Every Christmas I find myself watching movies like The Polar Express and Elf. Every year I get increasingly confused by how they both make the same mistake when it comes to believing in Santa. In these two movies (other movies are just as guilty but I want to focus on these 2 modern icons) there is the conflict of belief in Santa. It’s a reasonable enough conflict since a lot of kids have the same struggle in real life as they grow up. The difference is, in these movies Santa exists and in the real world, parents spend hundreds of dollars on their children and give the credit to a fat man with a fetish for midgets in uniform. In a movie where Santa exists there is no excuse for doubt in Santa’s existence.
In The Polar Express we see that Santa has a huge sack full of presents in the north pole. However the main character (according to IMDB his name is “Hero Boy”)’s parents don’t believe in Santa. Assuming that Santa delivers the presents that Steven Tyler spends all year making
(this assumption is correct because by the time Billy gets delivered home from Tom Hanks’ magic train ride, Santa already left a present at his house), how the hell do these two adults think their children are getting the presents if they don’t believe in Santa? It is insane that they flat out don’t believe Santa exists but at the same time accept the fact that presents appear under the tree for their children.
Now in Elf (far better Christmas movie) Walter doesn’t believe in Santa. Walter was on the naughty list so it would make sense that he never got any presents from Santa, but his kid wasn’t on the naughty list. Michael was getting “a real Huff Board” that year, proof that he was in fact on the nice list and received presents from Santa (if you are saying, “well this could have been the first year that he made the nice list” just fuck off. Michael was an alright kid and definitely didn’t deserve to be naughty listed). Walter is pretty adamant about his denial of Santa, as are a majority of the adults in this one. How is the whole world receiving these presents from Santa yet still denying his existence at the same time? Just give the man his due so that he can fly his magic sleigh.
Movies need to either get a better explanation for dealing with Santa doubters or they need to stay away from this topic, cause as is they are just fucking up.
Movies also need to give their characters real names cause “Hero Boy” is just pathetic. It also sounds like a Japanese anime character’s name.
Now you night be saying that I have read too far into these Christmas movies and I just need to take them at face value. Well last night I read an essay that someone wrote about how A Christmas Story is racist (Don’t click on that link, the whole thing is asinine) so I think I’m being very fair in this criticisms.
Doc's Blog 