The Santa Clause 2 (2002)

Scott Calvin has been a humble Santa Claus for nearly ten years, but it might come to an end if he doesn't find a Mrs. Claus.

Director:

Michael Lembeck

Writers:

Don Rhymer (screenplay), Cinco Paul (screenplay)

Stars:

Tim Allen, Spencer Breslin, Elizabeth Mitchell

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tim Allen	...	Scott Calvin / Santa / Toy Santa
Elizabeth Mitchell	...	Carol
David Krumholtz	...	Bernard
Eric Lloyd	...	Charlie Calvin
Judge Reinhold	...	Neil Miller
Wendy Crewson	...	Laura Miller
Spencer Breslin	...	Curtis
Liliana Mumy	...	Lucy Miller
Danielle Woodman	...	Abby
Art LaFleur	...	Tooth Fairy (as Art Lafleur)
Aisha Tyler	...	Mother Nature
Kevin Pollak	...	Cupid
Jay Thomas	...	Easter Bunny
Michael Dorn	...	Sandman
Christopher Attadia	...	Engineer Elf #1

Storyline

Scott Calvin has been Santa Claus for the past eight years, and his loyal elves consider him the best Santa ever. But Santa's got problems (he's even mysteriously losing weight) and things quickly go south when he finds out that his son, Charlie, has landed on this year's "naughty" list. Desperate to help his son, Scott heads back home, leaving a substitute Claus to watch over things at the Pole. But when the substitute institutes some strange redefinitions of naughty and nice, putting Christmas at risk, it's up to Scott to return with a new bag of magic to try to save Christmas.

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Plot Keywords:

santa claus character | the easter bunny character | playing american football | santa claus suit | father time | 

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Taglines:

Check it twice

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Genres:

Comedy | Family | Fantasy

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Disney's official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 November 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Santa Clause 2: The Escape Clause

Filming Locations:

British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$65,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$29,008,696, 3 November 2002, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$139,236,327

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$172,855,065

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Pictures, Outlaw Productions (I), Boxing Cat Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Toy Santa's line, "You are a sad, strange little man," is also used by Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story (1995) Also when the Toy Santa says "I think Santa feels a little Buzz!" is from him being "Buzz Lightyear" in Toy Story.

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Goofs

After the elves drop the static-free tinsel on everyone, the tinsel disappears and reappears on Bernard's hair between shots.

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Quotes

Principal Carol Newman: I owe you one.
Scott Calvin/Santa Claus: It's a great party. Look. That guy moved.

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Crazy Credits

About 30 seconds after the credits begin to roll they begin to show a scene where Carol has transformed into Mrs. Claus and the puppets are dancing to the music playing over the credits.

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Connections

Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: The Last Exorcism/Piranha 3D/Vampires Suck (2010)

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Soundtracks

Naughty Naughty Christmas
Written by Bruno Ravel and Steve West
Published by Bumming Fog Music & Get in Your Mouse Music (BMI)
Performed by Danger Danger
Courtesy of Low Dice Records and Kramden Enterprises Inc.

User Reviews

The Santa Clause 2

The Santa Clause 2 takes place a number of years after the original film. The first movie saw Tim Allen's character "Scott Calvin" become Santa Claus after the previous Santa Claus fell off of his roof on Christmas Eve. Well in this one Scott has settled in nicely to his role as Mr. Claus, but there is one problem. He has to find a Mrs. Claus in only twenty eight days or Christmas as we know it will be over forever! On top of that major problem, another subplot includes his quest to get his son Charlie off of the naughty list. It seems Charlie has been rebellious as a teenager, spray painting school walls and such. So while Santa/Scott leaves the North Pole to take care of that business, his trusty sidekick elf Bernard and newcomer elf Curtis create a clone Santa to take over on an interim basis. Scott ends up falling for Charlie's principal Carol Newman, and with the use of magic wins over her heart. Meanwhile in the North Pole, the fake Santa that Curtis the elf created ends up becoming a power hungry dictator who believes ALL kids are bad and deserve only lumps of coal for Christmas. It's up to Scott to defeat him and save Christmas.

The Santa Clause 2 is not nearly as good as the first film. While the whole idea of Santa may be absurd to many people, this film has so much more unrealistic things occur in it that it lost my interest. For example, Scott's ability to snag a wife in under a month? It's completely ridiculous but I guess had to be done to wrap up the movie very nicely. And all of the magic that he uses to make Carol fall for him goes completely unnoticed by her character, such as a mistletoe and twenty presents appearing out of nowhere. She just brushes it off. I also did not like that the major characters from the first film (Scott's ex wife Laura and her husband Neil) took a back seat in this film for the overly annoying young elf Curtis. It lost the magic and heart that the first movie had.

There were some good moments in this of course. Tim Allen had some great comedic moments, especially when he ditches the Santa suit and acts like a regular person. I like him better as Scott Calvin than I do as Santa Claus. He and Carol have a good combative chemistry that turns sweet once we start to see the human side of her. And the scenes when Scott uses magic to give all the teachers toys that they loved from their childhoods really was a good piece. It just wasn't as good as the original. I thought it was ridiculous that he had to find a wife in one month. And considering that was the major obstacle in this film for the main character to overcome, I wasn't really engaged in it.

Children will love this movie (I know I did years ago), and that's really all that matters with a Christmas movie. But as an adult looking for a good holiday film, this one fell flat up against others such as Home Alone 1/2, Christmas Vacation and even the first Santa Clause.

6/10