{"id":197,"date":"2010-11-24T15:49:11","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T22:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/2010\/11\/24\/christmas-giving-permeates-new-disney-dvd-release-%e2%80%9cthe-search-for-santa-paws%e2%80%9d\/"},"modified":"2010-11-24T15:50:06","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T22:50:06","slug":"christmas-giving-permeates-new-disney-dvd-release-%e2%80%9cthe-search-for-santa-paws%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/2010\/christmas-giving-permeates-new-disney-dvd-release-%e2%80%9cthe-search-for-santa-paws%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Giving Permeates New Disney Blu-ray\/DVD Release \u201cThe Search for Santa Paws\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SantaPaws_200x262.jpg\"<\/a>The title of Disney\u2019s heartwarming children\u2019s Christmas movie \u201cThe Search for Santa Paws\u201d is a bit of a misnomer. There are<\/em> several threads of \u201csearch\u201d stories woven together, however, and this being a Disney creation the viewer can comfortably expect that everyone will get what they want \u2014 or deserve \u2014 in the end.<\/p>\n

The film opens as a musical production, starting with the elves gaily singing through their tasks in Santa\u2019s North Pole workshop and culminating with Santa (Richard Riehle) and his Missus (Patrika Darbo) sharing a loving waltz around his birthday cake. Young children may not notice the plasticity of the smiles at this point, but for those who want more warmth, be patient \u2014 expressions and dialog become more natural as the characters evolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaws\u201d (who is not yet \u201cSanta Paws\u201d) is first introduced as a stuffed-toy dog gifted to Santa from an old friend who has just passed away. A little magic from the \u201cChristmas crystal\u201d in a beautiful ice cave brings him to life (voiced by Mitchel Musso), and a necklace pendant of crystal keeps him \u2014 and Santa \u2014 immortal when they leave the North Pole for New York City, which is suffering from a dire drop in Christmas spirit.<\/p>\n

Santa and Paws are separated after an accident that leaves Santa without his memory. Happenstance connects Santa to the heirs of his old friend \u2014 a couple who are two of those sadly in need of Christmas spirit \u2014 who have been bequeathed the friend\u2019s toy store if they can run it to a profit through one Christmas season. Amnesiac Santa \u2014 who thinks his name is \u201cBud\u201d because people on the street have called him that \u2014 surprises himself and the toy store proprietors with his ability to get along with all the children who visit the store.<\/p>\n

A Central Park bum (Chris Coppola) takes advantage of Santa\u2019s accident to steal what look to him to be valuable objects \u2014 Santa\u2019s crystal pendant and a travel bag that turns out to have his iconic red suit. Gus makes use of the suit to take over a donation stand, thinking to make personal use of the money. He thinks he\u2019s only searching for a way to make a buck, but he ends up finding something more meaningful.<\/p>\n

Intercut with these stories is one that follows a little orphan, Quinn (a charming Kaitlyn\u00a0 Maher), sent to a foster home run by the thoroughly disagreeable Ms. Stout (Wendi McLendon-Covey), who goes to extremes to keep any spark of joy out of her charges\u2019 lives. An early scene shows her snatching a doll \u2014 forbidden contraband her home \u2014 from one little girl and throwing it in the incinerator. Quickly over with, the incident serves to set up the drama of a later key situation. Quinn, of course, is looking for more love than Ms. Stout\u2019s home provides.<\/p>\n

Paws and Quinn cross paths, and she sneaks the pup into the foster home. Another musical number ensues when Paws throws out some Christmas Crystal magic and transforms the girls\u2019 stark bedroom into a well-furnished one replete with Christmas ornaments and the girls\u2019 dingy dresses into party frocks. Ms. Stout discovers him, snatches his magic crystal, and sends him and one of the luckless girls to the cellar.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mrs. Santa has realized something bad must have happened to Santa and Paws, and two of Santa\u2019s helpers arrive in the city to save them. Through them, all the threads come together and tie off as everyone gains in Christmas spirit through actions of giving to others \u2014 which is the ultimate treasure found in \u201cThe Search for Santa Paws.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title of Disney\u2019s heartwarming children\u2019s Christmas movie \u201cThe Search for Santa Paws\u201d is a bit of a misnomer. There are several threads of \u201csearch\u201d stories woven together, however, and this being a Disney creation the viewer can comfortably expect that everyone will get what they want \u2014 or deserve \u2014 in the end. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvds-released","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paS5I2-3b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}