Last year, I found one of my favorite Christmas movies ever, The Claus Family. This year, Netflix gave us The Claus Family 2. Can the sequel live up to the original?
Jules (Mo Bakker) and his grandfather, Noël (Jan Decleir), are preparing to deliver presents again. This time, Jules is an official Santa Claus. When he finds a letter to Santa from a girl named Marie (Jasmina Fall) asking Santa to bring her divorced parents back together again, Jules does everything in his power to make it happen. Noël, however, is against Santa doing anything but delivering presents. Can Jules make Marie’s wish come true or is his grandfather right?
If you will recall, last year I said the bad part of the movie was the cookie factory that Suzanne (Bracha van Doesburgh), Jules’ mother, worked at. Well, this year, she quit the factory and opened her own cookie shop. Her plotline still doesn’t matter in the slightest to the movie but it was interesting to see her actually move forward professionally. The cookie shop doesn’t take up a big portion of the runtime of The Claus Family 2 so I won’t count it as a bad part this time around. I’ll count it as a bad part turned good.
The Claus Family 2 is one of those movies that you will either love or hate. The entire plot revolves around trying to get Marie’s parents, Tine (Lauren Müller) and Steven (Everon Jackson Hooi), back together. Of course, what this means is that Jules and his grandfather bicker through most of the movie. Personally, I found this version of “willful teenager vs elder” endearing. Jules was right and he knew he was right and he stood up for himself. He doesn’t know why his grandfather is so against love but he refuses to let the old man’s reluctance get in his way.
Also, the elves are delightful. If you don’t love them and all of their hijinks, then you don’t have a heart.
Is this something everyone will love? Absolutely not. It is not a fast paced movie so a lot of people are probably going to find it slow and boring. However, in a world of Hallmark Christmas romance movies, The Claus Family is a refreshing breather. I would love to see more of these movies in the future. Especially if they can bring the rest of Jules’ family into the Santa gang. Give them something more to do than be background characters. Let them be an actual family that can share in the love of Christmas.