One of Geoffrey’s improv group members joins us to talk about a Christmas special he loved as a kid: The Rankin and Bass stop motion Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town! You can catch Fouhy in Improvised History at the Democracy Center in Harvard Square, or in Junebug, a Firefly-inspired improv show (which our own Geoffrey is in, too). The next Junebug appearance is February 23rd, 2020 at Improv Boston.
Image Description: Kris Kringle as a young red-haired man with a menacing grimace.
Here’s Fouhy’s hazy summary:
“It's about the origin story of Santa. I think he's an orphan adopted by elves and has an amazing facility with making wooden toys. Wooden toys are Important in this film. There's something in here about mysterious parentage and him being found with some item that has SC branded on it? For reasons I don't remember he goes out into the world on his own. I think it has to do with finding a wife? I know at some point he meets Mrs. Claus and that's a whole thing. He finds some ancient, evil ice warlock and convinces him to become good with the power of wooden toys. Then he finds his first humans, who are in a town run by a miserly burgomeister (the Rankin-Bass films can have some weird anti-European sentiment in them). I think this is where the future Mrs. Claus comes in? Anyway, he also convinces the burgomeister to become a better man through, again, the power of wooden toys. Then I think he found his workshop in the North Pole and the rest is history.”
Was he right? Mostly!
This is the second thing we’ve watched where a hapless penguin ends up in the wrong part of the world (the first was The Chipmunk Adventure). Is this part of a larger trend? #PenguinWatch
This movie’s narrator was Fred Astaire (!!!), and one of the other voice actors in this was Paul Frees, the Ghost Host in Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride. Geoffrey also noted that Paul Frees was in Flight of Dragons, and pledged that we will cover that at some point. Are you a Flight of Dragons fan? Let us know!
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Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town with Fouhy