Gotta Catch Santa Claus – DVD Review

The Flick:

I’m a sucker for Christmas cartoons, I love em. Besides Halloween, Christmas time is my favorite time of year. I get giddy at the thought of watching my favorite Christmas specials on the boob-tube, and at first glance Gotta Catch Santa Claus seemed like it was going to be added to my Christmas watch list. The premise is pretty neat, at least it’s sounds neat when reading it on the back cover of the DVD, but the flick never lives up to the promise of greatness etched onto its DVD sleeve.

Trevor is a cool kid that enjoys playing chess, science, hanging around with his friends. He even has an awesome pair of scientist parents that seem to let him be himself. Only there’s something that separates Trevor from most kids his age…he believes in Santa Claus. So when he finds out that his friend Veronica doesn’t believe in the fat man in the red suit, he sets his sights on proving his existence to her.

If writer/director Steven de Souza would have stuck to that simple premise I would have really enjoyed Gotta Catch Santa Claus, but he instead adds in a goofy ice monster named LeFreeze and his evil snowman minions. Phooey! Why do filmmakers always feel that they need to take the path of least resistance? I understand that adding LeFreeze into the fold takes some of the pressure off of the kids, but in this reviewers opinion it turned what could have been an unique story into a weak attempt at mediocrity.

I did enjoy William Shatner as Santa Claus, and for the most part I enjoyed the all of the kid characters, but the story’s villains completely ruined it for me. On the upside, my children didn’t seem to mind LeFreeze. I guess I’m just burned out on goofy characters, and while I could have done without LeFreeze, he seemed to fit into the story perfectly as far as his target demographic are concerned.

I didn’t think Gotta Catch Santa Claus was a killer film, but my children certainly did.

The DVD:

Audio/Video

The audio came through my home theatre system speakers loud and clear, and the video was crisp and colorful.

Special Features

Deleted Scenes: I really enjoyed the deleted scenes, even though some of them were nothing more than rough animation at best. The deleted footage shows that the filmmakers actually changed the story around quite a bit from what was originally planed. This feature is totally worth watching.

Santa Behind-the Scenes: Shatner in the recording booth doing his thing. Funny, but short lived.

Sing Alnog Songs: Two of the songs from the movie with a sing-a-long track. I didn’t care for this, but my kids seemed to enjoy it.

The Flick: Rating:

The DVD: Rating: