Tim Allen finally admits that The Santa Clause 3 was the product of hubris

Stars Tim Allen and Martin Short flew too close to the sun on wings made of ice

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  November 9, 2022 | 8:58pm
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Tim Allen finally admits that The Santa Clause 3 was the product of hubris
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Tim Allen and Santa Claus Photo: Micahel Tran (AFP via Getty Images)

Starting a trilogy is easy; completing one is tricky. There’s no shortage of lackluster third parts out there. Heck, Return Of The Jedi is still the divisive entry in the only Star Wars trilogy people seem to agree on. But few part threes are as heartbreaking as The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. Around the world, Santa fans, presumably known as Fantas at New York City’s beloved, vomit-soaked SantaCon pub, suffered through two movies to finally see Santa square off against his canonical enemy Jack Frost. And even the casting of Martin Short as Frost, a fan-favorite in the Santa mythos that we all know and respect, couldn’t save the third movie in this contract-focused fantasy from itself.

The cause: Plain, old-fashioned hubris. The team at the North Pole, including star Tim Allen, was too high on their own supply of gingerbread and eggnog to recognize this movie in which Santa fights Jack Frost for control of the holiday season was on the naughty list. Hindsight is 20/20, and Tim Allen, who is donning the red suit and beard for The Santa Clauses Disney+ miniseries, is ready to face the fact that Santa Clause 3 wasn’t very good. In a talk with The Hollywood Reporter, he concedes, “We became infected by our own success.”

“By number three, all we had was money,” Allen said. “The story kind of just got bigger and bigger. And the fact that Marty Short and I never did a scene together that was funny, I’m still going huh. That’s the funniest human being I’ve ever been around, other than me, and we never got a shot to do a real big scene together.”

So despite Martin Short being the funniest person Allen has ever been around other than himself, Allen decided they would have to retcon Frost’s nightmare-inducing make up for this new one-night trip around the world.

I said, “Somehow we gotta explain that one away and bring it back down to magic. Let’s go back to the beginning,” and Jack and his team — brilliantly, to me — added a couple scenes that really push for you people to see what’s going on about Christmas. It’s a very simple, wonderful scene with all the other Santa Clauses.

Let’s hope everyone’s ego was in check for this six-part miniseries event about how Santa Claus would like to retire but can’t.

The first two episodes of The Santa Clauses hit Disney+ on November 16.

 
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