Santa Fox (2025)

“Who the thunk thought of a fox in a Santa suit?”-the film’s tagline

Santa Fox is a 2025 stop-motion animation family film centered around Christmas. It was created in collaboration with StudioCanal and Aardman Animations, Aardman providing the animations and StudioCanal helping with production and voice-acting. It first arrived in theaters on December 14th, 2025, and was dubbed by GKIDS for the United States of America and the United Kingdom in 2026.

Original

 * TBA

English

 * Chris Pratt as Edward
 * Jack Black as Alfred Snowball

Synopsis
''A young red fox (vulpes vulpes) named Edward has been chosen upon random for a role of Santa due to the disappearance of Santa Claus. At the same time, he struggles with his reluctant - and physically sick - son Simon. Edward must survive the dangers of mall chases, reindeer games, and elf school, as being Santa Claus may be the only option to heal his son.''

Summary
On a cold November day, Edward returns home to find his son Simon sleeping in his den. He yells at the nearly adult cub to wake up and tells him he is way overdue when he leaves the den. Simon is heavily sick, but isn’t prepared for living without his dad. The two argue until Edward drives him out to the tree to sleep. Simon wakes up the next day, and December begins. Edward passes by the road to hunt for himself, although Simon tags along. He coughs in the middle of a hunt, and Edward finally realizes what’s going on. However, Edward is hit by a car and wakes up in an unfamiliar environment. Strange people dressed in green are looking at him with wide eyes, until a slightly bigger human, although still dressed in green and accompanied with big ears, breaks them up.

The human introduces himself as Alfred Snowball, but Edward says he isn’t interested and runs out the door, before dragged in by another human. The humans are actually elves, or homo maritumus, and mistake Edward for Santa Claus. Alfred corrects them, however he says Edward is a suitable substitute for Santa, followed by the fox cocking h9s head at the word “Santa.” An elf named Strangest explains how Santa Claus went missing and none of the elves can’t fill in, which in comes Ms. Claus. Edward’s first task is his training session, which includes robots designed like children that are triggered when approached, jumping between buildings, and other objects you’d typically think of when you see Santa. Edward fails them for the most part, but succeeds at the cookie smelling test. Edward is let into the reindeer barns to succeed his second task: reindeer trust and reindeer riding.

Edward lacks knowledge of Christmas, so he awkwardly climbs on Rudolph’s back, which the elf in charge of reindeer, Understanding, says he has to first form trust between the reindeer. The red fox tries to touch his nose to the reindeer’s, but Rudolph huffs him backwards. Edward grabs a carrot and shoves it toward Rudolph, which gladly eats it. Elves clap at his job, before Understanding accidentally releases all the eight reindeer, resulting in a stampede. Later after a doctor’s visit, an injured Edward meets Strangest again. Strangest says elves get their names by their personalities, and instructs him on the third training task: the naughty or nice list. The elf says all grumpy young must be on naughty, which Edward nods. After a long time of training, Edward is ready for his “mid-training assessment test.”

The red fox wanders into a mall, in which he accidentally bites a sheep displayed on a nativity in the mall due to his hunting instinct. Many people are offended, and Edward awkwardly sneaks off before people pull him into a chase. Edward accidentally ends up in the toy store, where he uses his skills from training to get through the obstacles such as toys, BB guns, puppets, and wind-up frogs. He climbs on top of a giant rubber duck before sliding onto the mall floor and running outside. Edward cheers at his success before the police pull him over, mistaking him for a young person dressed in a fox costume who destroyed the nativity display. Once left inside the prison, he gets a message from Strangest that was supposed to be that in his necklace he can teleport back, but it actually comes out as an unidentified voice saying that Santa cannot return.

Once he is back at the North Pole, he is pulled into a meeting where in Ancient tells them that Santa Claus was kidnapped by one of the fellow elves. Everyone sighs at Ancient’s reply.

TBA

Trivia

 * Although the posters depict him as anthropomorphic, for a majority of the film he walks on fours. He does not walk on two feet until he goes inside his sleigh and gives toys to children on Christmas Eve.
 * SuperTapirWoman is considering making this herself and posting it on YouTube. She says she won’t likely stick to the producers and casts.

Reception
Santa Fox was a somewhat successful film. Many critics called it “a fresh and wondrous tale about a fox who is hired as St. Nicholas can touch one’s heart personally, whether it’s the humor or the story, but it is no Jurassic Park.” It was rated on an average 7.4 on Rotten Tomatoes.