Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue the Santa Spectacle and we close out our look at The Santa Clause trilogy with The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. Ooh, this is gonna hurt. Yeah, this film has next to nothing good about it. This feels less like a movie and more like a Christmas episode of a show that is in its seventh season. Let's put it this way, Bernard isn't in this movie as his actor at the time was the lead of the CBS show, Num3rs, Charlie only shows up for a cameo at the end. And Neal and Laura are written out of the movie as soon as they arrive at The North Pole. And considering that the back half of this movie takes place in an alternate reality, where Scott never became Santa, I'm not invested as these aren't the real characters that we know. Yeah, this movie is doing It's A Wonderful Life. That movie has become a common trope for other films and TV shows to use. To name one, The Muppets also used the Wonderful Life premise for It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.
That film is a little better than this one but not by much but ooh boy, the mighty have fallen with this third film. With that outta the way, let's begin.
The Plot
The movie opens at The North Pole as we see see Mrs. Claus teaching a class at the Elfmentary School. Ugh, movie if I liked you, I would have forgiven that pun and the young elves ask Mrs. Claus to teach about things that they want to learn and she tells them the story of when they were expecting their first child together. And okay, okay, okay, this makes no sense. How can Carol be telling this story, when she wasn't there for most of the events. We mostly only see her in The North Pole stuff as we never see her at all during the portion, where Scott never became Santa Claus. Did Elizabeth Mitchell not want to be in this movie because if so, I totally understand. Heck, I'm not even sure that Tim Allen wanted to be in this movie.
We head into the story and see that Carol is pregnant with her first child with Scott. And we see that she is feeling homesick and Scott decides to invite the in-laws up but has to trick them into thinking that they are in Canada. As that is where they think he lives and works. We also find out that for the first time in years, that production is running behind and that The North Pole may not make Christmas Eve. And on top of that, the Legendary Figures call a meeting at The North Pole, and learn that Jack Frost is trying to hijack the holiday before Father Time reminds Jack that he heralds a season and not the holiday.
Okay, so we've run into a problem with this movie and we've barely even begun to get into the meat of it. There is too much going on Let's count.
- In-Laws visiting The North Pole and must hide the secret of Santa
- Mrs. Claus is pregnant
- Production snafus at The North Pole
- Jack Frost wanting to hijack Christmas
There is too much going on, and yes I get that is part of the point as I think that this movie wants to try and show that even Santa can endure stress. But people rarely want to see a stressed out Santa. I'm not saying that it can't be done but after two films establishing what kind of Santa, Scott Calvin is, I'm not sure that people wanted that. And furthermore, I am sick and tired of Jack Frost being a villain. It is just one of those things that has been overplayed. Can we get more takes on Jack Frost like what he got in Rise of The Guardians?
Seriously, considering that Jack is a Legendary Figure, why did this movie feel the need to make him the bad guy? Quite honestly, he is one of the most annoying aspects of this film. And he doesn't feel woven into the story naturally. Yes, you could argue the same about the Legendary Figures' appearance in the second movie but that film didn't make a deal about their presence whereas here, Jack Frost sticks out like a sore thumb because of the role, he plays in the movie. All of the other Legendary Figures decide that Jack should be punished for his actions, which include causing it to snow in Hawaii. They think that he should be suspended. Well movie over, that ended fast.
Yeah, no.... I wish but we've still got a lot of movie to go through as Jack convinces the other Legendary Figures that he could perhaps serve community service at The North Pole but Santa isn't sure as he has a lot going on and Cupid brings up the Escape Clause and Jack asks what it is. We find out that it's a snowglobe that the current Santa can use to undo them ever becoming Santa. Again, this also feels forced into the movie and as though it's in the movie, only because this is a Santa Clause movie and that they needed a Clause.
Next up, Santa along with Sandman go to pick up the in-laws played by Alan Arkin and Ann-Margaret.
What are two legendary actors of their stature doing in this movie? Seriously, Medda from Newsies, one of the greatest cult Disney movies of all time is in this movie.
Oh, I know what they're doing! They are playing two of the most annoying characters in this series ever. Neal and Laura, you aren't that bad compared to these two. Seriously, Bud (Carol's dad) is a grade A A***hole. He is a jerk and a half to Scott and I get what the film is trying to go for with by having him be hard on his son-in-law but I just grew to hate him throughout the movie more and more as the story rolled along. And I was okay with the movie getting rid of him in the alternate reality portion.
Seriously, that is one of my biggest problems with this movie. The tone is just too mean-spirited. Let's take a look at the first two, the original had darker elements with the family drama portion of the movie but it never felt mean-spirited. The second one was basically a romantic comedy and it stayed pretty lighthearted throughout. Yeah, it got absurd with Toy Santa but it never got mean. Whereas with this movie, everyone is insufferable and unlikable. I think that is meant to show what leads Scott to saying that he wish that he'd never been Santa Claus. Which by the way, he was tricked into saying. So, for all intents and purposes, Scott would have been willing to work through everything. Which okay goes against the whole idea of It's A Wonderful Life because George Bailey wasn't tricked into saying that he wish that he had never been born. He truly meant that, when he said that and even other takes on the Wonderful Life trope such as the aforementioned It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie keep it to where the character in that case, Kermit makes the wish in earnest.
So, even on that level, this movie fails to understand the movie that it is taking its primary inspiration from. Oh, and I should also mention that Neal and Laura goad Scott into taking Lucy to The North Pole as it wouldn't be fair for her not to go as Charlie has been there. While there, Scott takes Lucy to his collection of snowglobes and gives her a special one that shows her hugging a snowman and it turns pink because of the love and warmth that she has.
We will come back to this as this is how Jack is defeated. Speaking of Jack, we see him outside the workshop talking to Curtis, who is now Head-Elf. What happened to Bernard? Well, I'm not sure and neither is the Disney Wiki as this is what they had to say about that.
Bernard has quit, retired or on vacation at this point
None of this is stated in the movie and unlike The Santa Clause 2, I don't remember anything mentioning what happened to Bernard. Let's break this down.
- Quit - not likely. As he has been at the job for years and it was clear from the second movie that Scott and Bernard had developed quite a bond as Santa and Head-Elf.
- Retired - possible but where to do elfs retire to
- On Vacation - I guess so but see above.
What I think happened is that David Krumholtz was the lead of his own CBS procedural, Numb3rs and read the script for The Santa Clause 3 and thought that he didn't need to do another one of these movies.
Let's see play a mathematical genius or one of Santa's elves, you make the call. Curtis goes up to bat and catches the idiot ball as Jack tricks him into having him tell Jack about The Escape Clause and learn that if the current Santa says that "I wish I'd never been Santa Claus", The Escape Clause will activate it and cause it to be where the current Santa was never Santa Claus. After Scott shows Lucy the Hall of Snowglobes, Jack sneaks in and finds The Escape Clause and freezes Neal and Laura as soon as they find him.
This entire time, Jack has been messing with the workshop and at this point, makes it show that the in-laws are enraged at Scott. And we get the moment that sums up the hatred that I have for this moment as Scott goes to put the star on top of the Christmas tree and Jack causes it to fall and Bud blames Scott for this. Scott feeling frustrated heads out and again is tricked by Jack into saying the words that would activate The Escape Clause as Jack gave it to him as a gift. And the movie pulls a Back to The Future Pt. II (a movie that I'd much rather be watching) as it takes back to the past to when Scott first became Santa. And Scott and Jack have a fight to get to suit but Jack knocks Scott and gets to it before Scott in the past can put it on.
And finally, we get to the alternate reality and we learn that Scott is the now the CEO of the toy company that he worked at in the first film and he works on Christmas Eve. Scott gets out of there and finds Laura and discovers that Neal and Laura have divorced after they had Lucy as they just couldn't make it work. And that The North Pole has been turned into a tourist attraction where rich parents can pay to have their kids put on the Nice List. Scott runs into Neal and Lucy and we find out that Neal and Laura divorced because Scott was never there for Charlie and Neal couldn't be the father that Charlie needed.
And Scott runs into Jack Frost and with some help from Lucy steals Jack's Escape Clause and earlier in the movie, Scott got Jack to utter The Escape Clause and uses that to once more go back in time to when Scott became Santa again and stops Jack from getting the suit and they are returned to the present and Santa/Scott promises to be better to Carol and reveals the truth of who he is to the in-laws. And things seem to be going more smoothly, that is until Curtis and Lucy show up and reveal what happened to Neal and Laura. And we find out that the only way to thaw them is for Jack to thaw them and there is no way that he will ever do that. But Lucy saves the day by thawing Jack with the power of magical hugs. Oh, and don't worry, Jack is good now.
You cannot just wave all the things that Jack Frost did away with a hug and turn him good. Just.....
I know that the movie that I'm about to bring up came out seven years after this movie but when Elsa hugs Anna to thaw her out, there were actual stakes as that movie remembered to make us care about the characters.
Here, Neal and Laura were out of the movie for so long that you really don't care if they are saved or not. The movie expects you to care because they are established characters from the first two movies and with Lucy's magical hug turning Jack good. I gotta call BS because that seems to let Jack off the hook for all the horrible things that he did throughout the movie. It comes across as as copout ending and that the writers didn't have an actual way of defeating Jack.
Carol is about to go into labor and we cut back to the class and we see Santa come in with the baby and learn that it's a boy and that he is named Buddy Claus. Shouldn't it be Buddy Calvin considering that in this franchise that Santa Claus is more of a title than the the name of the character that is Santa Claus. Y'know what, I don't care! I only have one thing to say in regards to this movie.
Seriously, the first movie still holds remarkably well as a Christmas classic and The Santa Clause 2, while not good as the original still has a lot of charm to it but this one, this one, this movie isn't even on the same league as half the cheapquels. Yeah, it's that bad. Honestly, this should've been a cheapquel but considering that it starred Tim Allen and Martin Short, there is no way that was going to happen. It's a real shame to see this franchise go out on such a low note.
Characters
Main Character
Santa Claus/Scott Calvin played by Tim Allen
I really do like Tim Allen's Santa but man, it was an uphill battle to like him in this movie. I understand the stress that he was going through but he just became unpleasant to watch as the movie went on. And that's a shame because he was so great as Santa in the first two movies.
Supporting Characters
Carol/Mrs. Claus played by Elizabeth Mitchell
This is going to be true of most of the supporting characters in the film but they felt like they were only in the movie to give Santa one more thing to worry about. In the case of Carol, it was the arrival of their baby. What was Carol's character in this movie? Pregnant woman and that's it. So much for the growth that we saw her go through in the second movie.
Bud and Sylvia played by Alan Arkin and Ann-Margaret
Movie, why did you waste two good actors in such demeaning roles that once again nothing to do than add stress to Santa's life and that was most evident with Bud. Good lord, I hate that character and dreaded every single time, he came onscreen. As for Sylvia, she was such a non-entity.
Curtis played by Spencer Breslin
I miss Bernard. Curtis is SOOOOOOOO not Head-Elf material as we see with his snafu that causes all of this to happen. And while I didn't mind Curtis in the first sequel, making him head-elf just seemed to make him more annoying to me.
Lucy played by Liliana Mumy
Lucy is probably the only character left in this movie. I actually enjoyed all of her scenes as she brought some release from the tension that was going on and yeah, she's a bit older and doesn't really feel out the cute kid role like she did in the first sequel but she is by and away the most pleasant character in the movie. That's not saying that she has much of a character in this movie because she doesn't but I didn't mind seeing her unlike the other characters.
Villain
Jack Frost played by Martin Short
This character on the other hand. Oh good lord, he is perhaps one of the most annoying villains in a Disney movie that I've seen. Martin Short isn't a bad actor but I feel like he was told to ham it up to 11 and there was no one to rein him in onset because there's being goofy and evil and then there is doing whatever the heck, he was doing. I'm sorry but Short as Frost was just awful and seeing him as Santa was just creepy.
And not in a menacing kinda way but rather in a trainwreck way, where I can't stop looking at the thing in front of me, even though I really want to kinda way. Nothing about this take on Jack Frost works.
My Final Thoughts
Skip this movie. Stick with the first two, this movie is awful. And yet, I'm not sure that it's the worst movie that I've watched for this event. We may be covering that in two days, this however is perhaps the most disappointing. Considering how much I liked the first two films, this was a huge letdown. Join me next time as we enter the world of TV movies and look at one of the few Disney Channel Original Movies to star Santa as we look at 2000's....
The Ultimate Christmas Present
This entire time, Jack has been messing with the workshop and at this point, makes it show that the in-laws are enraged at Scott. And we get the moment that sums up the hatred that I have for this moment as Scott goes to put the star on top of the Christmas tree and Jack causes it to fall and Bud blames Scott for this. Scott feeling frustrated heads out and again is tricked by Jack into saying the words that would activate The Escape Clause as Jack gave it to him as a gift. And the movie pulls a Back to The Future Pt. II (a movie that I'd much rather be watching) as it takes back to the past to when Scott first became Santa. And Scott and Jack have a fight to get to suit but Jack knocks Scott and gets to it before Scott in the past can put it on.
And finally, we get to the alternate reality and we learn that Scott is the now the CEO of the toy company that he worked at in the first film and he works on Christmas Eve. Scott gets out of there and finds Laura and discovers that Neal and Laura have divorced after they had Lucy as they just couldn't make it work. And that The North Pole has been turned into a tourist attraction where rich parents can pay to have their kids put on the Nice List. Scott runs into Neal and Lucy and we find out that Neal and Laura divorced because Scott was never there for Charlie and Neal couldn't be the father that Charlie needed.
And Scott runs into Jack Frost and with some help from Lucy steals Jack's Escape Clause and earlier in the movie, Scott got Jack to utter The Escape Clause and uses that to once more go back in time to when Scott became Santa again and stops Jack from getting the suit and they are returned to the present and Santa/Scott promises to be better to Carol and reveals the truth of who he is to the in-laws. And things seem to be going more smoothly, that is until Curtis and Lucy show up and reveal what happened to Neal and Laura. And we find out that the only way to thaw them is for Jack to thaw them and there is no way that he will ever do that. But Lucy saves the day by thawing Jack with the power of magical hugs. Oh, and don't worry, Jack is good now.
You cannot just wave all the things that Jack Frost did away with a hug and turn him good. Just.....
I know that the movie that I'm about to bring up came out seven years after this movie but when Elsa hugs Anna to thaw her out, there were actual stakes as that movie remembered to make us care about the characters.
Here, Neal and Laura were out of the movie for so long that you really don't care if they are saved or not. The movie expects you to care because they are established characters from the first two movies and with Lucy's magical hug turning Jack good. I gotta call BS because that seems to let Jack off the hook for all the horrible things that he did throughout the movie. It comes across as as copout ending and that the writers didn't have an actual way of defeating Jack.
Carol is about to go into labor and we cut back to the class and we see Santa come in with the baby and learn that it's a boy and that he is named Buddy Claus. Shouldn't it be Buddy Calvin considering that in this franchise that Santa Claus is more of a title than the the name of the character that is Santa Claus. Y'know what, I don't care! I only have one thing to say in regards to this movie.
Seriously, the first movie still holds remarkably well as a Christmas classic and The Santa Clause 2, while not good as the original still has a lot of charm to it but this one, this one, this movie isn't even on the same league as half the cheapquels. Yeah, it's that bad. Honestly, this should've been a cheapquel but considering that it starred Tim Allen and Martin Short, there is no way that was going to happen. It's a real shame to see this franchise go out on such a low note.
Characters
Main Character
Santa Claus/Scott Calvin played by Tim Allen
I really do like Tim Allen's Santa but man, it was an uphill battle to like him in this movie. I understand the stress that he was going through but he just became unpleasant to watch as the movie went on. And that's a shame because he was so great as Santa in the first two movies.
Supporting Characters
Carol/Mrs. Claus played by Elizabeth Mitchell
This is going to be true of most of the supporting characters in the film but they felt like they were only in the movie to give Santa one more thing to worry about. In the case of Carol, it was the arrival of their baby. What was Carol's character in this movie? Pregnant woman and that's it. So much for the growth that we saw her go through in the second movie.
Bud and Sylvia played by Alan Arkin and Ann-Margaret
Movie, why did you waste two good actors in such demeaning roles that once again nothing to do than add stress to Santa's life and that was most evident with Bud. Good lord, I hate that character and dreaded every single time, he came onscreen. As for Sylvia, she was such a non-entity.
Curtis played by Spencer Breslin
I miss Bernard. Curtis is SOOOOOOOO not Head-Elf material as we see with his snafu that causes all of this to happen. And while I didn't mind Curtis in the first sequel, making him head-elf just seemed to make him more annoying to me.
Lucy played by Liliana Mumy
Lucy is probably the only character left in this movie. I actually enjoyed all of her scenes as she brought some release from the tension that was going on and yeah, she's a bit older and doesn't really feel out the cute kid role like she did in the first sequel but she is by and away the most pleasant character in the movie. That's not saying that she has much of a character in this movie because she doesn't but I didn't mind seeing her unlike the other characters.
Villain
Jack Frost played by Martin Short
This character on the other hand. Oh good lord, he is perhaps one of the most annoying villains in a Disney movie that I've seen. Martin Short isn't a bad actor but I feel like he was told to ham it up to 11 and there was no one to rein him in onset because there's being goofy and evil and then there is doing whatever the heck, he was doing. I'm sorry but Short as Frost was just awful and seeing him as Santa was just creepy.
And not in a menacing kinda way but rather in a trainwreck way, where I can't stop looking at the thing in front of me, even though I really want to kinda way. Nothing about this take on Jack Frost works.
My Final Thoughts
Skip this movie. Stick with the first two, this movie is awful. And yet, I'm not sure that it's the worst movie that I've watched for this event. We may be covering that in two days, this however is perhaps the most disappointing. Considering how much I liked the first two films, this was a huge letdown. Join me next time as we enter the world of TV movies and look at one of the few Disney Channel Original Movies to star Santa as we look at 2000's....
The Ultimate Christmas Present
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