|DESIGN||Magnetic Dreams animator|
Sam the Super Automated Ghost of Christmas Future is a robot ghost, the third to visit Oscar the Grouch in A Sesame Street Christmas Carol. Joe Marley delivers Sam to Oscar as a remote-control-like-device along with pamphlet of written instructions. Oscar uses the remote to summon Sam in the form of what appears to be an interactive holograph. Sam then shows Oscar a short film of what Christmas will be like in the future.
The character was animated by Magnetic Dreams as a computer generated image. Sam displays several characteristics in common with his predecessor of the same name, Sam the Robot, including a bow tie, idiosyncratic eye movements, and a tendency to get stuck repeating the same few words until someone hits his body — or in this case, his remote control.
In the end credits and DVD packaging, the character is identified as "i-Sam," a possible reference to Apple Computers.