Rating:
As sequels go, The Santa Clause 2 is none too shabby. It’s much better than I expected. By and large the film is very entertaining, though for much of its runtime it lacks the emotional warmth that The Santa Clause had in spades.

It turns out that the peculiar contract that got Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) the Santa Claus gig in the first place has another non-negotiable stipulation. Just as Sonny is nothing without Cher, so too is Santa nothing without Mrs. Claus. If Santa doesn’t take a wife by Christmas Eve, he’ll stop being that jolly old elf altogether. The de-Santafication process has already begun—Santa’s bowlful of jelly abdomen is wasting away, he’s shed his beard, and his ability to work magic is rapidly dwindling—so time is of the absolute essence.

Adding to the pressure of finding a matrimonial prospect in doublequick time is the fact that Santa’s teenaged son Charlie (Eric Lloyd) has gotten himself on this year’s Naughty List thanks to some acts of vandalism. On top of a frantic search for a wife, jolly old Saint Nicholas must also deal with the difficulties of punitive parenting.

As in the first movie, the scenes where Santa is dealing with the realities of the world we all know are the most effective, the most resonant with the audience. Santa looks for a wife and ultimately falls in love with Carol Newman (Elizabeth Mitchell), who just happens to be the principal at Charlie’s school. It’s these scenes that are the movie’s best. The emotions are real, even when Santa avails himself of a little Christmas magic to help with the pitching of woo.

For example, Santa/Scott and Carol go on a date to the faculty Christmas party at her school. All the teachers are standing around being morose and generally having the grinchiest of times. Santa can’t bear to see such a dour Christmas party so he uses nearly all his remaining magic to produce a bag of presents, full of every toy the people at the party ever dreamed of. The thoughtful sweetness of it all brings tears to Carol’s eyes and, let’s be honest, to mine too.

And who doesn’t love a blossoming romance story? I’m a sucker for that stuff.

What’s unfortunate is that we’re constantly cutting away from these good moments to check up on a totally unnecessary B story taking place at the North Pole. You see, before he left on his wife-finding mission, Santa and some of his key elves contrived to secretly put an automaton in his place in the toy workshop. Why exactly this is necessary, why most of the elves need to be kept in the dark about Santa going off to find a little romance, is never made especially clear.

This Toy Santa eventually decides he’s not satisfied with the way the North Pole operation has been run; he sets himself up as a dictator, taking all the fun out of the elves’ lives and intending to deliver coal to all the children of the world. These scenes taken on their own have their amusing qualities, but in the context of the picture as a whole are only a pointless distraction from the good stuff going on with the real Santa. And there are a lot of these scenes.

If The Santa Clause 2 had followed the “Keep it Simple, Stupid” mantra, it could easily have been the equal of its predecessor. Alas, the wholly unnecessary storyline involving the Toy Santa bogs the film down and leaves the audience fretting and squirming, desperate to get back to the true heart of the story. The good news is, when the movie does work it works like a charm, so there’s plenty of Christmas spirit to go around.

Though by no means destined to be a classic, The Santa Clause 2 has enough going for it to warrant a recommendation as something a whole family can sit together and enjoy.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: We know from this movie and its predecessor that Santa Claus:
A. Must be wed or he can’t be Santa Claus anymore, and
B. Is liable to die in an accident and be completely replaced
These facts bring up a question that the movie never answers. Is there a tragically depressing Widow’s Barracks somewhere up at the North Pole, where a stable of bereaved women spend December crying their eyes out? Has Christmas, which once was surely the favorite time of year for all these women, become a morbid reminder of their loss and the fact that their husbands have not only died but had their identities stolen by a never ending succession of strangers?

If You Hated This, You Will Also Totally Hate:

• Dateline North Pole
• The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
• The Santa Clause
• Frosty Returns
• Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town