Santa's Enchanted Village

"Santa's Enchanted Village" is a terrible short film which recently has been combined with other shorts to make "Village Christmas Classics"...a film currently on Freevee. The use of the word 'classic' implies it's old...not good in any way.

The film was made at two Santa's Villages--one in Illinois and one in California. Apparently, they used to be some attraction back in the day...sort of like The Enchanted Forest but certainly NOT like Disneyland!

The story consists of a bunch of furries (such as a guy in a wolf and another in a skunk costume) running about with some overdubbing of their voices. As for Santa, he just laughs and laughs and you wonder if he's deranged. There also is a marionette show, lots of bored looking kids and their parents as the costumed animals do whatever it is they do. Personally, I had a hard time discerning any real plot here and it just looked like someone took a lot of random film footage with a super 8 camera and tried to cobble it together to make a theatrical short. I think the plot is about these furries working to make toys instead of the elves...as Santa apparently fired many of the elves or they walked off their jobs. Overall, a weird film that is cheap and plotless...just the sort of things kids want for Christmas!?

The fact this is terrible should come as no surprise, as it was produced by K. Gordon Murray...the same guy responsible for such godawful films as "Shanty Tramp", "Savages from Hell" and "Doctor of Doom"...three films which I have reviewed and I gave all richly deserved ratings of 2!

This movie is very good and extremely chaotic. It feels like a parody. Very confusing.

Short film begins with an intro by a slightly pedophilic looking fat guy, in a red and white suit- quite a contrast to the green grass shown at this supposed North Pole on Christmas. A train brings visitors- okay, it *is* a cool looking bridge, and train going over it. I'll give the film that much- to Santa and the giant mushroom statues, in the green grass of this supposed North Pole, at Christmas. A princess in a horse-drawn, egg-shaped carriage pulls up to the cat- costumed individual... What? Did I really just see that? Well, now we know what the aforementioned mushrooms were used for. Cat creature takes off running, and subsequently trips and falls backward twice- were we supposed to see that? Apparently we were not supposed to see the climax of this story, a fight of some sort, as it takes place off-camera, in the clouds and treetops, while Santa and a group of kids talk and dance in his uncharacteristically green front lawn, at the supposed North Pole, at Christmas. One would never suspect this was filmed in California, rather than a colder, arctic climate.

This mushroom trip of a short film is only good for a couple of unintentional laughs, and is another one with no credited cast, aside from Santa Claus, Stinky the Skunk, Puss'n Boots, etc.