Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town

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Rankin/Bass Productions (1970)

Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town is a 1970 stop motion Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. The film stars Fred Astaire as the narrator S.D. Kluger, Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle / Santa Claus, Keenan Wynn as the Winter Warlock, and Paul Frees in various roles.

The film tells the story of how Santa Claus and several Claus-related Christmas traditions came to be. It is based on the hit Christmas song “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”, which was introduced on radio by Eddie Cantor in 1934, and the story of Saint Nicholas.

The special was created using Japanese stop motion animation called “Animagic”, in which all the characters are made out of wood and plastic and animated via stop-motion photography.