The Santa Clause (1994)
Retro Review #32: As "Ho, ho, ho!"s go, it's better than so-so, but more "Oh." than "Whoa!", don't you know.
The Santa Clause (1994) — As “Ho, ho, ho!”s go, it’s better than so-so, but more “Oh.” than “Whoa!”, don’t you know.
+ Feature film, 1h 37m
B+v
Family Suitability
+ ✅3️⃣ OK for older kids. (Grades 4+) | PGa
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ⚠️0️⃣ Tolerable (Not in alignment with Judeo-Christian values, but focuses more on entertaining, not on advocating its viewpoint or pushing an agenda.)
+ 1️⃣/6 works in Santa Clause universe ⭐
+ 1️⃣/3 films in Santa Clause series ⭐
The Santa Clause (1994)
Grade: B+v (5.0) / HOF: 0
EQ 👍B+ | 📖B+ 👥B 📽️A 🎼A
DW 😎8.8 | 🌚8 🌝11
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R ☮️n/a ◀️n/a ▶️n/a 🛐n/a
I find it a little odd that The Santa Clause made nine of the ten all-time best Christmas movie lists I checked. Not that isn’t a pretty good movie, because it is entertaining. More because it just isn’t nearly as good as most of the other films I’ve reviewed that made nine of the ten.
In a fantasy world just like ours, except that Santa is actually real, Tim Allen stars as divorced dad, Scott Calvin, who wants his somewhat estranged young son to keep believing in Santa. Calvin himself doesn’t actually believe in Santa until an accidental twist forces him to take over the role. Predictable hijinks ensue, but Allen is a funny comedian and the jokes and amusing situations are plentiful.
The divorce is handled better than usual in modern media, showing that it harms the child, even though that message is watered down a lot by a predictable make-nice ending. Still, a father reconciling with his son is always good to see, as it is whenever a film showcases improving family relationships.
It’s mildly unsettling that a holiday representing the birth of Christianity ignores that completely and instead sort of makes it the birth of a weird Christmas religion that no one in our reality actually believes. The Santa legends are fun make-believe fiction, and it’s fun to experience fiction about them. But stories where everyone thinks the legends are fiction and everyone is wrong? Until some adults convert to that religion? I didn’t take it as being intentionally anti-Christian or lower my grade due to that premise. I think it is intended to be fun, but for me it falls flat, and is not nearly as fun as simply exploring the Santa legends, as is done well in “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”.
Also unsettling to me in Santa Clause are the elves. I guess they are supposed to be cute, but I found them to be vaguely creepy. And also to be more evidence that children are usually poor at acting. The lead child actor playing Charlie Calvin is not very good either. I don’t blame him. Some of the lines written for him aren’t remotely believable as something a kid would say. I’m not a parent myself, but as the oldest of thirteen siblings, I do have years of expertise in listening to children talk.
The specific effects and the brightly-colored costumes and sets in the film make the movie look fantastic and the soundtrack includes above average recordings of several Christmas song favorites. So the movie looks and sounds great, despite being a wee bit thin on story and characters. And since the content issues are minimal, the film is appropriate for older children at least, making The Santa Clause a solid choice for most families. If you don’t get your hopes too high, you won’t be disappointed, and might even be pleasantly surprised.
Onwards!
+ last viewed (2) 2025-12-23, HDX7, 1.85v, 2M
+ first viewed 2024-12-19, HDX7, 1.85v, 2M
+ 👨👩👧👦🎈⛄🎄🎅🍌🦄🧙😏😥🥸🐾🐾🦌🦌
Family Suitability Detail
+ ✅3️⃣ OK for older kids. (Grades 4+) | PGa
+ 😡+3 😵💫+2^ 🤬+3 🫢+3 🫣+3
Judeo-Christian Values Detail
+ ⚠️0️⃣ Tolerable (Not in alignment with Judeo-Christian values, but focuses more on entertaining, not on advocating its viewpoint or pushing an agenda.)
+ ✝️ +0 ➕❤️❤️💒🩸 ➖😍😍💧
+ ✡️ -0 ➕🤍🤍 ➖😍😍🌓
+ 🗽 -1 ➕🗽 ➖😍😍(☠️)
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Originally posted to text group 2024-12-21
Re-reviewed and updated 2025-12-23
Note from Rick Retro: This review was originally posted December 21, 2024 to a select group of friends and family via a text group. We have roughly five times as many subscribers in our community now, so I am working on formatting and uploading all those old reviews to Substack for all of you and future subscribers as well.
At that time, I had not completely developed my full review format, so I am also re-reviewing most of these works to match the format of my newer reviews. Since these posts were almost entirely holiday themed from a 2024 Christmas Tour, I am now uploading these reviews as part of a 2025 Christmas Tour, all intended to get my archives completed while giving new subscribers a chance to experience older reviews on a measured basis.
But if you’d rather just start from the original beginning, visit this post and follow the “Next (all sections) ➡️” links at the end of each post, until you arrive at this one, where that link will be dead, until I upload the next post from our text group archives 😉. When the next post is not yet available, there will be a link to the post that is “Next Available, skipping over text group posts not yet uploaded ➡️”
The first post to Substack after the current “Text Group Gaps” of posts I have not yet uploaded can be found here. From this post, following the “Next (all sections) ➡️” links will bring you all the way to the most current post.
This note will disappear when the next text group post is added, and this review takes its rightful spot in our archives. For now, I hope you enjoy this look into Christmas past!