Santa Claus is a traditional, secular figure of Christmas good cheer who is the best known (at least in modern times) mascot of Christmas, developed in the United States as an amalgam of the story of Saint Nicholas and various other seasonal folk heroes, with many aspects provided by the classic poem A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Moore. Santa is typically depicted as a jolly overweight man in a red-and-white suit who lives in a workshop at the North Pole. There, he and his staff of elves produce toys all year round, which he then personally distributes to good children all over the world on Christmas Eve.
Appearances as a character[]
TaleSpin[]
Santa's existence provides the crux of the plot in the TaleSpin episode "Jolly Molly Christmas". In the episode, Molly Cunningham begins to doubt the existence of Santa, but Baloo says that he can prove it by bringing her to the North Pole. To do so, however, he asks Louie to dress up as Santa and disguise his tavern as Santa's workshop, and then brings Molly to meet "Santa". However, things become problematic when Baloo and Louie learn that what Molly wants for Christmas is to grant her mother Rebecca's wish for snow. Things get even worse when the other patrons of Louie's show up and rip off his fake beard, exposing the act. Devastated by this, Molly runs off crying and asks what she's going to give her mom for Christmas now. However, she then has an encounter with a figure we never see, but is heavily implied to be the real Santa Claus.
Darkwing Duck[]
After having only appeared offscreen in the TaleSpin episode, the Darkwing Duck episode "It's a Wonderful Leaf" marks Santa's first physical onscreen appearance on the Disney Afternoon. After Gosalyn decides to give her Christmas presents to the Muddlefoots (due to their original gifts having been stolen by Bushroot), and Drake delivers them dressed as Santa, Launchpad finds a sled for Gosalyn on the doorstep, supposedly left by Santa. Drake asks who left the sled there, as neither he nor Launchpad bought her one. Looking up into the sky, they then see the real Santa flying off into the sky (and ignoring Tank's cries for help after getting stuck in the chimney; likely, Tank was on Santa's naughty list that year).
Bonkers[]
The Bonkers episode "Miracle at the 34th Precinct" marks Santa's most prominent appearance on a Disney Afternoon show. At the beginning of the episode, he and the reindeer Blitzen test out his new sleigh, but they fly into a blizzard and Santa falls out of the sleigh. He crashes through the roof of Fall-Apart Rabbit's house and is struck with amnesia as a result. Fall-Apart, not knowing who Santa is, decides to call him Jim and takes him to the beach, despite the inexplicable snowfall that has come to Hollywood. Despite his amnesia, "Jim" still finds himself instinctively giving out their picnic food to everyone else on the beach. Later, Fall-Apart's chair launches Santa up onto the roof, which ends up curing his amnesia. Afterward, Bonkers D. Bobcat, who has been searching for Santa all day, brings him to the Piquel residence to meet Marilyn, who's been having doubts about Santa's existence. This episode was notably one of Hal Smith's final times voicing Santa in a Christmas cartoon, as he passed away the following year.
Connections[]
The following actors in Disney Afternoon shows have portrayed Santa in other film or television appearances (including other Disney cartoons).
- Michael Bell portrayed the live-action Santa seen in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Christmas Who?"
- Earl Boen voiced Santa in the Pinky and the Brain episode "A Pinky and the Brain Christmas" and the Johnny Bravo episode "A Johnny Bravo Christmas"
- Clancy Brown voiced Santa in Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation!
- Corey Burton voiced Santa in the House of Mouse episode "Clarabelle's Christmas List"
- Jim Cummings voiced Santa in the Earthworm Jim episode "For Whom the Jingle Bell Tolls", The Online Adventures of Ozzie the Elf, and the 2000 version of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
- Pat Fraley voiced Santa in the My Life as a Teenage Robot episode "A Robot for All Seasons"
- Christopher Lloyd voiced Santa in the Big City Greens episode "Green Christmas"
- Chuck McCann voiced Santa in Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas
- Hal Smith voiced Santa in several Christmas specials for Hanna-Barbera, including A Flintstone Christmas, Casper's First Christmas, Yogi's First Christmas, and The Town Santa Forgot
- Frank Welker voiced Santa in A Chipmunk Christmas and Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas