The Boy Who Saved Christmas (1998)

I'd never seen this before, but the art in the opening credits really took me back to 1998. I was just starting college and I had a new computer (an Aptiva), which included a number of programs. I didn't have Office (that would have cost extra), but I had a suite of knockoffs, including a rudimentary paint program. I mention this because the art in the movie is about on par with what I could have whipped up at the time.

That sets a pretty good expectation for the rest of the movie, which has the feel of a made-for-TV production that probably wasn't quite polished enough to actually air on television. Or maybe it did. Honestly, I don't know where this did or didn't air or screen, if it went direct-to-video, or what. I don't know much of anything about "The Boy Who Saved Christmas" that wasn't in the movie itself, because there doesn't seem to be much information available - no Wikipedia page, a relatively barebones IMDB entry, and no readily available fan pages or news articles in the first few pages of a web search (though the web's so broken now, who the hell knows what's buried).

But as far as I can tell, this was a low-budget fantasy film written by Marc Vahanian, an actor presumably trying to break into writing, and directed by John Putch, who at the time was most notable for a sizable number of episodes of the Power Rangers knockoff, BeetleBorgs, though he'd go on to a successful career in television shows and movies, including the fairly well-received Hallmark movie, A Biltmore Christmas. This has shown up on some of those cheap Christmas movie collections you used to find for $10 or $12 every December. Judging by the movie, I'm guessing this was originally released direct-to-video: the production values aren't where they'd need to be for this to receive a theatrical release, and it's not trying to be artistic or insightful. This is a very silly movie for kids about a boy helping a briefly amnesiac Santa Claus recover his memories and his magic hat, escape a couple of lackeys working for his evil brother, Atnas, then defeat the villain in a magic-infused laser fight at the North Pole.

And if that sounds like it might be fun... well... it actually kind of is. Remember when I mentioned that BeetleBorgs connection? I don't think I've ever seen an episode, but this has the campy energy I associate with '90s Saban. Atnas is basically doing an impression of a cartoon supervillain, and his two main followers are, for all intents and purposes, Murky and Lurky in live-action. Putch uses extreme close-ups, weird angles, cartoonish framerates, and the like to make this at least interesting. It's absurd and... yeah, kind of amusing, so long as you can stomach stretches of cheesy tween sitcom drama. I don't watch many things I consider deserving of the label, "So bad it's good," these days, but this earns it. And, to its credit, I'm pretty sure that's what it was going for.

To be clear, though, it's still bad. There are a handful of solid jokes but not nearly the amount needed to cross over into something consistently funny. The camera angles are fun, but the lighting is horrendous. The design mostly consists of establishing shots in what looks like a theme park and what I'm guessing were a handful of borrowed props from some TV show or another (my money's on BeetleBorgs). It just doesn't look like a movie. Hell, it barely looks like a TV show from the era. It isn't good.

The plot is a jumbled version of the template movies like this tend to default to. I say jumbled, because almost every plot point includes bizarre complications that seem like they're added to pad the runtime. The movie begins by introducing us to Jeremy, a boy writing an email to Santa Claus. Jeremy's parents are having marital issues stemming from his father losing his job and trying to cancel Christmas to save money. Also, Jeremy's brother is a bully.

Meanwhile, Santa is trying to get the hang of all the new technology being installed by Pointer, the nerdiest of his elves. Soon Santa's brother, Atnas, arrives with his goons (and for those wondering, the movie does call out that Atnas is Santa spelled backwards). Atnas captures Mrs. Claus and the elves and uses a device to try and send Santa to Pluto. For some reason, Santa bounces off the moon instead and crash lands in Jeremy's backyard. He has amnesia until Jeremy gives him a cookie, at which point he remembers who he is, what happened, and that he needs to get home to save Christmas. By then, Atnas's goons are after him. Santa avoids their first attempt, but they capture him eventually and bring him to a cave. Atnas reveals himself to the world, announces his plan to cancel Christmas, and threatens to kill Santa if all gifts aren't sent to him instead.

For what it's worth, the scene where a couple news reporters react to this is pretty great.

By then, Mrs. Claus has been able to rally a bit of a resistance. She sends Pointer to Jeremy's house, and the two team up, getting help from the owner of a local baseball card shop who has a teleportation device because he's a secret "Friend of Santa" (don't ask). They use this to get to Atnas's goons' cave and (eventually) rescue Santa and return his magic hat. With it, he's able to turn the goons into a toilet and a plunger.

Moving on.

The hat also teleports them to the workshop, where they battle and defeat Atnas using a combination of having Mrs. Claus distract him by pretending to return his affections, Atnas turning his red-robed sword carrying minions into playing cards, Santa laser fighting him to a standstill, and Jeremy using a baseball to send him to Pluto.

And, no, I do not plan on explaining any of that.

The movie ends with Santa dropping Jeremy off at home, where his parents are waiting, concerned (since he's been missing, and the only clue they received was a card shop owner telling them he was on a "hero's journey"). Santa reminds his parents they love each other (he already solved the job issue by convincing Jeremy's dad to start a pool-cleaning business), and gives Jeremy's brother a scholarship to a military academy (something Jeremy asked for in his email at the beginning, since it would get him out of the house). Jeremy receives a scroll proclaiming him "the boy who saved Christmas." You'd think Santa would throw in a PlayStation, too, but the kid seems happy.

The cast is virtually all unknowns, several of whom only have this one credit on IMDB. Santa is played by a young actor wearing an outfit and comically fake beard I'm assuming were purchased at a costume store. That said, by the time he's shooting lasers from his hat, the casting choice seems, at the very least, appropriate to the movie being made.

Again, this isn't a good movie by any stretch, but it's has a sense of humor about what it is, it leans into its limitations, and the end result is about as fun as it could be without turning into an actual parody of its own genre (though perhaps it should have taken that leap). I wouldn't recommend this to anyone looking for something serious, or even a well-made comedy (though, again, it's got some solid jokes, including a much-appreciated jab at libertarians), but as the sort of movie you can laugh at and occasionally with... it makes for a decent enough experience.