A new movie about Santa and the North Pole pops up TV just about every year at this point, and none of them hold up to the old stop-motion animated Rankin-Bass cartoons. But Lumenas Animation Studios, which has done shorts and commercials in the past, is planning a hugely ambitious take on St. Nicholas that will either erase the memories of those old cartoons, or make us beg for their return.

The studio has set Colin Brady, who directed the little-seen 2006 animated movie Everyone's Hero, to direct The Legend of Santa Claus, the first in a trilogy of films about the origins of St. Nick. Variety says the movies will be set in the 18th-century, when the figure originated, and will toss in "greedy elves, vain snowfairies and other fantastical creatures" for good measure.

A few Christmases ago I saw a really horrible animated TV movie about the battle between Santa and the King of the Ice, or some such nonsense, and I have to admit that's all I can think about right now. Not to say new Christmas movies aren't welcome, but a three-part movie about Santa seems a little... over the top. Then again, so was Nightmare Before Christmas. It's all in the execution, I suppose.