After today’s review of Scrooge And Santa I was reminded of another unorthodox meeting of these two characters. While I’ve posted the Batmanesque Santaman: Patron Saint Of Justice before I don’t know if anyone goes into the regular archives, much less the songs and specials of the Christmas Spotlight feature. So I’m bringing it to you again. Can Santaman rescue the Christmas Spirits and stop a Scrooge descendant who has turned to dark magic and the clan’s usual business practices to kill the festive season?
From my original review:
This no-budget cartoon, produced by Comberry Studios, is just filled with awesome, but I do have one complaint to get out of the way. (Well, two. A “pod racer” sled? Really? That was one of George Lucas’s less that stellar–pun intended–ideas.) Recall if you will that the legend of Santa Claus began with one St. Nicholas, a Christian who lived his beliefs and even went to jail for them. While other influences have effected the Santa Claus we see today, seeing him in Shangra-La is kind of odd. However, it’s a minor personal issue, and since The Life and Times of Santa Claus (the cel-animated version with Robbie Benson) is one of my favorite Christmas productions, this hardly detracts from the overall product. I just like to find at least one negative thing to keep my critic street cred. 🙂
If you had the chance to see the original trailer, the character models are just as good, as is the animation. However, we now get a good story behind it. And what I love most is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. From the “Christmas poem”, to Santa Man riding a dumb-waiter, to the upside down Christmas tree on the medallion, there’s some fun in the otherwise serious adventure. It’s just great.
The creators are hoping to get a full-fledged series out of this, or at least a feature. Personally, I’d buy a direct to DVD movie or series of this if I had to. Maybe they can consider a web comic? They already have the right artist.
A little more research in and he apparently made a regular comic, in Germany only, before this special. I wouldn’t mind seeing an English translation of that, and I still want to see more Santaman adventures. And yes, this partly inspired Captain Yuletide.
BW Media Spotlight 