The Santa Clause

This is definitely one of my favorite Christmas movies. It's just so good! It does an amazing job at putting you in the Christmas spirit and feeling the magic of Christmas. Plus it has Tim Allen in his prime.

We meet Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) on Christmas Eve. He's a big executive toy maker who has a failed marriage and a strained relationship with his son. It's his turn to spend Christmas with his son Charlie, who looks to be like 5 or 6 in this movie. Charlie isn't very pumped about this, and after a failed attempt at making a luxurious Christmas dinner they end up eating at Denny's. Then he and his dad go home and read A Night Before Christmas. This is where the entire world learned what the words "clatter" meant.


Charlie wakes up in the middle of the night to a clatter and they run out to find Santa and his sleigh on top of the roof. Santa falls off the roof, Scott reads a card and then they climb a magical ladder up to the roof. There Scott and Charlie find reindeer and a sleigh. They hope in it and the reindeer zoom off. They arrive on to another rooftop and Scott puts on the Santa suit. Then he grabs the gift bag which floats him unwillingly to the chimney. Scott gets sucked down and delivers some presents. This goes on for a while, and then the reindeers take them to the North Pole.

A cute little elf comes out and opens the door to the North Pole, and then we enter into a total fantasy world. All the elves in this version look like cute little kids even though some are 1200 years old. The oldest/biggest is Bernard, who appears to be the head elf.  He's a pretty sarcastic and jaded elf but seriously knows his stuff. He lets Scott know that because he put on the suit he is now the new Santa Clause. He has 11 months to put his affairs in order and then will need to return to the NP on Thanksgiving. Scott just doesn't really believe anything that's happening. He and Charlie go to bed in what looks like the most comfortable bed ever after having some of the most delicious hot chocolate ever (I assume even though I never saw nor tasted it)

They wake up and are back in their house on Christmas morning, and Charlie is totally jazzed about what happened. Scott on the other hand thinks it was all a dream, even though he woke up in Santa Clause's pajamas. Charlie keeps going on and on about their adventure and shows off a snow globe that Bernard gave him. His mom is super mad at Scott because they just got through the whole "Santa doesn't exist" conversation with Charlie and now he's thinking he went to the North Pole.

Throughout the next few months Charlie keeps talking about the NP and it starts to really worry his parents. They think he's going crazy! Plus Scott is changing physically. He's gaining weight like crazy and his hair is going white and he's getting a pretty sweet beard. Though he tries to stop all of this he can't. Kids seem to follow him wherever he goes and now he's starting to feel the spirit of Christmas all year long. He is even given a huge delivery of names for his Naughty or Nice list that he has to check twice. Even after all of this, he still doesn't fully believe what has happened to him. Charlie still does though.

Due to the fact that they think Scott is a bad influence on Charlie, they petition his custody rights and unfortunately the judge agrees with Charlie's mom and stepdad Neil. On Thanksgiving Scott can't handle it anymore and he goes to visit Charlie. Then Bernard shows up and he, Scott and Charlie go back to the North Pole to due last minute things to get ready for Christmas. Naturally his mom and Neil believe he has been kidnapped, so the police go crazy. It wasn't until this day that Scott finally believes and embraces the fact that he is now Santa.

So up in the North Pole they add some cool additions to the sleigh like a cookie and cocoa dispenser, and make Santa more safe with a fire retardant suit.  Off Charlie and Scott go for another round at delivering gifts. Scott is now a pro at it in comparison to his terrible job last year. While making a quick stop at Charlie's house, he gets arrested by cops staking out the house. Uh Oh! He's taken down to the big house and the cops refuse to believe his story. Luckily a security team called the E.L.F.S come and pick Charlie up and then they head over to bust Santa out of jail. They succeed! Scott and Charlie head back to his house where his parents are waiting anxiously.

Suddenly they realize the truth about Scott and everythings ok! Charlie is still pretty bummed about the distance that will now be between he and his dad. But apparently the snow globe also allows Charlie to see his dad whenever he misses him. His parents all see his sadness and allow him to go on with Scott as he finishes his delivery duties.

Some of the things that I love about this movie:
The entire north pole sequences with all the super cute elves.
How there are elves mixed in with society.
The process of Scott turning into Santa (physically)
The humor in this movie. Tim Allen does a great job in the comedy aspect of this movie.

Andrew's Closing Thought: Tim Allen's greatest movie.

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