Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and we once again,continue the Santa Spectacle as we look at the first sequel to yesterday's movie, as we look at The Santa Clause 2. And as far as sequels go, it's not that bad. It does a good job of building off of what came before and isn't a carbon copy remake of the original movie. It introduces a new problem or clause, if you will, that makes sense for the film franchise and brings in another element of the Santa mythos. Mrs. Claus. Interestingly in the U.K., this movie has the subtitle of the Mrs. Clause. And originally, this film was meant to be subtitled The Escape Clause but that title went to the worst movie in the trilogy and we will get to that lump of coal, eventually. But for now, our focus in on The Santa Clause 2.
The Plot
It has been eight year since Scott first took up the mantle of Santa and we see that he is at the top of his game and Christmas has only been getting better. But it's soon discovered by Bernard, head elf and Curtis, Keeper of the handbook of Christmas. Now, Curtis is introduced as a character that has been there since the beginning and this was at the time, that Disney was trying to push Spencer Breslin as the next big Disney kid star. Heck, he'll appear in another Christmas movie that I'll be reviewing, when we get to TV movies and this isn't the only Disney movie that he was in that starred Tim Allen, as he played Tim Allen's son in the remake of The Shaggy Dog.
Which happened to come out, the same year as The Santa Clause 3. Hmm, two bad Tim Allen movies from Disney, coming out in the same year. Now, in-movie, we are just to assume that Curtis has always been there, even though that he was never in the first movie and considering that there was no character named Curtis in the first film, we know that he wasn't in it. However, I do remember a Behind The Scenes interview, which I think had Breslin in character as Curtis saying that he was only 400 years old during the events of the first movie and that is still like the toddler phase for elves as they age differently than humans. This is never said in-movie, so take it if you will but for me, I'd rather have an explanation than none at all.
Bernard and Curtis inform Santa that he has to get married, the Mrs. Clause, if you will. And has until Christmas Eve to get married or he'll no longer, be Santa Claus. Even more pressing, is when an elf named Abby comes in to give Santa some bad news. Charlie is on the naughty list. No need to insert your own Charlie Sheen joke as the movie takes care of that for you.
Sheen? I thought he straightened out?
Here's the other funny thing, Abby is a replacement for Judy but I never picked up on the fact that she was a different character from Judy until watching the film, yesterday and I think that's because the movie doesn't make a big deal about her presence.
We then cut to Charlie repelling into his school and defacing a gym wall with some anti-Christmas graffiti but he's caught by his principal, The Snow Queen.
I'm not kidding either as Elizabeth Mitchell (the actress that plays Carol Newman/Mrs. Claus) would go onto play The Snow Queen during Once Upon A Time's Frozen arc. Scott decides that he must return back home to deal with Charlie and find a Mrs. Claus. This is even brought up during a meeting with Legendary Figures, and can I just say that these characters are a great addition to this series as they such great characters and they are so likable.
Curtis figures out a way to create a cover for Santa's prolonged absence and it leads to one of the creepiest things as we bore witness to Toy Santa.
Now, this introduces something to this franchise that wasn't in the first film, that of a villain and well, I'm mixed on the idea of a villain for this franchise. Tim Allen is clearly having a blast playing Toy Santa but because of the necessity of the story, this feel likes something from a completely different movie. And as though, they only added this subplot in, so that they could get more scenes of Tim Allen on The North Pole set.
And we see Santa leave but as he brings up, he is going through a de-Santaifaction, that is slowly turning him back into Scott Calvin. And we see him meet up with Laura and Neal, and I do like them a lot more in this movie than I did in the first one. I think them being brought in on the secret helped with that and the fact that they now have a daughter makes them a bit more tolerable as they learned from their time with Charlie. We get our first meeting between Scott and Carol and things don't go that smoothly as neither one of them seem to like each other. We see Scott head back to Neal and Laura's house, and Scott informs his family of what is happening. And well, we do get to see Scott on a date and man, is it awkward.
Yeah.... that's a thing that actually happened. Things seem to be getting harder for Scott and Charlie as they seem to hit a wall as we find out that Charlie has gone back on his word of not defacing any more property at his school. He ends up in weekend community service and Scott comes but he ends up using some of his magic as a little girl shows up knowing that Scott is Santa Claus. Yeah, that's something that I forgot to bring up, Scott has a limited amount of magic and if he uses it all up, he can't return to The North Pole.
Back at The North Pole, we see that Toy Santa has become a stickler for the rules and has decided for every little naughty thing that kids do, that every child should get coal for Christmas. Back with the story with Scott, after many failed dates such as the one seen above, Scott is slowly falling for Carol and we see that as he uses up some of his magic to make a sleigh appear to take her to an office Christmas party and he also uses up his magic to liven up the party by presenting the faculty with the gifts that they had wanted as kids.
Including a baby doll for Carol and he soon wins Carol over and he attempts to reveal that he's Santa Claus but Carol thinks that Scott is mocking her childhood as she told him earlier in the film, that Christmas was the only time of year, that her mom and dad made an attempt not to fight. Y'know, just once with one of these secret revealed things, I'd like to see the love interest believe the person telling them the secret. We also find out from Charlie that he's acting out because of the pressure of keeping his dad's secret and not being able to see him. This'll come into play a bit later.
Brokenhearted, Scott returns to Neal and Laura's house and Curtis shows up and tells Scott/Santa as the horrible things that Toy Santa has done. Including putting Bernard on house-arrest, most likely because he tried to reveal to the elves that Toy Santa wasn't the real Santa. Scott can't return to The North Pole can't return to The North Pole because he's used up all of his magic and his mode of transportation is outta commission. Yeah, he used Comet to fly to see Charlie but Comet has a bit of a sweet tooth and ate a lot of chocolate.
Oh look, Mickey and Minnie are on the wrapper in front of Comet. This also brings up, something else that I should mention. Comet in the first movie had a small role and we did see him have a bit of a bond with Santa/Scott. In the sequel, Comet's role is expanded and he serves as the film's comic relief and is bit more cartoony. You can even see that in his design compared to the first film, where the reindeer still felt like animals whereas here, they would feel at home in an animated holiday special and that is also true of another reindeer that we meet at the beginning of the movie that is voiced by beloved voice actress, Kath Soucie.
So, it seems like that they have run out of options but Scott remembers that the Tooth Fairy can fly and might be able to help them, if they catch them. They try a bunch of absurd methods but Lucy loses a tooth and Scott catches the Tooth Fairy as he comes to leave money for Lucy and has to convince The Tooth Fairy, that he is Santa. And he does and The Tooth Fairy flies Santa/Scott and Curtis back to The North Pole.
Scott thinks that they may be able to take the Toy Santa down but Charlie is able to bring Carol there as she finally gets her to believe by showing her the snowglobe that Bernard gave Charlie in the first movie. Charlie, the elves, and Carol fight off Toy Santa's toy soldiers and I think that this may have been a reference to Disney's Babes in Toyland.
Santa uses Chet to fly up to the sleigh to stop Toy Santa and fight him off. Scott is able to defeat Toy Santa and he's reduced to the size of a regular toy and everything seems to be working out well as we see Scott and Carol get married with Mother Nature presiding over the wedding.
That night, while out delivering presents, Scott reveals to Lucy, who had assumed that her Uncle was Santa all along that she was right and that she now has to keep the secret. But it's a nice and sweet ending.
All in all, this is a worthy follow-up to the first movie that does a good job of building upon what came before it.
Characters
Main Characters
Scott Calvin/Santa Claus played by Tim Allen
By this point, Scott had been Santa for eight years and you can feel the years of experience that he has and how much he loves being Santa and wouldn't want to give it up for the world. And as for the relationship with Carol, it starts off rocky but Tim Allen and Elizabeth Mitchell do have great chemistry and you clearly see how much the two grow to care for another.
Carol Newman/Mrs. Claus played by Elizabeth Mitchell
I'm thinking the mentioning of The Snow Queen was more apt than I thought as Carol starts off rather cold but her walls slowly start to melt away as she grows fond of Scott and you see how much these two have grown to love each other in a short amount of time.
Supporting Characters
Curtis played by Spencer Breslin
Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of Curtis. He's not bad in the first sequel as he has Bernard to hold him back but I do find him to be a bit annoying at times and the annoyance factor is increased a whole lot in the third movie without Bernard to balance him out.
Bernard played by David Krumholtz
Bernard doesn't really get that much to do in the sequel and I think that is in part because of being so far away from The North Pole for the main story and because of Disney adding Breslin in as Curtis. Still, he does get a few good moments.
Charlie played by Eric Lloyd
It was nice to see that they got Eric Lloyd back to play Charlie and clearly, with this film being set eight years after the first, things have changed. And we see that most with Charlie as he's acting out and isn't the same precious six year old that he was in the first movie and is now instead, a bit of a troublemaker but only because he's trying to reach out to his dad.
Lucy played by Liliana Mumy
The cute kid role in the sequels is filled out by Lucy and she is likable and does the precious kid thing right and there is an instant likability to her as soon as you see her. She never goes overboard and like Charlie in the first movie, always feels like a real kid.
Villain
Toy Santa also played by Tim Allen
Tim Allen was fun as Toy Santa but again, I'm mixed on the inclusion of a villain in the story because the main story was pretty well removed from everything that happened at The North Pole and again, I feel like Toy Santa exists only to get more footage of Allen on The North Pole set. He's a funny villain that takes everything too seriously and see him become a Christmas dicator. It's an idea that we've seen done before with a replacement, thinking that he'd make a better leader and the original having to stop them.
My Final Thoughts
While not quite as good as the first movie, this sequel is still quite enjoyable and I find it to be a rather enjoyable follow-up that perfectly builds upon what has come before. And weaves new elements into the franchise wonderfully. I'd say check it out, if you are interested. Join me on Monday as we resume the Santa Spectacle as we look at...
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
No comments:
Post a Comment