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'''''The Santa Clause''''' is a 1994 American film directed by [[John Pasquin]], distributed by [[Walt Disney Pictures]] and [[Hollywood Pictures]] and starring [[Tim Allen]]. In the film, Allen plays Scott Calvin, an ordinary man, who accidentally kills Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. When he and his young son finish Santa's trip and deliveries, they go to the North Pole, where Scott learns he must become the new Santa and convince those he loves that he is indeed, Father Christmas. It is the only film in the ''Santa Clause'' trilogy to be rated PG. This is [[Hollywood Pictures]]'s first film for kids more than adults.
'''''The Santa Clause''''' is a 1994 American film directed by [[John Pasquin]], distributed by [[Walt Disney Pictures]] and [[Hollywood Pictures]] and starring [[Tim Allen]]. In the film, Allen plays Scott Calvin, an ordinary man, who accidentally kills Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. When he and his young son finish Santa's trip and deliveries, they go to the North Pole, where Scott learns he must become the new Santa and convince those he loves that he is indeed, Father Christmas. It is the only film in the ''Santa Clause'' trilogy to be rated PG.


== Plot ==
== Plot ==
But before we get to the stupid plot:

After much research, we present the annual aeronautical engineers report on the theory of Santa:
No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer, which only Santa has ever seen.
There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish & Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total -378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes that there's at least one good child in each.
Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with. This is due to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits/second. That is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has .001 second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house.
Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles/household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles; not counting stops to do what most of us do at lease once every 31 hours, plus eating etc. So Santa's sleigh must be moving at 650 miles/second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a pokey 27.4 miles/second. A conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles/hour.
If every one of the 91.8 million homes with good children were to put out a single chocolate chip cookie and an 8 ounce glass of 2% milk, the total calories (needless to say other vitamins and minerals) would be approximately 225 calories (100 for the cookie, give or take, and 125 for the milk, give or take). Multiplying the number of calories per house by the number of homes (225 x 91.8 x 1000000), we get the total number of calories Santa consumes that night, which is 20,655,000,000 calories. To break it down further, 1 pound is equal to 3500 calories. Dividing our total number of calories by the number of calories in a pound (20655000000 / 3500) and we get the number of pounds Santa gains, 5901428.6, which is 2950.7 tons.
The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (2 lb.), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300lb. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see #1) can pull 10 TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with 8, or even 9, reindeer. We need 214,200. This increases the payload - not counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. This is four times the weight of the ocean-liner Queen Elizabeth.
353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles/second creates enormous air resistance. This will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as a spacecraft reentering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within .00426 of a second. Meanwhile, Santa, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250 lb. Santa, being very conservative in terms of guessing Santa's weight, would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 lb. of force. If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.
Nevertheless, here's your plot:
Scott Calvin ([[Tim Allen]]) is a divorced father and ad executive with a young son, Charlie. On [[Christmas Eve]], Charlie comes over to spend the night with Scott before going back to his mother's for Christmas Day. That night, they are awakened by a clatter on the roof. Going outside to investigate, Scott can see someone on the roof. He yells at the trespasser, which causes the man to lose his balance and fall to his death. The trespasser appears to be [[Santa Claus]].
Scott Calvin ([[Tim Allen]]) is a divorced father and ad executive with a young son, Charlie. On [[Christmas Eve]], Charlie comes over to spend the night with Scott before going back to his mother's for Christmas Day. That night, they are awakened by a clatter on the roof. Going outside to investigate, Scott can see someone on the roof. He yells at the trespasser, which causes the man to lose his balance and fall to his death. The trespasser appears to be [[Santa Claus]].


Revision as of 18:35, 29 March 2010

For the cultural figure, see Santa Claus.
The Santa Clause
Theatrical Release Poster
Directed byJohn Pasquin
Written byLeo Benvenuti
Steve Rudnick
Produced byRobert F. Newmyer
Brian Reilly
Jeffrey Silver
StarringTim Allen
Eric Llyod
Wendy Crewson
Judge Reinhold
David Krumholtz
Peter Boyle
CinematographyWalt Lloyd
Edited byLarry Bock
Music byMichael Convertino
Distributed byWalt Disney Pictures
Hollywood Pictures
Release date
November 11, 1994
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$22 million

The Santa Clause is a 1994 American film directed by John Pasquin, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and Hollywood Pictures and starring Tim Allen. In the film, Allen plays Scott Calvin, an ordinary man, who accidentally kills Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. When he and his young son finish Santa's trip and deliveries, they go to the North Pole, where Scott learns he must become the new Santa and convince those he loves that he is indeed, Father Christmas. It is the only film in the Santa Clause trilogy to be rated PG.

Plot

But before we get to the stupid plot:

After much research, we present the annual aeronautical engineers report on the theory of Santa: No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer, which only Santa has ever seen. There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish & Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total -378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes that there's at least one good child in each. Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with. This is due to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits/second. That is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has .001 second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles/household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles; not counting stops to do what most of us do at lease once every 31 hours, plus eating etc. So Santa's sleigh must be moving at 650 miles/second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a pokey 27.4 miles/second. A conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles/hour. If every one of the 91.8 million homes with good children were to put out a single chocolate chip cookie and an 8 ounce glass of 2% milk, the total calories (needless to say other vitamins and minerals) would be approximately 225 calories (100 for the cookie, give or take, and 125 for the milk, give or take). Multiplying the number of calories per house by the number of homes (225 x 91.8 x 1000000), we get the total number of calories Santa consumes that night, which is 20,655,000,000 calories. To break it down further, 1 pound is equal to 3500 calories. Dividing our total number of calories by the number of calories in a pound (20655000000 / 3500) and we get the number of pounds Santa gains, 5901428.6, which is 2950.7 tons. The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (2 lb.), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300lb. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see #1) can pull 10 TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with 8, or even 9, reindeer. We need 214,200. This increases the payload - not counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. This is four times the weight of the ocean-liner Queen Elizabeth. 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles/second creates enormous air resistance. This will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as a spacecraft reentering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within .00426 of a second. Meanwhile, Santa, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250 lb. Santa, being very conservative in terms of guessing Santa's weight, would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 lb. of force. If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now. Nevertheless, here's your plot: Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) is a divorced father and ad executive with a young son, Charlie. On Christmas Eve, Charlie comes over to spend the night with Scott before going back to his mother's for Christmas Day. That night, they are awakened by a clatter on the roof. Going outside to investigate, Scott can see someone on the roof. He yells at the trespasser, which causes the man to lose his balance and fall to his death. The trespasser appears to be Santa Claus.

He magically disappears, but his suit remains. They find a letter in a pocket stating that if something should happen to him, someone should put on the suit, and the reindeer will know what to do. They find a sleigh and eight reindeer perched atop the house. Scott puts on the Santa suit to please Charlie, and begins delivering toys from rooftop to rooftop.

Their final stop is the North Pole. The head Elf, Bernard (David Krumholtz), shows him a tiny inscription on the card which says that, upon the death of the previous occupant, whoever wears the suit assumes the identity of Santa Claus and all the responsibilities that go with it. This is the "Santa Clause," as stated by Bernard: "You put on the suit, you're the big guy." He also gives Charlie a snow globe.[1] Then, he meets an elf named Judy who tells Scott that he only has eleven months, until the next Thanksgiving to get his affairs in order before becoming Santa Claus full time, which he tries to refuse. Charlie and he spend the night at the factory. The next morning they awake back in Scott's home, where the only indication of their previous night's adventure is Scott's new silk pajamas with "SC" (Santa Claus or Scott Calvin) monogrammed on them. Scott dismisses it all as a dream.

Soon, however, Scott starts gaining weight and his boss Mr. Whittle (Peter Boyle) likens him to the Pillsbury Doughboy. He develops a ravenous taste for Christmas treats, like Christmas cookies and hot cocoa. He grows a long gray beard, and shaving it off has no effect; it regrows instantly. His hair whitens, despite all attempts to dye it. He somehow knows who has been "naughty" and "nice". Children (who somehow know he's Santa despite Scott not dressing like Santa) approach him with gift requests. Scott's rapid transformation worries his ex-wife Laura (Wendy Crewson) and her new husband, psychiatrist Dr. Neil Miller (Judge Reinhold), who try to terminate his visitation rights to Charlie. They question Scott's mental stability, and believe that Scott's changes are attempts at getting his son to like him.

Eventually, Scott's visitation rights to Charlie are taken away. Disheartened, Scott begins to lose some of his certainty about his job as Santa. While visiting Charlie on Thanksgiving, Charlie's insistence that Scott is Santa re-awakens Scott's magic and he, with Bernard's help, whisks Charlie away to the North Pole. Laura and Neil, who think Scott has kidnapped Charlie against his will, call the police, who make a massive investigation.

Meanwhile, at the North Pole, Charlie helps Scott and the elves perfect a new sled and communication devices. He calls occasionally, but this only reinforces Laura and Neil's belief that he is being held against his will. Eventually, Scott, as Santa Claus, goes on with his Christmas Eve trip, but is arrested while delivering presents to his son's home, and is accused of kidnapping Charlie. A team of rescue-elves, the ELFS, free Scott from jail by tying up the front desk guard, and fly Scott and Charlie home to his mother and stepfather, to whom Scott/Santa gives the presents they always wanted since childhood but never got: Laura gets a vintage Mystery Date game and Neil gets an Oscar Mayer "Wienie Whistle". (It was because of them not getting these presents that they became convinced Santa didn't exist.)

Laura, realizing finally that Scott really is the new Santa, tosses the custody papers into the fireplace and welcomes Scott to come see Charlie any time he wants. Bernard tells Charlie that the snow globe is magic. Anytime he wants his father to visit, all he has to do is shake it. After ten minutes, he shakes it and Scott comes back, says he was off to Cleveland, and takes Charlie with him.

Cast

Production

Reception

Commercial

The Santa Clause grossed over USD $144 million in the United States alone and over $189 million worldwide.[2]

Critical reception

The film was generally well received by critics, and maintains a "fresh" rating of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, with 31 positive reviews from 39 counted and an average rating of 6.1/10.[3] The consensus from the site is "The Santa Clause is utterly undemanding, but it's firmly rooted in the sort of good old-fashioned holiday spirit missing from too many modern yuletide films."[3]

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was released on November 11, 1994 in the United States.

  1. Come Together
  2. Immgrint Song
  3. All I Want for Christmas is You
  4. Let's Go
  5. Believing Is Seeing
  6. Sash Completes the Ensemble
  7. Flight
  8. Weightless
  9. Away to the Window
  10. Bells of Christmas
  11. Listen
  12. Goodnight, Goodnight... Don't Forget the Fire Extinguisher
  13. Visitation - The Drifters
  14. Rose Suchak Ladder
  15. Give Me All Your Loving - ZZ Top
  16. List - Loreena McKennitt
  17. Elves with Attitude
  18. Someone in Wrapping
  19. Near Capture
  20. Comfort and Joy
  21. Not Over Any Oceans
  22. Christmas Will Return

DVD and VHS

This film has been released on VHS in 1995 and standard DVD in 2002. The Santa Clause along with 2, and 3 were released in a 3-Movie DVD collection.

Sequels

The popularity of the film spawned two related sequels, The Santa Clause 2 in 2002 and Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause in 2006. Much of the character cast remains the same for each film, but with some additions.

In The Santa Clause 2, Tim Allen as Santa has been declared to be the best Claus ever, but with his son on the naughty list and the work becoming more hectic, Santa learns he must find a suitable wife or give up his duties as Santa Claus.

In The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, the North Pole and its holiday operation is threatened by the villainous Jack Frost (Martin Short), who plans to take over Christmas.[4]

References

  1. ^ Quotes from The Santa Claus from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
  2. ^ "Box office / Business". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
  3. ^ a b "The Santa Clause". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2009-10-18. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ The Santa Clause on LoveToKnow: Christmas

External links

Template:The Santa Clause

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