Santa Clause 3, The: The Escape Clause (DVD)

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What happened to the charm of the first movie, and the sweetness? Here, what little we find of either quality feels forced. There isn't the old fantasy or magic of the original movie, despite the glitzy, razzmatazz special effects of Santa's village. Instead of "The Santa Clause 3" helping us to laugh or even smile, it causes us to shudder. It's a sad, gloomy business all the way around.

Video:
The folks at Disney provide us with two versions of the movie on the same of the disc: One is in 1.33:1 full-frame and the other is in a "family friendly" 1.78:1 widescreen. In 1.78:1 you see a little more information on each side of the image, but in 1.33:1 you see more information at the top and bottom, so you can't win with either framing.

The Disney video engineers also provide a high bit rate and an anamorphic transfer, so they give you as much of the theatrical experience as possible. The result is colors that are very bright, very rich, and appropriately gaudy. A minimum of grain and reasonably good definition wrap up a first-rate visual presentation.

Audio:
I wish there were more for the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio to do, but I'm afraid its main job is to reproduce dialogue. When it does open up on occasion, it sounds fine, with a fairly wide front-channel stereo spread, although the rear channels do little more than reproduce some occasional musical ambience.

Extras:
It isn't the quantity of the extras I would question but the quality. Frankly, none of them impressed me. Things begin with an audio commentary by director Michael Lembeck, who is certainly sincere and has a lot to say but about nothing. Then there's a three-minute blooper reel that repeats some of the outtakes we see during the movie's closing credits. Following that is a three-minute alternate opening that demonstrates why the filmmakers chose to use the one they did. After that, there are three featurettes, the titles of which are pretty much self-explanatory: "On the Set with Tim & Marty," three minutes; "Jack Frost & Mrs. Claus: A Very Different Look," four minutes; and "Creating Movie Magic: Visual Effects Secrets," four minutes. Next is a Christmas carol-oke, where you can sing along with words to seven favorite carols. And things wind down with a music video, "Greatest Time of the Year," from Disney stars Aly & AJ. Dreadful to these adult ears.

The bonuses conclude with twenty scene selections and a chapter insert; Sneak Peeks at six other Disney products; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles; and a handsomely embossed cardboard slipcover.

Parting Shots:
It's sad to see the life sucked out of a series that started so well, and it goes to show that sometimes you should leave well enough alone. Consider what happened to "Spider-Man 3," "Pirates of the Caribbean 3," and "Shrek 3." So "The Santa Clause 3" exits with a thud. Maybe now it's time to put the franchise to rest.

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