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Review by Frank Wilkins

In today's world, eight years is a lifetime between sequels, so chances are many aren't familiar with the Prequel, The Santa Clause. A little background information. For the last eight years, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) has served as Santa Claus, a role he unwillingly took on after he accidentally killed Santa. He found a card in the dead Santa's pocket informing him that he must now assume the roll of the great-bellied one.

He now runs a smooth, well-oiled operation at the North Pole assembling toys, checking the naughty and nice list and ensuring that toys will be delivered on time in 28 days. The set for the North Pole operation is an incredibly complicated and elaborate one. I was reminded of many of the scenes in Ron Howard's How the Grinch Stole Christmas with upwards of 100 extras at any given time performing their duties in their exquisitely detailed costumes, make-up and prosthetics. The Santa Clause 2 keeps to the successful formula of playful characters, talking elves and animatronic reindeer that made the prequel so successful. Throwing a bone to the parents and older members of the audience, we see a humorous annual board meeting of the legendary fairy tale characters consisting of the Easter Bunny, Mother Nature, Father Time, Cupid, the Sand Man and the Tooth Fairy. They all vote against a name change for the Tooth Fairy.

Scott learns that by midnight on Christmas Eve he must find a potential Mrs. Claus and become bound in holy matrimony, lest the de-Santafication process begins and his status as Santa Claus becomes null and void. The search for a wife becomes complicated by the appearance of his son, Charlie (Eric Lloyd) on the naughty list. It seems Charlie has been tagging his high school with anti-principal propaganda and his dad is called by the school's hot and sexy principal, Carol Newman (Elizabeth Mitchell), to help straighten up the situation. Elizabeth Newman is one of those women that, even though they try to make her ugly and business-like, her natural good looks shine through the dark-rimmed glasses and hair made up in a bun.

Before Santa returns home to rectify his son's behavior, his head elf creates a Santa clone to tend to business at the North Pole in the real Santa's absence. In a forced and formulaic manner that has been used in cinema since the beginning of time, the clone goes haywire and wreaks havoc on the North Pole operations and prepares to send coal to all the children of the world. By the time the real Santa returns home, the toy production is reduced to a sweatshop operation ruled by the Santa clone with the appearance of a general-gone-mad giving orders to his henchmen toy soldiers.

Several memorable performances are turned in, most notably that of Eric Lloyd as Charlie and Liliana Mumy as Santa's stepdaughter, Lucy. Lloyd reprises his role as Santa's son and you might recognize Liliana's last name. She is the daughter of Bill Mumy, Will Robinson of the 1960's television series, Lost in Space. Liliana has a presence that seems to jump off the screen in every scene in which she appears. Look to see more of her in the near future.

Although filled with many great special effects and flashy, elaborate sets, The Santa Clause 2 seems to be missing something. We do get a warm and memorable few scenes of Calvin with his future wife and a touching moment when he gives the school faculty their favorite childhood toys – among others, Toss Across, Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots and the Betty Crocker Easy Bake Oven - but as was the case in Spy Kids 2, the heart and soul of the plot is replaced by film industry technology and whiz-bang gadgetry. The kids don't seem to mind however. How can a kid not be entertained by Santa playing football, reindeers farting, and a Star Wars-like sleigh battle between the real Santa and the Santa clone.

The Santa Clause 2 is a genuine G-rated movie, thereby well deserving of its maximum score in the Babysitter factor. I would give it a big fat 0 in the macho factor if weren't for the appearance of the beautiful and sexy Elizabeth Mitchell. The wholesome message and romantic gestures by Santa give it a significant rating in the Julia Roberts and Get Lucky factors.

Frank Wilkins