The Night Before Christmas (2018 Film)

The Night Before Christmas is a 2018 American Christmas Adventure Film, based off of the legendary folkloric character, Santa Claus, and the 1970 stop-motion film, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, premiering in theaters on December 20, 2018. The first of four installments, followed by the 2020 sequel, The Night Before Christmas 2, the film stars Dylan Sprayberry, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Jadin Gould, Martin Sheen, Robert Downey Jr, and Donald Logue and retells the origins of Santa Claus, following the life of a young boy, Kris Kringle, who helps his toy making father give toys to the needy, but he soon learns about true magic, and must use it to save his town from the Summer Warlock.

Premise

A couple of toymakers living on a farm, Thomas and Carla Kringle, find an infant boy on their door step and raise him as their own son, naming him Kris. Years later, a teenage Kris Kringle begins delivering his parents' toys to people all over his town, but when he begins sneaking toys to slaves, he is dubbed an outlaw by Sheriff Rojas, and begins doing so in a secret guise, calling himself by his birthname "Claus" and wearing a red and white disguise. After encountering two magical beings, the Winter and Summer Warlocks, he learns of true magic, and is chosen by the Winter Warlock to stop the evil Summer Warlock from destroying the town. Now Kris must overcome challenges and trials that contribute to Kris' future as Santa Claus, the Father of Christmas.

Cast

• Dylan Sprayberry as Kris Nicholas Kringle, the adoptive son of a couple of toymakers, Jonathan and Carla Kringle, and was raised on a farm, playing with the toys and learning to make them. As a teenager, he began delivering his parents' toys to people in his town, including slaves, making him an outlaw, so he did it in secret using his birth name "Claus", but then he meets the Winter and Summer Warlock, he must save his town from the Summer Warlock's wrath. He constantly wears what would be the uniforms for his father's toy business, a red and white coat and a red hat with a white ball at the end.
• Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Thomas and Carla Kringle, Kris' adoptive parents and a couple of toymakers that live on a farm. One day when they returned home, they found an infant in a basket on their doorstep, with only a red blanket and a necklace with his birthname on it, "Clause". They taught him to be good-hearted and strong-willed, and taught him how to make toys and encouraged him to deliver them.
• Jadin Gould as Jessica Dunham, a classmate, friend, and love-interest of Kris Kringle, who befriended Kris while at school, and he gave her an old china doll. After he used "Clause" as his name in his disguise, she helped hide him from the cops, and helped him in his journey through the mystic woods, before being captured by the Summer Warlock, and then saved by Kris.
• Jonny Gray as Gregory Hanson, Kris' best friend since nursery school.
• Emilia McCarthy as Emily Nesmith, one of Kris and Gregory's best friends.
• Martin Sheen as the Winter Warlock, a magical being that lives in an ancient mystic forest of Winter and is the Master of Ice and Snow. When Kris first stumbles across his palace, making him upset, before realizing a mysterious signifigance in Kris, and requests the boy's help in defeating his very antithesis, the Summer Warlock, who wishes to destroy the town.
• Robert Downey Jr. as the Summer Warlock, an evil creature that lives in an ancient mystic forest of Summer and is the master of heat and fire. For some reason, he sees Kris as a threat to him and tries to destroy him, first using Jessica as bait, but Kris destroys him first.
• Donald Logue as Sheriff Rojas, the sheriff of the Charleville police department, who dubbed the person spreading gifts across the town an outlaw, after he sneaked a few toys to many slaves, causing Kris to dawn a disguise as "Clause".

Synopsis

On a farm in the town of Charleville, a couple of toymakers, Thomas and Carla Kringle, return home to find an infant boy in a basket on their door step, with only red and white blankets and a necklace with a name engraved on it, "Clause". They decide to adopt the boy and name him Kris.

Years later, a now teenage Kris Kringle is out feeding deer, when his father calls him inside to show him his newest toy and he tells his father that someday he's going to be famous for his toys. The bus arrives and Kris heads to School, but falls asleep on the bus, before being awakened by his crush, Jessica Dunham. He meets with his friends Gregory and Emily and shows them some of his dad's toys.

Kris soon begins to give some of the toys away to classmates and then kids around the school, and eventually becomes known for giving away toys, to homeless kids and orphanages. One day, Jessica arrives at his house and talks to him, and he gives her an old china doll.

After seeing the misery of the slaves, Kris soon begans sneeking them toys and gifts, but he's caught by the cops and runs before they can see his face. Despite that, he continues to sneak toys to slaves and anyone else, and is soon dubbed in outlaw by Cheif Rojas. He begins wearing a disguise, a red coat lined in white, black boots, and a red pointed hat with a white ball attacked to the end. Cheif Rojas demands that all doors and windows be locked at night, so Kris goes through the Chimneys, and hides the toys in stockings above the fireplace.

One day while sneeking toys to slaves, he is nearly caught and begins running, but is hidden by Jessica. He then tries to escape but is seen. He runs into the woods, and while looking back, doesn't notice a large door in front of him and runs through it, landing in a large ice palace, where he's confronted by the Winter Warlock, who first upset, before seeing the boy's tag reading "Claus". Suddenly, his palace is attacked by a storm of fire and the Summer Warlock charges in, and Kris escapes back to his town, where Jessica is waiting for him, but the Summer Warlock follows and attacks him and takes Jessica and flies off. Kris asks the Winter Warlock for help, who gives the reindeers at the farm the ability to fly and he hops on one and flies through the forest to save Jessica.

Arriving at the Summer Warlock's, he is attacked and the reindeer fall to the ground. Right before being destroyed by a blast of fire, he mysteriously creates a force field of snow. He then gets up and creates a pair of swords made of ice and destroys every single fire creature that the Summer Warlock throws at him. Walking up to the Summer Warlock, Kris punches through him and dispurses him in a beam of light, destroying him. Kris reunites with Jessica and they kiss. 

Returning home, Kris uses the reindeer, naming them Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donnor, and Blixen, to go from house to house giving people toys and gifts, still being known as "Claus", doing so every once and a while to be safe.