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B.Z. is the main antagonist of Santa Claus: The Movie. He is a greedy, selfish, sleazy and unscrupulous toy manufacturer who manipulates one of Santa's elves Patch to help him take over Christmas.

He is portrayed by John Lithgow.

Santa Claus: The Movie[]

B.Z. owned a toy company, which was seen as shoddy as he cut corners everywhere. The factory was seen as being abandoned due to an earlier walkout, along with graffiti saying "DOWN WITH BZ", and a posted notice "This company does not recognize any union, nor should you!" He was the "step-uncle" to a little girl named Cornelia, and he lived with her. This relationship was likely explained that B.Z. was her uncle by marriage, not blood. It is also likely the reason Cornelia lives with B.Z. is that all her family is deceased and the courts have awarded her guardianship to him. B.Z. does not seem especially pleased with being awarded guardianship. While he does feed and shelter Cornelia, he cares little else about her. B.Z. also hires an elderly woman as his housekeeper, who is more involved in Cornelia's upbringing. This was evident when Cornelia complained about the point of homework, as B.Z. did not care about her report card, and likely did not even know what grade she was currently in. The housekeeper firmly demanded Cornelia return to her studies, in this case Latin verbs.

B.Z. was first seen with his head of market research Dr. Eric Towzer in court and faces a shutdown of his company B.Z. Toys due to unsafe products including a flammable doll and a panda filled with broken glass and nails amongst it's stuffing. He is then approached by Patch who mistook store workers removing the items from the windows as being sold.

Together they make lollipops powered by special feed that makes Santa's reindeer fly, he also gives Patch the materials he needs to build the Patchmobile so he can make his deliveries just like Santa. Even though B.Z. was reluctant at first for Patch giving away the items free, he saw this as an opportunity to rebuild his image, but he still had something selfish in mind.

With Christmas being over, B.Z. gets more greedier when he announces "Christmas 2" for March 25th, asking Patch to increase the reindeer flying formula and make candy canes before he heads back to the North Pole.

B.Z. is telling Dr. Towzer how he has now beaten Santa Claus and will now be the new icon of Christmas. However an orphan named Joe and Cornelia overhear their conversation. But Joe accidently sneezes and gives their position away. B.Z. is alerted to Joe's presence. Joe flees, however he is recaptured by B.Z.. B.Z. then orders Grizzard to take Joe to the toy factory and lock him up in the basement area of the factory.

He later discovers from Dr. Towzer that the candy canes are unstable and will explode if in contact with heat. He decides to flee to Brazil and let Patch take the fall. However Cornelia hears their conversation and writes to Santa for help.

The same place where Joe is imprisoned is the living quarters of Patch, who frees Joe and invites him to come to the North Pole with him, as well as taking a bunch of flying candy canes as a gift for Santa.

B.Z.'s crimes are uncovered when Cornelia calls the police. The police arrest Dr. Towzer and his chauffeur Gizzard and then attempt to arrest B.Z. as well, but he craftily eats some of the unstable candy canes in an attempt to fly out of his office, but ends up flying up high into the sky after eating too many.

Meanwhile, Santa has taken Cornelia in his sled, but his speed is limited as Comet and Donner have been sidelined with the flu. He sees the Patchmobile, which is sparking as Patch does not know candy canes explode when heated. Santa says the only way he can catch up to the Patchmobile is to perform an aerobatic move that he has never been able to do before; the "Super Dooper Looper", which has never been done as Blitzen and Cupid always back off. Through goading, all six reindeer perform it just as the Patchmobile explodes. Patch and Joe land safely in the backseat of Santa's sleigh.

At the end of the film, B.Z., in spite of his pleas for help, is doomed to float off into the depths of space among the equally effected remains of the Patchmobile. As there is no air in space, it is assumed that he eventually suffocated and died.

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