“It was a little racier upfront.” Tim Allen revealed that Disney has toned down the script for The Santa Clause

The Santa Clause might have looked different had it not been for Disney's intervention. Tim Allen revealed that the film was supposed to be “racier”.

Edyta Jastrzebska

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Source: The Santa Clause, John Pasquin, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, 1994

The Santa Clause is one of the classic holiday movies, a must-see item at Christmas. The production starring Tim Allen is eagerly watched by entire families, being a funny family comedy in which a man must take over Santa Clause's duties after inadvertently causing an accident.

However, the film might have had a slightly different tone and character if Disney had not intervened. Tim Allen, while promoting The Santa Clauses TV series, spoke with Screenrant. During the interview, he mentioned the 1994 film, revealing that the script he initially read looked different. It was bolder, even too bold, as Disney decided to tone it down.

Reading the original script – it was a very, very bold comedy. Disney, in all their wisdom, toned it down a bit. It was a little racier upfront, meaning that, I think, in the original script, I actually hurt Santa on the roof. Let's put it that way. I thought it was really funny. They didn't want to start a movie hurting Santa Claus, so it turned into a soft movie. The director, John Pasquin, turned it into a very emotional, wonderful story. It lifted it past a situation comedy about Santa and into a wonderful story about Christmas and giving and forgiveness and all of these themes.

While Allen found the original version amusing, it didn't meet the standards of Disney, which didn't want to show in a Christmas movie how the main character actually hurts Santa Claus, so they decided to tone it down. As a result, the film became the softer story we know today.

Disney's decision may have been a good one, because Christmas movies don't have to be “racy.” Fun, laid-back stories that whole families can sit down to play during Christmas, without the fear of children seeing someone hurt Santa Claus, work much better. The success of the film only confirms this.

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Edyta Jastrzebska

Author: Edyta Jastrzebska

A graduate of journalism and social communication as well as cultural studies. She started at Gamepressure.com as one of the newspeople in the films department. Currently she oversees the Gamepressure movie&TV newsroom. She excels in the field of film and television, both in reality-based and fantasy themes. Keeps up with industry trends, but in her free time she prefers to watch less known titles. Has a complicated relationship with popular ones, which is why she only gets convinced about many of them when the hype around them subsides. Loves to spend her evenings not only watching movies, series, reading books and playing video games, but also playing text RPGs, which she has been into for several years.