Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Plot

The story involves the people of Mars, including Momar ("Mom Martian") and Kimar ("King Martian"). They are worried that their children Girmar ("Girl Martian") and Bomar ("Boy Martian") are watching too much Earth television, most notably station KID-TV's interview with Santa Claus in his workshop at the North Pole. Consulting the ancient 800 year old Martian sage Chochem (a Yiddish word meaning "genius"), they are advised that the children of Mars are growing distracted due to the society's overly rigid structure; from infancy, all their education is fed into their brains through machines and they are not allowed individuality or freedom of thought.

Chochem notes that he had seen this coming "for centuries", and says the only way to help the children is to allow them their freedom and be allowed to have fun. To do this, they need a Santa Claus figure, like on Earth. Leaving the Chochem's cave, the Martian leaders decide to abduct Santa Claus from Earth and bring him to Mars.

As the Martians could not distinguish between all the fake Santas, they kidnapped two children to find the real one. Once this is accomplished, one Martian, Voldar, who strongly disagrees with the idea, repeatedly tries to kill Santa Claus along with the two kidnapped Earth children. He believes that Santa is corrupting the children of Mars and turning them away from Mars' original glory.

When they arrive on Mars, Santa and the children build a factory to make toys for the children. However, Voldar and his assistants, Stobo and Shim, sabotage the factory and change the programming so that it makes the toys incorrectly. Meanwhile, Dropo, Kimar's assistant, has taken a great liking to Santa Claus and Christmas, puts on one of Santa's spare suits and starts acting like Santa Claus. He goes to the toy factory to make toys, but Voldar mistakes him for Santa and kidnaps him.

When Santa and the children come back to the factory to make more toys, they discover the machines have been tampered with. Voldar and Stobo come back to the factory to make a deal with Kimar, but when they see the real Santa Claus they realize that their plan has been foiled. Dropo, held hostage in a cave, tricks his guard Shim and escapes. Kimar then arrests Voldar, Stobo and Shim. Santa notices Dropo acts like him, and says that Dropo would make a good Martian Santa. Kimar agrees to let Dropo be the Martian Santa Claus and sends Santa and the children back to Earth.

Critical reception

The film received mostly negative reviews, with most of its positive feedback in the form of the film being so bad, it's good. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 25% score based on twenty reviews, with an average rating of 2.8/10. The film has been viewed as a cult film.

Home media

Due to its public domain status in the United States, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians has been released on many different bargain price DVD labels.

Influence

A single issue comic book adaptation of the film was published by Dell Comics.

It has been named one of the worst films ever. Since February 1998, a remake was rumoured with David Zucker as producer, and Jim Carrey attached to play Dropo. An estimated release date was announced as 2002, though it was then believed to have been in development hell. The film was listed in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (1978).

The film was featured in episode number 3.21 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, with additional commentary tracks by its spiritual successors Cinematic Titanic and Rifftrax in November 2008 and August 2014 respectively. Scenes from the film were used in both A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! (during the song sung by Toby Keith), and Eloise at Christmastime (when Sir Wilkes is watching television).

The film spawned a tongue in cheek novelization by Lou Harry, released by Penguin Books/Chamberlain Bros. in 2005. The book, which includes a DVD of the original film, presents the story from the perspective of a now adult Girmar, who has not only succeeded her father as ruler of Mars, but also narrates the tale in a 'valley girl' type of language.

In 1993, a theatrical production of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, the Musical premiered at the Factory Theatre in Chicago, adapted and directed by Sean Abley. In 2006, a second theatrical production premiered at the Maverick Theater in Fullerton, California, this version was adapted by Brian Newell and Nick McGee. The Maverick's production has become a comedic success, a local tradition and performed every holiday season there since 2006, with a tenth anniversary production to be performed in December 2015.

Brazilian comedy group, Hermes & Renato, spoofed the film in their program on MTV Tela Class, redubbing it as "Santa Claus e o pozinho mágico" (Santa Claus and the Magic Powder; "magic powder" being more loosely translated here as "angel dust"). In this version, Santa is a drug dealer.

In December 2011, the Onyx Theatre, Las Vegas presented a staged version, adapted and directed by John Tomasello, that was performed near midnight. It featured foam tomatoes or "fomatoes" for the audience to throw. Zadora was in attendance.