The Santa Clause 2

Now, I cannot really describe what sort of expectations I had coming into this movie. I barely remember the first Santa Clause, which came out over six years ago, so the idea of a sequel after such a long break made me rethink its possibilities. Then my family and I went to go see it today, and for what it is worth, SC2 is pretty decent. Okay, so there isn't a lot of humor that will appeal to the older siblings or parents in the audience, but the colorful sets, simple story, and a good cast make it worth the trip. Tim Allen is just fine as Santa, although for such a good comedian I was hoping he would improvise some more sly humor or gags into the role. One wonders what Robin Williams or, heck, Chris Rock could do with the role of the big guy. The woman who plays Allen's possible love interest was also pretty good, but her character fell in love with Scott Calvin so fast it seemed like the script was forcing the relationship. Pretty much everyone from 1996's Santa Clause is back, including Charlie, who is now all grown up and as cute as a button. They try to present him as somehwhat of a delinquent, but considering all he does is throw snowballs and do a little light grafitti work, it seems like he's more of a Disney thug than anything you would see on the streets of reality. The only actor I could have nixed from the film and not missed was the chubby kid who was also in Bruce Willis' The Kid and provided voicework for the Peter Pan sequel. It just feels like Disney is recycling him into every movie they have, and he isn't even that good of a child actor. Oh, and did anyone catch the insanely obvious product placement for McDonald's? Sheesh, I have a problem with such blatant advertising like this, but at the same time it is kind of funny to watch the Marketing Gears groan and grind (look, Charlie is having a BIG MAC). Oh, and the reindeer character eats a lot of brand name candy (including a yummy CRUNCH BAR). I liked Comet, even if he is an obvious animatronic creation, and appreciated the fact that the filmakers didn't get lazy and just use CGI, but what if he had just spoken English? Why the weird reindeer language? Tim Allen had to repeat everything Comet said just so we could understand, and that got a little old. What's that Comet? You can't fly? You say Timmy is at the bottom of the well and he is hemmoraging? Hee hee...sorry, I couldn't resist. Anyway, this review is getting kind of long, so I'll wrap it up by saying that The Santa Clause 2 is a great movie to take the family to, but don't expect long-lasting memories. It certainly looks better than Adam Sandler's animated PG-13 movie. What was that man thinking? I give SC2 3/4 stars.

The Santa Clause 2 takes place a number of years after the original film. The first movie saw Tim Allen's character "Scott Calvin" become Santa Claus after the previous Santa Claus fell off of his roof on Christmas Eve. Well in this one Scott has settled in nicely to his role as Mr. Claus, but there is one problem. He has to find a Mrs. Claus in only twenty eight days or Christmas as we know it will be over forever! On top of that major problem, another subplot includes his quest to get his son Charlie off of the naughty list. It seems Charlie has been rebellious as a teenager, spray painting school walls and such. So while Santa/Scott leaves the North Pole to take care of that business, his trusty sidekick elf Bernard and newcomer elf Curtis create a clone Santa to take over on an interim basis. Scott ends up falling for Charlie's principal Carol Newman, and with the use of magic wins over her heart. Meanwhile in the North Pole, the fake Santa that Curtis the elf created ends up becoming a power hungry dictator who believes ALL kids are bad and deserve only lumps of coal for Christmas. It's up to Scott to defeat him and save Christmas.

The Santa Clause 2 is not nearly as good as the first film. While the whole idea of Santa may be absurd to many people, this film has so much more unrealistic things occur in it that it lost my interest. For example, Scott's ability to snag a wife in under a month? It's completely ridiculous but I guess had to be done to wrap up the movie very nicely. And all of the magic that he uses to make Carol fall for him goes completely unnoticed by her character, such as a mistletoe and twenty presents appearing out of nowhere. She just brushes it off. I also did not like that the major characters from the first film (Scott's ex wife Laura and her husband Neil) took a back seat in this film for the overly annoying young elf Curtis. It lost the magic and heart that the first movie had.

There were some good moments in this of course. Tim Allen had some great comedic moments, especially when he ditches the Santa suit and acts like a regular person. I like him better as Scott Calvin than I do as Santa Claus. He and Carol have a good combative chemistry that turns sweet once we start to see the human side of her. And the scenes when Scott uses magic to give all the teachers toys that they loved from their childhoods really was a good piece. It just wasn't as good as the original. I thought it was ridiculous that he had to find a wife in one month. And considering that was the major obstacle in this film for the main character to overcome, I wasn't really engaged in it.

Children will love this movie (I know I did years ago), and that's really all that matters with a Christmas movie. But as an adult looking for a good holiday film, this one fell flat up against others such as Home Alone 1/2, Christmas Vacation and even the first Santa Clause.

6/10

This was much better than I anticipated. It made me laugh a few times. In the sequel, Santa Claus (Allen) is losing his magical powers. There was a hidden clause in his contract that he had to marry by a certain time or he would lose them all. So, he goes back home to date and help straighten his son out who was on the naughty list. While away, Santa's lead elves make a plastic replica Santa so the other elves won't worry. And a lot of the funny parts have to do with plastic Santa as he learns the enjoyment of cocoa and goes on a power trip.

I wish the movie would have shown more than one dating disaster with Santa. Molly Shannon does a cameo as his date and loudly sings this funny song in a restaurant. And the flying reindeer and tooth fairy bring even more cuteness to the film. The principle was so annoying and you knew she was going to be the one. But it felt so fairy tale like because Santa knows her like a week and he's saying, "I'm so in love" and all they did was go to a faculty Christmas party. Does Santa stop the evil plastic Santa and save Christmas? What do you think? Duh!

FINAL VERDICT: It was pretty good for a kid's film. I recommended it if you don't think movies like this are too childish.

Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) has been Santa for awhile, but only now is he told that there is more Santa Clause. He must marry a Mrs Claus before Christmas eve. In addition, his son Charlie has landed on the Naughty List. He decides to go south and leave a substitute Santa in his place. While he falls for Charlie's principal Carol Newman (Elizabeth Mitchell), the substitute Santa stirs up trouble and puts every child on the Naughty List.

This still has some of the original charm. Most of it comes from Carol slowly finding out Scott is actually Santa. Charlie's complaint about his father is less convincing. I don't think the secret is that big of a deal. It feels very fake. I rather not have an excuse for his misbehaving. There is a good lesson to be had there, but it ends rather weakly. It's a missed learning opportunity. Besides that, the movie is good family fun.

It's been quite a while since I've seen the first Santa Clause movie, but I remember being quite surprised by it. It was a unique twist on the beloved Santa character with great comic timing by Tim Allen. But that was a while ago, and I didn't really know what to expect from The Santa Clause 2.

The movie started off kind of slow when everything is going smoothly. Everybody's happy and Santa's meeting with his fellow "legendary figures," which I admit was a fairly funny scene, but this movie just started off kind of boring. Of course this is normal with any movie until we're presented with a conflict. Santa is reverting back to his civilian self and must find a Mrs. Clause to fulfill the contract and continue being Santa. So to watch over the North Pole, a duplicate, plastic Santa clone is made, and slowly turns to a maniacal boss over his elves. I thought this was pretty funny, especially with me being a business major. I wonder if I'll act like that after school!

Anyways, back to the story, Santa goes back to his hometown with limited magic. We're introduced to a frigid principal that has punished Santa's son for displaying some Christmas spirit. More fun ensues as Santa tries to find and woo the next Mrs. Clause. To seal the deal, his Santa magic gives him the edge and results in some very nice scenes of the movie.

I won't go any further as you get the idea. Overall, The Santa Clause 2 is a nice, snuggly movie that will keep you in the holiday spirit. It's not groundbreaking material, but it has a nice message and should put a smile on anyone's face.

My IMDb Rating: 7/10. My Yahoo! Grade: B (Good)