Pre-Screening Sips
- Even though the first two Santa Clause movies are my favorite Christmas movies, the third one is, well, not
- Usually, I do watch this every year, but it’s the most likely to be skipped over of my normal seasonal choices
Post-Screening Snippets
- The very odd “ho-ho-ho” during the Disney logo at the beginning of the film is a sign for the weirdness to come
- I will never not be angry that Disney de-fatified Mrs. Clause in this
- This movie features, undoubtably, the creepiest fireplace in cinema – it’s Santa’s face, but terrifyingly stale and it makes dad noises
- Just when you thought it was safe to go back to The North Pole, director Michael Lembeck decided to take the worst part of the franchise, gargle-voiced and flatulent reindeer, and turn it up to eleven
- The sound effects in this movie are inexcusably cartoonish and dopey
- The series finally ran out of good psychiatry jokes and emphasizes it with the choice to have sitar music played each time Neil says anything
- I know they are stupid, but the “you’re in Canada!” jokes do make me giggle
- Awh, poor Charlie aged his way out of the cute, lead kid role, huh?
- The Ghost of Christmas Past/It’s a Wonderful Life-sequence where Scott sees his life if he hadn’t become Santa is actually pretty interesting, but there’s not enough of it
- That being said, Wendy Crewson as disgruntled Laura is by far the best acting to happen throughout
- The criticism of Christmas commercialism message is a little hollow considering we are in a big-budget Disney franchise
The Final Hot Chocolate
The Santa Clause becomes a parody of the things that once made it heartfelt and whimsical in its third entry. I’m at the point where I’ve seen it enough that I’ve become numb to its badness (it’s just one of those bad things I watch anyway), but I don’t recommend anyone else add it to their rotation.
GRADE: C
BRECKFLIX 