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| The
Santa Clause 2 DVD Review |
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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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The
Santa Clause 2
(Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
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| DVD
Release Date:
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November
18, 2003
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Length:
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104 mins.
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| Rated:
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G
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| Format:
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Widescreen (1.85:1) Enhanced for 16x9 TVs
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Audio:
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English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, French
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Spanish
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
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| Subtitles:
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Closed-Captioned
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| Extras:
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Audio
Commentary with Michael Lembeck, Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel,
"Operation Toybox: Save Santa" Game, "Inside the
North Pole with Curtis" Featurette, "Director's Tour
of Elfsburg" Featurette, "True Confessions of The
Legendary Figures" Featurette, DVD-ROM Features
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When I heard there was going to be a sequel to "The Santa
Clause", I wasn't really surprised. It's actually hard to believe
that it has been so many years since the original was released in
1994. Must be because I only saw it for the first time last year. But,
watching the movie, you would never know. It's almost as if they
picked up right where they left off. I'm just glad it was a theatrical
release and not a straight to video release.
Maybe this is why it was a pretty good movie. Maybe though, it's just
the season. How can you really not like a Christmas movie? (Some would
argue National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, but I disagree!)
In "The Santa Clause 2", Santa (Tim Allen), is busy getting
ready for Christmas, which is just around the corner. However, things
become complicated when he learns that his son has landed on the
"naughty" list. Add to that the "Mrs. Clause"
which states that Santa has to find a wife before Christmas, or he can
no longer be Santa. So, when the pressure is on, Santa agrees to have
himself cloned with his clone running things at the pole while the
real Santa (aka Scott Calvin) goes home to deal with his son and find
a bride. Things get even more complicated when the Santa clone and his
army of toy soldiers take over Santa's workshop and declare that ever
child in the world will get a lump of coal in their stocking.
Meanwhile, Scott is having problems of his own dealing with his son
and convincing his new found love of his secret identity. Throw in a
dash of magic, a sprinkling of sentiment and a heaping handful of predictability
and you get the rest of the story. Not that there's anything wrong
with that though. It was actually a pretty good movie, and I found it
lived up to the spirit of its predecessor.
I've gotta tip my hat to the folks at Disney DVD who consistently pack
their titles with bonus features. Sure, some hit and some miss, but at
least the content is there. I recently previewed a DVD for one of this
summer's top movies and was left wondering at the end why there
weren't more features for such a successful movie. But you don't have
to worry about that here.
We'll start things off with a look at the audio commentary with
director Michael Lembeck. This is a commentary where either you'll
like it or you'll hate it. The commentary is told as though the
characters in the movie are real people and the director talks about
working with them as if they were real. As the movie starts in Santa's
village, we're meant to believe, through the commentary, that the film
was actually filmed in the real village and that all the actors are
real elves. If you can get into it and not take it too seriously, and
if you liked the movie, this commentary can be fun. But if you're
looking for any real insight, don't bother.
The disc's featurettes continue the theme. The first, called
"Inside the North Pole with Curtis" is hosted by Spencer
Breslin. Breslin gives a tour of the set as his character, the #2 elf.
Personally, I've been a big fan Breslin since I first saw him in
Disney's The Kid, so this feature was a treat. I don't know what it is
about him, but I just find him to be really funny. The second
featurette is a tour of Elfsburg by director Michael Lembeck. Calling
it a tour is actually a bit misleading. It's more just a gag
featurette that Lembeck created, saying it was sent to Disney to calm
execs about the ongoing feud between the elves and the toy soldiers in
Santa's Village. I found it odd how Elizabeth Mitchell, who played the
future Mrs. Clause in the movie, appeared in both these featurettes,
but Santa Claus was nowhere to be seen. Camera shy? Finally, there's a
featurette titled "True Confessions of the Legendary
Figures" which consists of interviews by Lembeck of Mother
Nature, Cupid, Father Time, The Sandman, The Tooth Fairy and The
Easter Bunny. Some funny stuff here.
Also available on this DVD were a gag reel and some deleted scenes,
each with an introduction by the director. The gag reel I could have
done without, but the deleted scenes were actually half decent.
One thing I've been critical of with DVDs is the games. They're always
the same thing, just themed to the movie. Not so with this disc, whose
games blew me away. First up is the game titled "Operation Toybox:
Save Santa". Here, you have to stop the Santa Clone and his new
army of toy soldiers who've taken over Elfsburg. There are three
different levels where there is a trivia section, a first person
shooter game (with silly string) and a level where you have to make
your way through a group of soldiers. Each of these was pretty fun,
although I had a very difficult time playing the game on my DVD-ROM,
so beware. It plays much better with a traditional player. The next
set of games are available exclusively on DVD-ROM, so I didn't have
any problems here. First up was "Santa's Libs", where you
answer a series of questions and your answers are gathered together to
create a personal ad for Santa. There are lots of different
combinations, and some can be pretty funny which makes this worth
checking out. Next up was a game titled "Holiday Rush" which
for me was by far the best of all the games here. Basically it was
just a tiles game with Christmas-themed tiles, but was it ever
addictive. I spent more than an hour playing when I first discovered
it! Another game I played for a while before I could tear myself away
was "Reindeer Games" where you have to guess which reindeer
is in which stall. The one thing I will warn was that these two games
were a bit high on the difficulty scale. (Or maybe I'm just a complete
idiot.) Finally, there's a fun coloring book game for the kids.
Overall, I have to give the people who put this DVD together high
marks. Like I said before, some of the features may not appeal to
everybody, simply because the filmmakers are actually trying to be
original, but if you're into the movie and are filled with the
Christmas spirit, there's nothing not to like here. The games
especially, I thought were a great addition to the DVD and I only wish
other movies could follow this example. So, if you're looking for a
half-decent holiday movie and don't want to trek the family to the
theater to check out Elf, stay home instead and pick some hot cocoa up
a copy of this DVD and you won't be disappointed.
| The Movie: |
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7/10 |
| The
Extras: |
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8/10 |
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The Santa Clause 2
Liam Cullin -
Editor
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