Happy Holidays series – ‘The Santa Clause’ is still happy and funny after 30 years – Wyoming County Examiner

On By Littum

It’s hard to believe that Tim Allen’s holiday classic ‘The Santa Clause’ turned 30 this year! ‘The Santa Clause’ was a huge hit and ultimately spawned two sequels along with a recent Disney Plus series.

For next year’s holiday review series, I might review the remaining follow-ups. So let’s go revisit this 1994 holiday classic!

Divorced father Scott Calvin has custody of his son on Christmas Eve. After he accidentally causes a man in a Santa suit to fall to his death from a roof, they are magically transported to the North Pole, where an elf explains that Scott must take Santa’s place before next Christmas.

Scott thinks he is dreaming, but over the next few months he gains weight and grows an inexplicable white beard. Maybe that night at the North Pole wasn’t a dream after all – and maybe Scott has a lot of work to do.

After all these years, Disney’s 1994 holiday classic ‘The Santa Clause’ is still a lot of fun. This was the first time I’ve seen this movie in a while and it’s still very entertaining and even heartwarming at times.

‘The Santa Clause’ still delivers some funny moments, especially when Scott (the new Santa Claus) and his son make their first visit to the North Pole. Tim Allen does what he does best to make people laugh in this movie, and even his laugh at Judge Reinhold’s terrible shirts becomes a humorous running gag.

As we watch Scott slowly become Santa, the film becomes more heartfelt as he grows closer to Charlie. This movie also has quite a few memorable moments and a few one-liners that will really make you laugh.

Scott’s first night as Santa (not long after old Santa fell off the roof) remains one of the funniest parts of the movie. And just in case no one noticed, when Scott says “Ho Ho Ho” after his first Santa run at the beginning of the movie, he almost sounds like Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor from ‘Home Improvement.’

There is also good character development for Tim Allen’s character as he goes from being someone who primarily cares about business to someone who really cares about everything.

In between all the funny moments ‘The Santa Clause’ offers, there are some that can be a little emotional, like when Scott briefly loses custody of Charlie. It’s also a little bittersweet when Scott/Santa and Charlie get really close again. Of course, there are a few jokes that may go over the kids’ heads. But this Disney holiday classic is tons of fun and will give anyone who grew up with the movie (myself included) a nice nostalgic feeling!

Cast: Tim Allen (Scott Calvin); Judge Reinhold (Neal); Wendy Crewson (Laura); Eric Lloyd (Charlie Calvin); Peter Boyle (Mr Whittle); Judith Scott (Susan); Larry Brandenberg (Detective Nunzio); David Krumholtz (Bernard)

Screenplay/Director: Leo Benvenuti (Writer); Steve Rudnick (writer) (both writers also wrote ‘Kicking & Screaming’, ‘The Santa Clause 2’ and ‘Space Jam’); John Pasquin (Director) (‘Home Improvement’; ‘Last Man Standing’)

Trivia: ‘The Santa Clause’ marks Tim Allen’s film debut and the character Scott Calvin was written with Bill Murray in mind. The 1994 film eventually spawned a franchise: ‘The Santa Clause 2’ (2002), ‘The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause’ (2006) and ‘The Santa Clauses’ (Disney Plus series). I don’t really remember the sequels and haven’t seen the Disney Plus series, so like I said I might save them for the next holiday series!

Where can you find the film? You can stream all the ‘Santa Clause’ movies on Disney Plus!

I hope you’ve been enjoying the holiday review series I’ve been working on throughout the month of December! For the next few editions, I’ll be working on a few new releases that the Dietrich Theater will be showing, along with my annual list of the best films of the year. I’ll also be checking out a few newer releases that I haven’t gotten around to checking out, along with a few classic comedies to get us through the cold month of January!

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