Movie Review: The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006) seen on DVD and Disney plus

Comedy; some scenes may be unsuitable for young children, mature themes, minor scenes of violence, scenes which depict pregnancy, sci fi elements, scenes which imply child abandonment and neglect

The third and final installment of the Santa Clause trilogy sees Mrs. Claus tell a story to her class of elves which recounts how her and Santa Claus gave birth to their first baby named Buddy Claus with the help of her parents who are oblivious to the fact that her husband is Santa. He must come up with a plan to conceal his true identity to keep his in laws from finding out the truth. Meanwhile, Jack Frost has hatched a plan to steal the title of Santa Claus from him with the help of a magical snow globe.

I don’t really have much to say about this one. However, at it pertains to the whole trilogy, Santa Claus number 2 and 3 were the best as it featured more characters and a better storyline than the first one. The first one lacked a Christmas feel in my mind and it was more about him not wanting the title of Santa Claus. At least the sequels have him embracing his new identity. I have to be honest in saying that I may never watch the first one again. Also, it will not be reviewed as I would have nothing good to say about it. I think the third one pretty much guarantees that he was meant be Santa and if he wasn’t, he never would have met Charlie’s principal and the whole family would shut him out and want nothing to do with him. This is shown in a scene where Jack Frost tricks him into giving up his role as Santa. As he goes back in time to have never donned the red coat and black boots, he realizes that everybody looks down on him. He is able to regain the title of Santa Claus where his true identity is revealed to his in laws who accept him.

As I believe the third installment is the end of the franchise, I have to say I would have done things much differently. If there was going to be a Santa Clause 4, it should end with Tim Allen waking up in his own house as Scott Calvin having dreamed the entire thing. However, they probably could have ended the third one with this theory. He never would have been Santa but it would have been a great dream. This might have made him appreciate Christmas more when he woke up. One theory as to why I think they didn’t go this route was because it would have been too predictable and I believe the ending of the movie would see Scott struggle to tell his wife and Charlie about the dream he had only for them not to believe him. Anyway, it really doesn’t matter to me if this was the ending or not. This is just what I would have liked to have seen. If this indeed was the end of the trilogy, I think what we got was good enough at least as far as the rating goes. The second and third were great, the first was not so great but one thing is certain…..it was a really good franchise overall.

Movie rating: 10 out of 10

Next movie review: TBD