When the kids are outperforming the professional adults, that's a pretty big quality signal. The core story almost makes sense; the cast just has to remind you a dozen times each scene what's at stake in case the commercials were more intellectually stimulating. Carney does make an interesting peeved Santa; you'd think he'd be a little more stressed out that his schedule is being disrupted so close to his big day.

So wait, this evil corp. is drilling for oil, and santa wants them to stop because it threatens North Pole City, not because drilling for oil is inherently bad? Doesn't the fact that you're teaching your kids to snowmobile, at Christmas time, mere miles from the north pole, on a dusting of snow enough for you to realize maybe you shouldn't be doing this in the first place?

A bad TV movie.

The effects and visuals are stultifyingly poor, even by 1980s TV movie standards; the story is, to paraphrase The Simpsons, too kiddie for adults' town, and too much of an adult for kiddie town. Still, it's not appalling bad, there's at least some originality here.