This Christmas special is nothing more than a thinly-veiled geo-political propaganda. Santa is the embodiment of a Christian, Captialist America bringing toys to an impoverished Communist totalitarian state. The tale is a metaphor for America toppling the Eastern Bloc through our superior economic production, liberal-democratic culture and our commitment to tradiional American values. Santa is nothing more than a holly-jolly Ronald Reagan.
Then again, you're talking to a man who thinks that The Incredibles is Objectivist propaganda and that Elastagirl was intentionally drawn to resemble Ayn Rand. I know--I need help.
You're actually correct, to a point, but it's not anything groundshaking. For one thing, the important thing the show was against was not Communism, but Totalitarianism. Burgermeister Meisterburger demonstrated no Communist (or Marxist, if you will) policies. His personality was insensitive, self-centered, greedy, and despotic. Christmas is nothing if not opposed to greed.
Secondly, as Christmas is primarily a Christian holiday, the show would naturally espouse some Christian ideals--which were anathema to Communists and those regimes which espoused Communism (however superficially).
And the story of Rudolf told us how it's OK to shun those different from us unless or until we find them useful, and since they want so much to be like us they will acquiesce regardless of how horribly we've treated them.
And Frosty shows it's Marxist leanings: it's ok to take from those who have (the magic hat from the magician) to give to those with little or none (Frosty).
You can read anything you want into anything, regardless of how absurd it is, so why don't you just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show for what it is: family fun entertainment.
The special was made in 1970 so I think they were moe or less predicting the downfall of communism, or were in their own way denoting the past history of Germany a'la 1918 WWI and Kaiser Wilhelm (with a bit of WWII thrown in too...hey I was just waiting for Santa to don a leather bomber jacket and cap and go up against Cornel Klink and be one of Hogan's Heroes) but anyway I guess it gets it's point across that although Santa tried to cure the world with toys, they were still ostricized and forced to move to the North Pole.
Ah it's just a Christmas special so you take it at face value. I mostly liked it for the songs and the love story, although when ABC Family shows it they usually edit out Jessica's 'flower child' love song about Chris where she lets her hair down. (That was my favorite part when I was a kid, lol.)
Oy -- how young are you people? The Burger Meister Meister Burger is clearly -- CLEARLY -- Henry Kissinger! He looks like him; he sounds like him. Kris Kringle is a hippie. At one point, the Burger Meister calls him a "non-comformist" and a "rebel." This movie indicts the complacent American society that elected (and that very word appears in one of the songs) Richard Nixon. This is a hippie fairy tale that extols the virtues of nature over society and the individual free-spirit over a corrupt government.
I grew up thinking that The Wizard of Oz was just a kid's movie. When I got to college, I found out that The Wizard of Oz was an allegory of the times with the scarecrow representing the farmers (needs a brain), the tinman representing industry (no heart), the lion representing the courage of the people (I'm so afraid), and Dorothy representing the innocence of the people. I'll give you one guess what the Emerald City is and why the Wizard is a charlatan who has no real power (the communist party was a real third power in the 1890's when the tale was written. The Democratic party co-opted their values the same way that The Republican Contract with America was the platform of Ross Perot's Reform Party). In the same respect, Santa Claus is Comin to Town is a Cold War allegory. Claus represents capitalism, the Winter Warlock-socialism/regulation, Burgermeister-communism, and Jessica is education. Any wonder why capitalism marries education?
In any respect, it takes me back to when I was a kid, and of course I get choked up (I have issues with Christmas).
You could interpret the Kringles as the proletariat, and Santa as an amalgam of Lenin and Marx. Why else did he wear red? Burgermeister rejects the young Claus child, he is clearly representing Monarchy, ala the Tsars who rejected socialism, but were eventually done in by it. The children washing stockings were the people forced to labor under the Tsars, their work only benefitted the ruling class. Kris showed them the way to equality under Communism. Or maybe I just made this up in 2 minutes to sound ridiculous. Some people have written enormous papers trying to interpret Moby Dick. Melville was quoted once as saying it was merely an adventure story about a man hunting a whale. I guess to some people a cigar is never only a cigar....
It was a PRO-commie political message. If you look up all the voice-actors, they were all communist sympathizers back in the day. Plus, all the red. Santa's the ultimate communist... bringing crap for free to everyone. :D
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Whether they find life there or not, I think Jupiter should be considered an enemy planet.
I say it's antidisestablishmentarianism, with Kris representing the counter-culture of the 1970s and the Burger Meister Meister Burger and his forces being the "squares" who reject the peace/love/happiness ideals. The toys are symbolic of -- amongst other things -- marijuana, and when Kris gives the Burger Meister his yo-yo "joint" the guy reverts back into an innocent childlike state.
I can see how the drab gray toned imagery of the toyless town can serve as a metaphor for the Soviet Bloc in general, but for my money the militarism of the Burger Meister's forces is more representative of a Weimar Republic like state model, with a de-facto dictatorial head who cannot cope with the prospect of social change represented by the Kringles. In that sense the Kringles could be an embodiment of Socialist worker ideals who's non-conformity threatens the stability of the Burger Meister's grip on power.
I'm bumping this post in hopes it will not get 'cleaned up'. It is their site. They do have the right to do this. [even though it makes sad] The message board for Rudolph the Red~nosed Reindeer was very recently 'cleaned up' [within the past few days or so] and the oldest remaining post is 5/11/2010 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058536/board/threads/?p=2 If anyone else wants older posts to remain, you can also try bumping them as I am