The Santa Clause 2

There should be an entirely different set of criteria used to judge children’s films. One fart joke you can ignore. Two fart jokes is becoming slightly odious. And three or more is just pandering to the pre-pubescent crowd that probably has their fingers up their collective noses. The Santa Clause 2 takes the high road for most family fare, mixing some grown-up punchlines with all the expected childish hijinks. And only one reindeer passing gas.

Tim Allen reprises his role as Santa from the previous film, now faced with finding a wife before Christmas Eve or losing all his magical powers. The elves make a duplicate Santa to run things at the North Pole while the real big guy enters the singles scene. But things get ugly when the replacement turns into a plastic Mussolini, putting every kid in the world on the naughty list. Meanwhile, Santa falls for his teenage son’s Scrooge-like principal and gets stuck in the middle of a family crisis. That’s a whole lot of trouble stuffed into The Santa Clause 2’s stocking.

For a holiday feel-good film, there is an unusual amount of dark humor—particularly the toy-soldier enforcers the replacement Santa employs to keep the elves in line. Most of it will go comfortably over children’s heads as they are entertained by Chet, the clumsy reindeer in training, and the snow-globe brilliance of Santa’s workshop village.

Not as kiddie as it could—or probably should—be, The Santa Clause 2 is unexpectedly clever and enjoyable despite being as predictable as your twentieth viewing of Rudolph. Give credit to Tim Allen, who brings all the charm and familiarity to St. Nick that he did to his doofus Tool Man on TV.