Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Karaoke Music Video Featurette Outtakes Featurette-Making Of Featurette-Behind The Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	88:10
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (48:19)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Michael Lembeck
Studio Distributor	Disney Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Tim Allen Elizabeth Mitchell Eric Lloyd Judge Reinhold Wendy Crewson Spencer Breslin Liliana Mumy Martin Short Ann-Margret Alan Arkin Abigail Breslin Art LaFleur Aisha Tyler
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	George S. Clinton

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Polish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English Audio Commentary Czech Polish Greek Finnish Bulgarian Slovenian Romanian Serbian Croatian Slovak Czech Audio Commentary Polish Audio Commentary Greek Audio Commentary Finnish Audio Commentary Bulgarian Audio Commentary Slovak Audio Commentary Slovenian Audio Commentary Serbian Audio Commentary Croatian Audio Commentary Romanian Audio Commentary	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, Copiously, though humourously
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    After the failure of his conventional holiday sitcom Christmas with the Kranks, Tim Allen returns to his North Pole cash cow franchise for The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. As cynical as I may sound, this return works out for the best of both the audience and Allen himself. While The Santa Clause 3 is by no means a classic it's entertaining enough holiday fare.

    Once again the centre is in a pickle, Mrs Claus is due to give birth any day now and the toy factory is running behind schedule. To make matters worse another imaginary character, Jack Frost (Martin Short), has decided that he needs greater recognition and should hijack Christmas (or Frostmas as he would have it). Frost's plans are quickly thwarted and as penance he offers to help the centre out in getting Christmas back on track. While Santa convinces his in-laws (Alan Arkin and Ann-Margret) that they are actually visiting Canada (which they never knew was populated by midgets), Frost gets the toy factory working overtime. Little does Santa realised that Frost is really just trying to steal Santa's job, impose a fascist regime and commercialise Christmas. Christmassy hijinks ensue.

    The Santa Clause 3 will certainly appeal more to the younger members of the family, but there is enough in there to keep the whole family entertained. Essentially this is exactly what it advertises to be. Check your brain at the door and it's a pleasant enough way to spend 90 minutes of your holiday.

Video

    The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.

     The video quality is generally excellent.

    The image is shown up with no sign of grain or low-level noise.

    Colours are warm and vibrant, with great depth.

    There are no signs of any MPEG artefacts or film artefacts.

    The disc features a wide variety of subtitles including English and English for the hearing impaired. The English appear both accurate and well timed.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer break occurs at 48:19 but was not noticeable on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features English, Czech and Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384 Kbps) audio tracks and a Polish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kbps) track.

    The dialogue is clearly audible at all times and reasonably well synchronised to the video.

    George S. Clinton has provided a gratingly generic orchestral score for the film, which suits this generally by-the-numbers affair.

    The film features modest surround channel usage and subwoofer usage, though nothing that would not be taken for granted in a modern studio production.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Audio Commentary with Director Michael Lembeck

    A wholly unnecessary but occasionally interesting, though overly technical, commentary track.

Outtakes (2:59)

    A series of outtakes from the film, several of which were also featured over the end credits of the movie.

Christmas Carol-oke Featurette (6:25)

    Seven Christmas carols with a bouncing ball to sing along to.

Greatest Time of the Year Music Video (3:18)

    Aly & AJ sing a sugar pop song that will rot your teeth and your mind.

Alternate Opening Sequence (3:34)

    A slightly different opening sequence, featuring a handful of different jokes and a quick recap of the first two movies.

Jack Frost & Mrs. Claus: A Very Different Look Featurette (4:03)

    Two of the characters underwent radical costume and makeup changes during the early stages of production on the film. This featurette looks at what they were and why they were.

The New Comedians: On set with Tim & Marty Featurette (3:00)

    Tim Allen and Martin Short are comedians, allegedly. Here is a featurette to convince you of that fact.

Creating movie magic Featurette (3:54)

    A visual effects featurette. Features a decent introduction to the concept of compositing green-screen.

    The Region 1 version of this disc features both widescreen and full frame versions of the film on the one disc. Otherwise the two versions of this film are identical (save for PAL/NTSC differences).

    A by-the-numbers, but entertaining enough, holiday distraction. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause is pretty much exactly what you would expect of a Tim Allen Christmas flick.

     The video quality is excellent. The audio is serviceable, albeit at a reasonably low bitrate. The extras are fair.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall