The Santa Clause 2 is a continuation of Disney's pathetic attempt to bring in income at the expense of a good story. As the latest in a long line of sequels, it is definately not on par with the original.
The basic plot of this movie is that Santa Clause, played by Tim Allen, is going to be "de-Santified." The reason for this: he has not fulfilled the "Mrs. Clause" requirement. Santa apparently needs a wife in order to keep the job. In addition to the de-Santification, which slowly turns Santa back into Allen's original form, Santa also has problems with his son Charlie; he has been put on the naughty list this year because he has spray painted his school Gym and is generally acting out against everyone. How could Santa handle all these problems and still manage the toy-making in the North Pole? The answer: duplicate himself. He makes a toy Santa to run things while he's off getting a wife and helping his son. Now while the plot was not incredible up to here, it was still bearable. However, at this point everything begins going downhill. The new Santa quickly becomes a plastic-faced despot, deciding that all of the children of the world deserve coal this year. In addition, he creates a rather disturbing army of toy robots to keep the elves in line.
While toy-Santa is busy with his scheme of ruining Christmas, Tim Allen is trying to help mend relations with his son. In the process, he meets Charlie's principal. In a perfectly foreseeable storytelling move, the two quickly fall for each other. And, also in completely predictable Disney fashion, Allen quickly discovers what is going on in the North Pole and rushes in to save the day. This culminates in a mildly amusing fight scene involving elves, wrapping paper, huge toy soldiers, and a reindeer that is barely able to fly. Obviously, Santa saves the day, solves Charlie's problems, and marries the girl right before he loses his powers, thereby saving Christmas.
The problem with this movie, besides its transparent plot, is its attempt to make everything funny. Every scene has some attempt at humor in it. The result is that the jokes are forced at most points; it seems as if the philosphy behind the movie was that everything had to be funny. However, these usually feeble attempts at humor become stupid after awhile and detract from the already shaky plot: a legion of toy soldiers led by a plastic Santa in a general's uniform that are attempting to ruin Christmas while the real Santa Clause must get married by Christmas Eve. The incredibly strange "Santa gadgets" didn't help. While in the original movie, the gadgets used, such as jet packs for the elves, added to the plot, in the sequal, they detract from it, often appaearing "thrown in." Some scenes that have no value to the story are added for the express purpose of showing off these gadgets. For example, the opening scene of the movie is about Santa's factory avoiding detection by a plane using radar cloaking technology and is set in something that resembles the bridge of a submarine. Also, the main characters of the original Santa Clause were downplayed this time around. Charlie's mother and step-father have almost no part. They are both completely two-dimensional, supporting Allen in every decision he makes. In fact, midway through the story they simply disappear, despite being across the hall from where Allen was staying.
In The Santa Clause 2, Disney unfortunately continues its current trend of sacrificing a good, long-lasting classic in favor of a simplistic, slap-stick comedy routine geared for, what at least Disney believes to be, hordes of unthinking children. The genius that was Disney seems to have disappeared and has been replaced by a Disney that only wishes to turn a profit.