The Santa Clause

Is anyone fans of Tim “The Tool Man” Allen? If you loved his hit sitcom in the 90s, “Home Improvement,” then you will be in for a treat. I know I was a fan of that show, so today I will look at Tim Allen’s film debut, “The Santa Clause,” released in 1994.

In this film, Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, a divorced executive of a toy company whose son, Charlie (Eric Lloyd) prefers his mom (Wendy Crawson) and psychiatrist stepfather (Judge Reinhold), which makes him feel uneasy when Charlie visits Scott. When Charlie spends the night with Scott on Christmas Eve, Charlie begs his mom to pick him up the next day.

Hilarity ensues when in the middle of the night; Scott walks out and sees Santa on the roof. That puts Santa out of action, passing the torch onto Scott, whose initials coincidentally matches Saint Nicks. This is all because of the card that says whoever puts on the suit is recruited to being Santa Clause.

Scott does not want to be Santa, but decides to take the responsibility after he takes a trip to the North Pole. He has to prepare for next Christmas, and because he is now the new Santa, he is able to get closer to Charlie when the holidays approach. Along the way, he starts to look like Santa, making Allen chubby, which marks comedic resemblance to the other hilarious film, “Mrs. Doubtfire,” which it was inspired from the plot of wanting to get a family back together.

Jeff Shannon of The Seattle Times said, “All of this is polished with formulaic gloss, and one can't help but wonder what happens to all of those decommissioned Santas.” You will notice an excited logic that turns the North Pole elves into equal-opportunity employers. Making his debut to film, director John Pasquin had a good grasp on the material. Although the original, darker screenplay has become light-hearted by Disney, “The Santa Clause” has been made to fit Allen without being boring in the process.

The movie combines fantasy into it from the generous area of Santa’s underground workshop (the set design made very pretty by Carol Spier) to the bossy common sense of the reindeer (especially Comet), but don’t mind a newly designed sleigh that has a vertical takeoff. It's little touches like this that makes all the difference. With comedies that don’t seem to work lately, “The Santa Clause” has enough laughs to make it a fun holiday flick.

My rating for this will have to be a 10, it’s that likable. But how do the sequels hold up? Find out tomorrow in my 25 days of countdown to Christmas reviews.