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SANTA
CLAUS 2
ABOUT THIS FILM
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THE
SANTA CLAUS 2
ABOUT
THIS FILM
This
page was created on November 5, 2002
This page was last updated on
May 29, 2005
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ABOUT
THIS FILM
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Production
Information
The holidays begin November 1? and Santa begins the search for the
perfect Mrs. Claus. Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) has been Santa Claus
for the past eight years, and his loyal elves consider him the best
Santa ever. But Scott's got problems. His son, Charlie, has landed
on this year's "naughty" list. And Santa himself is mysteriously de-Santafying.
To top it all off, if Scott doesn't get married by Christmas Eve,
he'll stop being Santa forever! (It's right in his contract - the
"Mrs. Clause.") Desperate both to find a wife and help his son, Scott
heads back home, leaving a substitute Claus to watch over things at
the Pole. But when the substitute institutes some strange redefinitions
of naughty and nice - putting Christmas at risk - it's up to Scott
to return with a new bag of magic to try to save Christmas.
Walt Disney Pictures presents "The Santa Clause 2," directed by Michael
Lembeck, from a screenplay by Don Rhymer and Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio
and Ed Decter & John Strauss, a story by Leo Benvenuti & Steve Rudnick,
based on characters created by Leo Benvenuti & Steve Rudnick. Executive
Producers are William W. Wilson III, Rick Messina, Richard Baker,
and James Miller. The film is produced by Brian Reilly, Bobby Newmyer,
and Jeffrey Silver. The film is distributed by Buena Vista Pictures
Distribution.
About The Production
Following the success of Disney's 1994 hit "The Santa Clause," the
producers naturally considered a sequel to the critically acclaimed
box-office hit, but there was a caveat. "The only way we were going
to do 'The Santa Clause 2' was if it was as original and charming,
as full of heart and as funny as the first movie," says producer Brian
Reilly. "The first film is so beloved by so many people - we didn't
want to take anything away from that."
"'The Santa Clause' was a great movie," says Tim Allen, "and we didn't
want to do a sequel until we thought we could match what we had done
in the original. It wasn't good enough to do a sequel just to do a
sequel - it had to be an interesting movie in its own right."
So, the producers took their time until a story worthy of the first
film took form. "We finally found the special ingredients - where
Santa has to find a way to deal with being a dad in a time of crisis
for his son, and balance that with keeping the North Pole running,
for all the children of the world - that make this film stand on its
own," adds Reilly.
"It's every man's and every woman's dilemma of balancing family and
work," says director Michael Lembeck. "Everybody can relate to that.
When he finds out his son is in trouble, he has to leave the job and
if he leaves the job, he's going to disappoint and worry the elves
and possibly risk the success of Christmas."
That said, the filmmakers never forgot that they were making a comedy.
"We liked working on a heartwarming family film in which an overweight,
white-bearded guy who talks to reindeer can still get a date with
a really hot chick," say screenwriters Ed Decter and John Strauss.
Tim Allen was a driving force in bringing "The Santa Clause 2" to
the screen. There's a special place in his heart for the Santa character
that he's created. "I like this character because no one really knows
what Santa's like," says Allen. "So I can develop the character with
my own sensibilities and my own memories. He's a very generous and
forgiving person who doesn't have a mean bone in his body, unlike
me - and he isn't a dishonest guy. He's a very principled guy. So
I play all the qualities I find adorable in other men," Allen wryly
adds.
"This movie facilitates my style of acting,"
Allen notes, "because I'm actually going through the changes. I'm
shedding weight, layers keep coming off and I feel different because
I look different." "Tim is a wickedly funny man," remarks co-star
Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Carol, Santa's love interest. "But when
he becomes Santa, he has a Walt Disney Pictures'
twinkle in his eye. During shooting, he told me that this Santa is
a beautiful Santa. I don't think he was referring to himself or his
acting. I think it's just the way Santa comes across in the film.
He's a beautiful Santa - a Santa to love."
"Working with Tim is like going to camp every day," says Lembeck.
"We laugh every day; we have fun every day; we enjoy ourselves every
day. Between takes, he's crazy funny.
"But the thing about him as an actor is that he has this incredible
emotional reserve that just sucks you in," Lembeck continues. "His
comedy is a given - but there's this part of him that touches me emotionally.
"Tim brings so much to the character, it's absolutely exciting," adds
Lembeck. "He has an extraordinary ability to find the comedy jugular.
He is cat quick when it comes to finding something organically? on
the spot. He has a great sense of timing and is remarkable with turning
dialogue into funny. The other thing that he brings is his vulnerability
- how ready he is to touch his heart, to find his soul, to let something
in the moment touch him and thus allow the audience to be touched
by it," Lembeck adds. "He's not afraid to invest in that which moves
him. He's very free that way - and that to me is extraordinary."
In bringing the sequel to the beloved family hit to the screen, Emmy
award-winning director Lembeck makes his feature film debut. "We were
so fortunate to be introduced to Michael Lembeck," says Reilly. "His
energy, enthusiasm, passion and dedication for the project are remarkable.
He's the most tireless human being and he's been a great person to
collaborate with. He's been the spark plug of this thing going forward."
"He's like an organized train wreck," says Tim Allen of his director.
"He never stops, never loses his sense of humor, and always gets the
magic of this movie. It was the kind of project where everybody -
including myself - had an opinion of how it should be, and he was
able to respond in kind, with ideas of his own."
Lembeck, whose long career has embraced both performing ("One Day
at a Time," "The In-Laws") and directing such television comedies
as "Friends," "Mad About You," and "Everybody Loves Raymond," is the
second generation of comedy tradition; his father is renowned character
actor Harvey Lembeck, who starred on Broadway and in the film adaptation
of "Stalag 17," and whose long and illustrious career as one of stage
and screen's bestknown character actors includes his work as Corporal
Rocco Barbella on the "Phil Silvers Show" and as Eric Von Zipper in
the "Beach Party" movies. "Comedy is an exact science, the execution
of that which makes somebody laugh is specific. It is math. It is
never arbitrary and that's even in improv," maintains the younger
Lembeck. "We laugh because we associate, or because we're surprised,
or because there's irony," he continues. "Humor always comes from
something being at stake, something real, something cared about."
In addition, the fantasy element of "The Santa Clause 2" was as much
a draw as the comedy for Lembeck. "If I've got to go to a desert island
and I can only take ten movies with me, they're all fantasies," the
director continues. "I'm just a big kid who wants to see 'The Wizard
of Oz' and 'Close Encounters' and 'E.T.' and Cocteau's 'Beauty and
the Beast' - anything with a sense of whimsy, goodness, and heart.
I definitely saw that element in the script for this film, and I really
responded to it."
Returning to make a sequel after eight years might have posed some
problems with casting, but this aspect of the production had its own
serendipity. "It's been wonderful seeing the Miller family - Judge
Reinhold, Wendy Crewson and Eric Lloyd - come back together after
all this time," says executive producer William Wilson. "Particularly
Eric, who was eight the first time around and is sixteen now. The
interaction between them all is so very comfortable. They're having
a lot of fun together. And the family has grown - the Millers now
have a young daughter named Lucy, played by Liliana Mumy."
"We all had such fun on the first film, and got really excited for
the second one. I don't think anybody said, 'Gee, I don't think I
can do 'Santa Clause 2,'" says Wendy Crewson, who reprises her role
as Laura, Santa's ex-wife.
However, there have been changes. "The last time everybody saw me,
I was about four feet tall," laughs Eric Lloyd, who plays Santa's
son, Charlie. "So, of course, nobody recognized me. But it's been
awesome seeing everybody again."
David Krumholtz, who plays Bernard, Santa's Head Elf, was sixteen
when the original "The Santa Clause" was made. "It's been wonderful
for me," says Krumholtz. "Just when I thought my childhood was over,
I got to relive who I was at sixteen." Krumholtz, at 24, thinks that
the new Bernard benefits from the maturity he brings to the role.
"I'm a much more complex actor, for better or for worse," Krumholtz
muses. "Personally, I've become more compassionate. I was a tough
little sixteen-year-old playing a rather surly elf. Bernard has more
heart this time around." Although their on-screen relationship is
testy to say the least, Krumholtz can't say enough good things about
his co-star, Spencer Breslin, who plays Curtis, Santa's Number Two
Elf. "Spencer is quite astonishing," says Krumholtz. "Not only is
he naturally funny, he is truly a compassionate young man who understands
humility and generosity with his fellow actors. He's become the little
brother I never had."
"He's a man-child," says producer Brian Reilly. "Is he nine? Is he
ninety? There's no way to know. He has an old soul."
Curtis is one of the eldest elves at 900 years. When asked how he
portrays Curtis' advanced age, Breslin replies, "I act mature. That's
all." Joining the cast is Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays the principal
at Charlie's school who catches Santa's eye. "They say that the best
romantic comedies involve two people who come together despite having
many obstacles in their way. Falling in love with somebody who you
think is a mythical character - I'd say that's a pretty big obstacle,"
she laughs.
Bringing Back "The Big Guy":
The Make-Up Effects
Tim Allen was thrilled with the idea of reprising his role as St.
Nick, as well as adding a new character - a plastic faux Claus - even
though it meant he would spend a number of days in prosthetic makeup.
Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr., of Amalgamated Dynamics Inc., who
masterminded the special makeup and animatronic character effects
for the original "The Santa Clause," happily came back to do it again.
Both the Santa and the Toy Santa characters required the application
of pre-molded and pre-painted soft foam latex prosthetics that took
from 3-4 hours to apply.
"The latex comes in a liquid form which we put in a blender until
it rises in volume and becomes very soft," explains special makeup
effects artist Barry Koper, the man charged with effecting Allen's
daily transformation. "We then inject the latex into a sealed mold
and bake it. Once it's set, we clean and paint it," Koper adds. The
prosthetics are very delicate and a new one is required for each application.
Approximately 60 of these facial prosthetics were used over the course
of filming. Once glued in place, the edges of the prepainted prosthetics
were blended to match Allen's adjacent skin tones and then Santa's
beard, eyebrows and wig, all made from a combination of human and
yak hair, were applied.
"Christmas is about loving and giving, but it's also about watching
Tim Allen get into a fat suit and prosthetic makeup, underneath hot
movie lights, so we could wager on how long it would take his face
to melt," quip screenwriters Decter and Strauss.
Re-Creating TheNorthPole
With colorful and incredibly detailed sets, "The Santa Clause 2" gives
audiences a glimpse of the North Pole as it's never been seen before.
"The overall design concept can best be described as elaborate, whimsical,
and ornate," says production designer Tony Burrough. "It's inspired
by the turn of the 20th century's Art Nouveau movement. It's a very
decorative sensibility, with lots of curves and swirls and embellishments."
The two largest, most impressive sets in the movie are the Elf Village
and Santa's Toy Workshop. "I wanted to create a world that could accommodate
enough elves and enough activity to make it plausible that this is
the place where toys are made for all the children of the world,"
Burrough explains. "The Elf Village that we see is only a small part
of the Elf world. I did drawings of the rest of this world so that
when that extended world is created digitally in CGI, the architectural
shapes will link through. It's also implied that the two levels of
Santa's Workshop that we built on the set, are only two of many levels
that exist in the Workshop," Burrough continues. The 34,000 square
foot Elf Village set houses a bakery, a shoe shop, a town hall, the
exterior of Santa's workshop, and a town square complete with a functional
skating rink. The construction crew was comprised of 250 craftspeople
including carpenters, plasterers and painters. "No two doorways or
windows are alike," says construction coordinator Craig Henderson.
"Each piece of plywood had to be cut individually using full-size,
computer generated, paper templates. There was never the luxury of
50 of these, or 20 of those."
"I wanted the exteriors of the buildings in the Elf Village to be
very decorative, ornate and textured," Burrough points out. "We decided
to use plaster as opposed to foam for the exterior finishes. We set
up a plaster workshop and created a variety of molds for decorative
tile work, stone work and other finishes. Once we got the system up
and running, we realized the efficiency and cost effectiveness of
the process," Burrough notes. "Although rarely used these days, it
allowed us to decorate all of the buildings with different surface
treatments."
"We literally went back to school to pick up an old trade that allowed
us to achieve an incredible level of architectural detail in the sets,"
Henderson marvels. "There was a huge sense of pride amongst the crew
working on these sets. People got to show their talents. Everyone
was interested and engaged in the job at hand."
Lighting a 34,000 square foot set was another challenge, but in the
hands of veteran cinematographer Adam Greenberg, it was elves' play.
There were 799 lights of various shapes and sizes, including custom-made
box lights, each of which housed 10 x 9-lights, each nine light containing
9 x 500 watt bulbs. These oven-like lights were hung on chain hoists
and moved around the set to add fill light. The set was lit from above
and all of the ceiling lights were concealed beneath a silk spread
over a 200 square ft. area. Lights were turned off between takes and
massive air conditioning units were turned on, since temperatures
in the ceiling area could reach 300- 400 degrees in a matter of minutes.
The amount of power required to light this set was equivalent to one
entire city hydro grid, delivered through eighteen miles of electrical
cable.
fifty children playing elves graced the set at any one time, dressed
in costumes that couldn't help but make you smile. "Some of the most
beautiful floral patterns originate in the Art Nouveau period," says
costume designer Ingrid Ferrin, whose fabric choices were rich and
textured, favoring jewel tones and delicate paisley and floral patterns.
"The costumes evolved as we met the children and realized what their
Elf world jobs would be. We've created distinctive costumes for Baker
Elves, Workshop Elves, Naughty and Nice Elves, Stable Elves, and more."
The stable elves for example wear jodhpurs, leather aprons, gloves
and leather, train-engineer type hats. "I've drawn from various European
traditions - dirndl skirts, Scandinavian sweaters, clogs and berets,"
Ferrin elaborates. "Then put them all together in a whimsical mix
of colors, shapes and textures." And what would Christmas be without
toys? In one scene, Scott Calvin treats a group of jaded high school
teachers to vintage Christmas toys that reawaken in them the long
forgotten joys of childhood. "The vintage toys were our biggest challenge,"
recalls properties master Dan Sissons. "Luckily, Christmas was coming
so it was prime time to search for toys. Toy dealers bring out their
stash in the two-to-three months before Christmas. We started in October
and managed to get everything we were looking for." Even after Lembeck
called cut, the cast kept right on playing with their toys.
About The Visual Effects
"The Santa Clause 2" even boasts a unique action sequence. "I'm doing
my version of John Ford's 'Stagecoach' in the sky," Lembeck jests.
"Scott Calvin is on this little puppy reindeer, chasing down the sleigh
with the bad guy in it, being pulled by the entire team of reindeer.
He's jumping from reindeer to reindeer, just like in the westerns?all
in mid-flight." Flying reindeer are also the domain of special makeup
and animatronic character effects designers Tom Woodruff, Jr. and
Alec Gillis. "We've taken advantage of the technological advances
of the past eight years - things like computer controlled technology,
motion control playback, lip synching capabilities, all of which give
the animatronic characters we've created much more life," says Woodruff.
"The reindeer in this movie are a lot more expressive and consequently
a lot more fun than last time 'round. They're extremely goofy characters,"
he adds fondly.
Making a reindeer fly is a complex process that is a marriage of animatronic
puppetry and visual effects. "Having a reindeer appear to be flying
with an actor on its back requires that the reindeer be very strong
to begin with," Gillis explains. "To create the movement, we've used
hydraulic pistons controlled by a computer that our puppeteers feed
information to. We can pre-program movements, which we do with the
legs, to avoid them crashing into each other. The hydraulic is so
strong that we could end up tearing the puppet apart if we're not
absolutely precise," says Gillis. "We work very closely with Tom and
Alec to understand the range of motion of the animatronics so that
we can replicate that in the computer," says Brennan Doyle, VFX Supervisor
for Tippet Studios, one of the two visual effects houses working on
the film. "Animatronics are used in tight shots and shots that involve
the human characters. Any of the wider shots that show the sleigh
and reindeer flying through the sky, are done using CGI (computer
generated imagery)."
Tippet's focus was largely on creature shots and the creation of CG
stunt doubles for the talent, including a CG Santa. GVFX, the other
VFX house, are responsible for numerous 2D and 3D elements of the
film.
"Most of the effects we're doing are 2D and involve taking live-action
film that's been shot and compositing it with other film, both live
action and CG," says John Gadjecki, VFX Supervisor for GVFX. Before
shooting began, GVFX built a CG model for the 'Stagecoach' scene that
depicted the entire studio complete with sleigh, reindeer team and
Scott riding Chet (the reindeer puppy). "We can actually lay out where
the camera is going to be on the day relative to the green screen,
determine exactly what kind of crane we'll need and what the camera
move will be. What we did in this instance, was take the CG animation
that Tippet Studios created and reverse engineered it to come up with
the camera moves." |
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