"Santa Claus" appears to be of those whacked out K. Gordon Murray hybrid specials. Murray would buy some silly hack product from South American film studios and then hire some more hacks to edit the living crap out of it and dub a "second version" of the movie in English on top of the original sound track.
The "English Version" guys wouldn't just try to translate the lines. Oh no, they were far more ambitious; they apparently thought that they could improve on the script in some manner. So frequently, what we hear on screen does not have all that much to do with what the original version of the film was all about. Similarly ,sometimes even what we SEE has been vastly altered - the order or sequences or length of scenes would be changed, footage would be dropped, even brand new footage from OTHER movies would be mixed in. As a result, these altered 'English Version' movies often undergo a strange 'sea change' from the original Spanish version; tone, pacing, structure or even the story that is being told would be quite different.
Since the intent of the original footage is so out of sync and at odds with what you are watching, the resulting effect on the viewer is seldom desirable. You tend to feel as if you just downed a bottle of cough syrup, a quart of Hagen Daze, and several shots of peppermint schnapps; and then you drank 5 cups of coffee to offset all of the previous stuff; and THEN you had to watch a crappy children's film made by people who have nothing but contempt for children.
That certainly seems to be the case with "Santa Claus". As weird as the original version of this film probably was, what with the wind up reindeer, and Pitch, and Merlin, and the Chucky doll factotum in the cowboy hat, and the "Rolling Stones" giant lips on the wall and the radar dish with the human ear in the center...you can just lump that all into the category of 'cultural differences'. I am pretty sure that the original version was a harmless, if somewhat trippy, kid's film. But once the "English Version" editors got done with it, the results defied description.
For one thing, it is pretty obvious that whoever did the children's voices for the English version read their lines straight off cards; there isn't even an attempt at appropriate inflections, rhythms, emotions, or interplay. They all could be reciting "Mary Had A Little Lamb" at a kindergarten recital. Apparently if the kid read through the line without stuttering or choking, the editors called it good.
For another, the English version guys decided to turn the movie into a "Mystery Play", so they crammed in a Narrator Voice-over/Greek Chorus guy to comment on the action. You know, in case the audience was too stupid or inattentive to figure out what was happening on screen, like when Santa shot Pitch in the butt with a toy dart. And I promise you, Barney the Purple Dinosaur would turn to the camera and ask him to "turn it down to 11, OK?" . The Teletubbies would stop what they were doing to tell this guy to SHUT UP ALREADY.
And whoever did the English version of "Santa Claus" voice deserves special commendation for assaulting our ears with the fruitiest spoken Baritone voice since Dudly Do-Right of the Mounted Police (a comparison that is actually unfair to that fine old cartoon character.)
I don't actually hate this movie. It's too weird and incoherent and structurally messed up and simple minded to hate, and anyway, it's still obviously aimed at children, not adults. But man, it's a tough, gristly thing for any viewer over the age of 6 to choke down. I wouldn't inflict it on my nieces and nephews unless I had a copy of "Bambi" or "Hercules" to soothe the damage from this movie.
The "English Version" guys wouldn't just try to translate the lines. Oh no, they were far more ambitious; they apparently thought that they could improve on the script in some manner. So frequently, what we hear on screen does not have all that much to do with what the original version of the film was all about. Similarly ,sometimes even what we SEE has been vastly altered - the order or sequences or length of scenes would be changed, footage would be dropped, even brand new footage from OTHER movies would be mixed in. As a result, these altered 'English Version' movies often undergo a strange 'sea change' from the original Spanish version; tone, pacing, structure or even the story that is being told would be quite different.
Since the intent of the original footage is so out of sync and at odds with what you are watching, the resulting effect on the viewer is seldom desirable. You tend to feel as if you just downed a bottle of cough syrup, a quart of Hagen Daze, and several shots of peppermint schnapps; and then you drank 5 cups of coffee to offset all of the previous stuff; and THEN you had to watch a crappy children's film made by people who have nothing but contempt for children.
That certainly seems to be the case with "Santa Claus". As weird as the original version of this film probably was, what with the wind up reindeer, and Pitch, and Merlin, and the Chucky doll factotum in the cowboy hat, and the "Rolling Stones" giant lips on the wall and the radar dish with the human ear in the center...you can just lump that all into the category of 'cultural differences'. I am pretty sure that the original version was a harmless, if somewhat trippy, kid's film. But once the "English Version" editors got done with it, the results defied description.
For one thing, it is pretty obvious that whoever did the children's voices for the English version read their lines straight off cards; there isn't even an attempt at appropriate inflections, rhythms, emotions, or interplay. They all could be reciting "Mary Had A Little Lamb" at a kindergarten recital. Apparently if the kid read through the line without stuttering or choking, the editors called it good.
For another, the English version guys decided to turn the movie into a "Mystery Play", so they crammed in a Narrator Voice-over/Greek Chorus guy to comment on the action. You know, in case the audience was too stupid or inattentive to figure out what was happening on screen, like when Santa shot Pitch in the butt with a toy dart. And I promise you, Barney the Purple Dinosaur would turn to the camera and ask him to "turn it down to 11, OK?" . The Teletubbies would stop what they were doing to tell this guy to SHUT UP ALREADY.
And whoever did the English version of "Santa Claus" voice deserves special commendation for assaulting our ears with the fruitiest spoken Baritone voice since Dudly Do-Right of the Mounted Police (a comparison that is actually unfair to that fine old cartoon character.)
I don't actually hate this movie. It's too weird and incoherent and structurally messed up and simple minded to hate, and anyway, it's still obviously aimed at children, not adults. But man, it's a tough, gristly thing for any viewer over the age of 6 to choke down. I wouldn't inflict it on my nieces and nephews unless I had a copy of "Bambi" or "Hercules" to soothe the damage from this movie.