The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

<p><strong>Day 5:</strong> Rankin/Bass goes off the rails in its last-ever stop motion animated Christmas special, 1985’s “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus,” based on the 1902 book by “Wizard of Oz” author L. Frank Baum, which explains a lot.</p> <h4>On This Episode</h4> <ol> <li><strong>Mike Westfall</strong> (<a href="https://twitter.com/fallwestmike">@fallwestmike</a>), lord of the Sound Imps.</li> <li><strong>Paxton Holley</strong> (<a href="https://twitter.com/paxtonholley">@paxtonholley</a>), grand protector of movie novelizations from the <a href="http://cavalcadeofawesome.net">Cavalcade of Awesome</a>, <a href="http://ireadmovies.libsyn.com">I Read Movies</a>, <a href="http://nerdlunch.net">Nerd Lunch</a>, the <a href="https://cultfilmclub.com/">Cult Film Club</a>, and <a href="http://hellbentforletterbox.libsyn.com">Hellbent for Letterbox</a>.</li> <li><strong>Brandon Medley</strong> (<a href="https://twitter.com/brandmed">@brandmed</a>) master beardsman of <a href="https://blessedarethegeek.tumblr.com">Blessed are the Geek</a>.</li> </ol> <hr /> <h4>Topics and Tangents</h4> <ol> <li>Santa Claus’s growth to manhood, from J.D. Roth to Mumm-ra, and the rest of the Thundercats cast is here, too!</li> <li>Read L. Frank Baum’s original book on the Internet Archive: <ul> <li><a href="https://archive.org/details/lifeandadventure00520gut">Text ebook</a>, courtesy of Project Gutenberg.</li> <li><a href="https://archive.org/details/lifeadventuresof00baum">Borrow the book in PDF format</a>.</li> <li><a href="https://archive.org/details/life_of_claus_librivox">Audiobook</a> by Kristin LeMoine for Librivox.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Pax’s <a href="https://blog.paxholley.net/2013/12/23/a-review-of-l-frank-baums-the-life-adventures-of-santa-claus-1902/">review of the Baum book</a> and “<a href="https://blog.paxholley.net/2012/06/11/review-of-oz-book-5-the-road-to-oz-1909/">Road to Oz</a>,” which also features Santa.</li> <li>Baum’s sequel story, “<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/519">A Kidnapped Santa