Rotten Tomatoes score: 38%
It's hard to find a more fitting Christmas icon than Ernest P. Worrell.
Actually, it's pretty weird that they decided to have Ernest meet Santa Claus in his second star turn in a feature film. Up to this point, the biggest excitement Ernest had seen on the silver screen was a trip to summer camp with a bunch of juvenile delinquents, and now here he was, not only meeting Saint Nick but saving Christmas.
Saving it from what? you may ask. Well, it seems that Santa Claus (Douglas Seale, who voiced the Sultan in Aladdin) is getting a little old for his job and needs a replacement. Of course, Santa claims to be over a hundred years old, so one would assume he's immortal. I guess he's not all that immortal, and eventually he starts to wear out.
Anyway, according to the Santological doctrine of this movie, the only way to become the new Santa Claus is for the current Santa to grab you by the hand and channel his divine supernatural essence into your body. Santa has traveled to Orlando to meet his chosen successor, and you've got one guess who he's picked.
No, it's not Ernest, although that would have been great. It's Joe Carruthers (Oliver Clark), an aging children's TV host. Joe is attempting to give his career a shot in the arm by starring in an extraordinarily tacky holiday-themed horror movie. Needless to say, Santa is none too happy about this, but Joe refuses to take the poor old man seriously, especially since Santa has lost his magic bag.
The bag has fallen into the bumbling hands of Ernest P. Worrell, who has retired from his summer camp job and acquired an Orlando hack license. He loses his job after giving Santa a free lift in his taxi, and once he finds the magic bag Santa left behind, he realizes to his amazement that Santa is the real deal. Meanwhile, Ernest has also befriended a teenage runaway named Harmony Starr (Noelle Parker), who is skeptical of Santa's story.
(In Christmas movies, people are often skeptical of Santa's existence even when confronted with clear and convincing evidence: In this case, Harmony discovers that Santa's bag contains an unlimited quantity of some paranormal substance that assumes the shape of any object one wishes for. Nevertheless, she thinks he's a fake.)
Eventually, Harmony lets her mischievous impulses get the better of her and she attempts to skip town with Santa's bag. With Christmas Eve drawing to a close, Santa and Ernest still have to retrieve the bag, pick up Santa's sleigh and reindeer from the airport, and persuade Joe to take up the mantle before time runs out and the Magic of Christmas fades away (which for some reason is going to happen at exactly 7 pm).
In the end, of course, Joe comes around and accepts his new calling. Harmony returns the bag and reveals that she's called home to let her parents know she's alive and well and will be coming home soon. And Ernest pilots the sleigh to meet the new Santa, arriving in the St. Nick of time.
This is my second-favorite Ernest movie. It's pretty absurd, but the production values are still moderately high, and the story is delightfully idiotic. Douglas Seale's avuncular St. Nick is much more appealing than most big-screen Santas. I think the English accent helps, but overall he plays the role as a human character, not a cartoon. He plays a wise and kindly Santa who shows genuine affection to others, rather than department-store schmaltz. I also give the movie tremendous credit for never once showing him in the standard red suit, and for not forcing him to do that moronic "ho ho ho" that movie Santas always struggle with.
I realize the irony of my praising the depth of a character portrayed in a movie sequel starring a TV advertising icon, but that's just one more reason this movie is
And the lessons are:
1. It's wrong for children not to spend time with their parents.
They flipped it around this time! Very clever.
2. The world needs more old people with hearts of gold.
Or else who will become Santa Claus when Joe's time is up? ...Oh, wait, this was 1988, so I guess that means Joe was the guy who took a spill off Tim Allen's roof in 1994...
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