Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970)
Retro Review #20: Almost as good as the “Big Three” Christmas specials. What did it get right, and where did it go wrong?
Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970) — Almost as good as the “Big Three” Christmas specials. What did it get right, and where did it go wrong?
+ TV special, !@ 51m
A+>
Family Suitability
+ ✅4️⃣ OK for younger kids. (Grades K+) | Approved
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎4️⃣ Excellent/Very Strongly Favorable
+ Based on song “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (1934) by J. Fred Coots and Hayden Gillespie
+ 9️⃣/32 Rankin/Bass TV specials ⭐
+ 5️⃣/? in Rankin/Bass holiday multiverse ⭐
+ 3️⃣/? in Rankin/Bass stop-motion holiday universe ⭐
+ 1️⃣/2 Comin’ to Town TV specials ⭐
Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970)
Grade: A+> (20.0) / HOF: 12
EQ 👍A+ | 📖A+ 👥A+ 📽️A+ 🎼A
DW 😎😎10.4| 🌚10 🌝11
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R ☮️n/a ◀️n/a ▶️n/a 🛐n/a
It’s back to the Rudolph formula for Rankin-Bass in 1970.
Based on song? Check.
Stop motion animation? Check.
Lots of snow, plus Santa and flying reindeer? Check. Check. Check.
“Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” is the sixth Christmas TV special we’ve looked at, fourth by Rankin/Bass. While it isn’t quite in the same stratosphere as Charlie Brown, the Grinch or Rudolph, it’s just a whisker below. This is perhaps due to the lack of an iconic song recording or soundtrack album. In my humble opinion, that's the only area in which it falls short.
I hadn’t seen this special in decades, but must have seen it more than a couple of times when I was young, because it all came back to me. Like Rudolph, the textures revealed by HD really enhanced the viewing pleasure. Beyond just the textures, “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” has excellent animation that looks fantastic in HD.
Surpassing even that though is the well-told story. This special beats even the Big Three Christmas specials when it comes to delivering plot details. We get, not one, but two, villains to overcome, a legendary hero and a happily-ever-after romance, all while learning the origin of everything Santa!
Honorable mention shout out to whoever came up with the character names, perhaps Romeo Muller, writer of the special. Dingle Kringle is a home run to begin with, but when you discover his brothers are named Ringle, Tingle, Wingle and Zingle, that’s like following a solo homer immediately with a grand slam! (Not actually possible in baseball, but I’m making a point here.)
The truly amazing part is that you almost don’t appreciate the introduction of the Kringle bros when it arrives on screen, because your world has already been rocked by what may be the greatest character name of all time. That’s right. Burgermeister Meisterburger. The mayor of Sombertown.
The characterizations here are good beyond the names. A little stop-motion wood and plastic model looking like Fred Astaire and voiced by him, harkens back to Jimmy Durante in “Frosty the Snowman”.
Mickey Rooney gives a good performance as Kris Kringle/Santa Claus. Naturally I had a brief crush on the pretty Miss Jessica. And we’re all glad that the Claus’s marriage works out better in the special than seven out of Rooney’s eight marriages IRL.
When we check our Dark Whimsy meter for “Santa...”, we’re just an inch behind the Grinch. The Dark scale reads pretty similar, perhaps even favoring Santa a little. The Whimsy scale shows Santa leading too, at first. But then the Grinch comes along with an all-time great Dark Whimsy Christmas song to win on both scales by a greasy black peel!
You know how I love my Dark Whimsy! And one banana short of the Grinch is not a bad place to be. So if you’re making a list and checking it twice, “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” sure can be nice.
Onwards!
+ last viewed (~6) 2025-12-11, HDX7, 1.33, 1M
+ first viewed 1970-12-13, sd2, 1.33, 1
+ 👨👩👧👦🎈⛄🎄🎅🎶🦄🧚🛡️💘🐾🐾🦌🦌
Family Suitability Detail
+ ✅4️⃣ OK for younger kids. (Grades K+) | Approved
+ 😡+3^ 😵💫+4 🤬+4 🤭+4 🫣+4
Judeo-Christian Values Detail
+ ❎4️⃣ Excellent/Very Strongly Favorable
+ ✝️ +4 ➕✝️✝️😇😇❤️❤️❤️💒🩸💜🩷
+ ✡️ +4 ➕✡️✡️✡️🌗🌗🌗💎🤍
+ 🗽 +3 ➕🗽🗽📜📜📜🏦💛
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Originally posted to text group 2024-12-10
Re-reviewed and updated 2025-12-11
Note from Rick Retro: This review was originally posted December 10, 2024 to a select group of friends and family via a text group. We have roughly five times as many subscribers in our community now, so I am working on formatting and uploading all those old reviews to Substack for all of you and future subscribers as well.
At that time, I had not completely developed my full review format, so I am also re-reviewing most of these works to match the format of my newer reviews. Since these posts were almost entirely holiday themed from a 2024 Christmas Tour, I am now uploading these reviews as part of a 2025 Christmas Tour, all intended to get my archives completed while giving new subscribers a chance to experience older reviews on a measured basis.
But if you’d rather just start from the original beginning, visit this post and follow the “Next (all sections) ➡️” links at the end of each post, until you arrive at this one, where that link will be dead, until I upload the next post from our text group archives 😉. When the next post is not yet available, there will be a link to the post that is “Next Available, skipping over text group posts not yet uploaded ➡️”
The first post to Substack after the current “Text Group Gaps” of posts I have not yet uploaded can be found here. From this post, following the “Next (all sections) ➡️” links will bring you all the way to the most current post.
This note will disappear when the next text group post is added, and this review takes its rightful spot in our archives. For now, I hope you enjoy this look into Christmas past!
Text Group Comments:
W: I've forgotten that one! Will have to check it out!
S: I loved that one! And never forgot the old Burgermeister Meisterburger.