The Twelve Days of Christmas Movies 2018: Day Eleven

Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
Directed by Les Mayfield, Starring Richard Attenborough, Mara Wilson, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, JT. Walsh, James Remar, Jane Leeves, and Robert Prosky.

After the Cole’s Department Store Santa is fired after he’s found drunk right before the Thanksgiving Day Parade, events organizer Dorey Walker desperate needs a substitute, luckily the man who brought the drunken Claus to light also happens to look just the big guy himself. After he’s a big hit in the parade Cole’s hire’s Kris as their in-store grotto grandad, but he causes quite the store when he starts telling parents where they can get the toys cheaper.

Kris is also quite dismayed that Walker’s daughter Susan doesn’t believe in Father Christmas, something he is determined to rectify.

Miracle on 34th Street is a remake of a 1947 film of the same name, but this one was written by the genius of John Hughes, the brain behind The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and fellow Christmas classic Home Alone.

As was a fellow common practice back in the day Miracle on 34th Street was accompanied by a cartoon, to make it more of a show, several Disney films during the Eighties were accompanied by shorts featuring Roger Rabbit, and the re-release of Bambi was paired up with a couple of episodes of Disney show The Wuzzles. However Miracle on 34th Street was bizarrely coupled with English animation The Dreamstone, not just that it was the first episode of the third series which had been aired on TV the week before the movies release

Have you seen Miracle on 34th Street? How does Attenborough rank against the other cinematic Santas? Let me know in the comments below.