Once upon a time, two kids wrote a letter to Santa Claus with their Christmas wishes, only to accidentally deliver it to the diabolical Satan after misspelling Santa’s name.
This mix-up forms the central plot of two Christmas films aimed at teaching children the difference between good and evil: Jack Black’s American comedy Dear Santa and Paolo Contis’ Filipino family film, originally titled Dear Satan.
A notable difference between the two is that one is set to premiere on 25 November, while the other will not be released in theaters.
American actor Jack Black’s Dear Santa follows the story of a young boy, Liam, who sends his Christmas wish list to Santa, but a single spelling mistake invites a mischievous Jack Black to show up and wreak havoc on the holiday season.
With the same premise, the Filipino film Dear Satan (later renamed Dear Santa) tells the story of Chichi, a kid who also mistakenly wrote a letter to Satan by a crucial typo, summoning the devilish Satan (played by Contis) tries to corrupt Chichi’s innocent mind by influencing her to give in to temptations.
Despite the film’s efforts to change its fate, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board has declared an X-rating for the movie, a rating given to films that will not be allowed to screen in theaters as it attacks a particular race, belief, or religion.
“I am offended as a Christian. It is not demonic, but it has a different depiction of Satan becoming good. But Satan will never ever be good,” MTRCB Chairman Lala Sotto said.
While the American film Dear Santa is set to screen without such restrictions, public opinion is not any different than that of Filipinos, who claim the movie gives a wrong message to children and a false depiction of Satan.
“Trying to make satan more appealing to children, not even a hard pass. Just straight up no,” an X (formerly Twitter) user commented.
However, some see the movie in a positive light. “A lot of people are saying don’t let your kids watch this. I think it may be a good lesson. The trailer shows how Satan is saying the kid is basically incorruptible and it seems like the kid is trying to change him into a good person. But watch it first maybe,” said another X user.
In a nutshell, both Christmas-themed movies whose target audience is children drew divided reactions– support for the films’ creativity and discomfort from religious people.