Narrator: The Santa Clause starring funny-man Tim Allen is a beloved Christmas classic today,
but back in the early 1990s casting him as the “jolly gift-giver” was a big risk
for two reasons.
The first was that Allen’s ability to bring crowds to the movie theater was unproven since
The Santa Clause would be his first Hollywood film,
so some other big A-list actors of the time were considered first,
such as Tom Selleck and Tom Hanks.
“What’d it feel like, Dad?”
“It felt like “America’s Most Wanted”!”
Narrator: The second reason The Santa Clause was a big risk to make
was because movies featuring Santa Claus as the main character weren’t very bankable
since there hadn’t been a successful movie featuring St. Nick in over 40 years
since the release of the original Miracle on 34th Street.
The Santa Clause’s story was created by two struggling stand-up comics,
Steve Rudnick and Leo Benvenuti,
who–on the side of their comedy careers– also wrote scripts for theater.
But in 1989 they decided to write their first movie screenplay based on the question,
“What if someone killed Santa Claus?”,
and at the time the screenplay was titled
“Such a Clatter”.
[Sounds of a tree falling to its death]
Narrator: In the early phases The Santa Clause’s script contained more edgy, adult humor
than the kid-friendly version we know it for today.
[Fart noises]
[Scott sighs] “Easy Rudolph!”
[Grunting in disbelief]
Narrator: For example, Santa was originally going to get shot
[gun firing]
and wounded by a shotgun-wielding Scott Calvin,
and then fall to his death.
However, Disney eventually bought the rights to the movie,
and once that happened the script had to be revised to fit their family-friendly standards.
[Sounds of a Santa falling to his death]
Narrator: The make-up process for Tim Allen to become Jolly ol’ St. Nick
was nothing short of a nightmare.
“I’m in big trouble, mmhmm.”
Narrator: The whole process of putting on his prosthetics, make-up, his 48lb. fat suit,
and his costumes took approximately 4 hours each day,
and then it took another 2 hours to take it all off.
The movie was filmed in July, and Tim Allen had to endure so much intense summer heat
that his body to broke out into heat blisters.
Not only that, but being literally engulfed in his role as Santa
was such an emotional and physical toll on him
that he often sequestered himself in a corner of the set
to help cope with the stress.
“Does this look like a little weight to you?!”
Narrator: One of the biggest challenges of the on-set visual effects was the fake snow.
They used a lot of different mediums to make the scenes look like Christmas,
such as: potato flakes,
marble dust,
rock salt,
paper products,
and even “snow blankets”.
And you can see a glimpse of one of these blankets when Santa slips before falling off the roof.
The movie had a small budget, even for its time, at $16 million dollars,
so they had to do a lot of visual effects “the old fashioned way” without using high-tech gear.
For example, to make the North Pole come up from the ground,
it was pushed up by two people from the floor directly underneath it,
which is why it shakes a little bit as it rises
and they tried to cover it up with a quick cutaway edit.
The reindeer animatronics were powered by 25 small motors
that could move various parts of their face and bodies.
It took about 5 people to operate Comet, and 12 people to operate the entire team of reindeer.
[Reindeer shouting]
[sounds of Scott Calvin showing off his gymnastics skills]
The first cut of the film was about 2hrs,
which had to be edited down to fit the standard hour and a half run time for a family film.
To cut the movie’s length down, the decision was made to cut down, or flat-out remove,
any scene that Tim Allen wasn’t in.
So if Charlie feels like an underdeveloped character to you, now you know why
because many scenes of him struggling with his Dad’s transformation and also dealing with bullies at school
were all cut out from the story.
What didn’t get cut though was the fake teeth little Eric Lloyd wore during all of his scenes.
Just days before shooting began on The Santa Clause, he was climbing on a boulder and slipped,
knocking out a few of his front teeth.
But his mom was able to have some fake teeth made in time for filming
because luckily she had a mold of his teeth made by an orthodontist before the whole incident happened.
Deals for a sequel are usually made soon after the release of the first film
if it ends up being a big hit like The Santa Clause was.
However, if you ever wondered–like I did–why it took 8 years to make a sequel to The Santa Clause,
it’s because Tim Allen needed that much time to recover from his experience as Santa
before he could, shall I say…
[epic flamethrower sounds]
Narrator: …“warm up to the idea”…
[comedy “ringshot”]
Narrator:…of doing it all over again.
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