''The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause'' is a 2006 American

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Michael Lembeck Michael Lembeck (born June 25, 1948) is an American actor and television and film director. Best known as Max Horvath in '' One Day at a Time'' (1979-1984). Life and career Lembeck was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Caroline Dubs and ...

. It is the third installment in ''The Santa Clause'' franchise, following ''

The Santa Clause ''The Santa Clause'' is a 1994 American Christmas fantasy comedy film written by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick, and directed by John Pasquin. The first installment in ''The Santa Clause'' franchise, it stars Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, an ordi ...

'' (1994) and ''

The Santa Clause 2 ''The Santa Clause 2'' is a 2002 American Christmas comedy film directed by Michael Lembeck in his directorial debut. It is a sequel to ''The Santa Clause'' (1994) and the second installment in ''The Santa Clause'' franchise. All of the principal ...

'' (2002). The film features

Tim Allen Timothy Alan Dick (born June 13, 1953), known professionally as Tim Allen, is an American actor and comedian. He is known for playing Tim "The Toolman" Taylor on the ABC sitcom ''Home Improvement'' (1991–1999) and Mike Baxter on the ABC/Fo ...

returning as Scott Calvin, who must find a way to reverse a spell cast by

Jack Frost Jack Frost is a personification of frost, ice, snow, sleet, winter, and freezing cold. He is a variant of Old Man Winter who is held responsible for frosty weather, nipping the fingers and toes in such weather, coloring the foliage in autumn, ...

(

Martin Short Martin Hayter Short (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, and writer. He has received various awards including two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. In 2019 Short became an Officer of the Order of Canada. He ...

) that caused him to lose his title of

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...

. Allen and Short had previously worked together in the 1997

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

comedy film, ''

Jungle 2 Jungle ''Jungle 2 Jungle'' is a 1997 comedy film directed by John Pasquin, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and TF1 Films Productions, and starring Tim Allen, Martin Short, Lolita Davidovich, David Ogden Stiers, JoBeth Williams, and introducing Sam Hunt ...

''. Most of the supporting actors from the first two films reprise their roles, with the exception of

David Krumholtz David Krumholtz (born May 15, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He played Mr. Universe in '' Serenity'', Charlie Eppes in the CBS drama series ''Numb3rs'', and starred in the ''Harold & Kumar'' and ''The Santa Clause'' film franchises. Ear ...

. As a result of his absence, Curtis (played by

Spencer Breslin Spencer Breslin (born May 18, 1992) is an American actor and musician. He is the older brother of actress Abigail Breslin. Beginning at the age of three, Breslin acted in over 50 commercials. He is best known for his roles in the feature films ...

), who was previously the Assistant Head Elf, has now been promoted to Bernard's former position. This was

Peter Boyle Peter Lawrence Boyle (October 18, 1935 – December 12, 2006) was an American actor. Known as a character actor, he played Frank Barone on the CBS sitcom ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' and the comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof ''Young Fra ...

's final film to be released during his lifetime (2008's '' All Roads Lead Home'' was released posthumously). Its production was completed in February 2006. The film was released in theaters on November 3, 2006 in the United States and grossed $110 million worldwide. It received negative reviews from critics, with

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

calling it "a bag of bland gags and dumb slapstick."

Plot

Twelve years have passed since Scott Calvin took on the mantle of

and married Carol Newman, who is now a teacher in the North Pole. On Christmas Eve, she tells a group of young elves a story from her life with Scott while expecting their first child. Scott invites his in-laws, Sylvia and Bud Newman, to the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...

, along with Scott's ex-wife Laura, her husband Neil, their daughter Lucy, and Scott's son Charlie. Meanwhile, he is summoned to a meeting of the Council of Legendary Figures, consisting of Mother Nature,

Father Time Father Time is a personification of time. In recent centuries he is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, sometimes with wings, dressed in a robe and carrying a scythe and an hourglass or other timekeeping device. As an image, "Father ...

, the

Easter Bunny The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit—sometimes dressed with clothes—bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" orig ...

, Cupid, the

Tooth Fairy The Tooth Fairy is a fantasy figure of early childhood in Western and Western-influenced cultures. The folklore states that when children lose one of their baby teeth, they should place it underneath their pillow or on their bedside table and ...

, and the

Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The Sandman is a traditional charact ...

, concerning the behavior of

, who is jealous that he has no holiday or special occasion in his honor. Because he has been promoting himself during the Christmas season, Mother Nature suggests sanctions against him. As Scott is attempting to get the in-laws to come without revealing that he is Santa, Jack Frost negotiates a light sentence of community service at the North Pole, helping Scott and the elves put up various Canadian-themed paraphernalia, as Carol's parents believe Scott is a toymaker in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

; Scott consents. However, Frost's ultimate goal is to trick Santa into renouncing his position. When now Head elf Curtis inadvertently reveals the "Escape Clause", Frost sneaks into The Hall of Snow Globes and steals Scott's one containing Scott as Santa. If Scott holds the globe and wishes to have "never been Santa at all," he will go back in time and undo his career as Santa. When Lucy discovers this, Frost freezes her parents and locks her in a closet. He then orchestrates situations that make Scott think he must resign to make things better. Frost tricks Scott into invoking the Escape Clause and both are sent to Scott's front yard in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, when Scott caused the original Santa to fall off his roof and had to replace him. Frost causes the original Santa to fall off the roof and grabs Santa's coat before Scott can. Scott is sent to an alternate 2006, where he has been CEO of his old company for the last twelve years and business takes priority over family. Scott also learns that Laura and Neil divorced and Carol moved away years ago. Scott goes to find Lucy and Neil, who are vacationing at the North Pole, which Frost has turned into a theme park. Christmas is now "Frostmas", the elves are miserable, the reindeer are confined to a petting zoo, and parents can pay for their kids to be placed on the nice list. Scott finds Lucy and questions Neil about Laura; he states that Scott’s workaholic absence in Charlie’s life put all the pressure on Neil, and Charlie didn't want him to be his father, causing the divorce between him and Laura. Scott confronts Frost and causes a distraction and convinces Lucy to steal Frost's snow globe for him. Lucy throws the snow globe to Scott, but Frost catches it. Scott plays a recording of Frost saying "I wish I'd never been Santa at all" from a novelty North Pole pen Frost gave him earlier, invoking the Escape Clause, sending both Scott and Frost back to 1994. Scott restrains Jack long enough to let his 1994 counterpart get the coat, making him Santa Claus again, sending both back to the present in the original timeline. Scott reconciles with his family and Jack is arrested by elf police. He reveals he cannot unfreeze his victims unless he unfreezes himself, something he says he'll never do. Scott convinces Lucy via a snow globe he had given her earlier of her warmly hugging a snowman, to give Frost a "magic hug" to unfreeze and reform him. It works, Laura and Neil unfreeze and Frost becomes a new person. The "Canada" ruse is dropped and Scott appears as Santa to Carol's parents. With two hours remaining before Santa must leave for his

deliveries, Carol goes into labor. Months later, while Carol is telling the tale to her students, Scott walks in to reveal their son, Buddy Claus.

Cast

/ Scott Calvin *

Elizabeth Mitchell Elizabeth Mitchell (born Elizabeth Joanna Robertson) is an American actress known for her lead role as Juliet Burke on the ABC drama mystery series ''Lost'' (2006–2010). Mitchell also had lead roles on the television series '' V'' (2009–201 ...

Mrs. Claus Mrs. Claus (also known as Mrs. Santa Claus or Mrs. Santa) is the legendary wife of Santa Claus, the Christmas gift-bringer in Western Christmas tradition. She is known for making cookies with the elves, caring for the reindeer, and preparing toy ...

/ Carol Calvin *

Judge Reinhold Edward Ernest "Judge" Reinhold Jr. (born May 21, 1957) is an American actor who has starred in several Hollywood movies, such as ''Ruthless People'', ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'', ''Stripes'' and ''Gremlins'', and co-starred in all of the fil ...

as Neil Miller *

Wendy Crewson Wendy Jane Crewson (born May 9, 1956) is a Canadian actress and producer. She began her career appearing on Canadian television, before her breakthrough role in 1991 dramatic film '' The Doctor''. Crewson has appeared in many Hollywood films, inc ...

as Laura Miller *

Liliana Mumy Liliana Berry Davis Mumy (; born April 16, 1994) is an American actress. Between 2002 and 2006, she appeared as Jessica Baker in the two ''Cheaper by the Dozen'' movies and as Lucy Miller in the second and third films of ''The Santa Clause'' tr ...

as Lucy Miller *

Alan Arkin Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director and screenwriter known for his performances on stage and screen. Throughout his career spanning over six decades, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award ...

as Bud Newman *

Ann-Margret Ann-Margret Olsson (born April 28, 1941) is a Swedish–American actress, singer, and dancer. As an actress and singer, she is credited as Ann-Margret. She is known for her roles in ''Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961), ''State Fair'' (1962), ''B ...

as Sylvia Newman *

as Curtis the Elf *

Eric Lloyd Eric Lloyd (born David Eric Lloyd Morelli; May 19, 1986) is an American actor, musician, and producer. Lloyd is best known for work as a child actor in such roles as Charlie Calvin in The Walt Disney Company, Disney's The Santa Clause (franchise ...

as Charlie Calvin *

Aisha Tyler Aisha Nilaja Tyler (born September 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, director, and talk show host. She is known for playing Andrea Marino in the first season of ''Ghost Whisperer'', Tara Lewis (Criminal Minds), Dr. Tara Lewis in ''Crimi ...

as Mother Nature *

Michael Dorn Michael Dorn (born December 9, 1952) is an American actor best known for his role as the Klingon Worf in the '' Star Trek'' franchise. He has appeared more times as a regular cast member than any other ''Star Trek'' actor in the franchise's histo ...

as the

Jay Thomas Jay Thomas (born Jon Thomas Terrell; July 12, 1948 – August 24, 2017) was an American actor, comedian, and radio personality. He was heard in New York from 1976–1979 on top-40 station 99X, and later on rhythmic CHR station 92KTU, and in L ...

as the

Kevin Pollak Kevin Elliot Pollak (born October 30, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, impressionist and podcast host. He has appeared in over 80 films; his roles include Sam Weinberg in Rob Reiner's legal film ''A Few Good Men'', Jacob Goldman in '' Grump ...

Cupid In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, lust, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus (mythology), Venus and the god of war Mar ...

Art LaFleur Art LaFleur (September 9, 1943 – November 17, 2021) was an American character actor and acting coach. Life and career LaFleur was born in Gary, Indiana. He played football in 1962 as a redshirt at the University of Kentucky under Coach Char ...

as the

Abigail Breslin Abigail Kathleen Breslin (born April 14, 1996) is an American actress. She rose to prominence with the comedy-drama film '' Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at ...

as Trish *

Bob Bergen Robert Bergen (born March 8, 1964) is an American voice actor. He voices Warner Bros. cartoon characters Porky Pig and Tweety and has voiced characters in the English dubs of various anime. He formerly hosted the children's game show '' Jep!'', ...

as the voice of Comet

Production

The film was shot entirely at

Downey Studios The Downey Studios was a production studio in Downey, California. The studio featured of indoor and outdoor production space including a building and a building which was home of the largest indoor water tank in North America. A suburban residen ...

Downey, California Downey is a city located in Southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is considered part of the Gateway Cities. The city is the birthplace of the Apollo space program. It is also the home of ...

, with Elfsburg Village being shot on Stage 1, and the suburban scenes being shot on the studio's backlot. The looks for Jack Frost and Mrs. Claus were originally different. Frost's initial appearance was more of an English 1960's look that was more impish and elfin, but the threat level was not up to the level that director Michael Lembeck wanted. Costume designer Ingrid Ferrin designed a new costume for Frost with a velvet zoot suit feel. Mrs. Claus's initial appearance was based on her end-credits dance scene in ''

''. In that scene, Elizabeth Mitchell wore prosthetic makeup that made her appear round and chubby. After the second day of principal photography, Lembeck was not seeing any emotional content in Mitchell's performance due to the amount of makeup applied on her.

Reception

Critical response

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Playing Jack Frost as an evil cross between Liza Minnelli and Liberace, Martin Short is a welcome presence, but this tired series continues drawing from its bag of bland gags and dumb slapstick." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Erid D. Snider wrote that Allen did ''The Santa Clause'' "The first time with enthusiasm, the second time with affection and the third time for a paycheck". Kyle Smith wrote, "We're getting a turkey and a ham for the holidays. Santa is so dumb he should be demoted to cleaning up after Geoffrey the Giraffe at Toys 'R' Us."

Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...

dismissed the film as "Squeaky clean, but you might die of boredom." Finally,

Mark Kermode Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', prese ...

described it on BBC Radio 5 Live as "the cinematic equivalent of tertiary syphilis". In a more positive review, ''Variety''s Justin Chang said ''The Santa Clause 3'' was "a much cleaner, more streamlined ride than its overstuffed predecessor", adding that "Michael Lembeck directs the action with a surer touch and more consistent tone than he brought to ''Santa Clause 2'', and effortlessly pulls off the pic's sentimental, life-affirming moments without tugging too hard."

Awards and nominations

Box office

The first two films had become box-office successes during their opening weekends, but ''The Santa Clause 3'' was beaten by ''

Borat ''Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'' (Kazakh language, Kazakh / Russian language, Russian: ''Борат'') (also stylized as ''BORДT'', or simply ''Borat'') is a 2006 mockumentary black come ...

'' for the No. 1 spot. ''The Santa Clause 3'' made $84,500,122 in North America and a worldwide gross of $110,768,122. The first film made $189,833,357 worldwide at the box-office while the second film made $172,855,065.

DVD and Blu-ray Disc release

The film was released on both standard DVD and high-definition

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...

on November 20, 2007.

Video game

A tie-in video game was released on November 1, 2006 for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

, developed by

1st Playable Productions First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

and published by

Buena Vista Games Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher owned by The Walt Disney Company through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and distributed multi-platform video games and interact ...

Sequel limited series

A limited series serving as a sequel, ''

The Santa Clauses ''The Santa Clauses'' is an American Christmas by medium, Christmas Television comedy, comedy television series created by Jack Burditt for Disney+ and based on The Santa Clause (franchise), ''The Santa Clause'' film series. It serves as a se ...

'', was released on Disney+, with

reprising his role as Scott Calvin / Santa Claus and

Jack Burditt Jack Burditt is an American producer and screenwriter who has worked on television shows like ''Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt'', ''Frasier'', ''30 Rock'', '' Last Man Standing'', ''Modern Family'', and ''The Mindy Project''. He won two Emmy awards f ...

serving as showrunner and executive producer. Realizing he can't be Santa Claus forever, an aging Scott Calvin sets off to find a suitable replacement, while helping his children get used to a new adventure south of the pole.

Notes

References

External links

* * * *
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
at Ultimate Disney {{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Clause 3, The: The Escape Clause 2006 films 2000s children's comedy films 2000s fantasy comedy films American children's comedy films American Christmas films American fantasy comedy films American sequel films Films about wish fulfillment Films directed by Michael Lembeck 2000s pregnancy films Santa Claus in film Walt Disney Pictures films 2000s Christmas comedy films American Christmas comedy films Jack Frost Films about time travel 2006 comedy films Easter Bunny in film Sandman in film Films shot in California American pregnancy films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films Films scored by George S. Clinton The Santa Clause (franchise)

Plot

Cast

Production

Reception

Critical response

Awards and nominations

Box office

DVD and Blu-ray Disc release

Video game

Sequel limited series

See also

Notes

References

External links