THE SANTA CLAUSE 3: THE ESCAPE CLAUSE

US, 2006, 97 minutes, Colour.
Tim Allen, Martin Short, Elizabeth Mitchell, Eric Lloyd, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, Ann Margret, Alan Arkin, Art La Fleur, Spencer Breslin, Abigail Breslin.
Directed Michael Lembeck.


Somebody asked me what you call Santa’s little helpers. The answer: subordinate clauses. Corny you may think, but it’s not a bad joke. It is as good as and better than most in The Santa Clause 3 (except, maybe for the one about Tom Cruise – when Santa’s in-laws visit the North Pole under the impression that they are in Canada and remark, looking at the elves, how short they are, Alan Arkin remarks to Ann Margret and the others, apropos of Tom Cruise’s height: ‘Tom Cruise is not short; he is petite’.)

Those may be some of the thoughts going through adult heads as their youngsters enjoy (as the full cinema seemed to do while I was watching). For parents and grandparents who have to be up on this kind of thing, especially for DVD collections, the original The Santa Clause was released as long ago as 1994. It was the story of how too-busy businessman, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen in all the films), found himself becoming Santa Clause. The present film has flashbacks to all of this and reminds us that it all happened twelve years before.

The Santa Clause 2 came out four years ago and took up the story of how Santa and a local teacher tied the knot. This time Mrs Clause is pregnant and her parents visit while Santa pretends that it is all a toy factory in Canada.

As if that were not enough to cause some reasonable screen mayhem, lurking (no, not lurking, he really pushes himself forward) is the spiteful and jealous Jack Frost. There are other legendary characters frequenting the North Pole, Mother Nature and Father Time included, but Jack Frost resents the fact that he is bad-mouthed by everyone and got rid of. He is a Santaland Iago, manipulating characters and events to wreak destruction and the downfall of Santa – and planning to turn Santa’s workshop into a money-spinning theme park!

Martin Short really relishes the role and gives it the smiling but venomous touch.

So, there you are. The ten year olds who liked the first Santa Clause are now twenty two – and I think I detected a number of them quietly slipping in to catch up on the adventures. Looks as though The Santa Clause franchise has rather a large niche market both young and old.