), plus enjoyable insights about Dudley, her overall encounters and experiences on-set, and how much of a fun influence it’s had on her life. It’s a lovely watch.

There’s a 30 minute ‘shooting the press conference’ featurette, which mixes up B-Roll and behind-the-scenes elements. This gives you an essence of the Lithgow masterclass, and then of Moore and his efforts to not smirk while the performance plays out in front of him. There’s also handheld camera action, showing us the nature of filmmaking and how scenes are re-done or expanded upon as filming took place.

Finally, as well as some deleted scenes, there’s an American ‘making of’ documentary, coming in at 50 minutes. With direct chats with the cast and crew, you get a wealth of moviemaking information, from the creation of the remarkable reindeers in all their guises, to the miniature sets, the animatronics and beyond. It’s brilliant craft and deserves to be noted amongst the fun of the film.

Santa Claus: The Movie comes to select cinemas from 24 November, and to 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, and digital from 13 November: https://amzn.to/3QCMAcI