Mallory Blessed
10/30/09
Literature & Composition 101
Santa Claus vs. Frankenstein
The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause, Scott Calvin is in trouble because he is being torn into too many directions. So to compensate for his needing to be home with his family and also trying to find a wife before Christmas Day, Santa Claus and his nifty sidekicks Bernard and Curtis create a life-size toy version of Santa Claus. This version is going to look over the North Pole and elves in the chaos of the Christmas season. But when the toy-version Santa Claus begins to follow the handbook of rules too closely the North Pole is taken over by the evil Santa Claus. This then creates a similar theme to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Just like Victor Frankenstein creates the monster, Curtis and Bernard create a monster as well. Both monsters become enlightened by books and become intelligent from their stories. The monster in Frankenstein reads Paradise Lost and then begins to understand language and emotions. This is what sparks the monster’s curiosity for companionship and the feeling of love. The monster then proceeds to explain to Frankenstein about his encounters with the DeLacey family as he watched the family and understood their routines. The monster then learns empathy by watching how the DeLacey children struggle with their life and constant struggle to provide for their family. In The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause, Scott Calvin’s toy version must take over the North Pole to make sure it is properly run and an authority figure is there while Scott Calvin is gone to see his family and meet his potential new wife. But the toy-version of Santa Claus needs to read the Rules Handbook to understand what the procedure of the North Pole is. Unfortunately, the monster then becomes out of control and takes over the North Pole with stricter rules and threatens to give the whole world coal. By the monster becoming enlightened by the Rules Handbook, it went out of control just like Frankenstein’s creation.
In The Santa Clause, there is an intense creation scene of Scott Calvin as Santa Claus. Santa must go through a huge contraption that duplicates the person’s body to make a creation. The scene allows the viewers of the movie to see Santa step onto the conveyer belt then one sees the shadowy figure go through the process of being zapped by lightning and the viewers hear the scream of Santa. Then Santa comes out of the other side of the conveyer belt and Bernard and Curtis are surprised by how much the creation looks like the actual Santa Claus.
