naunga This is a dark, dark movie. It is certainly not a feel-good holiday movie.It starts with Santa getting a letter about a friend passing away.From there it's constant peril:* Santa gets hit by a car and robbed in the street.* There's a crooked foster mother who locks children in the basement and burns their toys in a garbage incinerator.* One of the little girls actually gets into the incinerator to save the dog (who is now a stuffed dog) from being incinerated.* Santa ends up in the hospital near death, and his elf's efforts to save him seem to be a failure.My 7 year old daughter looked at me in the middle of it and said, "this is really scary."Granted in the end there's a happy ending, but it really doesn't offset the peril that the viewer has to endure.I do not recommend it.

sweetmarissa This is a horribly-acted rip-off of Annie. And with the creepiest looking Santa Claus thrown in for good measure. They couldn't find an actual bearded old man to act as Santa. Instead, they used a ton of what appears to be plaster on the actor's face. The result looked like botched plastic surgery. I'm an adult and this is going to give me nightmares. Stuffing him full of tubes in a hospital bed was pretty traumatic for my daughter. No one needs to see Santa like that! Also, the black dog being given a Jamaican accent is racist. I thought this would be a feel-good movie. Stick to Miracle on 34th Street or the actual movie Annie instead.

Lucky Dad I choose this DVD because there was a cute puppy on the cover, it looks fun and innocent, and Disney's promo said "heartwarming ... story of love and kindness." As a previous reviewer noted: Inside, old man dies, mean headmistress throws toys - and threatened to throw children - in the incinerator. Infertile couple with self-centered husband tries to profiteer off people's belief in Santa. Orphans crying for their parents. People saying Santa isn't real through the whole movie. Santa gets robbed, hit by a car, then he almost dies. The only way to save him is for the beloved fluffy puppy to give up his "life-crystal" and turn back into a stuffed animal.Of course it ends well, but my seven year old was in tears, and my nine year old (who will watch ANYTHING) said she hated it and just wanted to go to bed. For a movie aimed at children, this movie goes WAY TOO FAR to make the villains bad. Avoid! Avoid! Also - apart from being developmentally inappropriate for children under 11 or 12 - anyone concerned with the religious significance of Christmas should be forewarned that this film depicts possession of a crystal as essential to eternal life and repeatedly refers to "magic" as the key to understanding and experiencing Christmas.

bunecarlos The talking animals and kids are cute, and if you can make it past the cruel orphanage administrator who casts children into a creepy basement as a punishment and a dying Santa in a hospital (that included an oxygen mask and tubes!), you just might like the happy ending in the last 5 minutes of this awful movie.My 8-year old twins either just sat there quietly or cried throughout, as my wife and I reassured them that Santa wouldn't die.Richard Riehle is a good actor (see: Office Space), but miscast as a odd-looking, less-than-robust Santa. Most mall Santas would have been a better choice.