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The Santa Clause 2

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The Santa Clause 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Lembeck
Screenplay by
Story byLeo Benvenuti
Steve Rudnick[1]
Based onThe Santa Clause
by Leo Benvenuti
Steve Rudnick
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyAdam Greenberg
Edited byDavid Finfer
Music byGeorge S. Clinton
Production
companies
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release dates
  • October 23, 2002 (2002-10-23) (Los Angeles)
  • November 1, 2002 (2002-11-01) (United States)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$65 million[2][3]
Box office$172.9 million[2]

The Santa Clause 2 is a 2002 American Christmas fantasy comedy film directed by Michael Lembeck in his directorial debut. It is the sequel to The Santa Clause (1994) and the second installment in The Santa Clause franchise. All of the principal actors from the first film, including Tim Allen, Eric Lloyd, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, and David Krumholtz, reprise their roles, and are joined by Elizabeth Mitchell, Spencer Breslin, and Liliana Mumy.

The Santa Clause 2 premiered in Los Angeles on November 1, 2002, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 1. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $172 million worldwide on a $65 million budget. It was followed by another sequel, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, released in 2006.

Plot

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Eight years have passed since Scott Calvin took on the mantle of Santa Claus.[a] Head Elf Bernard and Curtis, the Keeper of the Handbook of Christmas, inform Scott that there is another clause — the "Mrs. Clause". Scott is now pressed to get married before the next Christmas Eve or the clause will be broken and he will stop being Santa forever. Abby the Elf simultaneously tells Scott that his teenage son Charlie is on the naughty list, due to having vandalized his school to get attention. Scott must return to his home to search for a wife and set things right with Charlie. He brings this up when visited by the Council of Legendary Figures, consisting of Mother Nature, Father Time, Cupid, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman. To cover for Santa's prolonged absence, Curtis helps Scott create a life-sized animatronic Santa clone, much to Bernard's horror. However, at Santa's request, Bernard reluctantly plays along, and tells the other elves that Santa had a makeover, so they will not question the double's synthetic appearance.

Because of the impending end of his contract, Scott undergoes a "de-Santafication process" that gradually turns him back into Scott Calvin. He has a limited amount of magic to help him. Scott returns home to his former wife Laura, her husband Neil, their six-year-old daughter Lucy, and Charlie. He and Charlie face the ire of school principal Carol Newman when Charlie defaces the lockers.

At the North Pole, Toy Santa follows the rulebook too literally and begins to think that everyone in the world is naughty because of their small mistakes. As a result, Toy Santa takes over the North Pole using giant toy soldiers he made himself and unveils his plan to the elves to give lumps of coal to the world. Bernard exposes Toy Santa as a fraud, and Toy Santa places him under house arrest.

After a few failed dates, Scott finds himself falling for Carol. He accompanies her in a horse-drawn sleigh to the faculty Christmas party, during which she confesses she used to believe in Santa as a child, until she was forced to stop doing so by her parents after fighting with children who told her Santa was not real. Using a little of his Christmas magic, Scott enlivens the otherwise dull party by presenting everyone with their childhood dream gifts. He makes a special presentation to Carol, and, with his last remnant of magic, wins her over and they kiss under mistletoe. However, when Scott attempts to explain to her that he is Santa, she believes that he is mocking her childhood, and throws him out. Later, Charlie is upset about Scott dating his principal and he confesses how hard it is for him that Scott is never around like other fathers, and reveals the pressure he is under to conceal the secret that his father is Santa. Lucy convinces Charlie not to be mad at him, which leads Charlie to convince Carol that Scott is Santa by showing her the magic snow globe he received during Scott's initial transformation.

Curtis flies in to tell Scott about Toy Santa's plan. However, Scott has used up the last of his magic wooing Carol, and cannot return to the North Pole. With help from the Tooth Fairy, Scott and Curtis manage to get back, only for Toy Santa to find them and tie them up. Charlie and Carol spring them free by summoning the Tooth Fairy to fly them to the North Pole. Scott goes after Toy Santa, who has already left with the sleigh, riding Chet, a rambunctious reindeer-in-training, and they both crash back into the village. With an army of elves, Carol, Bernard, Charlie, and Curtis lead them into a snowball fight to overthrow the toy soldiers. Toy Santa is defeated and reduced to a six-inch height, Scott marries Carol in a ceremony, Scott transforms back into Santa and Carol transforms into Mrs. Claus, and Christmas proceeds as it always has. Scott and Charlie reveal the truth to Lucy about Scott being Santa Claus, promising to keep his secret.

Cast

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Reindeer voice cast

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Production

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In July 2000, it was announced Disney intended to move forward with a sequel to The Santa Clause with the initial draft written by Don Rhymer where the North Pole is operating at maximum efficiency until Santa is confronted with the challenge of balancing work and personal life.[4] Michael Lembeck became attached to direct in November of that year.[5] In April 2001, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio were brought on by Disney to pen another draft of the sequel.[6]

The film was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia and at Mammoth Studios in Burnaby, British Columbia.[7]

A teaser trailer for this film released with 102 Dalmatians and The Emperor's New Groove in late 2000 originally referred to it as Santa Clause 2: The Escape Clause, scheduled for release on November 21, 2001. The subtitle would later become the subtitle of the following sequel in 2006.[8]

Reception

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Critical response

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On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 56% based on 122 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though it's harmless as family entertainment and has moments of charm, The Santa Clause 2 is also predictable and forgettable."[9] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[11]

Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun-Times found it "more engaging, assured and funny" than the first film, with a "nice acerbic undertone".[12] Keith Phipps for The A.V. Club wrote, "Despite the obviously mercenary nature of this sequel, there's a thimbleful of clever ideas at work here, most notably in the way Allen's RoboSanta begins to turn his toy factory into a tiny dictatorship."[13] Claudia Puig called it a "trite, predictable rehash."[14]

The Santa Clause 2 was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.[15]

Box office

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During its opening weekend, The Santa Clause 2 generated $29 million, more than its predecessor, and was ranked in first place at the box office ahead of Jackass: The Movie, The Ring and I Spy.[16] While the film was overtaken by 8 Mile a week later, it still made a total of $24.7 million.[17] It would later go on to compete against Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Die Another Day. These three sequels would win the Thanksgiving weekend. The film would run strong at the box office while dominating Disney's other film Treasure Planet.[18] The Santa Clause 2 grossed $139.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $33.6 million in other territories, for a total of $172.8 million, against a production budget of $65 million.[2] It was the fifth-highest-grossing holiday movie.[19][3][20]

Soundtrack

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The Santa Clause 2
Soundtrack album by
various artists
ReleasedNovember 5, 2002
GenreSoundtrack
Length33:33
LabelWalt Disney Records
ProducerGeorge S. Clinton
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Everybody Loves Christmas"Eddie Money & Ronnie Spector4:02
2."Santa Claus Lane"Hilary Duff2:42
3."Santa's Got a Brand New Bag"SHeDAISY3:08
4."Jingle Bells"Brian Setzer2:21
5."Run Rudolph Run"Chuck Berry2:43
6."Zat You Santa Claus?"Louis Armstrong2:50
7."Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town"Smokey Robinson & the Miracles1:50
8."Blue Holiday"The Shirelles3:20
9."Unwritten Christmas"Unwritten Law and Sum 413:52
10."I'm Gonna Lasso Santa Claus"Brenda Lee2:16
11."Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town"Steve Tyrell2:09
12."North Pole (Score)"George S. Clinton2:20
Total length:33:33

Home media

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The Santa Clause 2 was released on DVD and VHS on November 18, 2003.[21] The DVD release is THX certified and consists of widescreen and pan and scan fullscreen versions.[22] Along with the other two Santa Clause films, it was re-released in a 3-Movie Collection DVD set in 2007 and a 3-Movie Collection Blu-ray set on October 16, 2012.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ As depicted in The Santa Clause (1994)

References

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  1. ^ "AFI|Catalog".
  2. ^ a b c "The Santa Clause 2 (2002)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 4, 2010.
  3. ^ a b "Box Office History for Santa Clause Movies". The Numbers. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  4. ^ "D Second 'Santa' set for Disney, Allen". Variety. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  5. ^ "'Santa Clause' 2 under TV helmer's tree". Variety. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  6. ^ "Duo board 'Santa' sleigh". Variety. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  7. ^ "Credits | Mammoth Studios".
  8. ^ The Santa Clause 2 (2002) Rare Teaser Trailer. SKYTV. October 31, 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-12-20. Retrieved November 26, 2017 – via YouTube.
  9. ^ "The Santa Clause 2 (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 7, 2021. Edit this at Wikidata
  10. ^ "The Santa Clause 2 reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  11. ^ "The Santa Clause 2". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  12. ^ Ebert, Roger (November 1, 2002). "The Santa Clause 2 movie review". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  13. ^ Phipps, Keith (2002-11-01). "The Santa Clause 2". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  14. ^ Puig, Claudia (2002-10-31). "'Clause' is a shadow of its former elf". USA Today. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  15. ^ Phillips, Jevon (2003-03-07). "'Towers,' 'Report' top Saturn nominees". Variety. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  16. ^ Karger, Dave (November 1, 2002). "Santa Clause 2 tops the box office". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  17. ^ Linder, Brian (November 11, 2002). "Weekend Box Office: Slim Shady Shines Theaters". IGN. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  18. ^ Karger, Dave (December 1, 2002). "Harry, Bond finish neck and neck at the box office". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  19. ^ Hailey, Caroline (2015-12-24). "10 Highest-Grossing Holiday Movies of All Time". GOBankingRates. Archived from the original on 2016-09-10. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
  20. ^ "Top 2002 Movies at the Worldwide Box Office". The Numbers. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  21. ^ Patrizio, Andy (October 20, 2003). "Santa Clause 2 Hits On 11/18". IGN. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  22. ^ Wallace, Aaron. "The Santa Clause 2 DVD Review". DVDizzy.com.
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