The Santa Clauses
Year: 2022
Created by: Jack Burditt
Starring: Tim Allen, Elizabeth Allen-Dick, Austin Kane, Elizabeth Mitchell & Kal Penn
Episodes: 6
BBFC: PG
Published: 20/01/23
Created by: Jack Burditt
Starring: Tim Allen, Elizabeth Allen-Dick, Austin Kane, Elizabeth Mitchell & Kal Penn
Episodes: 6
BBFC: PG
Published: 20/01/23
If the recent trend of remakes and reboots in Hollywood has taught us anything it’s that nothing is sacred, particularly if Disney is involved. The first two Santa Clause films were a big part of my childhood, and I watched the third one for the first time in recent years, but they’ve always held a special place in my heart as genuinely great Christmas films that tackle the meaning of Christmas in unique and interesting ways. It’s been sixteen years since The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, and Disney have decided to drag the corpse of a long dead franchise back out for one more go around. But does the enduring magic of Christmas spirit save The Santa Clauses from becoming just another soulless revival?
Having been Santa for almost thirty years, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) has reached the ripe old age of sixty-five and is starting to wonder if he’s cut out for the job anymore. Despite loving every minute of it, he’s finding more and more that the requirements of the job are simply getting too much for him to handle, and he’s looking to retire and pass the mantle on to someone new. It just so happens that there is a ‘Successes Clause’ in his Santa contract which allows him to pass down the responsibility of Santa to someone of his choosing should he not feel up to the job anymore. Eager to spend some quality time with his wife (Elizabeth Mitchell) and now grown-up children (Austin Kane, Elizabeth Allen-Dick, and Eric Lloyd), Scott hires Simon Choski (Kal Penn), a technology mogul who runs the world’s largest package delivery service. But as Scott soon realises, it takes a special kind of person to be Santa Claus.
Having been Santa for almost thirty years, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) has reached the ripe old age of sixty-five and is starting to wonder if he’s cut out for the job anymore. Despite loving every minute of it, he’s finding more and more that the requirements of the job are simply getting too much for him to handle, and he’s looking to retire and pass the mantle on to someone new. It just so happens that there is a ‘Successes Clause’ in his Santa contract which allows him to pass down the responsibility of Santa to someone of his choosing should he not feel up to the job anymore. Eager to spend some quality time with his wife (Elizabeth Mitchell) and now grown-up children (Austin Kane, Elizabeth Allen-Dick, and Eric Lloyd), Scott hires Simon Choski (Kal Penn), a technology mogul who runs the world’s largest package delivery service. But as Scott soon realises, it takes a special kind of person to be Santa Claus.
For the most part, The Santa Clauses retains the spark that made the films such family hits. There is a caveat to this though, the fact that this shouldn’t have been a six-episode series on Disney+. Honestly The Santa Clauses would have been considerably better had it been a maximum of two hours and presented in the format of a film. It’s harmless fun for the most part, but it’s a little flabby at times, and there are a couple of characters that are given a heavy amount of screen time that could have been given the chop entirely. For example, Noel (Devin Bright) is Santa’s assistant, and he is given so much screentime yet he’s an incredibly irritating character that doesn’t really do anything of consequence in the whole show, at least nothing that his wife and Head Elf, Betty (Matilda Lawler) couldn’t have done.
Noel isn’t the only case of characters being given too much screentime, but he is by far the most egregious example, and it’s all done in service of giving the story enough meat on its bones to be stretched into a three-hour caper lasting six episodes. The problem is that it’s not meat, it’s all fat and it could have been cut out entirely for a leaner and higher quality experience.
It's great to see Allen back as Santa though. Of all the portrayals of Santa in film over the years I do think that Allen’s is my favourite by quite a considerable margin. Even after a decade and a half away from the role he brings the same kind of vibrancy and energy to the role which made the original films so beloved in the first place. Elizabeth Mitchell is given a much more expanded role than what she had in The Santa Clause 3, and I loved how her story is constructed around breaking out of the shell of the Mrs. Claus myth and becoming her own woman once again. The Calvin/Claus children are quirky but I don’t feel like they’re given enough to do to make them truly memorable or worthy additions to the story, Elizabeth Allen-Dick’s Sandra is by far the most interesting child and I would have loved to see her take a more central role as the show went on but that’s not the case unfortunately.
Kal Penn meanwhile does the best he can with the material he has. I don’t feel like the character of Simon is particularly interesting, and whilst I like what he contributes to the character I feel like the character is more just a plot device than someone with actual stakes in the game if you know what I mean?
Something that did strike me was how bad the CGI looks. Perhaps Disney lumped this on Marvel’s overworked and underpaid VFX artists too, but it honestly didn’t look much better than The Santa Clause 3 did in 2006, and that’s really not ok. Thankfully The Santa Clauses doesn’t rely on CGI, instead utilising the previous films amazing sets and props wherever possible. It’s just unfortunate that the times it is used it sticks out like a sore thumb.
The Santa Clauses is an ok continuation of the Santa Clause franchise. It’s totally unnecessary, which should come as no surprise considering the films ended on a relatively final note. But for what it is, which is a Christmas caper the whole family can enjoy, you could do a whole lot worse because it is genuinely wholesome entertainment. Whilst I am glad to see Tim Allen donning the red coat and white beard once more, it’s a shame that the final product was as flabby as Santa’s belly.
Noel isn’t the only case of characters being given too much screentime, but he is by far the most egregious example, and it’s all done in service of giving the story enough meat on its bones to be stretched into a three-hour caper lasting six episodes. The problem is that it’s not meat, it’s all fat and it could have been cut out entirely for a leaner and higher quality experience.
It's great to see Allen back as Santa though. Of all the portrayals of Santa in film over the years I do think that Allen’s is my favourite by quite a considerable margin. Even after a decade and a half away from the role he brings the same kind of vibrancy and energy to the role which made the original films so beloved in the first place. Elizabeth Mitchell is given a much more expanded role than what she had in The Santa Clause 3, and I loved how her story is constructed around breaking out of the shell of the Mrs. Claus myth and becoming her own woman once again. The Calvin/Claus children are quirky but I don’t feel like they’re given enough to do to make them truly memorable or worthy additions to the story, Elizabeth Allen-Dick’s Sandra is by far the most interesting child and I would have loved to see her take a more central role as the show went on but that’s not the case unfortunately.
Kal Penn meanwhile does the best he can with the material he has. I don’t feel like the character of Simon is particularly interesting, and whilst I like what he contributes to the character I feel like the character is more just a plot device than someone with actual stakes in the game if you know what I mean?
Something that did strike me was how bad the CGI looks. Perhaps Disney lumped this on Marvel’s overworked and underpaid VFX artists too, but it honestly didn’t look much better than The Santa Clause 3 did in 2006, and that’s really not ok. Thankfully The Santa Clauses doesn’t rely on CGI, instead utilising the previous films amazing sets and props wherever possible. It’s just unfortunate that the times it is used it sticks out like a sore thumb.
The Santa Clauses is an ok continuation of the Santa Clause franchise. It’s totally unnecessary, which should come as no surprise considering the films ended on a relatively final note. But for what it is, which is a Christmas caper the whole family can enjoy, you could do a whole lot worse because it is genuinely wholesome entertainment. Whilst I am glad to see Tim Allen donning the red coat and white beard once more, it’s a shame that the final product was as flabby as Santa’s belly.