Santa In Animal Land

Dir: Stefan Sharff

1948

**

Stefan Sharff's 1948 kid's short film about animal's lack of Santa figure is touching, sweet, heart-breaking, heart-warming and utterly terrifying. That might sound a little unfair, and it is a little unfair if I'm being honest as the sentiment is very tender but as much as I love the story and puppetry etc, the truth is that the papier-mâché pets featured look like they either need an exorcism or have just had one. Krampus is a scary character and the Santa in Silent Night, Deadly Night kills nuns with an axe but the jolly St Nick in Santa In Animal Land is the most frightening thing I have ever seen. I believe they ripped its beard off and re-used it in Troll 2 but I could be wrong about that. It's a sad revelation that Santa doesn't leave gifts for animals, although it's a bit odd that when challenged on the subject he admitted he was fully aware of how unfair it was and had also given it a lot of thought without actually doing anything about it. His 'if you want a Santa then be your own Santa' message was also a little confusing. I've always regarded Santa as a busy and rather clever chap but here is is clearly being a bit lazy and emotionally detached. As for giving the job of 'Animal Santa' to a cat, well that's just ridiculous. It's true that if the job was given to a dog he'd only pee on the presents and the rabbit would most likely hump the Elves but giving the most anticipated and most logistically challenging job to a feline is several steps beyond utter madness. It is by far the most unrealistic elements of the entire story. It's rather lovely but you will have nightmares.