The Santa Clause 2

Scott Calvin has spent eight years in the role of Santa Claus, comfortable enough in the job to have settled into its rhythms. Two problems disrupt that routine in this sequel. His son Charlie has landed on the naughty list after an incident at school, putting him at risk of expulsion, and Scott discovers a clause in his contract that requires him to be married before Christmas Eve or give up the position. Meanwhile, he leaves the North Pole in the hands of a stand-in Santa who applies the rules so strictly that the operation of Christmas is thrown into disarray.

Tim Allen returns as Scott Calvin and also plays the replacement Santa, with Eric Lloyd as Charlie, Judge Reinhold and Wendy Crewson as Neil and Laura Miller, David Krumholtz as Bernard, and Elizabeth Mitchell as Carol Newman. Michael Lembeck directed from a screenplay by Ed Decter, John J. Strauss and Ken Daurio; Jeffrey Silver, Robert F. Newmyer and Brian Reilly produced for Walt Disney Pictures with Boxing Cat Films and Outlaw Productions. The film runs 104 minutes and was made for a budget of 65 million dollars, taking 173 million dollars worldwide.

It was the first film Lembeck directed, ahead of The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, The Clique, Tooth Fairy, Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, Queen Bees and Snow Day. Its ratings are moderate and consistent across audiences: 5.8 out of 10 on IMDb from 70,000 votes and 6 out of 10 on TMDB from 1,473 votes. A critics' score of 5.6 out of 10 from 120 reviews sits close to those audience figures.