"It's the Mrs. Clause."
The 12 Dates of Christmas
The Santa Clause 2 is a 2002 sequel to the original holiday Disney film. It's directed by Michael Lembeck (Tooth Fairy) and written by 5 PEOPLE, Don Rhymer (Deck the Halls), Cinco Paul (Despicable Me), Ken Daurio (Hop), Ed Decter (There's Something About Mary) and John J. Strauss (The Lizzie McGuire Movie). The film follows Santa Claus (Tim Allen), as he learns from his elf-isitants Bernard (David Krumholtz) and Curtis (Spencer Breslin) that he has to get married or else he can no longer be Santa. Teaming up with his son (Eric Lloyd), ex-wife (Wendy Crewson) and her new husband (Judge Reinhold), Santa woos school principal Carol (Elizabeth Mitchell) and tries to save Christmas once again.
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| Look up in the sky, it's a cliched reference! |
Christmas Comes Again
If you remember my review of the first Santa Clause movie, which I hope you would seeing as how it came out a week ago, you'll remember that I liked it an thought that is was a very strong Christmas movie. It didn't need a sequel, but hey, Disney gave a sequel Bambi, so why not another Christmas movie? And, you know what, for what it is, Santa Clause 2 is not a bad movie. Sure, it's nowhere near as good as the original, but that's not too surprising. Really, they've once again created another fun, heartwarming Christmas film that the whole family can watch. Tim Allen is once again great (Words I never thought I'd say) as Santa Claus and his quest for finding a wife is actually pretty funny thanks to him. And Mitchell is a great foil for his character and makes for a very strong love interest. Even the stuff in the North Pole with a toy Santa made me laugh more than it probably should have. Maybe I am just a sucker for a nice Christmas movie, or maybe the film was working off some good will from the first, but I did enjoy this movie... mostly.
For Kids of Small Ages
The one big problem with the movie though is that they do underplay the more emotional aspects that the first one had. The kid in this one has his own love interest, a storyline where he gets on the naughty list and has to deal with his Dad dating his principal. And yet he doesn't get that much screentime in this one. You know, for a movie about love and marriage, the actually emotions begin to play second fiddle to more slapstick and fart jokes and some still really awful reindeer. But, the even added a elf played by a kid with a lisp, who become so annoying that by the end of it you'd kinda wish Santa would sending him out to sea on an iceberg North-style. And, overall, there just isn't as much to this one as there was the last. Yeah, it's funny, but not too funny. And the characters are good, but not too good. The film is a perfect example of a completely unnecessary sequel.
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| Also, Toy Santa's creepy as f**k. |
The Verdict
As far as Disney sequels good, The Santa Clause 2 is not that bad a movie. It's still funny, still nice and still has good characters. But it's also more kid-focused and so now there are some really lame jokes, the emotions are cast aside and some really annoying characters are showcased. All and all, it's not great, but also not as bad as it could have been. I mean, at least it wasn't about, I don't know, Jack Frost exploiting a loophole and becoming Santa Claus. Now that would be stupid! The Santa Clause 2 gets 4 stars out of 6.
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