XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

CineMage I have always loved the Rankins/Bass *Year without a Santa Claus*. The scenes with Heat Miser and Cold Miser were hilarious, and Shirley Booth did a wonderful job as the voice of Mrs. Claus. So I was excited when I saw the Heat Miser/Cold Miser clip that NBC placed on youtube.It turns out that NBC placed the only decent moments of this demeaning remake on youtube. Almost everything else disappointed when it didn't outright offend. I was tricked.Many of the jokes seemed to be focused on telling the current generation how much better the previous generation was -- and even then, the jokes were outdated. With the complaints about life of the past twenty years and the rosy-glasses nostalgia, the focus of this version seems to be one long Baby Boomer whine.The people behind this version are so clueless they seem to consider "goth" jokes to be cutting edge fifteen or so years too late! The jokes about "Extreme Santa" might have been clever a decade ago, but now they only show the viewer how out-of-touch these people are if they still think such jokes are clever now. The "hep African-American elf" jokes may have been funny fifteen years ago but are an embarrassment to modern racial relations. The demeaned role of women in this version is nauseating.In the Rankins/Bass tale, Mrs. Claus is an active, intelligent woman determined both to help out the world in general and to bring her stubborn husband to his senses. In this remake, she is nothing more than a passive and obedient wife with an attractive figure. Who could have imagined wasting Delta Burke's talent playing a woman who does nothing except coo in worry? They completely disempower the character of Mrs. Claus: it isn't even her idea for the elves to go down to earth in this version! The disempowering extends to Mother Nature. In the Rankin/Bass special, Mother Nature is an awe-inspiring figure of dread, and Mrs. Claus is courteously cautious about speaking with her. In this tepid remake, Santa Claus is able to summon an obedient Mother Nature with three claps as though she were one of his harem dancing girls! The tale ends with a father guilt-tripped into destroying the hopes of hundreds if not thousands of jobs in a small town for the sake of sticking to old town values. Merry Christmas to his son who now gets a dad who will build snowmen with him, and Merry Christmas to all those workers who discover the day before Christmas they will be unemployed!

tshodan Here it is, the script was good. (heck we've seen it before, they just stretched it out by about 30 minutes) The casting was excellent, and the Heat Vixens were, well HOT!!! So, why wasn't I thrilled I stood up to watch it??? Bad directing!!! Lack luster effects, actors not fulfilling their roles and slight variations from the script made this movie DRAG>>>> Of course since this is a made for TV NBC special, what else could you expect. Isn't this the formula they use, good script, great actors and then Blahhh??? NBC, go hire some real directors before you make these dumb a$$Ed made for TV movies and save us all the pain of hope and anticipation. PLEASE!!!!

miles99999 This was an absolutely awful remake of a holiday classic. There was a movie some years ago called Scrooged (with Bill Murray). In that movie that are producing a version of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol". The version that they create is absolutely over the top and insane. I think that this remake of "A Year Without a Santa Claus" is that to a "T".This production was so over the top it completely wrecked the movie. The casting was atrocious...John Goodman as Santa wasn't that bad, but Harvey Fierstein as the Heat Miser and Michael McKean as the Snow Miser...come on are you kidding! Fierstein killed the most memorable song from the original movie. What about the Miser Brother's assistants, any reason they were cast as hot female models (not that I don't appreciate eye-candy)? As for the storyline....why did they create this "new" story? Yeah, it follows the basic idea as the original, but the story was basically completely different.Please avoid this movie at all costs if you are a fan of the original. This one is too over the top, too long, and too crappy.

BigBish1966 An abomination so heinous, so repulsive, so reprehensible that the excess amount of bile that my body doesn't process because of my missing gall bladder creeps up my esophagus thinking about it.I speak of the atrocity that was recently aired on CBS - The Year Without A Santa Clause. Not the beloved Rankin/Bass production, but a live action piece of televised diarrhea. John Goodman as santa, Delta Burke as Mrs Claus? Harvey Fierstien as Heat Miser?!!!! Dear god in heaven what have they done?...... What have they done? ( I was saving that for when the US was nuked ah la Jericho, but this is worse... far worse).I'll admit that curiosity made me tune in. I'm human. But Randy from My Name is Earl as Jangle? A black Jingle? Dancing girls in the Heat Miser/Cold Miser numbers? When did a bump and grind ( over and above the Victorias Secet Fashion Show) become a part of Christmas tradition? The claymation Misers didn't need it. No they didn't. They were pure entertainment. I'd rather the controversy of devil/angel that kept it off TV for so many years to a musical number from Solid Gold.Someone needs to bury this, and bury it deep. Its a national disgrace. You want insurgents to surrender- tape their eyes open and force then to watch this over & over. It will make them beg to be degregaded at abul grad.The tragedy of this is that it was 2 hours. I only watched 20 minutes before I was diving for the puke bucket.