History Film / SantaClaus1959

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Though as the film progresses, it descends into GrayAndGrayMorality territory — Pitch seems less evil than intended.

* GratuitousJapanese: One of Santa's child helpers is a Japanese boy who speaks in unsubtitled Japanese.

* PublicDomainSoundtrack: Just count how many times "Jingle Bells" plays as background music.
* PunnyName: The Flower to Disappear was originally named "La Flor de No Te Veo" (the flower of "I can't see you"), which is a play on the phrase "no te veo" and "Nochebuena", the Spanish name for the poinsettia.

Believe it or not, there's a good explanation for the film's... [[NightmareFuel unique]] take on Santa Claus. In the late 1950s, SantaClaus remained an unfamiliar figure in much of Mexico, where holiday gift-giving customs still focused on the [[TheThreeWiseMen Magi]] and their feast day, Epiphany (January 6). Even today, many discussions of Mexican Christmas customs make no mention of SantaClaus, instead focusing on such traditional holiday elements as posadas and piñatas. Santa has become more popular only in recent decades. Another odd running theme is the focus on social standing and class, which was a major concern of Mexico during that period; see ''Film/LosOlvidados''.

A dubbed and slightly edited English-speaking version was produced for U.S. release in 1960 under the direction of K. Gordon Murray. Santa Claus was considered to be a financial success over several holiday-season theatrical releases in the 1960s and 1970s. Broadcast of the film also became a holiday tradition at several U.S. television stations. The film garnered at least one award, winning the Golden Gate Award for Best International Family Film at the UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco International Film Festival in 1959.

A series of shorts by K. Gordon Murray mixed film from ''Santa Claus'' with new footage filmed at the various Santa's Village theme parks. These were riffed by Podcast/RiffTrax as "Santa's Village of Madness". WebVideo/RedLetterMedia's ''WebVideo/BestOfTheWorst'' reviewed the full version of ''Santa Claus'', which Rifftrax also riffed on December 4, 2014; both shows used the full version included Vulcan and other scenes that were edited out of the famous [=MST3K=] cut. On December 15, 2020, Creator/TraceBeaulieu and Creator/FrankConniff, as part of their "The Mads are Back" series, did a live, on-line riffing of a shortened version of the cut used by [=MST3K=], making this the second of only two movies to be riffed on three times by [=MST3K=] and its alumni. (The other being Film/SantaClausConquersTheMartians, riffed on by [=MST3K=], Rifftrax, and WebVideo/CinematicTitanic.)

* AfricaIsACountry: When Santa's helpers from Africa are introduced, not one African country is mentioned and we just see a bunch of black kids in leopard skins with bones in their hair who play bongos.

* ArchEnemy: Pitch is this to Santa. At the beginning of the movie Lucifer orders Pitch to capture Santa and ruin Christmas, and it's implied that Pitch is given this job every year.

* BadassSanta: With all of the powers that Santa has and with Merlin as his Q, Santa is able to defeat a centuries-old demon with ease, multiple times!
* BlackAndGrayMorality: Though as the film progresses, it descends into GrayAndGrayMorality territory -- Pitch seems less evil than intended.

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: One of the letters sent to Santa asks for, among other items, a bicycle, a baseball bat, an atomic laboratory, a machine gun... you know, typical children's toys.
-->'''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Crow]]:''' Oh, it's from Qaddafi!

* Myth/ClassicalMythology: Vulcan. In the English version he's referred to as "The Blacksmith". In the original version his name is "Llavón" (a play on the word "llave", key).

* CompanionCube: Surprisingly encouraged by the rich boy's parents, who advise him to practice his piano lessons if he ever feels lonely while they're out socializing.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: If Pitch fails to capture Santa this year, Lucifer is going to force feed him chocolate ice cream: a double whammy punishment since not only is Pitch lactose intolerant he's also incapable of tolerating cold foods due to a usual diet of red hot coals. In the original version Lucifer threatens to dip Pitch in chocolate ice cream instead of feeding it to him, which is almost as bad.

* EvilCounterpart: Lucifer and Pitch as evil counterparts to Santa and Merlin, due to them sharing the same voice actors, respectively.
* EvilIsPetty: After Santa avoids the bad boys' ambush Pitch contents himself with manipulating them into fighting each other. By that point in the movie he was seemingly just desperate for any kind of win.

* FlashStep: Apparently, not only can demons teleport, but it [[MickeyMousing sounds like a piano key being struck.]]

* GratuitousJapanese: One of Santa's kid helpers is a Japanese boy who speaks in unsubtitled Japanese.

* GoshDarnItToHeck: Santa only curses this way, and yet he ''still'' apologizes when he loses his temper and does it in front of the kids.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Pitch, at the end of the movie. So, Pitch has gotten Santa stuck in a tree and plans to expose him to the world. To do this he uses his dream powers to make a sleeping man sleep-call 911 and report a fire. The Fire Department arrives, sees the flames and smoke put off by Pitch, and hose the devil down.]]
* HowCanSantaDeliverAllThoseToys: According to short films culled from the film, Santa uses the 5th dimension to be everywhere at once, so Merlin apparently discovered quantum entanglement and superposition. In the film, however, Santa visits ''three'' households before returning back to the North Pole. The movie actually attempts to retcon in the rest of the world; when Santa first gets to Mexico it's explicitly his first stop, then a little while later his helper mentions he's already been everywhere else.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Poor Lupita desperately wants a doll of her own. Although initially tempted by Pitch to steal one, she ultimately refuses. Later during her nightmare when the evil dolls are taunting her Lupita ''still'' stands firm that she refuses to steal because of how wrong it is, even if it means losing her only chance of having something she desires.
* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Pitch. He was obviously intended to be evil, but his portrayal is really more buffoonish. Most of his shenanigans seem designed more to irritate Santa rather than capture or kill him, and in the end he manages to defeat ''himself'' purely by accident.

* LonelyRichKid: One of the subplots the film follows is a rich boy whose parents frequently ignore him to go out to parties, even on Christmas. Naturally, he writes a letter to Santa wishing for his parents to come home.

* MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext: Santa and his army of child laborers from the Fifth Dimension (assisted by Merlin) battle a demon sent by Lucifer to persuade the children of earth to do evil. That is the actual plot of this movie.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Pitch spends most of the movie just pulling pathetic and often unsuccessful impish pranks. But at one point he decides [[LetsGetDangerous he's through playing around]] and kicks it up a notch. He sabotages Santa's magic items, allowing Pitch to sic an angry dog on him and trap him in a tree, plants suggestions in the heads of people living nearby that Santa is a burglar out to murder them all (using one man's sleep-talking to put in a panicked call to the fire department), and stops by Lupita's house [[KickTheDog just to mock her for not having a doll because she wouldn't listen to him earlier.]]

* PunnyName: The Flower to Disappear was originally named in the Mexican version as "La Flor de No Te Veo" (the flower of "I can't see you"), which is a play on the phrase "no te veo" and "Nochebuena", the Spanish name for the poinsettia.

-->'''Crow:''' Santa! Stop, drop, and roll!

** Visiting about four houses in Mexico City apparently equals delivering toys to all the children on Earth.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The "Atomic Laboratory" requested in one child's letter to Santa is actually a real thing. It refers to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory]], a child's chemistry set which included a small sample of (mostly) depleted Uranium-238. Due to the potential for radiation poisoning (and even more so the extremely hefty price tag [[note]]It retailed for $49.50 in 1950, the equivalent of $488 in today's dollars[[/note]]), the lab was not a commercial success unlike Gilbert's other offerings and was on the market for only about a year in 1950-51. Still the sheer WTF-ery of the idea made it a popular meme up to today.

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: One of the letters sent to Santa asks for, among other items, a bicycle, a baseball bat, an atomic laboratory, a machine gun... you know, typical children's toys. To be fair, [[AluminumChristmasTrees the "atomic laboratory" is actually a real thing]] and a fairly popular toy in the 1950's. The machine gun, however...

%% * UpgradeArtifact

* AlienLunch: In a couple of odd AsYouKnow moments, Pitch exposits to Lucifer about how demons eat red hot coals and Santa talks to one of his young helpers about how in the Fifth Dimension they eat "pastries and ice cream made from soft clouds."

%%* WidgetSeries: W.M.T. (Weird Mexican Thing), to be exact.

* BadSanta: Unintentionally, see MoralDissonance below. It doesn't help that his actor is clearly also doing the voice of Lucifer...

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Though as the film progresses, it descends into GrayAndGrayMorality territory -- see MoralDissonance below for Santa, but Pitch seems less evil than intended.

* MoralDissonance: Okay, so sure Santa is trying to make children happy and Pitch is trying to stop him. That said, Pitch doesn't seem that bad, he mostly just encourages kids to act out and disobey their parents, or commit minor crimes at worst. Meanwhile, Santa is given ''carte blanche'' to be just as wicked as Pitch, pulling the same shenanigans Pitch does back on the devil, and while he isn't directly responsible for Pitch getting soaked with water in the snow at the end, he and the narrator seem to be happy with that outcome. On the other hand, see Not So Harmless Villain.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Though as the film progresses, it descends into GrayAndGrayMorality territory - see MoralDissonance below for Santa, but Pitch seems less evil than intended.

* BlindIdiotTranslation: The awkwardly-named Flower To Disappear is a good example of this. It's a literal translation of a pun that doesn't work in English, see PunnyName below.

* HowCanSantaDeliverAllThoseToys: According to short films culled from the film, Santa uses the 5th dimension to be everywhere at once, so Merlin apparently discovered quantum entanglement and super-position. In the film, however, Santa visits ''three'' households before returning back to the North Pole. The movie actually attempts to retcon in the rest of the world; when Santa first gets to Mexico it's explicitly his first stop, then a little while later his helper mentions he's already been everywhere else.

* MoralDissonance: Okay, so sure Santa is trying to make children happy and Pitch is trying to stop him. That said, Pitch doesn't seem that bad, he mostly just encourages kids to act out and disobey their parents, or commit minor crimes at worst. Meanwhile, Santa is given ''carte blanche'' to be just as wicked as Pitch, pulling the same shenanigans Pitch does back on the devil, and while he isn't directly responsible for Pitch getting soaked with water in the snow at the end, he and the narrator seem to be happy with that outcome.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Pitch spends most of the movie just pulling pathetic and often unsuccessful impish pranks. But at one point he decides [[LetsGetDangerous he's through playing around]] and kicks it up a notch. He sabotages Santa's magic items, allowing Pitch to sick an angry dog on him and trap him in a tree, plants suggestions in the heads of people living nearby that Santa is a burglar out to murder them all (using one man's sleep-talking to put in a panicked call to the fire department), and stops by Lupita's house [[KickTheDog just to mock her for not having a doll because she wouldn't listen to him earlier.]]

* PunnyName: The Flower to Disappear was originally named in the Mexican version as "La Flor de No Te Veo" (the flower of "I can't see you"), which is a play on the phrase "no te veo" and "Nochebuena", the Spanish name for the Poinsettia.

--> '''Tom Servo:''' ''(singing)'' It's [[WithLyrics the devil's theme]]... this goofy little song... even though he's the embodiment of evil, he's still got a goofy song... In his tights, he brings death, despair, destruction and disease... come, let's all join in and laugh at him! DEVIL!

''El Santo Claus'' was directed by Rene Cardona and written by Cardona and Adolfo Torres Portillo. The original film was produced in Mexico in 1959 and features primarily Spanish dialog. It depicts the adventures of SantaClaus in preparation for and during his annual Christmas rounds. Most commercial adaptations of the Santa Claus legend add a distinctive twist to the traditional story, but this film trumps them all with its depiction of an ''[[AnotherDimension interdimensional]]'' Santa doing battle with a demon sent to Earth by Lucifer to ruin Christmas by killing Santa and "making all the children of the Earth do evil." Furthermore, Merlin (yes, ''that'' [[KingArthur Merlin]]) serves as Santa Claus' [[Film/JamesBond Q]], inventing things like The Flower to Disappear for Santa to use.

** [[KingArthur Merlin]], who is basically playing a magical version of Q from ''Franchise/JamesBond''.

* ThinlyVeiledDubCountryChange: Surprisingly [[Averted]] in the English dub, which was uncommon for back in the time it was dubbed. The setting of Mexico is still kept, and the Mexican characters' names are not changed.