For many people, a familiar pastime in the weeks leading up to major winter holidays is gathering with family members and watching holiday movies, be they in a theater or on television. During the month of December, as has become tradition, the Falls Free Press will reprise “The 12 Films of Christmas,” focusing on new holiday movies for the year 2022—a year that can still do with plenty of peace and joy. We will review each film, whether naughty or nice, and let you know where to watch.
How long would you stay in a job that you accidentally agreed to take? It may seem like only yesterday when The Santa Clause premiered in theaters in 1994; but Tim Allen’s character Scott Calvin has lived as Santa Claus for nearly 30 years, spanning three films where he: married, was replaced by Martin Short’s Jack Frost, lost and grew both his weight and beard multiple times, and constantly deals with reindeer farts. After all this time Allen returns to the role in a new miniseries on Disney+, The Santa Clauses.
Returning as Santa, the series shows him now at 65, starting to lose magic as he attempts to do the job longer than any human ever has–especially since he’s the first one to do so. Santa acts more like Allen’s early ’90s characters than the jolly man in red, while Mrs. Claus (Elizabeth Mitchell) not only fights concerns about her image, but her deep fear that their teenage children are not growing up in the proper setting to thrive. Their youngest, Sandra (played by Elizabeth Allen-Dick), spends all of her time with animals while their oldest, Cal (Austin Kane), focuses entirely on his VR goggles. Upon realizing his family needs a better life, Scott decides to seek a new Santa Claus and retire. Sadly, the new man in charge, Simon Chocksi (Kal Penn) has other ideas about the holiday, focusing more on the present business instead of why the business exists.
There are two sides of a very ragged but polished coin when it comes to Clauses. On the freshly clean head falls an enchanting story about family and what Christmas means in times of turmoil. The series brings back familiar characters and actors from the original film, including Eric Lloyd as Charlie, Scott’s son from his previous marriage. Another throwback includes a now-grownup Sara, the first child Scott delivered presents to. Given the time since the original film elf actors have been replaced, however the show brings back E.L.F.S., the former police squad who saved Santa from imprisonment—a division that consists of only one elf now whose life can be summed up as a Danny Glover character. Looking at the joy of the holiday and what each character, new and old, bring to the story this miniseries is a perfect binge on Christmas Eve. One actor whose aging has absolutely not affectrf his ability to be an elf is David Krumholtz who returns as Bernard, the original head elf of the workshop. Bernard’s incorporation into the story is the perfect reminder why audiences loved the original film, along with current head elf Betty and her husband Noel (Matilda Lawler & Devin Bright), whose relationship lingers between an elderly couple and a worrisome frat boy with a Harvard law professor.
Unfortunately, there is still the grungy side of the coin, despite multiple attempts at shining it up. Allen’s comedy has changed very little in terms of his tough, dumb-man personality, however his topical laughs may be too dark for a Disney family story. Allen’s long-time series Last Man Standing, which ran on ABC for 6 seasons and Fox for another 3, focused on his more conservative Republican political comedy, in which both he and his character favored former President Trump, told homophobic jokes, and treated Mexican-Americans as servants. Similar writing has found its way into Clauses’ script, such as a Santa observing a “war on Christmas,” and that “saying ‘Merry Christmas to all’ has suddenly become problematic.” For these reasons, it stands to be a confusing choice to cast Kal Pen, an openly gay man of Indian ethnicity, as the show’s replacement Santa, but given the character’s turn to unintended villainy shortly after taking the position, there might be more thought put into this action that originally shown.
Ignoring the obvious political stances written into early dialogue, The Santa Clauses is a fun jaunt across the Disney Santa lore and a good reminder of the importance of family.
All episodes of The Santa Clauses are now streaming on Disney+.
