SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

I’ve seen ‘The Santa Clauses’ on Disney+! 🙂 Since I shared my reviews on ‘The Santa Clause’ film trilogy this year, it’s only fair that I share my thoughts on the six-part Disney+ series that follows up on the move trilogy, starring Tim Allen as Scott Calvin/Santa Claus. I’ve greatly enjoyed the series.

I didn’t think there would be a follow-up to ‘The Santa Clause’ film trilogy, since the third film ‘The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause’ was released in 2006. Thankfully, due to Disney+ having ‘MCU’ and ‘Star Wars’ shows being presented on their platform, a ‘Santa Clauses’ web-series became possible.

In the series, Scott Calvin is in his sixties, and he goes through a phase where he thinks he can’t be Santa forever. As well as losing a step in his Santa duties, he comes to think he’s neglecting his family and decides they could benefit from having lives in the real world, including his son and daughter. 😐

With his family, the elves and the children of the world to please, Scott sets about to find a suitable replacement to take on the role of Santa. But whilst he and his family are about to have a new adventure in a life south from the North Pole, the new Santa might not live to everyone’s expectations.

The six episodes of the series are pretty good and enjoyable to watch. They’re about 30 to 35 minutes each, which is a reasonable length for a Christmas comedy multi-part series as this. I wish more time had been spent on Scott and his family spending their lives south from the North Pole.

It’s like this series needed to be longer than six episodes in order to accommodate Scott and his family trying out their new life away from the North Pole. Perhaps eight or ten episodes would have sufficed. Still, the series is still pretty gripping to watch. I enjoyed Tim Allen as Scott Calvin again. 🙂

Seeing and hearing Tim Allen again reminded me that he’s still the best Buzz Lightyear from ‘Toy Story’ compared to what ‘Lightyear’ tried to do. 😀 It was also nice to see Elizabeth Mitchell again, who plays Carol Calvin/Mrs. Claus. It was intriguing to see how their marriage progressed at this stage.

The series also features Austin Kane as Buddy ‘Cal’ Calvin-Claus, Scott and Carol’s son, who debuted as a baby at the end of ‘The Santa Clause 3’. There’s also Elizabeth Allen-Dick, Tim’s Allen’s real-life daughter, who plays Sandra Calvin-Claus, Scott and Carol’s daughter and Buddy’s sister in the series.

Matilda Lawler (who was in ‘Flora & Ulysses’) also appears as Betty, who is an elf and the chief of staff at the North Pole, and there’s Devin Bright as Noel, Santa’s right-hand elf and Betty’s husband. There’s also Kal Penn as Simon Choksi, who becomes the new Santa Claus. He’s joined by Rupali Redd as his daughter Grace.

Eric Lloyd makes a guest appearance as Charlie, Scott’s son from his previous marriage. I’m saddened Eric Lloyd as Charlie only appeared in one episode of this series. Neither did Wendy Crewson, Judge Reinhold and Liliana Mumy return to play Laura, Neil and Lucy in ‘The Santa Clauses’.

Maybe they might return for Season 2 of ‘The Santa Clauses’, which has already been greenlit. David Krumholtz makes a return as Bernard, from the first two ‘Santa Clause’ movies. It was nice to see Bernard again and it was very interesting when he and Scott visited the ‘Yule-verse’ of Santa Clauses.

Yeah, ‘Doctor Who’, Spider-Man and the ‘MCU’ are exploring multiverses. Why not Santa Clauses? 😀 I also noticed Spencer Breslin didn’t return to play Curtis the Elf in ‘The Santa Clauses’. Maybe he’ll return for Season 2 someday. I’m pleased the giant-sized toy soldiers from ‘The Santa Clause 2’ returned. 🙂

A shame they didn’t last long, as Carol Calvin knocked them out with karate. Those giant-sized toy soldiers are like the Cybermen in ‘The Santa Clause’ universe. 😀 Incidentally, Sara, who was in the first ‘Santa Clause’ movie, appears in the series, although her actress in this series isn’t like the one from the movie. 😦

And no, I don’t mean that she’s older in terms of age. Melissa King, who played Sara in ‘The Santa Clause’ was sweeter in that movie compared to Casey Wilson in ‘The Santa Clauses’. Despite that, ‘The Santa Clauses’ was great to watch, and I’m pleased I saw it over the Christmas period in 2022. 🙂

I’m glad ‘The Santa Clauses’ has been renewed for a second season. It’ll be nice to come back to this series and enjoy some more Christmas fun with Tim Allen playing Scott Calvin/Santa Claus. It’s good ‘The Santa Clause’ universe has been able to continue on Disney+ compared to being a movie trilogy.

Thanks for reading!

I’m hoping to check out ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special’ soon. Stay tuned!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂