1{2 "document_id": "lb_hotpotqa_ed6c85899d2a29f6dc8e02ba62bc8f1b1043a8c135fdd132",3 "family": "public_hotpotqa",4 "split": "test",5 "text": "Passage 1:\nSanta's Workshop (Colorado)\nSanta's Workshop is an amusement park that opened on June 16, 1956 in Cascade, Colorado, located on U.S. Route 24 just west of Colorado Springs at the entrance to the Pikes Peak Highway, at the Northern end of Pikes Peak. Modeled after the Santa's Workshop in Wilmington, New York, the park features a charming North Pole village complete with a variety of shops selling toys, candy, and Christmas decorations. The village is also home to Santa's Workshop itself, where children (and adults) can meet with Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus year round. Much of the staff is dressed in Christmas themed attire, especially those at work in stores and admissions.\nIn addition to the village, Santa's Workshop is a fully operational amusement park best suited for children ages 2 to 12. It is home to 28 rides, many of which are classified specifically as \"kiddie\" rides. Family highlights include a small roller coaster, the highest altitude Ferris wheel in North America, a Giant Slide (Helter skelter), as well as a North Pole made of permanent ice in the center of the park. Attractions also include a Tilt-A-Whirl, a Scrambler, a chairlift, a narrow gauge railroad, a magic show, and an arcade. In 2014, Santa's Sleigh, a 30 mph, 2-person zip line was added.\nThe park is generally open from mid-May through Christmas Eve, and is closed from January to May. As of 2018, admission is $24.00 per person for ages 3–59. Under 3 and 60 or older are free. Military and group rates are available. The park is still owned and operated by the Haggard family who opened it in 1956.\n\nExternal links\nSanta's Workshop (Colorado amusement park) at the Roller Coaster DataBase\nPassage 2:\nLarry Wilson (screenwriter)\nLarry Wilson (born January 23, 1948) is an American film producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his screenwriting work on the films Beetlejuice (1988) and The Addams Family (1991). He also co-wrote the films The Little Vampire (2000) and, for television, The Year Without a Santa Claus (2006). He wrote and directed a number of episodes of the Tales from the Crypt television series from 1991 to 1996.\nPassage 3:\nRankin/Bass Productions\nRankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usually done in stop motion animation. Rankin/Bass' stop-motion productions are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts and ubiquitous powdery snow using an animation technique called \"Animagic\".\nNearly all of the studio's animation was outsourced to Japanese animation companies such as Toei Doga Entertainment, MOM Production, Mushi Productions and Topcraft. Rankin/Bass was one of the first western studios to outsource their low-budget animated television and film productions to animation studios in foreign countries; the others that already practiced animation outsourcing includes Total Television and King Features Syndicate TV in New York City; and Jay Ward Productions and Hanna-Barbera Productions in Los Angeles, California.\n\nHistory\nThe company was founded in New York City by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass on September 14, 1960, as Videocraft International, Ltd. The majority of Rankin/Bass' work, including all of their \"Animagic\" stop-motion productions (which they were well known for), were created in Tokyo, Japan. Throughout the 1960s, the Animagic productions were headed by Japanese stop-motion animator Tadahito Mochinaga at his studio, MOM Production. He was credited for his supervision as \"Tad Mochinaga\".\nRankin/Bass' traditional animation output was done by several animation studios such as Toei Animation, Eiken (formerly known as TCJ, short for the Television Corporation of Japan), Mushi Production, and especially Topcraft, which was formed on February 1, 1972 by Toei animator Toru Hara (who was credited as an animation supervisor in some of Rankin/Bass' specials). While several of Topcraft's staff, including Hara and industry legends such as Hayao Miyazaki, would go on to form Studio Ghibli in the wake of Topcraft's death, others formed another studio: Pacific Animation Corporation, which continued working on Rankin/Bass' titles until the latter company shut down.\nIn addition to the \"name\" talent that provided the narration for the specials, Rankin/Bass had its own company of voice actors. For the studio's early work, this group was based in Toronto, Ontario where recording was supervised by veteran CBC announcer Bernard Cowan. The Canadian group included actors such as Paul Soles, Larry D. Mann, and Carl Banas.\nMaury Laws served as musical director for almost all of the animated films and television programs. Romeo Muller was another consistent contributor, serving as screenwriter for many of Rankin/Bass' best-known productions including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), The Little Drummer Boy (1968), and Frosty the Snowman (1969).\n\nOutput\nOne of Videocraft's first projects was an independently produced television series in 1960, The New Adventures of Pinocchio, based on the Italian author Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio and featuring \"Animagic\", a stop motion animation process using figurines or puppets (a process already pioneered by George Pal's \"Puppetoons\" and Art Clokey's Gumby and Davey and Goliath), managed by Mochinaga and his MOM Production staffers for Videocraft with Dentsu. This was followed by another independently produced series in 1961, Tales of the Wizard of Oz, Videocraft's adaptation of the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, as well as their first production to use traditional cel animation. Unlike many of Rankin/Bass' works, Tales of the Wizard of Oz was animated by Crawley Films in Ottawa, headed by F. R. Crawley.\n\nRudolph era\nOne of the mainstays of the business was holiday-themed animated specials for airing on American television. In 1964, the company produced a special for NBC and sponsor General Electric, later owner of NBC. It was a stop motion animated adaptation of Robert L. May's 1939 story \"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\" and the 1949 song it inspired, \"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\", written by May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks. Almost two decades earlier, in 1948, it had been made into a cartoon by Max Fleischer, brother and former partner of Dave Fleischer, as a traditional cel animated short for the Jam Handy Film Company. \nWith the American actor Burl Ives in the role of Sam the snowman, the narrator, Canadian actress Billie Mae Richards as the voice of the main title character, Rudolph, and an original orchestral score composed by Marks himself, Rudolph became one of the most popular, and longest-running Christmas specials in television history: it remained with NBC until around 1972 when it moved to CBS. In 2019, for its 55th anniversary, the special was also aired on Freeform as part of its \"25 Days of Christmas\" franchise, although it will continue to air on CBS under a separate license with Universal.The special contained seven original songs. In 1965, a new song was filmed in \"Animagic\" to replace \"We're a Couple of Misfits\", titled \"Fame and Fortune\".\nThe success of Rudolph led to numerous other Christmas specials. The first was The Cricket on the Hearth in 1967, with two live-action announcements by Danny Thomas, continuity and character designs by Don Duga and Paul Coker, and animation by Jiro Yanase's TCJ, followed by the 1968 Thanksgiving special The Mouse on the Mayflower, told by Tennessee Ernie Ford and animated by Kenzo Masaoka, Sanae Yamamoto, and Yasuji Murata's Toei Animation. Paul Coker Jr. would go on to design characters and production for more than 40 Rankin-Bass specials and episodes.\n\nOther holiday specials\nMany of their other specials, like Rudolph, were based on popular Christmas songs. In 1968, the British-American actress Greer Garson provided dramatic narration for The Little Drummer Boy, based on the traditional song and set during the birth of the baby Jesus Christ, and starring the Puerto Rican actor José Ferrer as the voice of Ben Haramed. During that year, Videocraft International, Ltd. (whose logo dominated the Rankin/Bass logo in the closing credit sequences) changed its name to Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc., and adopted a new logo, retaining a Videocraft byline in their closing credits until 1971 when Tomorrow Entertainment, a unit of the General Electric Company, acquired the production company. The \"Animagic\" process for The Little Drummer Boy took place at MOM Production, which was renamed Video Tokyo Production after Tadahito Mochinaga left Japan for his return trip to China following the completion of the animation for Mad Monster Party?, thus ending his collaboration with Rankin/Bass. Takeo Nakamura, the director of Sanrio's 1979 stop motion feature Nutcracker Fantasy, was among the \"Animagic\" team, but he was never credited as a supervisor.\nThe following year, in 1969, Jimmy Durante sang and told the story of Frosty the Snowman, with Jackie Vernon voicing Frosty. It was based on Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins' 1950 song of the same name, and also introduced Billy De Wolfe as the voice of Professor Hinkle, a greedy magician who tries to steal away the magic hat that brought Frosty to life to become a billionaire. Mushi Production, an animation studio founded in 1961 and formerly led by the manga artist Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Ambassador Magma), handled the animation for the special with supervision by Yusaku \"Steve\" Nakagawa, a layout artist and character designer from Hanna-Barbera Productions in Los Angeles, California.\nThe year 1970 brought another Christmas special, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town. Rankin/Bass enlisted Fred Astaire as narrator S.D. (Special Delivery) Kluger, a mailman answering children's questions about Santa Claus and telling his origin story. The story involved young Kris Kringle, voiced by Mickey Rooney, and the villainous Burgermeister Meisterburger, voiced by Paul Frees. Kringle later marries the town's schoolteacher, Miss Jessica, voiced by Robie Lester. Kizo Nagashima, the associate director of Rankin/Bass' previous productions, was credited as a production supervisor.\nIn 1971, Rankin/Bass produced their first Easter television special, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, with the voices of Danny Kaye as the narrator Seymour S. Sassafrass, Vincent Price as the evil rabbit January Q. Irontail, and Casey Kasem from Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo franchise as the title character Peter Cottontail. It was not based upon the title song by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins, but on a 1957 novel by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich titled The Easter Bunny That Overslept. This was the second and final \"Animagic\" production to be supervised by Kizo Nagashima. Steve Nakagawa was also involved in this special as a continuity designer. In 1977, Fred Astaire returned as S. D. Kluger in The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town, telling the tale of the Easter Bunny's origins. From there, Rankin/Bass used Masaki Iizuka as an associate producer, and Akikazu Kono as an \"Animagic\" supervisor. Back in 1973, Iizuka was the production assistant of Marco—a live-action musical film based on the biography of Italian merchant, explorer, and writer Marco Polo, filmed at Toho Company in Tokyo and on location throughout East Asia, and featuring Kono's \"Animagic\" sequence of the Tree People. Previously, he was met by Rankin during the animation production of the Halloween television special Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters at Mushi Production in 1972, and became an integral part of Rankin/Bass for many years.\nIn 1974, Rankin/Bass Productions was relaunched once again as an independent production company and produced another Christmas special for television, The Year Without a Santa Claus, featuring Shirley Booth, voicing narrator Mrs. Claus; Mickey Rooney, returning as the voice of Santa Claus; and supporting characters Snow Miser (voiced by Dick Shawn) and Heat Miser (voiced by George S. Irving). It was the first Rankin/Bass \"Animagic\" production on which Akikazu Kono and puppet maker Ichiro Komuro share in the production supervision. It was remade as a poorly received live-action/special effects TV movie shown on NBC in 2006 starring Delta Burke and John Goodman as Mrs. Claus and Santa.Throughout the 1970s, Rankin/Bass, with Video Tokyo and the former Toei Animation employee Toru Hara's Topcraft, continued to produce animated sequels to its classic specials, including the teaming of Rudolph and Frosty in 1979's Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, with the voice of Ethel Merman as Lilly Loraine, the ringmistress of a seaside circus, and Rooney again returning as Santa. The special features cameos by characters from several other Rankin/Bass holiday specials, including Big Ben the Clockwork Whale from Rudolph's Shiny New Year and Jack Frost from Frosty's Winter Wonderland. Later that year, Jack appeared in his own special, Jack Frost. Narrated by Buddy Hackett, it tells the story of the winter sprite's love for a mortal woman menaced by the evil Cossack king, Kubla Kraus (Paul Frees, in addition to Kubla, voiced Jack Frost's overlord, Father Winter). In this special, Jack's voice was performed by Robert Morse, who previously voiced Stuffy in 1976's The First Easter Rabbit (loosely based on Margery Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit), and young Ebenezer Scrooge in 1978's The Stingiest Man in Town (based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol).\nAmong Rankin/Bass' original specials was 1975's The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow, featuring the voice of Angela Lansbury (who also starred in the 1982 adaptation of The Last Unicorn) as the narrating and singing nun, Sister Theresa, and Irving Berlin's Christmas classic \"White Christmas\".\nTheir final stop-motion style Christmas story was The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, taken from the L. Frank Baum story of the same name and released in 1985. In this story, the Great Ak (voiced by Alfred Drake) summons a council of the Immortals to bestow upon a dying Claus (voiced by Earl Hammond, with J.D. Roth voicing the young Claus) the Mantle of Immortality. To make his case, the Great Ak tells Claus's life story, from his discovery as a foundling in the magical forest and his raising by Immortals, through his education by the Great Ak in the harsh realities of the human world, and his acceptance of his destiny to struggle to bring joy to children. This special has recently been released as part of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's Warner Archive Collection, on a double-feature disc that also contains Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey which is often paired with The First Christmas on holiday broadcasts.\nMany of these specials are still shown seasonally on American television, and some have been released on VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital.\n\nNon-holiday output\nThroughout the 1960s, Videocraft produced other stop motion and traditional animation specials and films, some of which were non-holiday stories. 1965 saw the production of Rankin/Bass' first theatrical film, Willy McBean and His Magic Machine, another joint venture between Videocraft and Dentsu. 1966 brought The Daydreamer, the first of three films to be produced in association with executive producer Joseph E. Levine's Embassy Pictures in Los Angeles, California, and the film adaptation of the stories and characters by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, which combines live-action, special effects and \"Animagic\"; and The Ballad of Smokey the Bear, the story of the famous forest fire-fighting bear seen in numerous public service announcements, narrated by James Cagney.The theatrical feature film Mad Monster Party? saw theatrical release in the spring of 1967, featuring one of the last performances by the British actor Boris Karloff. The film features affectionate send-ups of classic movie monsters and their locales, adding \"Beatle\"-wigged skeletons as a send-up of the era's pop bands, and a writing staff borrowed from Mad magazine, including the cartoonist Jack Davis, who designed the characters of this film. It is also the last \"Animagic\" project that Tadahito Mochinaga supervised.\nIn 1972 and 1973, Rankin/Bass produced four animated TV movies for The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie series: Mad Mad Mad Monsters (with the animation by Mushi), Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid, The Red Baron, and That Girl in Wonderland (all featuring the animation by Topcraft).\nIn 1977, Rankin/Bass produced an animated version of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. It was followed in 1980 by an animated version of The Return of the King (the animation rights to the first two volumes were held by Saul Zaentz, producer of Ralph Bakshi's animated adaptation The Lord of the Rings). Other books adapted include The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, a rare theatrical release that was co-produced with ITC Entertainment in London, England, Peter Dickinson's The Flight of Dragons and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows which was animated by the second overseas animation unit of Hanna-Barbera, James Wang's Cuckoo's Nest Studios (now Wang Film Productions) in Taipei, Taiwan.\nIn addition to their prime time specials, Rankin/Bass produced several regular television shows in traditional animation, including The King Kong Show in 1966, co-produced with Toei Animation, The Tomfoolery Show in 1970, The Jackson 5ive in 1971 (the latter co-produced with Motown Productions), and Kid Power and The Osmonds in 1972. The most successful of these was Ted Wolf's ThunderCats in 1985, an action-adventure series based on his related line of toys. It was followed by two similar TV shows about humanoid animals, SilverHawks in 1986, and TigerSharks, as part of the series The Comic Strip in 1987. Each of those four series was mainly animated by former Topcraft employees' Pacific Animation Corporation, with production management by Masaki Iizuka, just before the studio was bought by Disney and renamed Walt Disney Animation Japan in 1988. Neither one enjoyed the same commercial success as ThunderCats did, however.\nRankin/Bass also attempted live-action productions, such as 1967's King Kong Escapes, a co-production with Toho; 1976's The Last Dinosaur; 1978's The Bermuda Depths; 1980's The Ivory Ape (all co-produced with Tsuburaya Productions, the creators of the Ultra Series); and 1983's The Sins of Dorian Gray. With the exception of King Kong Escapes, all were made-for-television films.\n\nDemise\nAfter its last series output, Rankin/Bass shut down its production company on March 4, 1987.\nArthur Rankin Jr. would split his time between New York City, where the company still has its offices, and his home in Bermuda. Rankin died at Harrington Sound, Bermuda on January 30, 2014, at the age of 89. Bass became a vegetarian; a decade later, he wrote Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon, the first children's book character developed specifically to explore moral issues related to vegetarianism. The original story and a follow-up cookbook became bestsellers for independent publishing house Barefoot Books. Bass died on October 25, 2022 at the age of 87.In 1999, Rankin/Bass joined forces with James G. Robinson's Morgan Creek Productions and Nest Family Entertainment (creators of The Swan Princess franchise) for the first and only animated adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The King and I, based on a treatment by Rankin. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures with its Warner Bros. Family Entertainment division, the film flopped at the American box office. Stephen Hunter, among several American film critics, criticized the film's depictions of \"offensive ethnic stereotyping.\"In 2001, Fox aired the first new original Christmas special to be produced by both Rankin and Bass in 16 years, Santa, Baby!, which like most of their production company's other specials was based on a popular, similarly-titled Christmas song. Santa, Baby! stood out from its predecessors due to its use of African-American characters and voice performers, such as Patti LaBelle (the narrator), Eartha Kitt, Gregory Hines, Vanessa L. Williams and Tom Joyner. Although Pacific Animation Corporation was responsible for the overseas animation production of the special with the background art provided by Atelier BWCA and the See Throu Studio, some of the animation services were done at Steven Hahn's Hanho Heung-Up in Seoul, South Korea. Santa, Baby! turned out to be the final Rankin/Bass-produced special; the Rankin/Bass partnership was officially dissolved shortly after, with most of its remaining assets acquired by Warner Bros. Entertainment.\nCurrently, the pre-September 1974 Rankin/Bass library (including works from Videocraft International) is owned by NBCUniversal's Universal Pictures via DreamWorks Animation's DreamWorks Classics subsidiary, while Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. unit owns the rights to the post-September 1974 library via Telepictures. NBCUniversal also retained the rights to King Kong Escapes and also currently holds the rights to Willy McBean and his Magic Machine, again, via DreamWorks Classics. StudioCanal holds the rights to the films from Rankin/Bass that Embassy Pictures distributed, while ITV Studios currently holds the rights to The Last Unicorn. The rights to the 1999 animated film adaptation of The King and I are currently held by Morgan Creek Entertainment.\n\nLegacy\nFor over 20 years, most of Rankin/Bass' films were shown on the Family Channel and Freeform during their December \"25 Days of Christmas\" seasonal period. Starting in 2018, the post-1974 specials moved to AMC and air during their \"Best Christmas Ever\" seasonal period, with Freeform retaining the pre-1974 specials' cable rights. The original Rudolph and Frosty specials currently air on CBS under a separate contract with Rankin/Bass and its successors-in-interest, with Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town airing on ABC.\nThe specials of Rankin/Bass have been parodied by the likes of TV series from Saturday Night Live to South Park, while non-holiday works like The Last Unicorn maintained a cult following. The look and style of the Christmas specials heavily influences more modern holiday classics such as Elf (2003).Beginning in 2013, and for several years thereafter, the animation studio ShadowMachine was hired by the SoCal Honda Dealers group (via Secret Weapon Marketing) to create stop-motion animated commercials in the style of Rankin/Bass's Christmas specials.RiffTrax, consisted of former Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and Michael J. Nelson, spoofed Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey on December 17, 2006 (this time with just Nelson himself riffing).In 2022, an agreement between Warner Bros. and NBCUniversal (which co-owned Studio Distribution Services, LLC) was made to release The Complete Rankin-Bass Christmas Collection as a nine-disc DVD box set with a 24-page booklet and special features. The box set features eighteen specials, comprising every stand-alone, Rankin-Bass produced Christmas special aside from Santa, Baby!.\n\nFilmography\nFranchises\nOverseas animation studios used by Rankin/Bass\nJapanese studios\nMOM Production, Tokyo, Japan\nToei Animation, Tokyo, Japan\nTCJ (Television Corporation of Japan) (now Eiken), Tokyo, Japan\nMushi Production, Tokyo, Japan\nTopcraft, Tokyo, Japan\nPacific Animation Corporation, Tokyo, Japan\nThe Anime International Company, Tokyo, Japan\nAnime R, Osaka, Japan\nMook Animation, Tokyo, Japan\nAtelier BWCA (background studio), Tokyo, Japan\nSee Throu Studio (background studio), Tokyo, Japan\n\nOther studios\nCrawley Films, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada\nHalas and Batchelor, London and Stroud, England, United Kingdom\nEstudios Moro, Barcelona, Spain\nCuckoo's Nest Studios (Wang Film Productions), Taipei, Taiwan\nHong Ying Animation, Taipei, Taiwan\nHanho Heung-Up, Seoul, South Korea\nPassage 4:\nSanta Claus: The Movie\nSanta Claus: The Movie is a 1985 Christmas film starring Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, and David Huddleston. It depicts the origin of Santa Claus (played by Huddleston), and his modern-day adventure to save one of his elves (Moore) who has been manipulated by an unscrupulous toy company executive (Lithgow). It was directed by Jeannot Szwarc and was the last major fantasy film produced by the Paris-based father-and-son production team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind.\nReleased in North America by TriStar Pictures on November 27, 1985, Santa Claus: The Movie was a box office bomb and received mostly negative reviews from critics.\n\nPlot\nIn the Middle Ages, a woodcutter named Claus delivers hand-carved toys to the children of his village each Christmas, accompanied by his wife Anya and their reindeer Donner and Blitzen. Caught in a blizzard, they are saved by elves and taken to their magical workshop at the North Pole. Lead elf Dooley explains that their coming was prophesied; that it is Claus' destiny to deliver the toys made by the elves to the children of the world; and that they, like the elves, will live forever. The following Christmas Eve, the oldest elf dubs Claus \"Santa Claus\" and explains that the night will last as long as it takes for him to deliver toys to every child on Earth. Donner and Blitzen join six other reindeer and are fed hay sprinkled with magical powder that enables them to fly, pulling Santa's sleigh through the air. As the centuries pass, much of the mythology and traditions surrounding Santa Claus develop.\nBy the late 20th century Santa is exhausted by his ever-growing workload, and Anya suggests that he enlist an assistant. Two elves compete for the position: Puffy, who follows traditional toymaking methods, and Patch, who has many ideas for modernization. Patch wins by designing a machine to increase production through automation, but unbeknownst to him it begins to malfunction and produce shoddy toys. In New York City Santa befriends homeless orphan boy Joe and takes him for a ride in his sleigh. They unsuccessfully attempt the \"Super Duper Looper\", a vertical loop maneuver which always fails due to Donner's acrophobia. They also meet wealthy orphan girl Cornelia, who befriends Joe.\nWhen the toys produced by Patch's machine fall apart on Christmas Day, he resigns in disgrace and leaves the North Pole, winding up in New York City. Meanwhile, the B.Z. Toy Company, run by Cornelia's unscrupulous step-uncle B.Z., is facing shutdown by the government for producing unsafe toys. Seeing the company's toys being pulled from a storefront, Patch mistakenly thinks they are very popular and approaches B.Z. about a job. Hoping to redeem himself in Santa's eyes, he creates lollipops laced with the magic powder that allows the reindeer to fly, and a flying car which he uses to deliver them to the world's children on Christmas Eve. The lollipops allow people to fly, making them an instant sensation and leaving Santa feeling obsolete and disheartened. B.Z. convinces Patch to strengthen the formula and put it in candy canes, planning to launch his own holiday called \"Christmas 2\" in late March.\nCornelia and Joe overhear B.Z. plotting to oust Santa as the figurehead of Christmas, and Joe is captured. Cornelia further overhears B.Z.'s assistant, Towzer, share his discovery that the candy canes explode when exposed to heat. B.Z. plans to take Towzer and their money and flee to Brazil, letting Patch take the fall for their dangerous product. Cornelia writes to Santa, who rushes to help despite two of his reindeer being sidelined by illness. Patch finds Joe tied up in the toy factory and frees him. Seeing a wood carving resembling Patch that Santa made for Joe, Patch realizes that Santa misses him. He and Joe take off for the North Pole in his flying car with the candy canes loaded in the trunk, unaware that they are becoming unstable. Santa and Cornelia pursue in Santa's sleigh; as the car explodes, they successfully perform the Super Duper Looper, saving Joe and Patch. The police, alerted by Cornelia, attempt to arrest B.Z., but he eats several of the magic candy canes and jumps out a window, only to float upward uncontrollably.\nSanta agrees to let Joe and Cornelia stay at his workshop until next Christmas. As they celebrate with the elves, B.Z. floats off into space.\n\nCast\nDudley Moore as Patch\nJohn Lithgow as B.Z.\nDavid Huddleston as Claus/Santa Claus\nBurgess Meredith as the Ancient Elf\nJudy Cornwell as Anya\nJeffrey Kramer as Towzer\nChristian L Fitzpatrick as Joe\nCarrie Kei Heim as Cornelia\nJohn Barrard as Dooley\nAnthony O'Donnell as Puffy\nAimee Delamain as a storyteller in Claus' village\nDorothea Phillips as Miss Tucker, Cornelia's nanny\nJohn Hallam as Grizzard, B.Z.'s chauffeur\nJudith Morse as Miss Abruzzi, who works for B.Z.\nJerry Harte as a Senate Chairman\nIan Wise as Salvation Army Bandsman (Central Park Scene)Additional elves were played by Melvyn Hayes, Don Estelle, Tim Stern, Peter O'Farrell, and Christopher Ryan as Goober, Groot, Boog, Honka, Vout, and Goobler, respectively. Other minor roles were played by Paul Aspland, Sally Granfield, and Michael Drew as reporters; Walter Goodman as a street corner Santa; John Cassady as a wino; and Ronald Fernee and Michael Ross as policemen.\n\nProduction\nDevelopment\nConceived by Ilya Salkind in the wake of the apparently waning critical and U.S. box office success of 1983's Superman III and its immediate follow-up, 1984's Supergirl, Santa Claus: The Movie was directed by Supergirl director Jeannot Szwarc, from a story by David and Leslie Newman (though David Newman took sole screenplay credit). Pierre Spengler, Ilya's longtime partner and a longtime collaborator of the Salkinds', joined Ilya as the project's producer.\nJohn Carpenter was originally offered the chance to direct, but also wanted a say in the writing, musical score, and final cut of the film. Carpenter's original choice for the role of Santa was Brian Dennehy. Szwarc, however, felt that he needed an actor with more warmth than Dennehy. Lewis Gilbert was another early choice for director but, despite initial interest, he could not agree with the Salkinds over certain aspects of the script. Robert Wise was also offered the chance to direct, but had a different approach to the story. Guy Hamilton, who'd had to withdraw from directing Superman: The Movie in 1976, lobbied hard for the chance to direct the film, but only on the condition that it be shot either in Los Angeles, Vancouver, or Rome. Ultimately, the Salkinds chose Szwarc because of their excellent working relationship on Supergirl.\n\nCasting\nDudley Moore was the Salkinds' top choice to play the lead elf in the film, Ilya Salkind having remembered a scene in Arthur in which Liza Minnelli's character asks Moore if he is Santa's Little Helper. Moore was attached to the project early on, and had a say in both scripting and choice of director. David Newman's first script draft named Moore's character Ollie, but Moore decided that the name should be changed to Patch, which was the nickname of his young son, Patrick. Moore had briefly been considered to play the role of Mister Mxyzptlk in the Salkinds' aborted original script for Superman III, and for the role of Nigel in Supergirl. He turned down that role, but suggested his longtime friend and comic partner Peter Cook for the part.\nIlya Salkind wanted an American actor to portray Santa Claus because he felt that the film focused on a primary piece of Americana in much the same way that Superman: The Movie had. Szwarc screen-tested such actors as David White (who, being in his late 60s, was considered too old for the role) and Moore's Arthur co-star Barney Martin. For a while, Ilya Salkind actively pursued Carroll O'Connor for the role before Szwarc showed him David Huddleston's screen-test, which won Salkind over.\nFor the role of B.Z., the producers wanted a star with a similar stature to Gene Hackman when he had played Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie. To this end, they offered the role to Harrison Ford who turned them down. They made offers to Dustin Hoffman, Burt Reynolds and Johnny Carson, each of whom also turned the part down. Eventually, John Lithgow was settled on after Ilya Salkind watched Terms of Endearment and realized that he had a Grinch-type look to him.\nThe role of the Ancient Elf was written with James Cagney in mind. Though he liked the film's overall idea, Cagney, at 84, turned the role down due to being too weakened by age to perform it. Fred Astaire was considered, but when this eventually came to nothing Dudley Moore suggested his friend Burgess Meredith for the role, which he in the end won. At the time of the film's announcement in mid-1983, the British Press carried reports that diminutive actors such as David Jason, Patrick Troughton and Norman Wisdom would be cast alongside Moore as fellow elves, but none of them were.\n\nFilming\nSanta Claus: The Movie was filmed in Buckinghamshire, England at Pinewood Studios, between August and November 1984. The film was photographed by Arthur Ibbetson, whose credits included Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). Santa Claus: The Movie was his final feature film. Serving as film editor was Peter Hollywood. The production was designed by Anthony Pratt, with costume design concepts by Bob Ringwood. The visual effects unit, as well as several of the production staff, were Salkind stalwarts from the Superman films: Derek Meddings, director of visual and miniature effects; Roy Field, optical visual effects supervisor; and David Lane, flying and second unit director.\n\nReception\nSanta Claus: The Movie received negative reviews upon release, with a rating of 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, from the 20 reviews counted. Box Office Mojo lists the film's total United States box office gross as $23,717,291, less than its $30–50 million production budget. It was very popular in the UK, grossing £5,073,000.Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert noted some positive points to the film, writing that the film \"does an interesting job of visualizing Santa's workshop\" and Santa's elves. He also praised the film's special effects, particularly the New York City fly-over sequence involving Santa. Ebert also had some praise for Lithgow's \"nice, hateful performance\", but wrote that \"the villain is not drawn big enough.\" He ceded that young children would probably like most of the film, but that older children and adults are \"likely to find a lot of it a little thin.\"Vincent Canby of The New York Times was less positive than Ebert, calling the production \"elaborate and tacky\". He described the film as having \"the manner of a listless musical without any production numbers\". Unlike Ebert, he offered little praise for the film's production design. Canby quipped that \"Santa's workshop must be the world's largest purchaser of low-grade plywood\" and that the flyover sequences with Santa \"aren't great.\" The only praise he had for the film's acting was for John Lithgow, who Canby wrote \"(gave) the film's only remotely stylish performance.\" A more recent review by William Mager for the BBC echoed Canby and Ebert's comments.In his book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, critic Alonso Duralde lists Santa Claus: The Movie in his chapter of worst Christmas films ever. His reasons include weak plot, garish production design, blatant product placement (particularly for McDonald's, though Coke and Pabst Blue Ribbon are also prominent), and scenery-chewing overacting on the part of Lithgow. Duralde ultimately concludes that the film is \"a train-wreck of a Christmas film that's so very wrong that you won't be able to tear yourself away from it.\"John Lithgow, in a 2019 interview, said, \"It's just one of the tackiest movies I've ever been in. It seemed cheesy and it certainly never stuck...except in England. It is huge over there. I wish I had a nickel for every Englishman who's told me [it's their favorite film]. In England, that's half of what I'm known for.\"\n\nSoundtrack\nThe soundtrack score was composed and conducted by Henry Mancini, composer of the themes from The Pink Panther and Peter Gunn, with veteran lyricist and screenwriter Leslie Bricusse contributing five original songs. The song \"It's Christmas (All Over the World)\" was written by Bill House and John Hobbs with Freddie Mercury in mind. While it is known that Mercury recorded a demo for the House/Hobbs song at Pinewood Studios, he was never to make a full commitment to the project, as he and his Queen bandmates had already committed themselves to the Highlander soundtrack. In the end, Mercury turned down the project, stating that he felt that Queen had become overcrowded with requests to work on film soundtracks; as a result, Sheena Easton was ultimately chosen to record the tune. As mentioned on the DVD commentary of the film by Jeannot Szwarc, Paul McCartney was asked to compose songs for the film. It is unknown why he did not do so in the end.\n\nTrack listing\"Main Title: Every Christmas Eve 1 and Santa's Theme (Giving)\" (Mancini/Bricusse)\n\"Arrival of the Elves\" (Mancini)\n\"Making Toys\" (Mancini/Bricusse)2\n\"Christmas Rhapsody: Deck the Halls/Joy to the World/Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/12 Days of Christmas/O Tannenbaum/The First Noel/Silent Night\"\n\"It's Christmas Again\" (Mancini/Bricusse)2\n\"March of the Elves\" (Mancini)\n\"Patch, Natch!\" (Mancini/Bricusse) 3\n\"It's Christmas (All Over The World)\" (Bill House, John Hobbs)5\n\"Shouldn't Do That\" (Nick Beggs, Stuart Croxford, Neal Askew, Steve Askew) 4\n\"Sleigh Ride over Manhattan\" (Mancini)\n\"Sad Patch\" (Mancini)\n\"Patch Versus Santa\" (Mancini)\n\"Thank You, Santa\" (Mancini/Bricusse) 21Sung by Aled Jones2Performed by the Ambrosian Children's Choir. 3Performed by the Ambrosian Singers4Produced by Ken Scott and performed by Kaja5Produced by Keith Olsen for Pogologo Corporation, and performed by Sheena Easton.\nThe soundtrack was originally released on record and cassette by EMI America Records in 1985. Soon after, it went out of print and remained unavailable until 2009 when it was released on CD as a limited run of 1000 copies which sold out immediately upon release. This production suffered from several issues, most notably a master which had been subjected to heavy noise reduction resulting in a loss of sound quality. Additionally, the left & right channels had been erroneously flipped, a superficial re-edit had been performed on \"It's Christmas (All Over the World)\", and the song \"Shouldn't Do That\" by Kaja (Kajagoogoo) had been omitted due to licensing issues. In 2012 a deluxe three-disc set, including remastered tracks, outtakes and alternate versions and a 32-page booklet, was released.\n\nComic book adaptation\nMarvel Comics published a comic book adaptation of the film by writer Sid Jacobson and artist Frank Springer in Marvel Super Special #39.\n\nSee also\nSanta Claus in film\nList of Christmas films\nPassage 5:\nJonathan Meath\nJonathan Meath (born September 16, 1955) is an American television producer and director. He was senior producer of the television game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? He also was a producer of The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss and the 1990s' remake of Zoom. In addition, he is notable for having a dual career as a professional Santa Claus. He made numerous appearances in various media as Santa, including on Good Morning America, at Radio City Music Hall with The Rockettes, on the cover of Boston Magazine, and on a Delta Air Lines' pre-flight safety demonstration. He was described by National Public Radio and Time as a \"top Santa\".\n\nTelevision career\nMeath attended Phillips Academy and graduated in 1974 with the school's first co–educational class. He graduated from New York University in 1979. During the 1980s Meath worked at CBS, Business Times, The Creative Establishment, MTV Networks and Greenwood Productions in various capacities. During 1996–1998, he produced shows for the Jim Henson Company called The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss. He produced for PBS 295 half-hour episodes of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, as well as 80 episodes of Zoom.\n\nCareer\nMeath, whose beard and hair went white early in life, noticed that children sometimes called him \"Santa\". He is slightly overweight – he has described himself as an \"organic Santa\" – and his wife bought him a red suit. He attended schools to learn the craft of being a Santa. He appeared in parades. He is a professional vocalist. In 2012, he appeared as Santa at Radio City Music Hall for the Christmas Spectacular show in New York City. Meath uses his real beard but conditions it with a \"shimmer-like shampoo known as Cowboy Magic, and uses hair gel for his mustache. His role as Santa was described in numerous publications. In 2009, he appeared in a thirty-second television commercial spot for the Boston Red Sox baseball team.\n\nPersonal life\nMeath has one child and lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts. His mother was activist and historian Mary Stewart Hewitt. He is the great great grandson of businessman and sportsman John Malcolm Forbes and the great great great grandson of railroad industrialist John Murray Forbes. Through this, Meath is distantly related to John Kerry. Meath's daughter, Amelia Randall Meath, is a member of the bands Mountain Man and Sylvan Esso.\n\nAwards\nPassage 6:\nSanta Claus Is a Black Man\n\"Santa Claus Is a Black Man\" is a Christmas song by record producer and songwriter Teddy Vann, performed by his daughter Akim Vann (billed as Akim) and his Teddy Vann Production Company for a 1973 single. The song, described as \"Vann's take on 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus'\", has been called a cult classic, and continues to receive Christmas airplay.The elder Vann wrote the song as a Christmas gift for Akim, then five years old, who performs vocals on the recording. A soul song, the lyrics describe Akim happening upon her mother and Santa Claus dancing, noting Santa's curious resemblance to her father. The elder Vann was active in mentoring children, and intended the song to provide positive imagery and empowerment for young African-Americans; the song also makes reference to the Kwanzaa holiday, which the elder Vann was active in promoting in his native Brooklyn.Vann would later become better known for co-writing \"Power of Love/Love Power\" with Luther Vandross in 1991, for which he won a Grammy Award.Film director John Waters included the song on his 2004 Christmas music collection, A John Waters Christmas, despite the wishes of the elder Vann, who rejected Waters's request because the auteur \"is not considered mainstream\". Vann filed suit against Waters for using the song without permission.\nPassage 7:\nSanta Claus in film\nMotion pictures featuring Santa Claus constitute their own subgenre of the Christmas film genre. Early films of Santa revolve around similar simple plots of Santa's Christmas Eve visit to children. In 1897, in a short film called Santa Claus Filling Stockings, Santa Claus is simply filling stockings from his pack of toys. Another film called Santa Claus and the Children was made in 1898. A year later, a film directed by George Albert Smith titled Santa Claus (or The Visit from Santa Claus in the United Kingdom) was created. In this picture, Santa Claus enters the room from the fireplace and proceeds to trim the tree. He then fills the stockings that were previously hung on the mantle by the children. After walking backward and surveying his work, he suddenly darts at the fireplace and disappears up the chimney. \nSanta Claus' Visit in 1900 featured a scene with two little children kneeling at the feet of their mother and saying their prayers. The mother tucks the children snugly in bed and leaves the room. Santa Claus suddenly appears on the roof, just outside the children's bedroom window, and proceeds to enter the chimney, taking with him his bag of presents and a little hand sled for one of the children. He goes down the chimney and suddenly appears in the children's room through the fireplace. He distributes the presents and mysteriously causes the appearance of a Christmas tree laden with gifts. The scene closes with the children waking up and running to the fireplace just too late to catch him by the legs. A 1909 film by D. W. Griffith titled A Trap for Santa Claus shows children setting a trap to capture Santa Claus as he descends the chimney, but instead capture their father who abandoned them and their mother but tries to burglarize the house after he discovers that she inherited a fortune. A 29-minute 1925 silent film production titled Santa Claus, by explorer/documentarian Frank E. Kleinschmidt, filmed partly in northern Alaska, feature Santa in his workshop, visiting his Eskimo neighbors, and tending his reindeer. A year later, another movie titled Santa Claus was produced with sound on De Forest Phonofilm.Over the years, various actors have donned the red suit (aside from those discussed below), including Leedham Bantock in Santa Claus (1912), Monty Woolley in Life Begins at Eight-thirty (1942), Alberto Rabagliati in The Christmas That Almost Wasn't (1966), Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places (1983), Jan Rubes in One Magic Christmas (1985), David Huddleston in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), Jonathan Taylor Thomas in I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998), and Ed Asner in The Story of Santa Claus (1996), Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999), Ellen's First Christmas (2001), Elf (2003), Regular Show: The Christmas Special (2012), Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas (2014), Santa Stole Our Dog: A Merry Doggone Christmas!, and A StoryBots Christmas (both 2017).\n\nSanta's origins\nSome films about Santa Claus seek to explore his origins. They explain how his reindeer can fly, where the elves come from, and other questions that children have generally asked about Santa. Two Rankin/Bass stop motion animation television specials addressed this issue: the first, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970), with Mickey Rooney as the voice of Kris Kringle, reveals how Santa delivered toys to children despite the fact that the evil Burgermeister Meisterburger had forbidden children to play with them; and the second, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985), based on L. Frank Baum's 1902 children's book of the same name, follows Santa being reared by a collection of mythical creatures who finally grant him immortality. Another animated version of Baum's book was made by Glen Hill in 2000, and the book also served as the basis for an anime series, Shounen Santa no Daibôken (Young Santa's Adventures) in 1994 and The Oz Kids video, Who Stole Santa? (1996). None of these films focus on Santa Claus's saintly origins.\nThe 1985 feature film Santa Claus: The Movie, inspired by the 1978 Superman: The Movie, stars David Huddleston as Santa Claus and British actress Judy Cornwell as his wife Anya, shows how Santa and Anya are discovered by a clan of elves called the Vendequm. Dudley Moore portrays Patch, the central character and main focus of the story; Burgess Meredith portrays their wise leader, the Ancient One, who reveals that Claus represents the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, whereby he has been designated as \"the Chosen One\", whose mission it will be to deliver the elves' toys to children all over the world. The film's prologue features Claus and Anya performing Santa-like duties in their home village, and strongly suggests Santa's saintly origins.\nThe 2019 animated Netflix Christmas comedy Klaus, also features its own telling of the origin of Santa. Where Jesper Johansen, the pampered spoiled son of a postmaster general (played by Jason Schwartzman) is sent to the secluded town of Smeerensburg, as their latest postman. There Jesper learns that due to a local family feud, the town’s people hardly have time for anything else, let alone writing or exchanging letters. There he reluctantly teams up with the titular Santa Claus (played by J. K Simmons) who is portrayed as gruff hermit, with a sad past and a skilled hand for woodcarving and toy making. Together, they not only help end the feud in Smeerensburg, but also create one of the most beloved holiday traditions.\n\nQuestioning and believing\nAnother genre of Santa Claus films seeks to dispel doubts about his existence.\n\nOne of the first films of this nature was titled A Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus (1907) and involves a well-to-do boy trying to convince his poorer friend that Santa Claus is real. She doubts because Santa has never visited her family because of their poverty.\nMiracle on 34th Street (1947), starring Natalie Wood as Susan Walker, revolves around the disbelief of young Susan, whose mother (Maureen O'Hara) employs a kind old man (Edmund Gwenn, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) to play Santa Claus at Macy's; he later convinces Susan that he really is Santa.\nOne Magic Christmas (1985) depicts Santa as the Dutch Sinterklaas, in charge of Christmas angels (deceased people) in lieu of elves, whom he assigns to restore individuals' Christmas spirit. He assigns Gideon (Harry Dean Stanton) to a woman (Mary Steenburgen) who worries too much about the practical side of life and shows little charity. Gideon shows her a potential Christmas in which her husband is killed by a desperate bank robber whom she has neglected to help, and takes her little girl to Santa, who gives her the last letter her mother sent him as a child and tells her to give it to her. This works to restore her spirit and gives her a do-over of Christmas with her husband and the desperate man, and she greets Santa putting presents under her tree.\nThe Polar Express (2004), based on the children's book of the same name, also deals with issues and questions of belief as a magical train conducted by Tom Hanks transports a doubting boy to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus.\nYes, Virginia (2009) is an animated holiday TV special based on the true story of a young girl, Virginia O'Hanlon, who writes a letter to the editor of the New York Sun in 1897 after her friends tell her that there is no Santa. The newspaper editor tells her that indeed there is a Santa: \"He lives, and he lives forever.\" Francis Pharcellus Church was the real-life editor played by Charles Bronson in the special.\n\nSanta as a hero\nSome science fiction B movies feature Santa Claus as a superhero-type figure, such as the 1959 film titled Santa Claus produced in Mexico with José Elías Moreno as Santa Claus. In this movie, Santa allies with Merlin the magician to battle the devil, who is attempting to trap Santa. In the Cold War-era film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964), Santa Claus is captured by Martians and brought to Mars, and ultimately foils a plot to destroy him.In the 1984 film The Night They Saved Christmas, starring Art Carney as Santa, likewise chronicles how Santa Claus and Claudia Baldwin (Jaclyn Smith), the wife of an oil explorer, have to save the North Pole from explosions while Baldwin's husband is searching for oil in the Arctic. Santa Claus: The Movie contains a subplot in which Santa Claus rescues Joe (Christian Fitzpatric) from his best friend Cornelia's (Carrie Kei Heim) evil step-uncle B. Z. (John Lithgow). Santa is a hero in The Nightmare Before Christmas, held captive by Oogie Boogie, although he is spiteful and enraged at Jack when freed. The 2004 film Christmas With the Kranks, based on the 2001 John Grisham novel Skipping Christmas, has Austin Pendleton as Marty, a Santa-dressed umbrella salesman who turns out to be the real Santa, saving Luther Krank's (Tim Allen's) forced Christmas party by capturing a burglar unintentionally brought to the house by the police. After leaving the party, he rides through the sky in his Volkswagen Beetle, pulled by reindeer. In the 2005 film adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Father Christmas (James Cosmo) supplies the Pevensie children with the weapons and tools they need to battle the White Witch (Tilda Swinton). In the 2012 DreamWorks film Rise of the Guardians, which is based on the book series The Guardians of Childhood by William Joyce, Santa (Alec Baldwin) is shown as one of the main characters and leader of the Guardians, who are the heroes of the movie. The 2022 film Violent Night portrays a drunk and disillusioned Santa (played by David Harbour) caught up in a hostage situation and becoming an action hero, parodying the film Die Hard and its protagonist John McClane.In the television show South Park, Santa is often depicted with firearms; in the episode \"Red Sleigh Down\", he battles Iraqis to try to bring Christmas to Iraq. In the episode \"A Woodland Critter Christmas\", he uses a combat shotgun to blast away Satanic animals who try to give birth to the AntiChrist. Santa (played by Nick Frost) made a brief appearance at the end of the Doctor Who episode, \"Death in Heaven\". In the following episode, which served as the show's 2014 Christmas special, \"Last Christmas\", he plays a more prominent role. It is eventually revealed that the scenes with him are the characters experiencing a shared dream, and he is their subconscious trying to help them wake up before they are killed. At the episode's end, he successfully awakens the Doctor and Clara, reuniting the two.\n\nSuccession of Santas\nOne genre of movies suggests that Santa Claus is not historically a single individual but a succession of individuals.\nIn Ernest Saves Christmas (1988), Ernest P. Worrell (Jim Varney) joins the challenge of Santa Claus, alias Seth Applegate (Douglas Seale), to convince Florida kids' show host Joe Carruthers (Oliver Clark) to become the next Santa.\nIn The Santa Clause (1994), Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, who accidentally causes Santa Claus to fall off the roof of his house. After he puts on Santa's suit, he finds himself contractually obligated to become the next Santa. Reluctant at first, his appearance changes over the next year from average to the legendary image: he grows fat, his hair whitens, and his beard grows uncontrollably by magic. He ultimately falls in love with his new role.\nA 2001 television special, Call Me Claus, stars Whoopi Goldberg as Lucy Cullins, an African American woman destined to reluctantly become the next Santa Claus.\nIn The Hebrew Hammer (2003), the role of Santa Claus is traditionally passed down from father to son. The system is disrupted when the reigning Santa is murdered by his son, Damian, who then uses the position to attack the competing holidays of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.\nThe 2011 animated film Arthur Christmas portrays being Santa Claus as a dynasty. The first \"Santa\", Saint Nicholas, established the North Pole workshop and passed the title and responsibilities to his son after 70 Christmases, after which his son passed them on to his son, and so on. In the film, the current Santa initially refuses to retire, due to worry about what he will be if he is not Santa.\n\nImpostor Santas\nSeveral films have been created which explore the consequences should an impostor Santa take over.\nOne of the first films featuring a fake Santa Claus is the 1914 silent film, The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus, written by Frederic Arnold Kummer. In this film, a bogus Santa steals all the Christmas presents and amateur detective Octavius (played by Herbert Yost) tries to recover them. \nThe most notorious impostor appears in the 1966 cartoon based on Dr. Seuss's 1957 children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, wherein the Grinch, a hairy and mean-tempered creature, attempts to rob the Whos in Whoville of their Christmas by stealing their presents, food and decorations, but has a change of heart when he sees that he has not stopped them from celebrating after all. This animated feature was made into a live-action movie in 2000, directed by Ron Howard and starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch. A CGI feature film was made in 2018, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of the Grinch. \nAnother less-than-friendly impostor appears in A Christmas Story (1983) as a disgruntled mall Santa at Higbee's Department Store (a real store in downtown Cleveland, Ohio) in the fictional town of Holman, Indiana. Played by Jeff Gillen, Santa is depicted as a larger-than-life figure who terrifies, rather than amuses, children. Gillen's performance lends credence to the theory that the mall Santa is not quite genuine.\nAnother recent devious mall Santa was played by Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa (2003), a film which gained the normally family-friendly Disney \"bad press\".Tim Burton's stop-action animated musical film, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), depicts Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, wanting to become Santa Claus after an accidental visit to Christmas Town. After the mostly well-meaning but totally clueless Halloween Town citizens capture Santa, they then try to take over Christmas with disastrous results; children are terrified by Jack's Halloween-themed gifts, and the real Santa is almost killed by Oogie Boogie. Santa is voiced here by Ed Ivory and in the video game spinoffs by Corey Burton.\nIn 2002's The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) must leave the North Pole to find a wife, so his number one elf turns a plastic toy Santa into a life-size robot clone of Calvin to cover for him. The robo-Santa interprets the rules of Christmas literally, convinces himself that all of the world's children are naughty, and dresses and runs the North Pole like a Latin American dictator, constructing an army of giant toy soldiers. When Calvin returns with his wife, he must defeat his clone to regain control of Christmas.\nIn 2006's The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Martin Short appears as Jack Frost, who is jealous of Santa Claus. He usurps the role from Scott Calvin, turns Christmas into \"Frostmas\" and the North Pole into a Disneyesque tourist resort, and addicts the worlds' children to toys which their parents must buy from him.\nIn 2007's Fred Claus, Vince Vaughn plays Santa's jealous older brother who grows up hating Santa and Christmas. He cons his brother (Paul Giamatti) into giving him a large sum of money for a business deal, in return for which he must come to the Pole and help prepare for Christmas. Fred ends up sabotaging his brother by placing all the world's naughty children on the nice list. Meanwhile, another Santa-hater (Kevin Spacey) is auditing Santa, looking for excuses to fire him and the elves. When Santa injures his back, Fred must deliver the gifts in order to save Christmas.\nOther, darker impostors have appeared in slasher films such as the first three films of the five-film Silent Night, Deadly Night series, Santa Claws and Santa's Slay, and in the short \"...And All Through the House\", part of the horror anthology film Tales from the Crypt (1972) and later remade as episode 1.2 and directed by Robert Zemeckis for the HBO TV series of the same name. Both versions were inspired by the comic book Tales from the Crypt.\n\nSee also\nChristmas elf#In films and television\nMrs. Claus#In popular media\nList of Christmas films\nPassage 8:\nThe Year Without a Santa Claus\nThe Year Without a Santa Claus is a 1974 stop motion animated Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. The story is based on Phyllis McGinley's 1956 book of the same name. It is narrated by Shirley Booth (her final acting credit before her retirement from acting) and starring the voices of Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, and George S. Irving. It was originally broadcast on December 10, 1974, on ABC.\n\nPlot\nSanta Claus wakes up with a cold sometime before Christmas in the early 20th century. His doctor, who thinks nobody cares about Santa anymore, advises him to make some changes to his routine, so Santa decides to take a holiday instead of delivering gifts. Mrs. Claus unsuccessfully tries to convince him otherwise, so she enlists two elves named Jingle and Jangle to find proof that people still believe in Santa.\nJingle and Jangle set out with Santa's youngest reindeer Vixen, but are shot down by crossfire between the conflicting Miser Brothers: Snow Miser, who controls the world's cold weather, and Heat Miser, who controls its warm weather. Vixen saves her guardian elves from falling to their doom and they continue on their uncertain path.\nJingle, Jangle, and Vixen come upon Southtown, a small community in the southern United States. They ask a group of children, including a boy named Iggy, if they believe in Santa, but they are skeptical. To make matters worse, Vixen grows sick due to the warm weather and is sent to the local animal shelter after Jingle and Jangle disguise her as a dog. The town's police officer refers them to the town's mayor, who laughs at their story but agrees to free Vixen if they can prove they are elves by making it snow in Southtown on Christmas.\nJingle and Jangle call Mrs. Claus to pick them up. As she leaves, Santa discovers Vixen is missing and travels to Southtown himself to retrieve her while disguised as a civilian named \"Klaus\". While there, he meets Iggy and his family. Klaus reveals his belief in Santa, and Iggy's father reveals that Santa personally visited him one Christmas, and he still believes as well. When Claus leaves to retrieve Vixen, Iggy realizes his true identity and resolves to help Jingle and Jangle.\nIggy joins Mrs. Claus when she arrives to pick up Jingle and Jangle, and together they visit the Miser Brothers. They ask Snow Miser to send snow to Southtown for a day; he is agreeable but says he cannot as it is part of Heat Miser's territory. They then ask Heat Miser, who says he will only comply if Snow Miser turns the North Pole over to him in exchange. When the brothers begin bickering again, Mrs. Claus goes over their heads and visits their mother, Mother Nature, who convinces her sons to compromise.\nAs Christmas approaches, the world's children send their own presents to Santa, setting off international headlines. Touched by the outpouring of generosity and appreciation, Santa decides to make his journey after all. On Christmas Eve, he makes a public stop in Southtown during a snowfall. The next day, the children, including Iggy, are delighted to receive their presents. As the special ends, Mrs. Claus narrates that somehow, \"yearly, newly, faithfully and truly\", Santa always comes. Santa is shown getting out of bed to prepare himself, his reindeer, and his gift-loaded sleigh, remarking he could never imagine \"a year without a Santa Claus\".\n\nVoice cast\nShirley Booth as Mrs. Claus\nMickey Rooney as Santa Claus\nDick Shawn as Snow Miser\nGeorge S. Irving as Heat Miser\nBob McFadden as Jingle Bells, Elf Doctor\nBradley Bolke as Jangle Bells, Police Officer\nRhoda Mann as Mother Nature, Mrs. Thistlewhite\nRon Marshall as Mr. Thistlewhite, Mayor of Southtown\nColin Duffy as Ignatius \"Iggy\" Thistlewhite\nNoelle Magargle as the Blue Christmas Girl\nThe Wee Winter Singers as the Children Choir\n\nSongs\n\"Sleigh Ride\" (instrumental)\n\"The Year Without a Santa Claus\"\n\"I Could Be Santa Claus\"\n\"I Believe in Santa Claus\"\n\"It's Gonna Snow Right Here in Dixie\"\n\"The Snow Miser Song\"\n\"The Heat Miser Song\"\n\"Blue Christmas\"\n\"Sleigh Ride\" (instrumental)\n\"Here Comes Santa Claus\"\n\"The Year Without a Santa Claus (reprise)\"\n\nTelevision rights\nThe special premiered in 1974 on ABC and aired annually on Freeform during its 25 Days of Christmas programming block until 2017. As of 2018, AMC: American Movie Classics currently airs the special uncut as part of the Best Christmas Ever block. Warner Bros. Entertainment currently distributes the special through their ownership of the post-1974 Rankin/Bass Productions library.\n\nHome video\nThe special was first released on VHS by Vestron Video on September 5, 1991 as part of their Christmas Classics Series, which is distributed by Family Home Entertainment. Warner Home Video released the special on VHS on September 2, 1992, and re-released it on VHS on September 28, 1999. The special was then released on DVD on October 31, 2000, and re-released on the Deluxe Edition DVD on October 2, 2007. Warner Home Video released the special on Blu-ray on October 5, 2010, making it the first Rankin/Bass production to be released on that format.\n\nDVD details\nRelease date: October 31, 2000 (Original DVD), January 17, 2004 (30th Anniversary Edition DVD), October 2, 2007 (Deluxe Edition DVD), October 5, 2010 (Blu-ray)\nFull Screen\nRegion: 1\nAspect Ratios: 1.33:1\nAudio tracks: English\nSpecial Features:\nRudolph's Shiny New Year\nNestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey\nStop Motion 101 (Deluxe Edition Exclusive)\nWe Are Santa's Elves: Profiling Arthur Rankin Jr. & Jules Bass (Deluxe Edition Exclusive)\n\nLive-action remake\nA live-action remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus premiered on NBC on December 11, 2006, and was released on DVD the following day. It follows largely the same plot as the original special.\nPaul Mavis, for Drunk TV, wrote, \"The Year Without a Santa Claus is a nauseating, angry, joyless little holiday confection sure to poison any child unlucky enough to chance upon it. This hate-filled stocking stuffer has nothing but contempt for its intended audience, promoting the worst possible beliefs about people, while cloaking itself, incredibly, in the fake guise of a meaningful lesson about the holidays: the gall that the cretinous makers of this film have is really quite audacious.”\n\nCast\nJohn Goodman as Santa Claus\nDelta Burke as Mrs. Claus\nMichael McKean as Snow Miser\nHarvey Fierstein as Heat Miser\nEthan Suplee as Jingle Bells\nEddie Griffin as Jangle Bells\nChris Kattan as Sparky\nDylan Minnette as Ignatius \"Iggy\" Thistlewhite\nBilly Slaughter as Nerd ElfCarol Kane as Mother Nature\nCarson Kressley as the elf costumer\nLaura Schlessinger, \"Dr. Laura\", as herself\nJack LaLanne as Hercules\n\nSequel\nA sequel, titled A Miser Brothers' Christmas, was produced in 2008 by Warner Bros. Animation and Cuppa Coffee Studios, and it also used stop-motion animation. Mickey Rooney, age 88, reprised his role as Santa Claus, and George S. Irving, age 86, reprised his role as Heat Miser. Juan Chioran and Catherine Disher replaced Dick Shawn and Shirley Booth as Snow Miser and Mrs. Claus, respectively, Shawn and Booth having died prior to the film's production.\n\nSee also\nList of Christmas films\nSanta Claus in film\nList of animated feature films\nList of stop-motion films\nList of Rankin/Bass Productions films\nPassage 9:\nA Miser Brothers' Christmas\nA Miser Brothers’ Christmas is a stop motion spin-off special based on some of the characters from the 1974 Rankin-Bass special The Year Without a Santa Claus. Distributed by Warner Bros. Animation under their Warner Premiere label (the rights holders of the post-1974 Rankin-Bass library) and Toronto-based Cuppa Coffee Studios, the one-hour special premiered on ABC Family on Saturday, December 13, 2008, during the network's annual The 25 Days of Christmas programming.Mickey Rooney (at age 88) and George S. Irving (at age 86) reprised their respective roles as Santa Claus and Heat Miser. Snow Miser (originally portrayed by Dick Shawn who died in 1987) was voiced by Juan Chioran, while Mrs. Claus (voiced in the original by Shirley Booth who died in 1992) was portrayed by Catherine Disher. The movie aimed to emulate the Rankin/Bass animation style. This is the last Christmas special to feature Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus, as he died in 2014, as well as the last time George Irving voiced Heat Miser, as he died in 2016.\n\nPlot\nThe feuding Miser Brothers (Heat and Snow) attend their family reunion with Mother Nature and their fellow siblings including the North Wind, Earthquake, Thunder and Lightning, and the Tides. North Wind passively asks Mother Nature what might happen if Santa would be unable to complete his duties on Christmas. She responds that North Wind would take control instead. Heat then begins to call out Snow for trying to \"give global warming a bad name\". Snow responds by talking about Heat's attempts to scare people with reports of a second Ice Age. Heat then reprimands Snow for claiming Iceland as his own, which barely has any ice. Snow then calls out Heat for claiming Greenland as his own because it's full of ice. The brothers then fight each other. Mother Nature ends the fight.\nDespite his dashing appearance and veneer of flattery and devotion toward Mother Nature, the North Wind is far more malevolent than either of his brothers. Self-absorbed and vain, the North Wind is fixated with the idea of replacing Santa Claus as a way to achieve personal glory. Beginning his machinations, He then sends two of his minions to crash Santa's Super-Sleigh designed by his mechanic Tinsel, causing Santa to injure his back after falling in the middle of a fight between the brothers as he unintentionally crosses into their domain.\nDespite what she told the North Wind before and having been informed by Mrs. Claus about what happened to Santa, Mother Nature assigns the Miser Brothers the responsibility of running the toy factory. Their fighting continues as they move through several workshop stations. The North Wind hatches a new plan to keep them fighting so it would appear as if they ruined Christmas themselves, but Mrs. Claus convinces the Miser Brothers to put aside their differences and cooperate by showing them the Naughty/Nice list station. The brothers' history is revealed, showing they've always been on Santa's naughty list for mutual bickering. Upon learning the error of their ways, they begin working together and successfully get work back up to speed. However, the North Wind hatches a plan to destroy their truce and get them fighting again, leaving Santa to deliver the toys and giving North Wind the chance to finish him off.\nOn Christmas Eve, the North Wind's minions surreptitiously attach heating and cooling units to the sleigh, apparently capable of heating or cooling entire regions of the planet. The discovery causes the Miser Brothers to blame each other. With them fighting again, Santa has no choice but to drive the sleigh as North Wind planned. After Santa leaves, Tinsel discovers the super-sleigh has been sabotaged, which stops the Misers' fight as they realize that neither of them was responsible for injuring Santa. Upon finding one of North Wind's Christmas cards with him dressed as Santa, the Misers realize the truth about their brother and comprehend his plan. Meanwhile, the North Wind attacks Santa's sleigh in flight, whipping up a vortex to consume Santa, but the Miser Brothers, with the aid of Tinsel and a team of young reindeer, save Santa in the nick of time.\nThe North Wind's cover is blown and Mother Nature sentences him to do household chores for the next several thousand years as punishment for trying to finish off Santa and making his brothers fight. With North Wind thwarted, the brothers learn they've finally made the nice list. They deliver the presents for Santa and give gifts to each other in the process, making peace between them and ending their feud.\n\nCast\nMickey Rooney as Santa Claus\nGeorge S. Irving as Heat Miser\nJuan Chioran as Snow Miser\nCatherine Disher as Mrs. Claus, Reindeer Elf\nBrad Adamson as North Wind\nPatricia Hamilton as Mother Nature\nPeter Oldring as Bob, Elf #1\nSusan Roman as Tinsel, Dr. Noel\n\nReception\nThe movie had 3.7 million viewers in its first airing, as determined by Nielsen ratings. It received a nomination for \"Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children\" in the 36th Annual Annie Awards.\n\nSee also\nSanta Claus in film\nList of Christmas films",6 "char_len": 71686,7 "document_hash": "7c9670f512e2affb2b57bc3e82ef801ea4c6aa69b2d5a310ae2ebd4384952e27",8 "questions": [9 {10 "question_id": "q00",11 "qtype": "hotpotqa",12 "question": "For what type of work is the production company for The Year Without a Santa Claus best known?"13 }14 ]15}