“The Santa Clause 2” Brings Second Dose of Holiday Magic
When Disney first created The Santa Clause back in 1994 they found an original new spin for this tale when ordinary Scott Calvin, a toymaker in his own right, suddenly ended up becoming Santa after an unfortunate accident on the roof of his home. Casting Tim Allen, who was extremely hot with his ABC series Home Improvement, was the perfect choice to play the initially reluctant Santa. Now they have him here as the jolly Kris Kringle who is more than reluctant to give up this new chapter in his life. However, in an attempt to prevent this from becoming just a one-note story, the creators of this movie decided to throw in this family dilemma where his son Charlie (Eric Lloyd) has become something of a vandal on school grounds. Now Scott has to juggle two issues; figure out what is wrong with his son and then find a wife by the end of Christmas Eve. The issue of what time zone the precise North Pole sits in and how that affects Scott is another matter completely, but for the sake of this review we’ll just move on.
The rest of this movie deals with a mechanical imposter Santa while Scott is trying to fix his own personal problems, but that part is just there to help pad out the movie. It’s not bad, although it is a tad silly. There is also some wonderful interaction fun between some of the humans, namely Scott, and the reindeer. If there is another message to be had here is never feed a reindeer too much candy. The results can be rather explosive, and yet terribly funny.
There are other bits and gags here that call back to Tim Allen’s physical comedy from Home Improvement, but it is those moments when he’s Santa that the movie sparkles. He acts with a conviction at one point that you can almost believe that he believes he’s Santa. Perhaps that’s the true message of this movie. The Santa Clause 2 teaches us that we can all experience, and even share, in that wonderful Christmas childlike magic every year.
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