The Santa Clause (1994)

Dir John Pasquin

Written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick

Tim Allen, Eric Lloyd, Wendy Crewson, Judge Reinhold, David Krumholtz, Peter Boyle, Judith Scott.

Toy company executive Scott Calvin (Allen) has his son Charlie (Lloyd) overnight on Christmas Eve, and is desperately trying to keep the belief of Santa Claus alive in him. his mother Laura (Crewson) and step father Neal (Reinhold) are firm on telling him that Santa doesn’t exist.

During the night, Scott and Charlie hear noises on the roof, and Scott inadvertently has a man fall off the roof – and they soon discover that it was Santa! When Scott puts on the outfit, and finishes the job of giving out all the presents, he discovers that by putting on the suit he is now Santa.

As the months go by, Scott is getting fatter and hairier, Charlie is becoming more obsessed with telling everyone his dad is Santa, and Laura and Neal are becoming frustrated by Scott’s desire to keep Charlie’s dream alive.

Allen is perfectly cast as the somewhat absent/workaholic father – however his desire to keep extend the belief in Santa Claus was sweet, which proved he was a caring father. His slow development into a white haired, white bearded, and big bellied Santa is comical still to this day. He plays off of his television persona at the time, with one or two subtle references to the show.

The script, aimed at kids is very well done – and there is some clever foreshadowing as well as hidden characters that you need to be eagle eyed to watch out for. It is well paced, and has some ‘Miracle on 34th St’ vibes with the custody battle/court plot point. I didn’t overly like this part, as this ‘law culture’ is a bit foreign to me.

There is a fun Christmas themed score used, with several popular Christmas songs as well. The special effects are a little dated, but this is likely a budgetary reason.

We very much enjoyed this in our house, and a high recommend.

4/5