The Santa Clauses

As surely as the seasons, come November we are firmly in the grips of trailers promoting this holiday season’s films—among them, Disney Plus’s nostalgia-infused pitch to those who remember the 90s, and the Santa Clause franchise in particular.

The aptly titled Santa Clauses from Disney promises much of what made the original Tim Allen-led series popular and more. From the get-go, we’re given both a reading of The Night Before Christmas alongside an instrumental version of “Silent Night.” While these are not necessarily directly correlated pieces, perhaps they are chosen to overlap each other in an effort to impress an aural spectacle. This blanket of familiarity becomes even more marked at the 0:21 mark when Tim’s Santa character—now, inevitably, looking much more the part than he first did nearly thirty years ago—startles a woman as he finds his way down the chimney; it works in parallel as a (re)introduction to the character for audiences old and new.

The studio title card ushers in a much more energetic “Deck the Halls” as played by the United States Air Force Symphony Orchestra. This also serves as a foil to Santa’s slapstick comedy (for example, we see him sliding off a roof). This music also ends neatly in the woodwinds with a fade transition at 0:38, leading to another comedic one-liner. He announces he is retiring and sheds his beard.

This audiovisual cadence continues until 1:17, when a bell with a note clearly outside the key is struck, which also coincides with an abrupt change of scenery to Santa’s workshop at the North Pole. At 1:24, epic percussion hits serve to reinforce the already clear shift in tone to the crisis Allen has to solve, preparing us for the final musical number and the climactic sequence of the trailer. In the last half minute of the trailer, we hear “Sonata Slay”, composed by Christopher Harris, Daniel Solovitz, and Michaela Penn, as found on Universal Production Music’s “New Legacy: Hip Hop X Classical” record. It’s a twist on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Rondo Alla Turca (Turkish March)” with hip hop vocals and production in the foreground. Besides the obvious visual pun here (slay/sleigh, which will feature in a title card to help guarantee its delivery), the track serves its purpose to suggest there’s also something fresh and new to the series. At least, it’s clearly different than it was for who first introduced to Tim Allen’s Santa in the mid-90s.

In addition, the various synch points between the title cards only serve to reinforce this vital, new sense of energy, even as Santa is reborn with the original Scott, Carol, and Bernard. Notice how on multiple occasions, such as 1:47, there’s a clear synch on the beat between the people dancing or moving and the beat of the song. Whether coincidental, planned from the outset, or the result of some mild manipulation in frame rate, there is a good sense of cohesion. Arguably, this balances the fact that it’s such a shift (albeit wholly intentional) from the more traditional music that figures up to that final half minute.

The Santa Clauses miniseries is set to premiere on Disney Plus on November 16th.

— Curtis Perry