YMMV / Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

• Accidental Innuendo: To a modern audience, there are certain lines that can be misconstrued as meaning something else. This includes:
  • "I like babies."
  • "He shall live with us, and sleep with us, and drink warm cocoa with us!"
  • "I'm a MAN now, Tanta."
  • The entirety of "If You Sit On My Lap Today".
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • He may be the Burgermeister's #1 lackey and cause a lot of trouble for the heroes later, but Grimsley is genuinely worried when the rope attached to Baby Claus' sleigh snaps. He tries to follow it into the blizzard before getting stuck in a snow drift.
    • Heck, the prologue could well double as a Freudian Excuse for him. Most of his Pet the Dog moments come before losing baby Claus in the snowstorm. We see him as a meaner and more stereotypical Obstructive Bureaucrat after going for years believing himself to be responsible for an innocent baby freezing to death. It's not an excuse for going along with the Burgermeister's more ridiculous edicts, but it's easy to see how the trauma of Failure-to-Save Murder could have served as his Cynicism Catalyst.
  • Winter, powerful as he is, has a few stupid moments. How does he not see the obvious pile of sticks right under his feet in the beginning?
• Anti-Climax: The way Burgermeister Meisterburger is taken out of the picture — he just dies offscreen, with no explanation or anything, and all his laws are somehow abolished because of this (lifting the ban on toys).
• Awesome Music:
  • The title song, sung by Fred Astaire.
  • The "Wedding Song", aka "What Better Way To Tell You", also sung by Astaire, counts as well.
  • Jessica's song "My World is Beginning Today" is really beautiful, in no small part thanks to Robie Lester's impassioned delivery.
  • Mickey Rooney absolutely nails his performance of "Put One Foot in Front of the Other" in being catchy, timeless by season, and a really inspirational Pep-Talk Song.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: After realizing where she belongs best, Jessica suddenly breaks into song "My World is Beginning Today", complete with songbirds, a fountain reflection and VERY TRIPPY acid-like visual effects that, other than Jessica's character development, adds nothing to the plot.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • "Jessica. Oh, she becomes Mrs. Santa Claus." Yeah, who would have guessed it was the only named woman who's not his adoptive mom?
  • "I knew it, I knew it, that's how he got his name!" Yeah, the fact that it is his (birth) name should have been a clue.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Despite, or perhaps because of, being second banana to Burgermeister Meisterburger, Grimsley is very popular with the fans.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The scene where Kris gives a toy train to Winter can be this if one remembers it in conjunction with Frozen's saying about melting a frozen heart...
• Love to Hate: The Burgermeister is an utterly deplorable villain with nothing redeeming about his character, but between his thick German accent, his hilarious Double Takes, and the amount of Amusing Injuries he subjects himself to, it's almost impossible to not be entertained by him.
• Moral Event Horizon: Burgermeister Meisterburger crosses it when he burns a pile of toys — in front of a crowd of crying kids, no less — just after he arrests Kris with a cheap trick.
  Burgermeister Meisterburger: CHILDREN OF SOMBERTOWN, YOU WILL NEVER... NEVER PLAY... AGAIN!
• Narm:
  • It's not too hard to find another good reason why "If You Sit On My Lap Today" and "My World is Beginning Today" were cut from TV broadcasts for years. The characters are just so dramatic...
  • When Kris first brings the toys to the kids, there's a close-up of the young boy's face who exclaims "Real toys!" with his eyes looking very unfocused, giving him a crazed expression.
• Narm Charm: The story, animation, and songs are just so cheesy that people can't help but still enjoy it.
• Special Effect Failure: There are a couple examples:
  • The kids are supposed to be crying at the toy bonfire, but they clearly have what appears to be smiles on their faces.
  • At the end of Jessica's That Reminds Me of a Song, the cheesy "animation" trick they used to let her look at her reflection in the water: the animators stuck a photograph of her at the bottom of the fountain... which remains completely stationary even as she sings.
• Spiritual Successor: To L. Frank Baum's The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus. Not only do both tell the story of Santa Claus's origins and how he came to do all the things he does, they share a few other elements too, like baby Claus being a foundling raised by the non-human beings who later become his helpers, and the sight of children's stockings hanging by the fireplace to dry inspiring him to leave presents inside them. Rankin/Bass Productions would later do a straightforward adaptation of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus as their final stop-motion Christmas special in 1985
• Tear Jerker:
  • The Burgermeister burning every toy in Somebertown and bragging about it. We cut to the children's faces as they cry: "We'll never play again..."
  • After his Heel–Face Turn, Winter Warlock starts rapidly losing his magical powers, and with them his self-confidence. He spends the latter half of the movie feeling utterly useless and thinking of himself as The Load. You just want to give the poor guy a hug.
  • Another Winter Warlock case — albeit leaning more toward happier tears — occurs at Kris and Jessica's wedding in the woods. By now he's lost all of his power, but he still quietly prays, "Oh, please... let me have just a little magic..." That last spell illuminates all of the branches in the forest with twinkling lights: Winter gave the world the first Christmas trees.
• Unintentional Period Piece: For a special that otherwise goes to so much effort to maintain a timeless sensibility, just about every aspect of "My World is Beginning Today" — the imagery, vocal stylings, character theme, and even the orchestrations — firmly insists that we not forget this was made in the early 70s.
• Values Dissonance: After two generations of increasingly extreme paranoia over children being sexually abused/molested/exploited, the song "If You Sit On My Lap Today" just doesn't sound as innocent now as it did back then. If Kris sang that today in Anytown, U.S.A, he'd be dogpiled by cops and branded a pedophile before he could blink. He 'charges' the kids one kiss for every toy he gives them! The sequence featuring this song has been edited in most modern-day airings (ABC Family (now Free Form), at least, has restored this and the "My World is Beginning Today" sequence, also cut from most modern-day airings for the reasons listed below, since 2010).

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