Santa Company

"What is the most important thing for a Santa Claus' job?"

A short adventure of an apprentice tonttu, Noel, looking to finding her answer to that question.

Story:
A holiday movie focusing on one particular journey that Noel and her friends at the Santa Company make on one fateful Christmas night.

For such a compelling premise of Noel's loneliness and a distanced father, I thought an opportunity was lost by leaving such relevant flashbacks out of the movie.
But that's dwelling on what could have been and not the present that was delivered to us.

Given the brief length of the movie, ... the simple relationships between the characters were pleasant to watch.

Art:
The part where Santa Company really excelled.
The character designs were varied and the animation well-done.
The environment and locations were pretty and the action surprisingly intense at times.

Sound/Voice Acting:
14 tracks reflecting Christmas
6 familiar voices of a star-studded cast
And a ChouCho song in the ending.

Character:
Cute characters for a cute Christmas movie.
Not much of a backstory for any of them but their interactions were fun to watch.

Overall:
I rather enjoyed this ambitious project by Kenji studio.

It's not a social commentary on the holiday season one might have expected but a lighthearted adventure of one girl's determination to discover what it means to be a part of the Santa Company.

Christmas is a time for being with friends and family, giving gifts, and all around good feelings. And one of the ways of getting into the Christmas spirit is a good Christmas special. Its a good way to get the family (and friends) together to enjoy something with each other. Besides the gifts and food of course. And one of the things that you can enjoy is Santa Company.

Santa Company is an anime short film from 2014. The short started out as a crowdsourcing campaign on the Japanese site Anipipo by Kenji Studio, a company started by the director of the short, Kenji Itoso. It's ... original goal was 1 million yen, and unfortunately it fell short of that goal. It was later re-launched on kickstarter for the lower amount of $50,000, which it managed to surpass, which i am glad for, because this short was a real surprise.

The story follows a trainer of the Santa Company, Moel White, as she prepares for her test to become an official Tonttu, with her assignment being "To find the most important thing for a Santa Claus." As the deadline for the completion of this test draws closer, a single letter, a wishlist, from a child arrives late at the company. Soon, Noel and her friends set out to try and deliver the present before it's too late.

Being just less than 30 minutes long, there's not enough wiggle room to try and talk about much of the story after the initial premise, so i won't talk too much about it other than to say that even thought it's simple and a bit cliched, it is appropriately adorable and it's worth checking out. It definitely doesn't overstay it's welcome with it's short run time, like a lot of other Christmas movies do.

There isn't an English dub, but i didn't expect one because of it's meager budget, so it does limit it to kids who can read. But i figure there are enough of those who still enjoy Christmas specials along with enough adults who don't mind or enjoy Christmas specials aimed at a younger audience that there is an audience for this. It is also definitely nicely animated and it does have an adorable art style.

Santa Company might be short, simple, and not bring anything new to the table in terms of Christmas specials, but it's not a bad way to spend half an hour around Christmas for those in the Christmas spirit and kids old enough to read.

Amazing film I can't believe they have never thought of making an anime about pollution with a wonderful Christmas twist. Every character had amazing motives and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

I would agree there were a few short comings with this movie, like who was Mint's older brother? Why is Edison so hot? Is Edison single? Where can I buy an Edison body pillow? But other then that the pros out weigh the cons by a decent amount.

The artstyle was also wonderful, nice use of colour and did a great job considering the budget. The voice acting ... was also really nice, really helped flesh out the characters. Noah did confuse me at time but overall very good movie. I would recommend this.

F for Whale-san
Santa best girl 100%