The Life and Adventures Of Santa Claus (1985) Rankin Bass Christmas Special Review

I'm going to post this earlier, First off this is an underrated Christmas Special which I prefer than the 2000 cartoon version. I understand a lot of people will disagree with my review, because Its the only version I like, I do not like the animated version at all, while the animated one is good, I personally hate it because it has nothing to do with Rankin Bass. I also hate the songs and the characters look awful

The Rankin Bass special however is timeless, the puppets and scenes are awesome, the villains look realistic and the songs are good, not bad but alright. I grew up watching Rankin Bass Christmas Specials every Christmas Season, some of the specials I watched was The Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and The Year Without A Santa Claus, I remember watching ABC Family's 25 days of Christmas and The Life and Adventures Of Santa Claus would pop on along with The Little Drummer Boy Book II, Pinocchio's Christmas, The First Christmas Snow and Leprechaun's Christmas Gold, the latter three were rarely aired on television.

We start out this special with a meeting in the Forest of Bursie, Great Ak tells the story of Santa Claus in front of a council. Apparently Santa Claus was discovered as a baby by Ak; He was abandoned in the snowy woods, on a winter day. Ak takes the baby to a lioness name Sheegra to raise, a fairy named Neceile hears about the baby and steals it. Necille goes to Ak who allows the immortal fairy to raise the child. Necille names the boy Claus. Claus grows up in the forest and as a young man Ak takes him around the world and shows him what humans are truly like

After witnessing child abuse, poverty and starvation as well as war,(Really dark stuff right?) Claus decides to live among the humans and become a toy maker, so he and Tingler (I forget what he is an elf) move into a village not far from the forest. Claus one day makes toy cats for some orphans, and that inspires him to give gifts of toys to children.

Unfortunally some villains called the Awguas, hideous looking monsters inhabit the valley, they steal his toy goods and wreak his attempts to getting the toys to the children, After a magnificent fight with a huge awesome dragon, the bad guys are defeated Claus gets his toys back and the children get their toys.

Immortals vs Villains

As the years pass, Claus gets older and decides to just give the toys on Christmas Eve, So he continues to this day giving toys to children. Ak finishes the story with a request of granting Claus immortality the gods agree, and Claus becomes immortal to continue his job working with children. Necille kisses him and Claus awakens as a new man.

Overall like I said in the Beginning this special is underrated and quite forgettable, I can understand why, It's from the eighties folks and this is probably the least popular Rankin Bass Special. However despite its flaws like cheap scenery and outdated stop motion. It's a favorite special of mine and I really appreciate it. Too bad Freeform or whatever ABC Family turned into doesn't appreciate it. 

It rarely airs on the network. Thank god for DVDS LOL :)