In 1994, John Pasquin’s The Santa Clause had been an inexplicable success. The sort of film that really should have vanished into straight-to-video obscurity and never troubled the inside of a cinema found itself a theatrical release, mainly due to the success of its star, Tim Allen, and his hit television show Home Improvement (1991-1999). Obvious, corny and with a less-than-palatable storyline (man accidentally kills Santa Claus and is forced to take his place whether he wants to or not), the film was nonetheless a huge hit and although it took eight years to get here, a sequel was pretty much inevitable.

The eponymous clause in the first film had, of course, the idea that Scott Calvin (Allen) takes on the red, fur-trimmed coat, the sleigh and the reindeer and become the new Santa. In the sequel there’s a new clause that seems to have been cooked up simply to have something to hang a sequel on, something that was never mentioned in the first film, and which doesn’t really make a great deal of sense – it’s eight years since Calvin assumed the role of Santa and has settled into the job with considerable success. Unfortunately, Head Elf Bernard (David Krumholtz) and Keeper of the Handbook of Christmas, Curtis (Spencer Breslin), now break it to him that there was another “Santa clause” – he needs to take a wife before the next Christmas Eve or relinquish his right to be Santa forever.

While still reeling from that, Calvin has to deal with his teenage son Charlie (Eric Lloyd) who has wound up on the naughty list for his low-key (this is a Disney film after all) bad behaviour. He seeks advice from the Council of Legendary Figures, who include among their number Mother Nature (Aisha Tyler), Father Time (Peter Boyle), Cupid (Kevin Pollak), the Easter Bunny (Jay Thomas), the Tooth Fairy (Art Lafleur) – director Michael Lembeck would go on to make an unrelated film titled Tooth Fairy in 2010 with Dwayne Johnson in the title role – and the Sandman (Michael Dorn) and decides to return to the States to sort things out, leaving the North Pole in the hands of a newly created robot replica. As he slowly reverts back to human form, Calvin races against time to charm Carol Newman (Elizabeth Mitchell), the principal of Charlie’s school, while the robot threatens to ruin Christmas for everyone.

Though Allen and a few supporting cast return, original director Pasquin opted not to, handing over the reins to former actor Lembeck instead. Although Lembeck‘s background was mainly in television, he still manages to bring more cinematic quality to Clause 2 and thanks to his and direct6or of photography Adam Greenberg, a decade on from his Academy Award nomination for his work on Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1992), it at least looks good. Which is about all it sadly has going for it.

It’s all highly contrived nonsense full of feeble gags and an over-abundance of annoying supporting characters that it took a staggering seven writers to come up with. You can more or less guess how things are going to play out very early, leaving you an hour and a half of suspense-free, knockabout action, interest-free drama and witless comedy to struggle through for no return. It’s the sort of film where you can guess that the robot Santa is going to turn out to be a wrong ‘un the very first time it’s mentioned, before it even appears on screen.

Allen at least seems to be having fun and is rather less smug than usual, though Scott is no more likable a character here than he had been in the first film. Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson and Eric Lloyd all return from the first film for fairly thankless roles, the film instead shifting attention to Elizabeth Mitchell as Carol. Carol (Christmas… Carol… get it? No-one said this was a subtle or clever film…) becomes the new Mrs Claus which raises a question that the film was never intending to even ask – the earlier Santa, the one that Calvin killed, must have been subject to the second Santa clause so must have been married himself – so where’s that Mrs Clause? Of course, we never find out because narrative coherence isn’t the film’s strongest suit and because no-one involved in making it cared one jot.

And yet, The Santa Clause 2 was another box office hit for Disney – netting $139 million, it became the fifth highest grossing Christmas film of all time, coming in just behind the original film which, with $144 million in the bank, comes it at number four. So it must have been doing something right. Or maybe people are just a bit less picky at Christmas and are happy to watch anything with Santa, a few elves and a bit of snow. The film was initially sold with a trailer that subtitled it The Escape Clause though this was dropped before release and re-assigned to the third film in the series, also directed by Lembeck and starring Allen, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause in 2006. That one also made the top ten of Christmas-related box office earners though earned rather less than the first two and it spelled the end of the road for the series – until Disney+ unexpectedly revived it as the television series The Santa Clauses in 2022.

Crew
Directed by: Michael Lembeck; © 2002 Disney Enterprises, Inc.; Walt Disney Pictures presents an Outlaw Productions/Boxing Cats Films production; Executive Producers: William W. Wilson III, Rick Messina, Richard Baker, James Miller; Producers: Brian Reilly, Bobby Newmyer, Jeffrey Silver; Associate Producer: Bruce Franklin, Matt Carroll; Screenplay: Don Rhymer, Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, Ed Decter, John J. Strauss; Story: Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick; Based on Characters Created by: Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick; Director of Photography: Adam Greenberg; Film Editor: David Finfer; Music: George S. Clinton; Costume Designer: Ingrid Ferrin; Make-up Department Head: Connie Parker; Hairstylists: Ian Ballard, Debra Wiebe; Special Make-up and Animatronic Effects Designed and Created by: Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr; Make-up, Animatronics and Toy Soldiers Created at: Amalgamated Dynamics Inc.; Visual Effects Co-ordinator: David Yrisarri; Special Visual Effects: Gajdecki Visual Effects; Animation/Visual Effects: Tippett Studio; Special Effects Co-ordinator: Dean Lockwood; Production Designer: Tony Burrough; Casting: Jackie Burch

Cast
Tim Allen (Scott Calvin/Santa/toy Santa); Judge Reinhold (Neil Miller); Wendy Crewson (Laura Miller); Elizabeth Mitchell (Carol Newman); David Krumholtz (Bernard); Eric Lloyd (Charlie Calvin); Spencer Breslin (Curtis); Liliana Mumy (Lucy Miller); Danielle Woodman (Abby); Peter Boyle (Father Time); Art Lafleur (Tooth Fairy); Aisha Tyler (Mother Nature); Kevin Pollak (Cupid); Jay Thomas (Easter Bunny); Michael Dorn (Sandman); Christopher Attadia (engineer elf 1); Curtis Butchart (elf centre); Jamal Allen (elf quarterback); Alexander Pollock (Richie, elf tight end); Bryce Hodgson (engineer elf 2); Molly Shannon (Tracy)