Look at that! Another sequel in our Christmassy movie extravaganza! The Santa Clause 2 is no Die Hard 2, though. It's not a bad movie, but it's not great, either. You'd figure that in the eight years between the first movie and its sequel, they would have come up with a knock-out storyline that would thrill adults and children alike.
That didn't happen.
But I'm not going to go on some kind of rant about how this movie sucked. It was fun, but there were very few memorable moments. In fact, we were writing out our Christmas cards while "watching" this, taking breaks to actually watch the movie when our writing hands began to hurt.
Okay, plot. Remember Scott Calvin? Yup, still Santa. He's been riding that fine line of mild-mannered man most of the year and Santa during the holidays. Or has he? I can't seem to remember any parts that actually explained the previous years. His ex-wife has had another child since then and refers to him as Uncle Scott while holding her suspicions that he is Santa.
Charlie has become a delightful little troublemaker over the past few years. Although he loves that his father is Santa, he hates that he can't tell anyone about it. So now he pulls pranks and creates Christmas graffiti in school, much to the chagrin of his cold, heartless principal.
Up at the North Pole, things are unraveling, too. Apparently Scott didn't look too closely at the card from the Santa suit, because it stipulated that eight years after donning the suit, he must get married or give up the post of Santa and kids will stop believing in him. This is where we're introduced to the "Mrs. Clause" and "De-Santafication."
You get the feeling that they wrote the movie based on those two jokes alone.
Anyway, you can kind of see where this is going. Scott has to find a Mrs. Claus, and Charlie is struggling with his principal who is annoyed by his Christmassy pranks. We all know how this is going to end, but in the process, we're going to weave in a few plot threads. Scott only has enough Santa magic in him, and we know this through a special watch/magic meter. He uses it to impress Principal Newman. (Carol Newman. Surprised the writers didn't call her Hope or Joy instead.)
As Scott tries to find a wife, someone has to take his place at the North Pole. This is when we're introduced to plastic Santa, the stuff of nightmares.
He tries to put everyone on the naughty list and puts the North Pole on lockdown with evil toy soldiers. Scott must stop him with the help of an elf named Curtis and a young reindeer named Chet. Chet. About half the intelligence of Frosty and more annoying than Jar-Jar Binks. I won't even put a picture up because of my animosity toward that character. Thankfully, he's used sparingly.
This flick does have one moment of heartfelt glee, except that it's kind of a rehash from the first movie. When a bunch of the school faculty get together for the lame, joyless school Christmas party, Scott uses up much of his magic bringing childlike wonder and happiness back to the adults in the room. It's cute. Not much more to say about that, but like Charlie says, "Seeing isn't believing; believing is seeing." So, when you see all the toys you want right in front of you, you believe...I guess.
Boy, The Santa Clause 3 is going to be a tough one.
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