by Gia Doxey,
While Americans have all the reasons to pout this 2020 holiday season, The Christmas Chronicles: Part 2 — among what seems like 10,000+ new Christmas movies in the past few years — gives us a reason to cheer.
With a pandemic, social injustice, and a gnarly election isolating and polarizing us all, leave it to power couple Mr. and Mrs. Claus — aka Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn — to lead an example of forgiveness and save us from ourselves.
The Netflix sequel opens with the Pierce family Christmas-ing in Cancun. It’s two years after the first movie, and Katie Cat is a catty teenager — that wrote itself — desperate to ditch the trip in fear her mom’s boyfriend Bob (Tyrese Gibson) will propose and soon eradicate all memories of her dad.
We meet Kate’s foil Belsnickel — an elf turned human — plotting to eradicate all evidence of Santa Claus. Legend has it Santa and Belsnickel were great toy-making partners in the new land of the North Pole centuries ago, but as Santa got busy expanding his efforts and making toys for all the children of the world, Belsnickel felt abandoned and betrayed — much like when an over-achieving friend takes forever to text us back. Belsnickel started lashing out and turned into what he despised the most — a child.
We don’t see much of older brother Teddy (Judah Lewis) in Part 2, perhaps because he got the closure he needed with his father’s death in the first film but definitely because he wants to pursue a girl on the beach. We let Teddy have his fun because it’s time for one of two new heroes of the chronicle — Bob’s adorable son Jack (Jahzir Bruno), a 10-year old sweetheart ridden with anxiety, something we’ve sadly been seeing too much of these days.
Belsnickel kidnaps Kate and Jack, but the whiz kids work to save Christmas with Santa and Mrs. Claus— hero #2. Mrs. Claus has more magic than Santa himself. Santa needs batteries. Mrs. Claus can cook, make healing potions, and design the North Pole. Did you know she did that? The village has 300,000 shops and thanks to the kids, it’s now being re-named “Mrs. Claus’s Village.” Modern Christmas movies love women. Let’s give a hand for Mrs. Claus. We love to see it.
The strength of female characters wasn’t perfect, however, and it’s more of an inevitable casting struggle with well-known actors with little screen time — in this case, Kimberly Williams-Paisley. When the world met KWP in Nancy Meyers’s Father of the Bride in 1991, she automatically became a princess of warmth in family films. Although her character Claire is without-a-doubt caring in The Christmas Chronicles movies, she’s written as a victim of circumstance mom who doesn’t stand for much. She’s only in the first and final scenes with a constant expression of the “oh well hands-in-the-air” emoji. Older female characters deserve more than off-screen praise in children’s movies — Mrs. Claus got her well-deserved time to shine, but Claire fell short again in the second film. There should be room for both.
All of this is realized with the backdrop of action-adventure sequences. (Feel free to ignore my societal commentary and watch the fun). Director Chris Columbus drew inspiration from Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and his beloved Harry Potter — references sure to make you exclaim to your TV, “This is great, but why!” with a grin or chuckle you may have forgotten your face can make. These scenes will hopefully encourage parents to show their kids these classics in scheduled downtime to come. There’s something about an 80s heartthrob dressed as Santa Claus reminding us of other movies in his own movie. We trust it.
The fun is intertwined with serious elements as we see Jack and Mrs. Claus buddy up as he overcomes his fears and anxieties. “There’s a hero in us all,” Mrs. Claus said, a beautiful sentiment for children coping with mental health issues.
When it comes to internal struggles with antagonist Belsnickel, the writing is written on the wall — When we’re hurt, sometimes we turn into what we fear the most. We all want to be heard and loved without question. The right people will always believe in us and help us believe in ourselves. Christmas is about honoring the past but also moving forward in faith and forgiveness.
The Christmas Chronicles: Part 2 maintains Christmas classicism with a new tale — perfect for all moods.
#BigClausEnergy.