Search - Gotta Catch Santa Claus on DVD

Pretty Cool Christmas Movie for toddlers thru tweens

Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt | Washington, DC Area | 11/12/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In a nutshell, the storyline is about Trevor, a 12 year old tween who recruits his two nerdy science geek friends to prove Santa does exist to this cute little girl he is crushing on but who doesn't believe in Santa. They eventually succeed in doing just that, catching Santa, smack in the middle of Santa's Christmas eve romp. Using a laser device Trevor's wacky astronomer/scientist parents conveniently left hanging around unattended, Trevor & pals intercept a plan by a 100 year old goofball ice monster LeFreeze and his snowmen henchmen who were also trying to take out Santa for good themselves. Apparently, LeFreeze, from a new Ice Planet Trev's parents discovered and who was awakened after 100 years, has a grudge with Santa and tries every 100 years to finally put Santa to bed, permanently. [Insert evil laugh here]

My challenge: Review the movie with a range of children, my kids
Cast of challengers: Me & My kids A.k.A. The Mischiefmakers
The Reviewers: Me eager working mom, blogger, wife
Cboy aka "the Tween" (7 ): cynical and snarky kid who is into video games, computers, tech gadgets & is too smart for his own good sometimes and other than an occasional Spongebob or classic Tom & Jerry, has moved on to kids shows with real people in them like iCarly (which I think is a bit too old for him, but that's another post for another day)
Jboy aka the "Middle boy" (4) : classic angst-filled middle kid who has a wonderful imagination, is curious, energetic & loves movies and has the patience to sit through a movie 1 hour long or more
GG aka the "Toddler" (22 months): typical toddler who is easily entertained by moving sound, objects and music. She's along for the ride.

With the toddler balanced on one knee gnawing on my rubber cell phone cover and the middle child barely staying on my other knee, we start the movie after I call up a dozen times for snarky 7 year old who thinks he's too cool for a Santa movie to come up from the basement and review the movie with us. Reluctantly, Cboy watches the movie in true "teenage protest style" while sitting on the steps and peering into the room where we're watching.

It starts with Trevor introducing the show and how it's different than other movies....screeeech...before we get there, I must mention that the movie had 4 previews/trailers of other upcoming features which my 4-year old especially DID NOT APPRECIATE. He kept asking, "when is the movie going to start mom?" I eventually forwarded past the scenes, but it was a bit irksome to have to do that especially when there was an option to see the trailers in the menu screen. They would be better left there so that parents can "opt in" to see them rather having to "opt out".

Anyway, it was a fun movie to watch (in my adult mind) because it was cute and I really enjoyed the voices of the characters singing the original songs in the movie, especially the character Veronica, the little hottie Trevor's trying to convince Santa really exists. If there was a big lesson about anything in there that children were supposed to come away with, I missed it, but the CGI technology gave it a 3-D effect that I could appreciate, and so could the kids because the extra dimensions were eye catching.

The toddler loved the songs and bopped her head along. There were enough moving characters, actions and sequences to keep her attention for 35 out of the 66 minutes the movie ran. Not bad.

The Tween couldn't help be snarky throughout the movie. "They're trying to catch Santa," I announce at the beginning of the movie. "I know, I just read that a second ago on the screen." he retorts back. When did this kid turn into a full out teenager, I'm thinking at this point. Also, 10 minutes into the film after disappearing with the DVD box into his corner stair watching point, he comes back, sticks the DVD box in my face and says"see here, the entire plot is explained, can I go now? I get it." Sheesh. "No!" I tell him. He returns after each song sequence to point out that this is one of 6 songs that is in the movie cause "he read it on the box" (then would proceed to point out the notation on the box indicating that there are "6 Jolly Jammin' Songs!")

Well, good thing I made him sit through it, eventually he did get into a couple of the scenes especially the action packed ones when the boys actually shoot Santa from the sky and the snow ball fight between LeFreeze and his snowmen and Trevor, Veronica and kids. So in the end, it did appeal to the Tween but only after being strong-armed to.

The movie was best suited for 4-year old Middle Boy. He sat still through all 66 minutes, bopped his head and hummed at the songs and followed all of the action, activity and dialogue from beginning to end. The perfect demographic for the DVD. Overall, it was a cute story, had fun characters and catchy pop tunes to keep young children entertained."

Fun Holiday Movie

K. Vetrano | New York | 11/17/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gotta Catch Santa Claus is a holiday animated movie that was actually released last year but has just been released on DVD and will air for the first time on ABC Family.

Gotta Catch Santa Claus is about a boy name Trevor and his best friend Veronica. During a Chess competition Trevor and Veronica got into a discussion as to whether or not Santa Claus was real. Trevor truly believed in Santa where as Veronica felt that it was impossible for Santa to exist. Veronica went so far as to scientifically disprove that Santa could exist.

To prove Veronica wrong Trevor and his nerdy friends (I don't remember their names, I just know them as "X" and "Y" who are twins) set out of devise a plan to capture Santa. Even though she was skeptical Veronica hung around the boys to see if they could pull it off.

Much to their surprise the kids were able to bring down Santa and capture him. This also made it easier for an evil ice monster from outer space name LeFreeze to find Santa. LeFreeze has been trying to capture Santa to take care of a 100 year old grudge he has against him. With the help of his evil snowman minions LeFreeze comes to town to capture Santa for himself.

I'm not going to tell you how the story pans out. You'll just have to purchase the DVD.

My whole family had the opportunity to view the movie. My husband liked it but said it was not as endearing as the true holiday classics like Rudolph and Frosty. My 12 year old daughter said it was cool and thought it was funny when Santa was hip hop dancing.

I think the one person in my family who was most taken with the movie was my 10 year old son. He loved it! I can see it's appeal with boys and 'tween boys. The main character is a young boy and there are a lot of gadgets and they would find the robotic alien LeFreeze entertaining too.

I thought it was a fun movie. There are several songs in the movie including the very catchy title song "Gotta Catch Santa Claus". The songs in the movie are very much geared towards the 'tween and younger crowd but I found them to be cute and catchy.

I liked the 3-D animals and the likable characters. I thought Mrs. Claus was amusing because she is portrayed as someone very thing and sexy (Mrs. Claus should not be sexy - LOL!).

We've added Gotta Catch Santa Claus to our holiday DVD collection. I can see us watching it again on Wednesday as well as every year when we bring out the holiday DVDs.

Gotta Catch Santa Claus also comes with some bonus features including fun sing-along songs (including Gotta Catch Santa Claus) as well as deleted scenes. I found the deleted scenes most especially interesting because the original story line is nothing like the final movie. The entire movie was originally very different. It's interesting how they changed their minds and made the movie go in a different direction.

I should add that William Shatner is the voice of Santa."