The Santa Clause
Okay, I lined all three of these up to watch today knowing for certain I hadn’t seen the third, pretty sure I hadn’t seen the second, and pretty sure I had seen this one. But though there were definitely large chunks here I recognised, I’m actually pretty sure this might have been a first time watch for me.
The story is probably common knowledge to just about everyone by now. Tim Allen, in not much of a variation on his character from Home Improvement, witnesses Santa have an accident on his front lawn and, following the instructions on a card in the red suit, puts it on and takes care of Christmas, not realising this action legally binds him to become Santa until such time as his time comes.
It’s a creepy concept if you think about it enough, and I guess the coolest thing here is that that’s just exactly what the screenwriters have done – even adding in the quite depressing subplot regarding Allen’s son, and the concern his mother has for him when he starts believing a little “too much” in Santa etc.
The visual effects are a little dodgy (though this made a little more sense when I saw the release date on the IMDb – I had no idea it was that old!) Again I just love how it addresses the creepiness of the whole Santa thing and unlike most people these days (I just heard the other day how kids aren’t allowed to sit on Santa’s lap anymore), rather than back off, simply says “F**k you,” to such people.