The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
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 Snow time for a sequel! - TV Tropes
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The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause is a 2006 American Christmas fantasy comedy adventure film directed by Michael Lembeck. It is the third and final film in the Santa Clause film series following The Santa Claus 2.
Plot
The wicked Jack Frost hatches a plan to sabotage the toy factory. According to Jack's agenda, Mr Claus wishes he never became Santa Claus and, thus, invokes the obscure Escape Clause.
Why It Should be Put on the Naughty List
- One of the main criticisms and overall problems with the film is it's comedy. While the first film managed to be funny in a clever and sharp kind-of way, this film relies on unfunny and bland slapstick and jokes. Similar to Son of the Mask, this is the most evident example of the film that it's clearly aiming itself at a younger audience that the first two movies, as the humor is much more straight-up juvenile than something that can be enjoyed and get a good laugh out of both kids and adults. Some (but certainly not all) examples of this include:
- There's a scene near the beginning where Carol is telling the elves that she was teaching about the story that's basically the majority of the film. And it starts off with a scene of her seemingly about to give birth, only for it to turn out that it was a false alarm. The scene itself is so wacky and goofy that it was clearly meant of be funny, but it instead comes off as stupid and ridiculously forced in terms of comedy.
- It's also worth noting that the exact same footage of that scene is repeated at the end of the film. As if the film was expecting that the audience wouldn't notice that the scene was reshown.
- When Scott visits his ex-wife and son, there's a scene outside the house with the reindeer when they fart a total of 3 times and Scott says "Go easy on the Alfalfa!". And when he reaches into his bag when he goes back into the house, a bunch of random cartoony sound effects start playing.
- When Santa visits Laura's parents and brings the Sandman along with him, Bud is at one point seen rubbing a piece of wood and calling is "smooth as a baby's butt". When the Sandman and Scott feel it, they too call it "very butt-like".
- There's a scene near the beginning where Carol is telling the elves that she was teaching about the story that's basically the majority of the film. And it starts off with a scene of her seemingly about to give birth, only for it to turn out that it was a false alarm. The scene itself is so wacky and goofy that it was clearly meant of be funny, but it instead comes off as stupid and ridiculously forced in terms of comedy.
- The story itself isn't good either. As it's just another generic "It's a Wonderful Life" parody that doesn't do anything new with the formula. Movies like Shrek Forever After managed to use this storyline well because they added something new to the table (Shrek Forever After has the story because Shrek was overwhelmed by his new duties as a father, husband, and best friend and wanted things to go back to the way they were without realizing how important everyone around him is to him, and he rediscovers that near the end), but here, there's nothing new done with the formula. The story isn't part of any sort of character arc with Scott, it was simply something Jack Frost tricked him into doing. And while the plot of a timeline where Scott never became Santa could have some potential to be interesting and build more character for him, the whole sequence itself focusing n that takes up a shockingly short amount of screen time. And details of some things that occurred in the alternate timeline as a result of Jack Frost becoming the new Santa Clause like Neal and Laura's break-up completely are glossed over. Heck, Carol doesn't even appear at all during that scene!
- The acting mostly comes off as cringeworthy. Because it tries so hard to be funny and entertain the audience (particularly the younger demographic of the film) that it ends up coming off as painful instead, in a similar manner to Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. And that's just the acting from the adult actors, because when it comes to the kids, they often look straight-up miserable. Giving dull performances that give off the impression that they really aren't invested in nor actually want to star in the film. This is even exemplified by the first shots of the entire film, where they're wandering around the North Pole with such board expressions and blow-average acting that it's almost blatantly obvious that they didn't have any investment with the film.
- Terrible direction which causes the scenes to feel more off and awkward than they already are (and given how much of both many of them already manage to be, that's needless to say, really saying a lot).
- Some scenes drag on for way longer than they should. For example, after the aforementioned delivery fake-out with Carol, Curtis the Elf walks in and asks Scott and Carol to "help him help them". And he repeats said line repeatedly to the point where it loses any sort of remote comedy that was possible to get from it. And there are a lot of long, uncomfortable, silent pauses in the film where nobody talks and nothing happens.
- While most of the costumes used look pretty decent, some of them can look pretty uncanny. Particularly for the Easter Bunny, who looks like a cross between post-transformation Wallace from Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Mr. Horatio Nibbles.
- There are also many major problems with the characters here. As many of the returning ones have been flanderized (making them effectively less likable or entertaining as they're original counterparts), while nearly all of the new ones introduced are either bland or unlikable.
- Scott is made into a complete idiot. As he decided to hire Jack Frost to work at the North Pole and agreed to give him a second chance even after all of the things he did (including freezing entire countries) and is all of the sudden willing to throw away his entire career, which he's been previously shown to treasure deeply, all because Jack Frost had convinced him to with very petty and nonsensical methods in a scene that the film wants to present as an emotional moment. But it ultimately fails because he's never prior to that scene has shown any indication that even implies that he would want to retire from his role as Santa at any point either here, or the first or second films.
- Carol has become another generic girlfriend who's the voice of reason and nice to everyone around her no matter what. And the way she starts regretting her marriage with Scott just because he apparently has to work too hard on the one time of the entire year that he has to do so is nonsensical and rather unsympathetic (but since Scott is basically keeping her from seeing her parents against her will, the situation feels convoluted as to who the audience is meant to root for).
- Jack Frost, while still an entertaining villain for the most part, is still an example of one of those villains who only manages to succeed in their goals solely out of the heroes' sheer incompetence. Not to mention how part of his motivation doesn't even make sense since he claims that all of the other Legendary Figures have a holiday dedicated to them unlike him, but in reality, Mother Nature and Father Time don't have holidays dedicated to them. And his redemption at the end is one of the exact definitions of a Half-baked Redemption.
- Bernard, while he hasn't been flanderized here, doesn't appear at all in the entirety of the film's runtime with no explanation as to why. And Charlie all of the sudden has been demoted to a much smaller role here than in the previous films, again with no real reason as to why this was the case.
- Carol's parents aren't just bland characters with almost no personality other than "main characters' parents archetype", but while they're meant to be portrayed as sympathetic for the fact that they never get to see their daughter, still suffer from the issue that nothing about their plight involving never being able to see Carl is built up in a realistic or relatable way.
- The Council of Legendary Figures do admittedly have some potential to be very interesting characters given how they're made up of recognizable childhood icons (i.e., the Easter Bunny, Cupid, Mother Nature, etc.), similar to the main cast of Rise of the Guardians. But they don't have any real significant role in the story other than them making suggestions of what should be done with Jack Frost after all of the crimes he committed out of envy of him not having a holiday dedicated to him unlike the other childhood guardians.
- The special effects often look rather creepy. A major example of this being a passageway Scott walks through near the beginning of Carol telling her new students her life's story (aka, the basic story of the film itself).
- At one point, the film has a song performed by Jack Frost called "North Pole, North Pole" (an obvious parody of New York, New York). And it's absolutely unoriginal, has a horrible beat, and is an outright chore to sit through.
- Several plot points in the film make no sense.
- When Jack Frost altered the timeline so that he was the one who became the new Santa Claus instead of Scott has children fighting with one another at the mall that Scott arrived in after travelling to said new timeline. But it isn't like just because there isn't a bad person serving as Santa Clause doesn't mean that there still won't be some children fighting with one another over some things every now and then. Santa being a jolly and kind-hearted person didn't just automatically prevent that from ever being a possibility.
- The ending features a major ass pull that also doubles as a deux ex machina. As it's revealed there that he can't unfreeze others unless he unfreezes himself. When was that every established at any other point previously in the movie?
- It ultimately killed the Santa Clause franchise. Because needless to say, the negative reception of this movie completely tarnished any remote chances of more sequels being made.
Redeeming Qualities
- Jack Frost is a pretty entertaining villain and Martin Short did a surprisingly good job playing him.
- The costumes for the characters look pretty decent.
- The ending, where Carol meets her child, Buddy Claus, is rather heartwarming.
- It can ironically be enjoyed in a "so bad, it's good" way due to how awkward and ridiculous it is.
- The alternate present does take the story back into the realms of being a family movie instead of a kids film.
Reception
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause received much worse reviews than it's predecessors and is now considered to be one of the prime examples of Sequelitis. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 17% based on 66 reviews, with an average rating of 3.75/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Playing Jack Frost as an evil cross between Liza Minnelli and Liberace, Martin Short is a welcome presence, but this tired series continues drawing from its bag of bland gags and dumb slapstick." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Awards and Nominations
The film gained five Razzie Award nominations at the 27th Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Actor (Tim Allen who was also nominated for his performances in along with with Zoom: Academy For Superheroes and The Shaggy Dog), Worst Supporting Actor (Martin Short), Worst Prequel or Sequel, Worst Screen Couple (Allen and Short) and Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment.
Videos
Trivia
- David Krumholtz was originally going to reprise his role as Bernard (the former Head Elf) in a cameo appearance nearing the end of the movie where he's the one who arrests Jack Frost and joins the gang in a group hug. But in the final cut, he retired before the film's events, and said scene was replaced by Jack Frost's redemption. In reality, Krumholtz was unavailable due to his schedule with NUMB3RS.
- Casting was held at Downey High School in Downey, California. A casting choice that attracted hundreds of children from the nearby middle schools for potential background roles in the film.
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