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The Santa Clause (1994)

DVD Cover (Walt Disney Studios Special Edition)
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Overall Rating 60%
Overall Rating
Ranked #1,355
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Connections: The Santa Clause

Scott Calvin is an ordinary man, who accidentally causes Santa Claus to fall from his roof on Christmas Eve and is knocked unconscious. When he and his young son finish Santa's trip and deliveries, they go to the North Pole, where Scott learns he must become the new Santa and convince those he loves that he is indeed, Father Christmas. --TMDb
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Review by Tobes
Added: December 23, 2009
Christmas movies about Santa Claus are a special breed. They all take a few (or all) of the following ingredients, and mix them up into a fun little Christmas flick:

* Helping Santa deliver gifts
* Santa being a real person or made up, and the need to prove he's real
* Santa representing the Christmas spirit
* Chillin' out with Santa up in the North Pole (with wacky hijinx)

The Santa Clause is one of these family films that do a little bit of everything, in a very endearing way. Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) is a busy executive at a toy company, who doesn't really have time for anything other than work. On his way home from a Christmas party, he makes up stories as to why he's late to meet his son Charlie (Eric Lloyd), ex-wife Laura (Wendy Crewson), and her new husband Neil (Judge Reinhold) on Christmas Eve. After complaints of being stuck with dad, Charlie finally lets his mom leave, and Scott and Charlie proceed to fail to make Christmas dinner. Bedtime arrives with a reading of "The Night Before Christmas", and Scott shows a small bit of love towards his son and tucks him into bed. In the middle of the night, a huge commotion occurs in the house, and the two run outside to see Santa falling off of the roof and landing in the snow. Due to The Santa Clause (with an 'e' for you legal types), since Scott was the one who tried to help dead Santa, Scott is now Santa Claus (Scott Calvin/Santa Claus - SC, get it!). The rest of the movie deals with Scott trying to take over as Santa, both in role and physical shape, and the effects it has on both his family and professional life.

I really enjoy this movie as a holiday classic. Tim Allen's role as Santa is fantastic, with both his quips to his family as well as the children he meets his first Christmas as Santa. This movie came out around the time when Home Improvement was on TV, and even though you can see bits and pieces of "Tim Taylor" throughout the movie, Tim Allen did a great job in making a separation between his famous role, and his role as Santa here. While Wendy Crewson's mother role was weak, both Eric Lloyd and Judge Reinhold worked wonders with their role. You can truly feel Charlie's love of his father, and how much he dearly wants to hold on to the Santa belief. Judge Reinhold's acting style comes off extremely fitting in his role as a father/psychiatrist, in both trying to deal with a family, and a step-son who he feels has Santa issues.

There are two major life issues this movie handles EXTREMELY well. The first issue is divorce/separated families. All of the actions in this film in that regard, are shown in a civil manner, with the parents never fighting over Charlie, or making him feel out of place or unloved. This is always nice to see in films, especially as someone who came out of a divorced family with two parents who always treated me properly.

The other issue is Santa Belief. Obviously as we've all gotten older, we've stopped believing in Santa Claus. Christmas turns into a time of family and love for most of us, and we realize that the gifts we've always gotten were from the ones who truly care about us. When movies come out, they usually tread (or cross) the fine line of making Santa still seem real, or flat out saying that he's fake. This movie, even with Tim Allen taking over Santa's role, would still let a child seeing this movie believe that Santa is the dude that flies over the world in one night, dropping off presents for the good kids and coal for the bad ones. I HIGHLY applaud this in this film, because a child's beliefs are for them to keep or lose, and not to be taken by a movie trying to make a point.

Overall, this is one of those "Watch ever year" Christmas films that will leave you smiling at the end of the night, remembering back to your childhood fun of leaving milk and cookies for Santa, and not being able to sleep because of all the sweet presents that were coming your way.

8/10

The writer still believes in Santa, because it gets me sweet gifts every Christmas.
Lucid Dreams #1: Lucid Dreams - added November 22, 2010 at 3:24am
I watched it once and I was fine with that. 5/10
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