Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, The (2006)

The first Santa Clause is a legit holiday classic. Despite the fact that the plot turns on the death of Santa, the story of how average guy Scott Calvin went from self centered businessman to father Christmas was clever and fun. The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause is not quite as clever as the original but had enough energy and big laughs to make up for it.

Now, sadly, with The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, this once clever franchise has, like a long running TV series, jumped the shark. Lacking the energy, fun and smarts of the first two films, The Escape Clause is a cheerless, predictable, mess.

In The Santa Clause 3 Santa AKA Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) is awaiting the birth of a child, his first with Mrs. Clause (Elizabeth Mitchell). Unfortunately he also has to deal with a potential coup attempt as fellow council of legendary figures member Jack Frost has designs on his own holiday and sets his sights on Christmas.

With his new baby and Jack Frost on his mind, Santa also has his disapproving relatives over to Santa's village. Mrs. Clause's mom (Ann Margeret) and dad (Alan Arkin), who believe they are in Canada, rather than the North Pole, only add to the stress of the days leading up to Santa's big day.

The plot of The Santa Clause 3 turns on Jack Frost tricking Santa into invoking the escape clause, a wish that sends Scott and Jack back in time to the moment Scott became Santa. When Jack steals the late Santa's coat, he becomes Santa Claus and Scott awakens to a realyity where he is not married and has not seen his son in years.

Scott has to find a way to trick Jack into wishing for the Escape clause or he will lose his whole family and Christmas will lost forever as well. If you can't figure out how this one plays out, clearly, you are in a coma.

I don't want to fault The Santa Clause 3 for being predictable. The film being a movie about Santa pretty much announces a happy ending. My issue is with the way the film goes about being so predictable. The Santa Clause 3 is insultingly predictable with scenes that set up other scenes that are so heavy handed you could walk out after 10 minutes having predicted what would happen in the rest of the movie right down to the saccharine, unfunny dialogue.

The one bright spot in all of The Santa Clause 3 is young actress Liiliana Mumy. As Lucy, the daughter of Scott's ex-wife Laura (Wendy Crewson) and her new husband (Judge Reinhold), Mumy steals scenes with her sense of wonder and excitement. While everyone else in the movie seems tired and bored of this concept,  Mumy's Lucy is a sparkplug of excitement and the only member of the cast who seems to care that she is in the midst of Santa's village, a pretty magical idea no matter how many times we've visited before.

As for Martin Short as Jack Frost, it's your typical preening, screen chewing performance with just a touch of over the top nastiness. When talking about a film series that spins off the death of Santa Claus; you have to expect a little bit dark humor. The Santa Clause 3 however is not necessarily dark, it's more mean and stupid than dark. Short's performance is all gesticulation and mustache twirling. It's a one note villain performance that even manages to make time for a tremendously eye rolling musical number.

Final

Even star Tim Allen seems tired of this concept which is surprising considering the energy with which he relaunched the series 4 years ago after an 8 year lay off from the first film. Maybe it was just the dearth of ideas for a plot for this picture. Not much thought went into this insipid story; so it makes sense that the actors would not put much energy into bringing it to life.

The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause is a dull, mean-spirited, insultingly predictable family feature that, while it's inoffensive enough for small children, it's not likely to entertain them.