tropiqalkiwi I grew up watching this movie every year at Christmas time and continue to look forward to seeing it every year. This movie has a beautifully done story that shows how "Claus" goes from being a child to a Saint. He is not born in the faerie land, but adopted by them. Because of his unique experiences growing up with faeries instead of other men he brings unprecedented happiness to the children that he meets through a new creation of his, a toy.If anyone is wondering about whether to show this movie to children or not, I would say go for it. Others feel it is a bit scary, and the "war" near the end of the movie is too harsh for children, but I disagree. The war only happens as a last resort after Great Ak tries to talk with King Awgwa. There is no actual killing in the war, the "bad guys" are simply turned into flowers through very gentle means, and the remaining ones flee.This is in response to Goon-2's comment on this movie: The bat-like creature, who sits at the table with the other immortals, symbolizes the wind, he is NOT death. At the very beginning of the movie (with the credits) all of the immortals (each representing a different natural force) are introduced and he is the commander of the wind demons. I just want to make sure people know he is not representing death, and is interested in saving Claus not killing him.Overall it is an uplifting tale of doing what you can to make the world a better place, and finding creative ways to do so when there are problems.

booneh While this does contain many of the elements of a typical Rankin/Bass animated special, it is by far more bizarre than I could've ever imagined. To give you an idea of how "out there" this show is, I missed only the first two minutes of the cartoon and I had NO IDEA that it was supposed to be a story about Santa Claus until the last two minutes of the show. It has nymphs, gods, demons... all that you wouldn't expect in a Christmas special. And what's funny is whenever I try and describe this show to people, they don't believe me at all."No, seriously, the Great Ak then grabs this ax and challenges the demons to fight." "Whatever." "And Santa has this lion and he goes to the arctic with a magician and..." "You're full of it." "I'm not! It's true! You have to see it!"The cartoon starts off weird and just gets more and more bizarre the farther you go in. If you're high, I guarantee that you will be enthralled and laugh all the way through. All I can say is that it is messed up and I can't really described exactly how messed up it is. No one would really get it or like it or think that it is great by any stretch of the imagination. Watch it if you are extremely high or you are curious or a Rankin/Bass fan, like me. Otherwise, your best bet would be to stick to the better Christmas specials.

DutchOompaLoompa This movie was excellent, very original and thought out. This movie another Rankin Bass classic (In my mind) is for once a dark Rankin Bass film! It's a holiday from the sweet happy go lucky film. It show how the man we all love (Santa) struggle to begin his career and later on becomes immortal. This show the side of Santa's life that we never see. Far from stereotypical I gave this movie a 9 rating. Although this is not very popular as say Rudolph, Frosty, The Year Without a Santa Claus, that doesn't mean it's any worse. If they made this movie on to a DVD format I would encourage anyone to go out and buy it. I'm sure you'll agree with me once you watch this wonderful masterpiece stop animation.

Angel Meiru Somehow, most Christmas related movies and specials seem to be sendemental, campy or some times even sickening sweet. But "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" is a big relief from those Holiday special clichés.Think of putting together a typical Rankin Bass special, Mythology of the British Isles and Jim Henson's "The Dark Crystal" and you get this movie about a mortal named St. Nicholas and how he came to be.Some people seemed to complain about the film being too dark. But face it, some things may tend to be *gasps* ARTISTIC, and *gasps* original and *gasps* not sappy or an un-artistic film just made to tell you to shell out your bucks on the crappy merchandise.If you catch this on TV or on any VCR format, or if you love "The Dark Crystal" or Mythological based films, you will love this special. I know I do!