70) The Santa Clause Franchise

[00:00:28] Hello, welcome back to Casabloga. In this episode, seeing as this is episode 70, which is a special episode, I am covering the Santa Clause Franchise.

[00:00:41] I know what you're probably thinking, didn't I already cover the Santa Clause my first season? That I did.

[00:00:47] This is going to cover the rest of the franchise, because there are two sequels and a TV series.

[00:00:57] And I am a fan. I'm not sure if I...

[00:01:04] I guess I should probably have re-listened to that first episode before doing this, because I don't remember if I talked about the sequels or my thoughts on them at the time.

[00:01:14] But basically, the second one, it was a good follow-up. It kind of makes sense.

[00:01:22] They look at that card that you had picked off of Santa Clause whenever it said,

[00:01:28] you know, the person who picked up this card and put on the clothes now becomes the Santa Clause.

[00:01:33] Well, there's another clause in there, the Mrs. Clause.

[00:01:37] I have to get married?

[00:01:39] And so, the whole plot of the second movie is, he basically turns back into Tim Allen.

[00:01:47] He turns back into Scott Calvin.

[00:01:49] Scott Calvin? Scott. I'll just say Scott.

[00:01:52] He turns back into Scott, which, um, SC, they make a point of pointing that out in every movie, in every iteration of it.

[00:02:03] And so, he turns back into Scott, looks like Tim Allen, and he goes back into the real world.

[00:02:08] And he has until Christmas Eve to find a wife.

[00:02:12] Good luck. No pressure.

[00:02:14] Or Santa, or, or, or, or Christmas will be over forever.

[00:02:19] Because, you know, it's one of those movies.

[00:02:23] It's like, if you don't do this, Christmas is dead!

[00:02:26] And, and, I thought it was, it was an okay movie.

[00:02:31] It was, uh, I didn't like it the first time I saw it, and I still kinda don't, uh, simply because of the ending.

[00:02:42] Because, like, the end of the movie, basically, I'm just gonna go ahead and, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna spoil both movies here.

[00:02:51] Not so much the show, because the show's new, and, you know, yeah.

[00:02:56] Um, I'm gonna spoil both movies of the sequels.

[00:03:00] Santa Claus 2 and Santa Claus 3.

[00:03:03] So, at the end of the movie, they have to get back to the North Pole.

[00:03:07] And then, uh, like, and so, they, he, Scott, he falls in love with the principal of his son's school.

[00:03:18] Which, that's a little weird, but whatever.

[00:03:22] And, he, like, he goes back to the North Pole.

[00:03:25] They're still not married.

[00:03:26] It's Christmas Eve, and, oh no!

[00:03:28] How are they gonna get back to the North Pole?

[00:03:31] And then, you know how they get back to the North Pole?

[00:03:35] By getting back to the North Pole.

[00:03:37] It's, literally, the first time I saw it, I was probably, I was gonna say 10, but, uh, no, I was, I was gonna say 12.

[00:03:47] I was gonna say 12.

[00:03:48] I was probably 12 when it came out.

[00:03:50] I don't remember when, I mean, wait, it was a, oh!

[00:03:54] I should probably do the usual.

[00:03:57] Santa Claus 2 is a 2002 Christmas movie directed by Michael Lembeck and starring Tim Allen, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Eric Lloyd.

[00:04:04] There.

[00:04:07] 2002.

[00:04:08] How old was I in 2002?

[00:04:09] Uh, yes.

[00:04:11] 13, 14, I don't know.

[00:04:14] Point is, I was really young.

[00:04:16] And, and even at the time when I watched it, I was like, wait, that, that was a rushed ending.

[00:04:23] It was, the movie leading up to that was okay.

[00:04:28] But, literally, that ending just ruined the whole movie for me.

[00:04:32] Like, that, and I didn't like it.

[00:04:36] I did not like it.

[00:04:37] Uh, so that's why I'm rushing past Santa Claus 2 because it's, I just, I never liked it.

[00:04:45] And, so, Santa Claus 3 is a, it's called Santa Claus 3 The Escape Clause.

[00:04:52] It's a 2006 Christmas film directed by Michael Lembeck and starring Tim Allen, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Martin Short.

[00:05:00] And, this time, it is a little better.

[00:05:04] Uh, all the trailers focused on the Escape Clause part.

[00:05:10] So, basically, Martin Short plays Jack Frost.

[00:05:15] And, he wants to be Santa Claus because the, uh, like, the mystical court plays don't want him to be on their team.

[00:05:29] And, he's like, but I'm one of you!

[00:05:32] And, they're like, nah, we're good.

[00:05:35] And, so, he wants to steal Santa's powers.

[00:05:38] And, so, what he does is, there, apparently, there's this, this weird rule.

[00:05:45] There's so many, just every, every movie and every show and every, every time that you see, like, another iteration of this franchise,

[00:05:53] they introduce a new rule, a new clause, a new thing.

[00:05:56] And, suddenly, now, like, one of the most important things holding all the Santa Clauses together is the snow globe room.

[00:06:03] And, each Santa Claus gets their own snow globe.

[00:06:06] And, it's like, the source of their power or something.

[00:06:09] And, so, and there's this clause.

[00:06:12] It's called the Escape Clause.

[00:06:14] And, what you do is, they, if at any point while you're Santa Claus, you decide you don't want to be Santa Claus anymore,

[00:06:24] you just hold your snow globe and say, I don't want to be Santa Claus anymore.

[00:06:30] And, then, it reverses time and it makes it like it never happened.

[00:06:35] And, so, what Martin Short does, what Jack Frost does, is, that's his plan.

[00:06:44] He, he gets a snow globe and, he makes him say it.

[00:06:52] He, he, he, he, like, they're, like, standing on a balcony and he, like, he, like, holds, like, Tim Allen's holding the snow globe and he says it!

[00:07:01] He just kind of, like, that plan couldn't have gone more perfectly for Martin Short.

[00:07:09] And, um, but this one has more of, like, a, like, a fantasy element.

[00:07:16] It kind of more embraces the, like, the mystical side of the whole Santa Claus thing.

[00:07:21] It, there's very little time spent in the real world.

[00:07:25] And, uh, and what I like about this, I didn't like it the first time I saw it.

[00:07:30] Where the escape clause part is near the end.

[00:07:34] It's, like, the third act.

[00:07:35] And, so, there's a whole movie of build-up, character development, story growth, and stuff like that.

[00:07:41] Maybe I say that backwards.

[00:07:43] But, anyway, it builds up to the escape clause part.

[00:07:47] It doesn't just, it's like, hey, I want to do this, let's do that.

[00:07:49] And, then the whole movie is that.

[00:07:53] So, when it actually gets to rewind time, you actually relive the scene from the first movie where Santa Claus falls off the roof in front of Scott's house.

[00:08:03] But, this time, Jack Frost picks up the clothes before Tim Allen comes outside.

[00:08:14] And, then it, like, rewinds back to the present where Scott was never Santa Claus.

[00:08:23] And, like, this, the world is, uh, basically what Jack Frost does is he makes it into, he commercializes it.

[00:08:33] And, he turns the North Pole into, like, an amusement park.

[00:08:36] And, he takes the fun out of Christmas.

[00:08:41] And, like, that whole section, I'm gonna say it's about half an hour.

[00:08:47] It, it's resolved very quickly.

[00:08:50] He, what Scott does is he finds these pens that record audio.

[00:08:58] And, so, Martin Short was like,

[00:09:02] Aha!

[00:09:03] I know what you're going to do.

[00:09:04] But, you're not going to get me to say I don't want to be Santa Claus anymore.

[00:09:08] And, Scott goes,

[00:09:10] What? Say what?

[00:09:11] I'm not gonna make you say what?

[00:09:13] And, you can see him press record on the pen.

[00:09:15] And, then Martin Short goes,

[00:09:17] I said, I'm, you're not gonna make me say I don't want to be Santa Claus anymore.

[00:09:23] And, then, and, yeah.

[00:09:25] Uh, like, five minutes later,

[00:09:29] Martin Short's holding the snow globe and then Tim Allen plays the recording.

[00:09:32] The recording is all it takes.

[00:09:33] It rewinds time.

[00:09:35] He picks up the thing, goes back to the present.

[00:09:37] Then, it's resolved.

[00:09:38] It's resolved in like, five minutes.

[00:09:41] It's, it's, okay.

[00:09:42] This one is a quick ending too.

[00:09:44] But, it builds up to it.

[00:09:47] It doesn't just jump to it.

[00:09:49] It actually, like I said, you can see everything coming together.

[00:09:53] And, it makes more sense than Santa Claus's 2's rushed ending.

[00:09:57] I didn't like Santa Claus 2.

[00:09:59] Still kind of don't.

[00:10:01] And, uh, but my favorite of, of all three movies is definitely the first one.

[00:10:10] The first one is a major Christmas classic and I watch it almost every year.

[00:10:16] It's, I love it.

[00:10:20] Now, getting on to the TV show.

[00:10:22] When they announced they were making a Santa Claus TV show, I was like, what?

[00:10:25] How are they going to continue this franchise?

[00:10:27] That doesn't make any sense.

[00:10:28] Well, they did that by giving them kids.

[00:10:33] And, yes, I know we already had kids.

[00:10:35] Um, new kids.

[00:10:37] So, Santa Claus's is a Christmas series on Disney Plus created by Jack Burdett and starring

[00:10:43] Tim Allen, Elizabeth Mitchell, Austin Kane, and Elizabeth Allen Dick.

[00:10:47] Yep.

[00:10:50] Tim Allen's daughter plays his daughter in the Santa Claus's.

[00:10:56] And, I'm not going to spoil anything in this show.

[00:10:59] Each season, there's two seasons currently.

[00:11:01] They haven't announced a third season.

[00:11:03] I was, they, okay, here's the good thing.

[00:11:06] They have not officially canceled this show.

[00:11:08] But, they've also not announced a third season.

[00:11:11] But, if they were going to do a third season this year, they would have already done it.

[00:11:14] They would have either done it already or announced it already.

[00:11:18] And, they've done neither.

[00:11:19] But, the good thing is, they have not officially canceled this show.

[00:11:22] I want this show to keep going because I love the characters.

[00:11:26] I love the story.

[00:11:27] I love where they're going with it.

[00:11:28] And, the first, uh, the first season, basically, he felt like, um, the magic.

[00:11:35] His magic was diminishing.

[00:11:37] And, he felt, oh, I guess it's time to retire from being Santa Claus after, like, 30 years.

[00:11:42] And, so, he's looking for a replacement.

[00:11:47] And, uh, yeah, that's basically what that was.

[00:11:54] Because, um, they, uh, okay, if I feel like, I'm just going to stick with the synopsis from, like, what the hell they gave out.

[00:12:02] Because, I feel like if I talk about too much of the show, I'm going to spoil everything.

[00:12:07] But, I will say that, like, um, kind of, like, the synopsis kind of is, like, what I said.

[00:12:12] Is he's trying to retire.

[00:12:13] He wants to retire.

[00:12:14] He feels like it's time to retire.

[00:12:16] And, he's trying to find a worthy successor.

[00:12:20] And, he, he kind of does.

[00:12:25] But, it's, it's not very good.

[00:12:30] I, they didn't put it in the trailer, so I don't know if I should say it here.

[00:12:34] Because, again, like, it came out, um, two years ago.

[00:12:39] Which is usually long enough.

[00:12:42] But, like, I, I know that not a lot of people know about this show.

[00:12:46] Because, uh, when I was talking about it, I was like, the Santa Claus franchise.

[00:12:50] I was like, oh yeah, the three movies.

[00:12:51] I was like, uh, I've done, I've done the first episode.

[00:12:54] I've done the first movie.

[00:12:55] I'm going to do the two sequels and the show.

[00:12:57] And, everyone's like, what show?

[00:12:59] And then, so, they didn't really promote this.

[00:13:02] I only knew about this show because I'm, like, big into, like, the movie space.

[00:13:07] And, like, I see all the news.

[00:13:09] So, I don't know what's popular and what's not popular unless I bring up something.

[00:13:13] And, everyone's like, oh yeah, I want to see that.

[00:13:16] Or, like, I've never heard of that.

[00:13:17] Like, how have you never heard of that?

[00:13:20] And, and so, I want to use this to get people to watch the show.

[00:13:24] It's two seasons.

[00:13:25] Each one has, I was going to say a self-contained story.

[00:13:30] But, it is.

[00:13:31] But, like, it continues.

[00:13:33] So, like, the first season, like, he wants to retire.

[00:13:37] And, he finds a, I'm going to say a temporary replacement.

[00:13:45] And, the kids, um, Mrs. Claus, Scott, what's, they make a point of mentioning that.

[00:13:51] Like, Mrs. Claus doesn't have a first name.

[00:13:53] And, that's, like, a plot point for her.

[00:13:54] Like, like, Mrs. Claus doesn't even have a first name.

[00:13:57] They, so, like, the whole family goes to the real world.

[00:14:01] And, they de-transition.

[00:14:02] And, then, uh, you know, back into, you know, real people.

[00:14:06] The kids, the two kids, have never been to the real world.

[00:14:11] And, so, they don't know how to acclimate.

[00:14:13] And, so, there's a whole storyline there.

[00:14:16] And, of course, because, you know, there's a second season.

[00:14:19] You know that they end up going back to the North Pole.

[00:14:24] And, then, that storyline concludes.

[00:14:28] And, there is a resolution.

[00:14:29] And, I won't spoil anything.

[00:14:30] Because, again, I want people to watch this show.

[00:14:33] And, then, the second season.

[00:14:36] Uh, because, I, because when they first announced the show, they said that's the whole point of the show.

[00:14:40] Is, you know, he wants to do, he wants that.

[00:14:44] And, I was like, ah, so how are they going to, second season.

[00:14:51] Then, the Cribble Crabble Clause is the story.

[00:14:59] And, basically, it was, uh, there's a whole history of Santa Clauses.

[00:15:07] Like, like, if you've seen the first three movies, you know that, well, the first three movies.

[00:15:12] There's only three movies.

[00:15:13] If you've seen the movies, you know that, you know, Scott, obviously, Scott's not the first Santa.

[00:15:19] The Santa that he accidentally killed was not the first Santa.

[00:15:22] Now, there's a whole history of Santa Clauses.

[00:15:25] And, there is a Santa Claus that was stricken from the record and nobody talks about.

[00:15:31] Because, he was kind of a dictator.

[00:15:34] And, he was turned into a nutcracker or a statue or something.

[00:15:42] And, he's found in the real world.

[00:15:46] And, accidentally brought back.

[00:15:50] And, that's the storyline of the second season.

[00:15:55] I know it sounds really dark.

[00:15:57] It sounds like a real, like, oh, that's a really dark story.

[00:15:59] And, it is, like, it is kind of a dark story.

[00:16:02] Like, um, but, the fun thing about this show.

[00:16:06] Like, it's a very lighthearted show.

[00:16:08] Like, he is, he is, like, you know, this evil character.

[00:16:15] But, kind of comedically evil.

[00:16:18] Like, he has a weird voice.

[00:16:19] And, he's, like, when he's, like, interacting with, like, modern stuff.

[00:16:25] He's, like, I think he does, like, he plays, like, on a, like, a Switch or something like that.

[00:16:31] He, he, he's a comical character.

[00:16:35] But, he's evil.

[00:16:37] Like, you're not supposed to like him.

[00:16:39] And, that's, you know, wacky shenanigans ensues.

[00:16:45] And, so, I, I do highly recommend it.

[00:16:48] Both seasons and all three movies are on Disney+.

[00:16:54] You, you can watch the shows.

[00:16:58] Um, you, you don't necessarily have to have seen the movies to have, to enjoy the show.

[00:17:06] But, you know, it is, at least watch the, I was gonna say, I was gonna say, watch the first two.

[00:17:13] But, like, I don't want people to watch the second movie.

[00:17:17] Uh, watch them whatever order you want.

[00:17:23] No, that's bad advice.

[00:17:26] Watch the movies, watch the show.

[00:17:28] It's a whole franchise.

[00:17:30] It's not.

[00:17:31] Okay, so, it's an ongoing story.

[00:17:34] But, it's not a consistent story.

[00:17:37] Like, there are characters.

[00:17:40] And, like, actually, all the elf characters in the show.

[00:17:46] You know, all, all of the characters, the elves, are supposed to be, like, thousands of years old.

[00:17:56] And, it even shows, on the second season, it shows flashbacks to whenever the, that Claw, the Evil Claws was, was in power.

[00:18:05] And, the characters that we know now, in the present, were there.

[00:18:12] But, they weren't there in the 90s.

[00:18:14] In the, in the early 2000s, in those Santa Claus movies.

[00:18:17] Because, you know, they're kids.

[00:18:19] They have to get kids to play the elves.

[00:18:21] And, they age up.

[00:18:22] And, so, we, that, it does kind of bother me a little bit.

[00:18:30] Like, you know, we have these characters that we know and like from the movies.

[00:18:34] And, you could have just recached them.

[00:18:36] Like, oh, this is, this is this person.

[00:18:39] But, no, they just completely replaced the entire character.

[00:18:44] All the characters.

[00:18:45] But, eh.

[00:18:47] You get used to them.

[00:18:48] The characters are really good.

[00:18:49] Like, there's, I have no complaints on the elf characters.

[00:18:52] Like, they, they, they really develop these characters.

[00:18:55] And, you really like them by the end of the, well, I was going to say, like, by the end of the second season.

[00:18:59] Like, it takes two seasons to fully like them.

[00:19:01] But, no.

[00:19:02] You, you do like them.

[00:19:03] It takes, for me, it took a couple episodes to get used to the characters.

[00:19:08] I'm like, wait, what?

[00:19:10] Where's that character?

[00:19:10] Where's this character?

[00:19:12] Where's, whatever.

[00:19:14] And, yeah.

[00:19:15] You, you eventually get used to it.

[00:19:18] And, these are the characters.

[00:19:20] They've been here all along.

[00:19:24] And, there's, so like, there is no real consistency.

[00:19:27] Even like, kind of like the layout of the North Pole and stuff.

[00:19:30] And, like, the workshop.

[00:19:33] It's, I was going to say, it's like they didn't have the rights.

[00:19:36] But, it's literally Disney.

[00:19:39] So, I don't know why.

[00:19:40] They changed, they changed the look and feel of the North Pole.

[00:19:45] But, again.

[00:19:47] You, you get used to it by the end.

[00:19:49] I think the only thing that really stays consistent from what I remember from the movies.

[00:19:54] Is the fireplace.

[00:19:58] The Clauses, uh, Mr. and Mrs. Clauses, in, like, their bedroom, or, like, their main room that they're always in.

[00:20:06] They have this giant chamber of secrets, like, fireplace.

[00:20:13] And, that always stood out to me in the movies.

[00:20:17] And, it's here in the, it's here in the show.

[00:20:20] Other than that, nothing is really consistent with the movies.

[00:20:24] Visually.

[00:20:25] Which is okay.

[00:20:28] Uh, you get used to it.

[00:20:30] I keep saying that.

[00:20:32] And, I will always recommend these movies.

[00:20:36] As much as I dislike the second movie, I still recommend as a whole.

[00:20:42] I don't, I don't recommend the second movie on its own.

[00:20:46] I recommend it as a whole.

[00:20:49] Like, if you're gonna watch the whole franchise, you're gonna have to watch the second movie.

[00:20:57] Yeah.

[00:20:59] It's like, I don't like sauerkraut, but I like it in a Reuben.

[00:21:02] You gotta have, you gotta have sauerkraut in a Reuben if you're gonna have it.

[00:21:06] But, you don't want it on your, on its own.

[00:21:09] Plus, it's a sequel, and it wouldn't make sense on its own.

[00:21:11] But, you know what I'm saying.

[00:21:12] You know what I'm saying.

[00:21:16] But, I'm gonna leave it at that.

[00:21:17] It's a shorter special episode than normal.

[00:21:19] I just, there's not a whole lot of Christmas things I could have done a special episode on.

[00:21:28] And, this is the first thing that came into mind.

[00:21:30] So, and there's not, there's not really, uh, a whole lot there that I could talk about.

[00:21:36] So, and, cut!