Rating: WORTHY!
This is a novelization of a movie from 1964, and it shows! I'm guessing the movie is at the level of a bad fifties or sixties Disney live action movie, but I can see for myself, since it’s included with the novel. It's on a DVD claiming it’s a 'Holiday cult classic' although I’d never heard of it before. It extols the appearance of Pia Zadora - hardly an 'A' list actor, and she's in a relatively minor role as one of the children. None of the other actors are known popularly.
I'm not big into novelizations of movies or TV shows, so maybe this is why I have not encountered this book-and-a-movie deal before. Although the book is dated 2005, almost no effort whatsoever has been expended in updating the novel version of the movie. It is still referencing antique TV shows, for example.
The novel is printed in green text, and the gray-scale pictures are actually green-scale, which is hardly enticing. The pictures are evidently taken directly from the movie and have the amateur look of Hollywood 'B' movies to them. The news caster featured in one picture looks more Martian than the Martians do! The Martians are, of course simply humans with a bad paint job on their faces and hats with antennas on them. Because it’s so old, there is some unintentional (I assume it's unintentional!) humor such as when one Martian, remarking upon a comment on how lively something is, says: "You should see the nightlife on Uranus." That was the only LOL moment I got out of this book.
The plot is that the Martians who are technologically advanced, but profoundly stupid - very much like Spock in the original Star Trek TV show - decide they need to come to Earth to kidnap Santa Claus and try to figure out what he's all about. The Martians have no sense of humor, we're told, and no childhood to speak of, but are inexplicably addicted to United States network TV sit-coms. This suggests to me that they never actually leave their childhood! LOL! They end up picking up two kids who tell them Santa lives at the North Pole, so they all head up there and kidnap him.
The story is dumb and childish (and not in a good way), and the plot and script are stupid. There are some amusing moments, but nowhere near enough. The adult characters are universally moronic. I honestly cannot recommend this at all. I saw the movie and it was every bit as crappy as I suspected it would be! I fell asleep half way through and have no intention of watching the rest!
