The Santa Clause

So I'd be lying if I didn't get the inkling to watch this movie after Screen Junkies did their Honest Trailer for it recently. If you haven't seen it, it's pretty funny and worth watching.

Of course Screen Junkies has their opinions and I have mine. I found the trailer particularly interesting when they said that it's the kind of movie that you call a classic because it came out when you were a child and you didn't know any better. That actually applies to me perfectly as this movie came out around the same time I was a kid and about the same age as Tim Allen's kid in the movie.

Now the trilogy (yup there was a trilogy of these movies) came onto Netflix recently and while I haven't been big on watching Christmas movies until the past few days, I thought this might be the right movie for the current season and I wanted to revisit the film to see if it was true and the movie was inflated as a classic because I was a kid and didn't know any better.

The Santa Clause centers around a business man by the name of Scott Calvin (played by Tim Allen). For some reason, Tim Allen always took the Disney roles that cast him as a business man who changes by the end of the movie. Anyways, Scott is spending Christmas Eve with his son Charlie (played by Eric Lloyd) on his designated visitation day as he and his ex-wife are divorced.

Well the night of Christmas Eve, Scott and Charlie are awoken to a noise on the roof and soon discover the fabled Santa Claus on the roof. Very quickly though, Scott causes Santa Claus to fall off the roof and actually die.

But Santa has a business card that says whoever finds him and puts on the suit is now Santa Claus.

While he doesn't believe Santa is real and this whole experience is nothing more than a dream, upon the request of his son, Scott dawns the red suit and becomes Santa Claus. He delivers the toys on Christmas Eve and is returned to The North Pole. There he is introduced to the elves and their supervisor Bernard (played by David Krumholtz).

Even after that night Scott doesn't totally believe what happened, but he is tasked with getting his affairs in order and accept the transformation into becoming Santa Claus. All the while Charlie believes in him and becomes obsessed with his father, but making things very difficult for Scott's ex wife Laurie (played by Wendy Crewson) and her new husband, a psychologist named Neil (played by Judge Reinhold).

Something I do find really interesting about this film was just how honest it felt. At the time, Tim Allen was a pretty big name in comedy and while he could always be family friendly, he did have an edge to his comedy that they didn't really pull back that much in this film. Knowing Allen now and his conservative ramblings, it's actually kind of funny watching him in this back in the 90s at the height of his powers. The humor is family friendly but it doesn't feel disingenuous... unlike the sequels.

Another interesting aspect of the film is how this was actually one of the first movies where I was exposed to a divorced couple. I'm not saying The Santa Clause is the first to do it but they don't really back away from it and add it to the comedy. Judge Reinhold is really a sleeper comic element of this movie. I was laughing out loud at some of his bits where he was dead serious but just nailed it comedy-wise.

The other aspect of the film is that while it does bring in Tim Allen's "edgy" 90's comedy, it feels honest in it's execution. The movie created a unique and creative take on Santa Claus making him a job title while at the same time maintaining a sense of Christmas that I really enjoy even over twenty years later.

It has a definite message about belief, family, and the holiday spirit. It doesn't get too heavy at any point, it IS a Disney movie after all but it came out at a time where Disney was just trying to make the best movies and not just doing what they think would make them money... like the sequels...

Upon a viewing now in 2017, I never realized how strange Tim Allen looks with a white beard and Santa Claus physique. But at the same time it was all make up and prosthetics so it did feel real. That's probably why it felt so strange but they did a good job.

Overall, The Santa Clause is a movie from a different time. It's not really a whole lot different than any of the early movies Disney pushed out, but it didn't feel like it was trying to be anything bigger. I can bet that when they made this movie they didn't think they would be making a sequel to this film... and definitely not one 8 years later. The internet wasn't as prominent back then but I can imagine the comment section when The Santa Clause 2's trailer would have dropped and how it would be torn apart today.

Regardless of what you think of Tim Allen, He does give his all in this film and I personally think he's a lot of fun in this film. There are a lot of people who see him as the quintessential Santa Claus and there's a reason for that.

Are there issues with this film? Yes, there definitely are. While it came out in the 90s and feels a lot more genuine than it's sequels, it still is a by the numbers Disney film. It's still produced almost out of a factory, and while I did think it had some heart to it, I feel like a lot of people get the nostalgia glasses for this film due to its sequels... which I will talk about in another review.

But overall, I think this movie took a really hard topic to write about, Santa Claus and gave him a different, unique viewpoint. I really enjoy this film to this day and I don't knock anybody who would pop this in as a classic of the holidays. Yeah, it might not be as iconic as other films but if The Santa Clause was one of the only Christmas movies I watched this year, I wouldn't feel like I wasted my Christmas movie experience.

But what do you think? Where does The Santa Clause rank among your favorite Christmas movies? Is it even close to the top? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Need another Yule Log video? Enjoy!