8 years after the original, The Santa Clause 2 follows Scott Clavin/Santa Claus (Tim Allen) as he realises he has to find his Mrs Claus if he wants to remain Father Christmas, whilst at the same time he has to deal with his son Charlie (Eric Lloyd) acting out and getting himself on the naughty list. To top it off, his fill in Santa double (Also played by Tim Allen) starts going haywire and threats to destroy Christmas.
The sequel has none, or very little, of the magic of the original story. Yes there is magic, but in the literal sense, rather than the heart warming 'movie magic' we loved in the first film and it just doesn't have the same impact.
For starters the focus this time seems to be around the magic of the north pole and all the goings on there, from child actor elves to Scooby-Doo-talking Reindeer. Everybody knows that the north pole and Santa's workshop is meant to be a magical place, we don't need another Disney film fixated on that point. Next you've got Allen himself. Now I'm always impressed when an actor in a film has to be a double role, but in this film he lets himself down. On the one hand you've got the Scott Calvin character reverting back into a normal human, which compared to when he changed the first time just didn't have the impact. Then his counter part, evil toy Santa, just acts too much like Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story (I even heard him quoting that character at one point) who was also voice by Tim Allen. As a result you have two characters without even less impact.
The only believable character this time is Charlie the son. He at least makes sense and explains how a child has to deal with his father actually being Santa Claus. That and the love interest of the story Elizabeth Mitchell, who does give a winning performance as the cold principal slowly thawing to Santa's charms.
But to be honest, there is one overriding fact about this film that really lets it down: the idea of Santa having to find a normal woman to be his wife. It is just not OK to take the loveable childhood figure and turn him into a playboy.
