Santa vs. the Snowman in Disney Digital 3-D

Santa vs. the Snowman is a half-hour computer-animated short, created by Steve Oedekerk and produced by O Entertainment. Originally made as a television special, the film was later presented in IMAX 3D theaters during the holiday seasons of 2002–2006. It was released on DVD by Universal Pictures. The package included 3D glasses, and the program offered optional 2D or 3D viewing. Despite three bonus features including an interactive game narrated by Oedekerk, the DVD lacked any kind of featurette or commentary. The film featured the voice talents of Jonathan Winters, Ben Stein, Victoria Jackson, Mark DeCarlo, and David Floyd. It is narrated by Don LaFontaine.

There are various nods to other films, like a scene of ice-made AT-ST's, mostly resembling the ones from The Empire Strikes Back.

Plot
Once upon a time, there lived the loneliest Snowman. He didn't any friends because, ... well, there was nobody around. And since there was nobody to talk to, he never learned to speak. Instead, his little flute was his voice. And every night, he would make his flute sing to the stars. But one particular night, the stars shouted back. A flash of light zooms past The Snowman, and shatters his little flute. Consumed with curiosity, The Snowman set off to find out exactly what the mysterious light was.

Eventually, The Snowman found himself at Santa's Village, a winter village filled with elves. The Snowman finds a toy workshop, where the elves were making various toys. Another elf comes in the workshop, and with him was the workshop owner: Santa Claus. While Santa was chatting with his elves, The Snowman finds a red-&-gold flute in the workshop. But after grabbing the flute, an alarm goes off, causing The Snowman to retreat, but Santa had sent some of his elves to retrieve the flute. While being chased, The Snowman ends up dropping the flute, and hides from the elves by jumping off a cliff, but grabbing onto an icicle stalactite, waiting for them to leave. After the elves had retrieved the flute, and went back to the village, The Snowman decided to head home.

As The poor Snowman returned warily home, his mind was in a whirl. He could not stop thinking about Santa, and his wonderful workshop. It seemed Santa had the perfect life: A marvelous home, lots of friends, plenty of toys, loved by everybody. But why wouldn't Santa let The Snowman have little toy? It just didn't seem fair to The Snowman. The Snowman started imagining himself as Santa, giving out toys, being loved by everyone around. At that moment, something occurred to The Snowman: "Why should Santa keep all that love, good tidings, and friendship for himself? That didn't seem fair. Maybe, it's time someone else got to be Santa.". And with that, The Snowman came up with a sneaky plan to take Santa's spot.

The Snowman had snuck into one of the village's attractions, before getting noticed, and kicked out. So, he came up with another idea. The Snowman started make various equipment for invading the workshop, and lots of snowman minions to assist. The Snowman went from his usual self to a much devious behavior.

The Snowman, and his minions started invading Santa's Village, but Santa sent his elves to fight back, starting a chaotic battle. The elves, and the snowman minions fought tirelessly. The elves were attempting to melt, and blow up the snowman minions while the snowman minions were freezing, and spewing out snowballs at the elves. As the battle rage on, neither was claiming an easy victory, but Santa knew that the conflict had to end. Christmas was only hours away! So, Santa decided to take matters into his own hands by going to help his elves end the conflict. But when Santa came to the battle, The Snowman unleashed a snow monster. However, Santa managed to defeat the monster by using a heating item to shrink the monster. Just when it looked like The Snowman was about to surrender to Santa, and the elves, more of his minions came to outnumber Santa, and the elves. With that, Santa, and his elves were imprisoned.

The Snowman had explained his plan to take Santa's spot, and left to deliver the toys, leaving Santa, and the elves in an ice cage. However, unbeknownst to The Snowman, one of Santa's elves, an elf named: Flippy, came to rescue Santa, and the elves.

Meanwhile, The Snowman soared above the rooftops. He was sitting in his snow replica of Santa's sleigh, while the snowman minions were being his Reindeer. It was a wonderful, magical feeling. Now, all he to do was deliver a few toys, and everyone would him. While The Snowman came across a little girl's house, Santa was making his way to The Snowman. The Snowman gave the girl an ice doll, but the doll ended up shattering. However, Santa had arrived to give the girl a real doll. Afterwards, just when it looked like Santa was going to punish The Snowman, he ended up giving The Snowman the same red-&-gold flute that The Snowman once attempted to steal, saying that the flute always belonged to The Snowman because, Santa was one who accidentally shattered The Snowman's first flute. Santa gave the advice of giving to The Snowman, and just as they were about to part ways, The Snowman discovered that his sleigh, and his minions have melted from heat of the little girl's house chimney. However, Santa offered The Snowman a ride back home. And so, Santa, and The Snowman became friends. And that's all The Snowman wanted anyway. A friend.

"Christmas giving isn't just for Santa. The spirit of giving is something that lives inside all of us." - Santa's advice of giving to The Snowman.

Cast

 * Jonathan Winters as Santa Claus
 * Don LaFontaine as the Narrator
 * Ben Stein as Spunky the Elf
 * Victoria Jackson as Elves
 * Mark DeCarlo as Elves
 * David Floyd as Bundis the Elf
 * J. Haley as Elvis the Elf
 * Jean DeLisle as Kids
 * Keith Alcorn as Charlie the Elf
 * Steve Oedekerk as Sno' Hellton

Production
For Steve Oedekerk, the filmmaking force behind a slew of comic hits (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, The Nutty Professor, the "Ace Ventura" movies), inspiration sometimes strikes like lightning, seemingly out of nowhere.

Oedekerk remembers, "I think I was out of town somewhere, I can't remember where, and it suddenly hit me that there weren't any animated holiday specials being made anymore. It seems like I'd been watching the same ones my whole life-you know, Rudolph, and the ones with Burl Ives.  And I thought, 'Why is that?  People stopped making holiday specials and people love them.'  And within minutes, I had the idea of SANTA VS. THE SNOWMAN and I just thought, 'Well, that would be cool!'"

The more the filmmaker worked on his new idea, the more he realized that an animated holiday tale created today would have to reflect the moviegoers' tastes of today. That it would have to be, well, different in both look as well as content.

Oedekerk recognized that moviegoers' tastes weren't the only things that had changed since the early animated and claymation holiday specials had been created. Indeed, the entire animation landscape had been rendered almost unrecognizable by the invention and refinement of computer generated animation and imagery, which presented both advantages and challenges. He set out to make a holiday film with the same feel-good sentiment of the older classics but with a twist of modern humor and fun.Oedekerk also knew going in that the story that his characters would inhabit would truly be large - on an IMAX screen up to eight-stories tall.

Oedekerk recalls, "We were all really awed by the prospect. I had this image in my head from when I was a little kid, the first time I went into an IMAX theatre.  I was completely blown away by how entrenched I felt in the action.  It was a documentary, as they were primarily then.  I just kept thinking, 'Man, I wish there were narrative films for these theatres,' and that just stuck with me.  Even when I started making feature films, I had this idea still looming that I wanted to do something for one of those big theatres with a big screen and big sound.  It's just a more powerful experience than seeing a movie in a normal theatre."

Wall of bars? A Snowman on the run? Obviously, the tone of this holiday film would reflect the off-the-wall sensibilities that helped make Oedekerk a popular comic and filmmaker and launch the career of well-known comedic performer Jim Carrey, "Ace Ventura" himself.

The filmmaker zeroed in on the character elements of the major players. The Snowman began as the innocent who doesn't have a lot of life experience, because he's been alone all of his life. Santa started to play out a little more gruff than previous versions of the holiday icon, seeing as how he's basically the C.E.O. of a well-run, global business. And since the piece is really about the battle for the holidays, a unique bi-polar feud would play a major part in the animation as well-igloo walkers, hot cocoa squirters, mistletoe missiles, assault nutcrackers. The team let their imaginations run riot.

So with the strong filmmaking team of O Entertainment and DNA productions locked into place and the look of the animation firmly in development, it was time to find voices for these not-so-traditional holiday roles.

Oedekerk reflects, "When I'm working on a live-action or an animation project, I start thinking really early about the characters and wondering, 'Who should they be? Who should play them?'"

By casting Jonathan Winters as the "Big Guy Up North," a strong and somewhat recognizable voice was brought into the project. Santa, the filmmakers felt, should command respect and admiration, but not appear so steely as to make his softer, cuddly, ho-ho-ho side sound like the brighter half of a split-personality. Winters could bridge both with aplomb.

"Jonathan Winters was always, always my first pick to voice Santa. He's this comic icon.  I grew up watching him with my dad and not only is he really funny, he has a great voice that can run the gamut from joyous to crotchety and still be a lot of fun.  He's creative and uninhibited, and it was a joy for me to watch him work," comments Oedekerk.

Coming from a stand-up comic background, Oedekerk recognized the flexibility and inherent sense of humor that comes with a comic voice, and continued to cast voice talent known primarily for their work in comedy.

Oedekerk had long held a great appreciation for the versatile performer Ben Stein, whose dry sense of humor is evident in his distinct voice and stylistic delivery. The filmmakers wanted to play off of the stereotype of the happy, enthusiastic theme park guides, and by casting Stein as Spunky the Elf, they created the perfect contrast to the overboard zeal of the holidays and the typical recreational park guide. While some people may have a bit of difficulty picturing what Stein looks like, the performer's voice is his definitive calling card. And the resulting Spunky is anything but.

When it came time for casting the Communications Elf, Oedekerk again searched within the world of comic performers, finding Victoria Jackson to fill the role. The recognizable voice of Jackson was a well suited for the perky communications officer, overseeing the battle to control the holidays.

With a group of comic artists in the cast, Oedekerk and Davis encouraged the funny people to improvise, to mine off-script and see if they struck gold. The actors did try out non-scripted dialogue and worked with Davis to hone the lines, finally setting the final script for the animators to bring to life.

But the exploitation of the comic voices was just the tip of the iceberg-for the ground-breaking visual effects were also going to be utilized to their fullest extent and integral to creating an all-encompassing holiday world of SANTA VS. THE SNOWMAN. "One of the main reasons I wanted to do this film was so that I'd have a large-format holiday film to take my daughters to see. As a parent, a big portion of your life becomes about the joy of seeing them happy, and this is going to be a great family experience.  My goal is to have people walk out of the theatre feeling better and happier than when they walked in.

And the moral of SANTA VS. THE SNOWMAN?

Cross the mischievous merriment of Steve Oedekerk and his filmmakers, a comic take on a not-so-traditional holiday tale, and the cinematic magic of IMAX...and the result is SANTA VS. THE SNOWMAN, a visually ground-breaking film to entertain and delight the family this and every holiday season to come.