THE SEARCH FOR SANTA PAWS

In which Santa gets hit by a car (!) in New York City and ends up being New York's Best Amnesiac Store Santa ever, while his best dog-friend Paws saves orphans from being thrown into the basement furnace! Good, clean, family fun!

When Santa Buddies introduced Santa's sidekick, a wise-looking white dog named Santa Paws as Santa's best friend, you just knew there had to be a back-story. Well, The Search for Santa Paws tells us the legend behind the dog we never knew existed until Disney invented him (along with the magic Christmas Icicle, and the magic crystals, among other curious new Yuletide fare in these films).

Luckily, this time they replace lethargic half-assed Santa George Wendt from Santa Buddies and introduce us to the excessively jolly and pleasantly benign Richard Riehle as Santa. He's the type of Santa where you could say, "Oooops! I dropped a pencil!" and he'd go, "Ohhhhhh HO HO HO HO! WHOOOO! HO HO HO!" for like ten minutes, as though it were the jolliest farce ever. Santa and Mrs. Claus break into song, singing about how they've been married for 1600 years (what.) and how great it is to make toys all day, every day, for 1600 years. Then they find out their friend Mr. Hucklebuckle in New York City (he was one of Santa's biggest fans) has just died but managed to send Santa a stuffed white dog as a gift before he keeled over. Through some Christmas miracle via the Christmas Icicle, they turn the stuffed dog into a REAL talking dog named Paws! Magic!

Anyway, Santa goes to New York City to... uh... I actually forgot why. But he gets hit by a car! And Paws gets lost! And Santa's Santa Satchel and suit gets stolen by a Central Park drunk! And amnesiac Santa wanders around wondering who he is, until he eventually stumbles into Hucklebuckle's Toy Store and becomes the store Santa, because, after all, it is that magical time of the year. He proves to be the bestest Santa in all of New York City, because he has that certain something something that makes people believe in the magic of Christmas again. But Santa's dying! Why? Because he no longer has his magic crystal, which apparently is what has allowed him to be married to Mrs. Claus for 1600 years! Someone. Must. Save. Santa!

Oh, I almost forgot: This is also a talking dog movie. Paws gets separated from amnesiac Santa and ends up befriending two girls, Quinn and Will, that live in a girls' orphanage that seems right out of a Dickens' story (despite the movie taking place in modern times). The girls live under the iron hand of a youngish woman who wears horn-rimmed glasses and dresses like a 1940s schoolmarm, and acts like a 1940s schoolmarm. It's weird. Quinn and Will always sneak out and look longingly through the window of Hucklebuckle Toys, where Real Amnesiac Santa lives (literally, in a closet). They also make friends with the young couple that run the shop, the Huckles, who haven't been "blessed" with children. You can see where this is all going, with a happy ending for everyone.

OK, and just because a 4-year-old is whored out by her parents on America's Got Talent to make adults weep while she angelically sings "Somewhere Out There" doesn't mean she should be cast in a movie. Kaitlyn Maher (who plays Quinn) may have singing talent, but the child sure can't act. In a way, she is perfectly cast with the poor (real) pup that plays Paws. Even with animated lips, poor Paws is perhaps the most expressionless animal actor I've seen in awhile. Put Quinn and Paws next to each other in a scene? If there is a slight lull, they both freeze, blank-eyed and stiff, like deer in the headlights. This effect adds some unintended entertainment to their scenes.

The Search for Santa Paws is a pretty harmless movie as far as straight-to-video family films go. It is a notch above Santa Buddies because this time Santa is actually kind of sweet (though for God's sake... don't hit Santa with a car in a kids' movie!). The breaking-into-song moments are a bit rickety, but with the exception of the youngest tots (child and dog), the cast is able-to-pretty-good. Thankfully, Eli the Elf (Danny Woodburn) shows up to literally save the day--and I swear he should get his own movie, because, again, he is best in show here. All in all, kids should be entertained by this one, as long as they don't have nightmares about being thrown into a furnace in the basement if they are bad. And I am not making that up.