I think every 90’s kid has seen The Santa Clause trilogy when they were younger. We’re all stuck at home now with Disney + as our ally and a whole bunch of nostalgia induced films to watch. Does this mean these movies are just as great as we thought they were? Well, let’s see.
After binge-watching all three movies back to back I think I can carefully rank the movies objectively.
This movie is very much the epitome of the holidays. The 1996 movie has the perfect level of humor that is funny to both children and adults. There’s literally a line where Charlie tells his dad “you’re flying!” and he replies “don’t worry I’ve lived through the 60’s”. It’s a nice, wholesome movie of a man coming to terms with being the new Santa Claus. It’s filled with childlike wonder and a nice reconnection to what it means to believe in Santa.
2. The Santa Clause 2
A sequel usually doesn’t do justice to the original and this is generally known by most people. Despite that, The Santa Clause 2 tries its best to keep the same level of warmth and comfort. Sadly, it doesn’t quite do that. The premise is a good one: Santa Clause has to find a wife before Christmas Eve or he loses his magic. But then there’s also a side story of a toy Santa trying to control the elves while the real Santa is gone. Things just start to get more confusing and the characters become more of a caricature of themselves.
3. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
I remember loving this movie as a kid, and I guess anything with time travel seems fun when you can’t really understand what’s going on. This one now bugs me. Why is Jack Frost being a hindrance? Just because he feels neglected? He also manipulates the elves so easily and aren’t they supposed to be smart, the whole joke is that they look like children but are over 100 years old. You would think they would be smarter than that. Also, there are so many Canadian jokes. The movies slowly have become less targeted for children and adults and just for children.
We live in a world where reboots have become the new normal so does that mean The Santa Clause trilogy should get one as well? Unpopular opinion but I don’t think reboots are the worst thing in the world. I think most of the time it’s not needed but there will also be reboots that take me by surprise like High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
The show did a good job of taking the original idea and making something unique with it. In this case, I don’t think these movies need anything else added to it. There have been a lot of new holiday movies that are doing the job just fine and if I’ve noticed one thing about people’s Christmas favorites it’s that they’re usually drawn more to the classics.
Muska Olumi is a columnist for the Boardwalk Times
