'Santa Inc.' takeaway: How the series deals with mature content via a children's story

In keeping with the Christmas tradition of stop-motion pictures, HBO Max brings its viewers another Christmas treat, Santa Inc. But this time it's for adults only.

Santa Inc. tries something subversive with the traditional Santa story. It's not the feel-good children's Christmas story that one would anticipate from the stop-motion medium. The series attempts to move away from the fairytale story of Christmas and instead employs realistic themes while keeping with the Christmas spirit.

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A short summary of 'Santa Inc.'

Candy is an elf who was recently promoted to chief of operations when Brent, a former employee, left the company to work at Amazon. Brent was the presumed successor to the current Santa. With him gone, Santa must now appoint another successor urgently.

This made Candy dream for the first time in years. Candy never dared to let her ambition soar, but with Brent gone, she was finally seeing the possibility of being the next Santa - the first woman Santa in history. She pitches her idea and Santa decides to think about it.

Candy did not lose faith despite all the mockery she faced for her ambition. She continued her struggle, but in that process, she alienated herself from her family and friends and lost her own personality. Candy desperately tried to climb the hierarchical ladder and become a part of the all-boys club in the face of all the oppression and underestimation that challenged her. Sadly, she doesn't make it.

Now that her original plans have become clearer to her again. She leads a workers protest in order to get the most basic benefits they deserve. Candy has some tricks up her sleeves, making Santa come around and grant the demands.

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'Santa Inc.' deals with some mature themes

Despite being raunchy and comic, with an overload of R-rated jokes, Santa Inc. never loses sight of the original intent of the story. It is a corporate satire and remains so.

Santa Inc. is the story of what goes on in Santa's corporate house in the North Pole, named Santa Inc. It is a realistic reflection of the corporate and capitalistic world but tells that tale in the vestige of a Christmas story. It also gives voice to the real-life instances of women pushing for success in a male-dominated corporate world that actively attempts to exclude them from climbing up the corporate ladder.

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Catch HBO Max's all-new adults-only stop-motion picture, Santa Inc. Now available for streaming on HBO's viewing platform.