Disney+ is ready to bring holiday magic to families on Wednesday, November 16th with the double-episode premiere of The Santa Clauses. The cast and creative team gathered together at The Walt Disney Studios on November 6th for a red carpet premiere… correction, it’s a white carpet! We were lucky enough to have a spot on the carpet, catching up with Scott Calvin and his family. You can check out the video below, but first, some photos and details we learned at the event.
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At the end of The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Scott and Carol welcomed a new baby to the family. In the 18 years since then, they’ve had another child named Sandra, played by Elizabeth Allen-Dick. She’s Tim Allen’s daughter in real life and the two had no problem leaving their work at the studio each night when they went home. Elizabeth Mitchell reprises her role as Carol/Mrs. Claus and shared that Elizabeth Allen-Dick was an absolute pleasure to work with. She revealed that the young actress even passed out hand-written thank-you notes to the entire cast and crew when the project wrapped.
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Austin Kane plays Cal, the son of Scott and Carol from the end of the previous film. Like any teenager, he’s obsessed with the latest high-tech gadgets and is often seen wearing VR goggles at the beginning of the series. But fun fact, when he put those on, it sometimes felt like leaving the high-tech world behind because The Santa Clauses used volumetric sets at times, the incredible technology developed by Industrial Light & Magic on The Mandalorian. He described a sequence where he was walking down a spiral staircase as the digital set spun around as being particularly jaw-dropping.
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Whatever happened to the previous Santa (the one who fell off Scott Calvin’s roof in 1994)? That’s one of the important themes of The Santa Clauses, particularly for Carol, who wonders about the previous Mrs. Claus. Avoiding spoilers, Elizabeth Mitchell didn’t give much away, but explained that she had a lot of fun letting her hair down (literally) as Carol in this series.
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Tim Allen wasn’t the only star of the original film in attendance. Eric Lloyd has played Charlie in every film in the franchise thus far, and the series is no exception. He was touched by the fan reaction online asking where he was in the show’s announcements, but he actually didn’t think he was done playing Charlie after the last film. There was always a chance that another project would come along, and with new generations being introduced to the films by their parents, he had a good feeling that Charlie would be back in his life. And like the kids who saw the original film in 1994, Charlie is now a parent himself, which means Scott is a grandfather!
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Keeping the North Pole running smoothly is Matilda Lawler (Flora & Ulysses) as Betty, the new elf in charge. Her father helped her prepare to play an adult and among the sources of inspiration for her performance was Vice President Kamala Harris. Santa’s right-hand elf is Noel, played by Devin Bright, who revealed that he was nervous at first to have a famous scene partner like Tim Allen, but he was quickly put at ease by the comedy star. Another mature aspect of playing Betty and Noel is the fact that they’re a married couple. Matilda and Devin both agreed that it was a little awkward for them (they’re both 14 years old).
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A few other elves were in attendance, including Miya Cech, Liam Kyle, Sasha Knight, and Ruby Jay. Hair and makeup took about an hour for each, with the pointed ears requiring about 15-minutes to apply. All were in agreement that arriving on set each day was a magical and special experience. Miya Cech shared that she would often go home with her makeup still on, one time visiting a Starbucks where she received a few funny looks for her extremely rosy cheeks.
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See the stars of The Santa Clauses answer our questions on the white carpet below. The video also includses the adorable Rupali Redd, who plays Grace, the daughter of Kal Penn’s character Simon.
The Santa Clauses premieres Wednesday, November 16th, on Disney+.