The Santa Clause 4: The Substitute Clause

Note: If you’ve arrived here looking for information about Disney’s, The Santa Clause 4, I’m sorry to disappoint,  but  I have no such news. However, I would like to ask that you at least give your opinion of a 4th movie by voting in the poll I have created. To date, this page has been searched for and viewed over 95,000 times!  Hopefully, with enough votes, maybe someday someone from Disney Studios will see this and choose to make another movie. So, whether you like or even read my concept below for a fourth movie, please vote.

Disney’s, The Santa Clause  are some of mine and my family’s favorite movies. My daughter and I were talking recently about the second one and a thought crossed my mind that I believe would make for a good premise for at least one more movie. It’s a story that seems to have been hinted at in the previous movies. Charlie, Scott Calvin’s son, seems to have a real interest and affection for the role of Santa in the movies, so, why not give him a shot at it.

In my idea for this 4th version of the popular movies, it opens right before Thanksgiving with Santa (Scott Calvin) appearing before the Council of Legendary Figures (Mother Nature, Father Time, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Cupid and Sandman). Apparently, he’s been sued by the elves union or Jack Frost  or somebody else, it really doesn’t matter too much. The point is, he’s grounded and cannot perform his duties this year as Santa, or until the Council has had time to adequately investigate and rule on the matter.

Given that Tim Allen has (allegedly) expressed that he’s not interested in doing another one of these movies, this story line might could work without him, or at the least with his role being minor. If he refused to do the movie, it might be nice if they could bring back David Krumholtz, who played the part of Bernard, the head elf in the first two movies. The story would be that he’s now head legal counsel for Santa and speaks on his behalf. Bernard would come and find Charlie and explain to him that his dad has been barred from flying and being Santa for this year. However, there is a clause on the original card, that allows for a substitute Santa, but that person must be a relative. So, in an effort to save Christmas and quite possibly his Dad, Bernard tries to get Charlie to agree to fill the suit for this year and be Santa.

Only, there are problems with Charlie being Santa. Number one being, he’s finishing his last year of college and getting ready to graduate. He already has numerous time constraints and really can’t work it in to his schedule. However, he agrees to do it for his dad and to save Christmas. Soon after the fun begins. Much like in the first movie where physical changes began happening as Christmas approaches, Charlie will experience similar changes. The fun twist to the story occurs in the fact that Charlie is in college. Of course, being in college, none of his peers nor his professors believe in such a childish thing as Santa Claus. Especially sour on the Santa belief is his roommate who apparently had a pretty bad experience as a young kid.

Along the way, Charlie manages to re-ignite the belief in Santa and the joy of Christmas for his roommate and at least a couple of his professors. Either thru an accident or some kind of interference by Jack Frost (or someone else), Charlie winds up stuck somewhere and has to call on someone to help. As it turns out, his roommate is the only one who can help, and in the process discovers that Charlie is in fact Santa Claus. In the end, Charlie saves Christmas, as well as vindicates his Dad from the charges that were filed against him.

I’ll be the first to admit it’s not the strongest story, and the fact that it moves away from the actor/character that made it such an enjoyable movie for the first three weakens it substantially. In fact, I almost cringe at the thought of a sequel that doesn’t use the original actor. Thoughts immediately come to mind of poor sequels with a replacement actor like Daddy Day Camp where Eddie Murphy’s character was played by Cuba Gooding Jr, or Dr Doolittle 3, a film based on another Eddie Murphy movie, only it has a similar premise as what I’m proposing where the character’s child is taking on the lead role. However, in spite of these other poor movies, the Dr Doolittle series must have appealed to someone because they made 3 of them without Eddie Murphy, which means somebody bought them. So, I think if done well, another Santa Clause movie, even without Tim Allen could do reasonably well if they were to incorporate the same magic and fun of the original movies. Besides that, it’s a Christmas movie which means it is going to have a mass appeal that sometimes can drive sales for many years. If nothing else, the story could work at least for a direct to video or maybe TV special.