Double Standards and Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

One of the biggest issues when it comes to equality in modern society is a tendency to have double standards.  The serious double standards aren’t the only ones that exist, and they definitely aren’t the ones that I’m going to focus my writing on.  I would not be able to do that deeply intellectual subject any justice.  I did bring it up for a reason though.  The topic that I am going to write about deals with a double standard in movies.  I probably still won’t do the concept any justice, but I still feel it important to bring up in relation to this week’s Sunday “Bad” Movie, Santa Claus: The Movie.

Santa Claus: The Movie was released in 1985.  It was about Santa Claus becoming Santa Claus, as well as the evil deeds of toy manufacturer B.Z.  I have heard for years that this is a bad movie.  More than a few times, the reasoning for the movie being bad was that it shared many story moments with Superman: The Movie, a movie released in 1978.  Both movies were released by the Salkinds.  Superman spawned a movie franchise while Santa Claus, which was likely aspiring for the same franchise inception, fizzled out due to lackluster box office returns and negative reception.

What I am wondering when it comes to the double standard is the following.  Why is Santa Claus: The Movie looked upon poorly because of the story similarities that it shared with Superman: The Movie, when other movies that share story elements are more positively viewed?  I’ve written about movies that share similarities of this sort before.  It seems strange to me that some movies can get away with sharing stories with other movies, while movies such as Santa Claus: The Movie get verbally punished for it.

Now, I know what the two most obvious reasons for the negative reception Santa Claus: The Movie are.  First, the movie is produced by the same people who produced Superman: The Movie.  It was written by people who helped write the first three Superman films.  It was directed by the director of Supergirl.  Basically, a lot of the people behind Santa Claus: The Movie were from the Superman franchise.  Secondly, many people consider it a just plain bad movie.  I don’t necessarily see it that way.  I see quite a bit in Santa Claus: The Movie to like, but many people would disagree with me.

The problem I have with people considering the movie bad, however, is their reasoning.  It almost always comes down to “Santa Claus: The Movie is too much like Superman: The Movie” without anything to back that up.  Sure, it shares some similar story beats, but there are many movies that share story beats with other movies which are much more highly regarded.  The people who make the argument of story similarities rarely bring up the fact that many of the people behind the two projects are the same.  They just leave it with the stories being similar.

I have a couple of examples of other movies with similar stories that aren’t disregarded because of the similar stories. 

The first one I would like to look at is Magic Mike.  This is one of the ones that I’ve written about before.  The movie that it shares similarities with is Hooper, a movie from the 70s starring Burt Reynolds.  Both movies are about a man at the top of his profession, nearing the end of his career.  A new person, in both cases called The Kid, comes into the profession and instantly becomes a star.  It’s up to the main character to mentor The Kid, until The Kid does something reckless and the main character leaves the career.  Before leaving the career, the main character is told that he is too old to work in that career any longer.  The main character then proves the people who said that wrong by performing one of their best routines yet, whether that be dancing or stunting.  Both main characters get out of their careers before their life is taken by the career.

Magic Mike is seen as a good film.  Nobody brings up the similarities to Hooper.  At least, I haven’t seen anybody bring up these similarities.  I have seen praise for Soderbergh’s direction and the performances throughout the movie.  I have not seen anyone bring up how derivative the writing in the movie actually is.  For some reason, this movie gets a pass for repeating a story, whereas Santa Claus: The Movie gets burned for it.

A second example would be a movie called Real Steel.  This movie came out in 2011, and starred Hugh Jackman.  Maybe that explains it right there.  People love Hugh Jackman.  Anyway, the movie is about a man who meets up with the son he was never there for, and goes on a road trip before ending up in a sporting tournament of some kind.  Throughout the movie, estranged father and son bond and grow a budding relationship.  Does that sound familiar?  It should.  That’s the story of Over the Top, the Sylvester Stallone movie from the 80s.  That’s right.  Real Steel uses the same story as Over the Top.

In the case of Real Steel, I do hear about the similarities to the older movie.  People know that Real Steel is essentially a retread of the material covered by Stallone two and a half decades prior.  But people don’t care.  Real Steel still got many positive reviews, and is looked upon much, much better than Santa Claus: The Movie.  Why is this?  Is Real Steel just an all-around better movie?  Yeah.  I guess it is.  But shouldn’t it get the vitriol that Santa Claus: The Movie gets because of the derivative story?  I think it should, but it doesn’t.

There are other examples out there (not including remakes) that could be used to show my side of the argument.  There are also, surely, examples out there that could show that Santa Claus: The Movie isn’t the only negatively viewed movie that repeats the storyline of another movie.  I even had one of those in a previous Sunday “Bad” Movie post.  It was called April Fools, and I spent a whole post writing about how it shares a lot of similarities with I Know What You Did Last Summer and Prom Night.  I’ll link to that in the notes because I’m not going to go over all of that again.  I’m going to elaborate a little bit though.  April Fools is not a movie that is praised in too many circles, outside of the people who want to watch bad movies to laugh.  I’d be hard-pressed to find too many people who actually know the movie.  That’s why I’m not using it as an example of a movie that is also as negatively received as Santa Claus: The Movie.  There aren’t enough people who know or have seen the movie to make that a strong example.

Even after all of this writing, I’m not entirely sure where all of the negativity for Santa Claus: The Movie comes from.  Maybe it is the fact that so many of the people involved were involved with Superman, and it shares so many similarities with that movie.  Perhaps it is the quality of the movie.  I have a hard time with this idea because I enjoyed the movie.  I still feel that there is a double standard at work in the case of this movie, and double standards are the worst.

There are a few notes that I feel like I should leave here before leaving for the week:

• Here’s the post for April Fools that I mentioned in the post.
• This isn’t the first movie about Santa Claus that I’ve watched for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  I also watched Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
• If you have any suggestions for the Sunday “Bad” Movie, feel free to comment below or message me on Twitter.  I’m always looking for more movies to add to the queue.