Santa Buddies (2009), The Search for Santa Paws (2010), and Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups (2012)

Sequels, reboots, and remakes are all the rage in the film world. Each is a way to continue an intellectual property while, hopefully, getting an audience to stick around. If audiences were engaged with a character’s story the first time, they should be interested in the continued tales of that character. At least, that’s how studios see it. They continue to turn out these movies in the hopes that their line of thinking is true. In many cases, it is. That’s franchise filmmaking in a nutshell.

Another way that an intellectual property could continue, and one that might technically be the spawning of a new intellectual property, is the spin-off. This concept is much more prevalent in television than in film. A character gets introduced in one show before getting their own show where they are the star. Sometimes, that could be a character who was on the show for a long time, such as Frasier Crane being on Cheers for nine seasons before becoming the star of his own eleven season show. Or there could be a backdoor pilot, where characters are introduced in one television show for an episode or two before beginning their own stories on their own show. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation did this with characters who would be the stars of CSI: Miami and CSI: Miami did this with characters who would be the stars of CSI: New York.

Spin-offs aren’t as common in films, though there have been some prominent examples. Get Him to the Greek was a spin-off from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Annabelle and The Nun were spin-offs of The Conjuring. The Scorpion King was a spin-off of The Mummy. Some spin-offs create franchises in themselves. The Scorpion King had four sequels in the eighteen years since it was released. And then there is the rare occasion where a spin-off could lead to another spin-off. That is where this week’s three movies come into play.

A little background must be given first. That background began with America’s Funniest Home Videos in the 1990s. One of the videos featured in the show had a dog named Air Buddy who could play basketball by bouncing the ball off his nose. The dog then went on to be featured on The Late Show with David Letterman multiple times before a movie was made. Air Buddy played himself, now part of a children’s basketball team.

The movie was a success and spawned a five-film franchise where the lead character dog played a bunch of different sports. Air Buddy passed before the sequels were made, however, and other dogs stepped in to take on the role. The character played football, soccer, baseball, and volleyball before retiring from sports. Why did Buddy retire? He was going to usher in a spin-off franchise that followed his puppies.

Air Buddies was the sixth film in the franchise, and the first of the spin-off Buddies series of films. The dogs could now talk. The movies followed a litter of five puppies that Buddy fathered. Each puppy had a distinct personality, and they went on wacky adventures. Through the first three films, they found the children they would grow up with, they helped a child win a dog sledding competition, and they went into outer space. That was a lot for five puppies to do. They weren’t done there.

The fourth film in the series was Santa Buddies. Budderball (Josh Flitter), Rosebud (Liliana Mumy), Mudbud (Ty Panitz), Buddha (Field Cate), and B-Dawg (Skyler Gisondo) were back for another adventure. It was the Christmas season, and the Buddies were disillusioned about the idea of Santa Claus and his workshop at The North Pole. Their thoughts would shift after meeting Puppy Paws (Zachary Gordon), the son of Santa’s dog and Christmas partner, Santa Paws (Tom Bosley). The Buddies worked together to protect Puppy Paws and bring about the Christmas spirit that would keep Christmas from disappearing forever.

Santa Buddies was essentially the film version of a backdoor pilot. It brought in a whole new film universe in The North Pole. Santa Claus (George Wendt) was worried about the Christmas icicle, a magical icicle that was melting because people and dogs were not believing in Christmas as much as they used to. He was always around Santa Paws. He had two head elves, a human named Eli (Danny Woodburn) and a Jack Russell Terrier named Eddy (Richard Kind). These characters and the newly introduced North Pole location would set the stage for a spin-off of the Buddies franchise, which was already a spin-off.

The Buddies were around through the events of Santa Buddies simply because it was a Buddies movie. It wasn’t their story, though. They just happened to be along for the ride. The story was about Puppy Paws learning to be one with Christmas. He had been fighting against the tradition of The North Pole. His trip to Fernfield to see the Buddies taught Puppy Paws that he shouldn’t be pushing Christmas away. He should be celebrating the spirit of Christmas and inspiring others to do the same. He should be following in his father’s footsteps to keep Christmas alive for another generation.

The popularity of Santa Buddies led to a spin-off series focused on characters from The North Pole. The Search for Santa Paws was a prequel about the origin of the Santa Paws character and his connection to Santa Claus. Eli (Danny Woodburn) and Eddy (Richard Kind) took a stuffed dog to the Christmas icicle, bringing it to life to be best friends with Santa Claus (Richard Riehle). Santa loved his new friend, who he called Paws (Zachary Gordon). They did everything together. When they travelled to New York after the death of Mr. Hucklebuckle, a Santa ambassador, Santa was hit by a car and lost his memory. Paws was lost in New York. Only through his new friendship with a young girl named Quinn (Kaitlyn Maher) and another girl in her orphanage, Will (Madison Pettis), Paws was able to find Santa Claus and ensure that Christmas would happen.

This second spin-off series built upon what was set up in Santa Buddies. It kept many of the same characters and concepts that had been introduced. Santa Paws, Santa Claus, Eli, and Eddie were all back. The reindeer returned. The North Pole, the workshop, the magic car, and the icicle were all there again. But the movie took the main action out of Fernfield. It was no longer about the world of the Buddies. It was about the world of Santa Claus and Santa Paws. The Search for Santa Paws opened a whole new story world, rather than tying into the movies that it spun off from.

The Search for Santa Paws had a standard story, with a large part of it becoming the blueprint for future Air Bud Entertainment film Russell Madness. That part was about a couple who inherited a toy store and had to run it for one Christmas season before they could sell it. The rest of the movie was filled with Christmas hallmarks such as people falling in love with a store Santa (who just happened to be the real Santa with amnesia), a bunch of orphans looking for new families, and Christmas magic. It was at the same time a part of the Air Bud/Buddies franchise while also becoming its own talking animal thing outside of those series.

That continued in Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups, though the sequel took a much bigger cue from the Buddies movies. One of the most Christmas friendly towns in the world, Pineville, USA, lost a Santa ambassador in the days leading up to Christmas. Without intervention from The North Pole, a new ambassador might not be found, and the Christmas spirit would disappear from the town. Mrs. Claus (Cheryl Ladd) took a trip to Pineville to find a new person to take up the mantle. Noble (Aidan Gemme), Hope (Tatiana Gudegast), Charity (G. Hannelius), and Jingle (Marlowe Peyton), the four puppies of Santa Paws (Tom Everett Scott), sneaked along to prove they were ready to serve the Christmas spirit and inadvertently almost ruined Christmas for the world.

Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups was a continuation of the Santa Paws series of movies, though it harkened back to the Buddies movies in a big way. There was still a story about someone finding the Christmas spirit. In Santa Buddies, that was Puppy Paws. In The Search for Santa Paws, that was Santa Claus himself, after suffering from amnesia. This installment was about a town rediscovering its Christmas spirit after a group of puppies (much like the Buddies!) accidentally conjured it away.

The main problem with Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups was that it paid no attention to the mythology of the films that led into it. Santa Buddies saw Santa Paws as a fully grown dog with one puppy named Puppy Paws. The Search for Santa Paws was a prequel about how Santa Paws became Santa Paws. Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups featured Santa Paws with a litter of puppies with no mention of Puppy Paws. If Puppy Paws were born after and Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups took place before Santa Buddies, there would be no dire need for him to take over for his father. Four other puppies would already be filling that position. If Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups took place after Santa Buddies, then there should have been a mention of Puppy Paws. There wasn’t. The only way it could have worked was if the Santa Paws of Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups was the Puppy Paws of Santa Buddies, making the Santa Pups the third generation. But, again, there was nothing to hint at that.

The Santa Paws spin-off series fizzled out after the second film, with the Buddies franchise finishing up only a year later. The second and third series from a franchise helped pushed the franchise to a seventeen-year span, a longer life than most dogs. That was a formidable span for a franchise that started because one dog could bounce a basketball into a net. Nobody could have ever expected that to happen. Seventeen years, two spin-offs, and a total of fourteen movies.

When a movie becomes popular, there are a few ways that it can continue so that a studio can get more money. Remakes, reboots, and sequels are the most common. The spin-off shouldn’t be ruled out, though. It can be as profitable as those other methods. It might be the more unexpected, unlikely scenario, but television has proven how well it can work. Some movies have tried to replicate that success, and a few of them have found it. It’s only a matter of time until the next great spin-off film happens.

Now for a whole bunch of notes:

• Russell Madness (week 382) was mentioned in this post.
• Robert Vince directed all three movies that were the subject of this week’s post. He also directed Air Buddies (week 270), Snow Buddies (week 270), Space Buddies (week 270), and Russell Madness (week 382).
• Danny Woodburn was in all three of this week’s movies. That made him an eight-time Sunday “Bad” Movies actor. His other movies were 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (week 10), Jingle All the Way (week 160), Lavalantula (week 290), 2 Lava 2 Lantula (week 290), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (week 310).
• Michael Teigen was in Santa Buddies and Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups. They were his sixth and seventh Sunday “Bad” Movies. His other five were In the Name of the King: Two Worlds (week 220), Snow Buddies (week 270), Space Buddies (week 270), Far Cry (week 364), and Russell Madness (week 382).
• Josh Flitter was in all three of this week’s movies, plus all three of the previous Air Buddies movies (week 270).
• Christopher Lloyd appeared as a villain in Santa Buddies. He was previously in The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure (week 39), Baby Geniuses (week 50), Foodfight! (week 143), and Dead Before Dawn 3D (week 149). Welcome to the five-timers’ club!
• Another five-timer was Reese Alexander, who appeared in The Search for Santa Paws after showing up in The Marine 3: Homefront (week 30), In the Name of the King: Two Worlds (week 220), Cop and a Half: New Recruit (week 340), and Far Cry (week 364).
• Jay Brazeau joined the five-timers’ club with Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups. He had already appeared in House of the Dead (week 59), Warriors of Virtue (week 88), Snow Dogs (week 322), and Far Cry (week 364).
• Kaitlyn Maher was featured in all of this week’s movies, as well as Free Birds (week 209) and Russell Madness (week 382), putting her in the five-timers’ club.
• The final five-timers’ club inductee was Chris Coppola, who appeared in all three of this week’s movies, Far Cry (week 364), and Russell Madness (week 382).
• C. Ernst Harth has fairly quickly moved up in the Sunday “Bad” Movies recurring actor ranks. His first appearance was in Space Buddies (week 270), and he has since been seen in Dudley Do-Right (week 336), Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (week 390), and now The Search for Santa Paws.
• Diedrich Bader voiced Comet in both The Search for Santa Paws and Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups. He was previously in Space Buddies (week 270) and Balls of Fury (week 349).
• Richard Kind voiced Eddy in all three of this week’s movies. He was seen in Sharknado 2: The Second One (week 190).
• Tom Everett Scott was the voice of Santa Paws in Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups. He was also in Parental Guidance (week 27) and voiced Buddy in Air Buddies (week 270) and Snow Buddies (week 270).
• Paul Rae appeared in Air Buddies (week 270), Snow Buddies (week 270), Santa Buddies, and Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups.
• Skyler Gisondo and Gig Morton worked on the first three Air Buddies movies (week 270) and Santa Buddies.
• Richard Riehle played Santa Claus in The Search for Santa Paws. He was previously seen in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (week 20) and Dorm Daze 2: College @ Sea (week 40).
• Kathryn Kirkpatrick returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies after Stan Helsing (week 64) and Santa’s Little Helper (week 315).
• Zachary Gordon did voice work in both Santa Buddies and The Search for Santa Paws. He previously worked on Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 (week 70).
• Jonathan Morgan Heit also worked on both Santa Buddies and The Search for Santa Paws. He was in Valentine’s Day (week 168), too.
• Ali Hillis was in Beverly Hills Chihuahua (week 70), Santa Buddies, and Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups.
• Madison Pettis worked on Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 (week 70) and Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta! (week 70) prior to The Search for Santa Paws.
• Bonnie Somerville returned this week in The Search for Santa Paws and Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups after first appearing in 7 Below (week 137).
• Nick Novicki and Mikey Post were in all three of this week’s movies.
• Liliana Mumy voiced Rosebud in Snow Buddies (week 270), Space Buddies (week 270), and Santa Buddies.
• William Samples was in Snow Buddies (week 270) and Santa Buddies.
• Five actors were in both Space Buddies (week 270) and Santa Buddies. They were Field Cate, Nico Ghisi, Ellie Harvie, Quinn Lord, and Sophia Ludwig.
• Genevieve Hannelius, also known as G. Hannelius, was in both The Search for Santa Paws and Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups.
• Santa Buddies saw the second appearance of Aramis Knight, who was in Valentine’s Day (week 168).
• George Wendt played Santa Claus in Santa Buddies. He was previously seen in Sandy Wexler (week 231).
• Craig Anton was in Nic and Tristan Go Mega Dega (week 272) and Santa Buddies.
• There was a quick turnaround for Charisse Baker, who appeared in Halloween: Resurrection (week 413) and Santa Buddies.
• Now onto The Search for Santa Paws with Bill Cobbs, who was also in Ed (week 11).
• Wendi-McLendon Covey was the villain of The Search for Santa Paws. She was also one of the moms in The Single Moms Club (week 179).
• Tom McBeath returned from Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (week 284) to be in The Search for Santa Paws.
• Pete Gardner was in The Search for Santa Paws and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (week 310).
• Sunday “Bad” Movies has had a Eric Keenleyside double feature of Christmas movies with The Search for Santa Paws and Santa’s Little Helper (week 315).
• Another Christmas double feature happened with Peter New, who was in Black Christmas (week 368) and The Search for Santa Paws.
• Ameko Eks Mass Carroll and Alex Kliner were each in Russell Madness (week 382) and The Search for Santa Paws.
• Jason Connery was in The Search for Santa Paws after appearing in Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (week 410).
• James Ram Jatten was featured in Santa Buddies and The Search for Santa Paws.
• The mayor of Pineville in Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups was played by Obba Babatundé. He previously appeared in April Fools (week 18).
• George Newburn returned from Theodore Rex (week 223) to work on Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups.
• Trevor Wright was in Air Buddies (week 270) and Pat Finn was in Space Buddies (week 270) before they both showed up in Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups.
• Finally, Tatiana Gudegast had two roles in Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups. She previously showed up in Russell Madness (week 382).
• Have you seen Santa Buddies or the Santa Paws spin-offs? What do you think of them? How do you feel about film spin-offs? Let me know your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter.
• If you want to suggest a movie for me to watch for a future week of Sunday “Bad” Movies, tell me on Twitter or in the comments. I’m always open to suggestions.
• As always, you can head on over to Instagram to check out Sunday “Bad” Movies. When I’m not as busy as I’ve been this past week, there’s some fun stuff that goes up over there.
• And now for next week. We should be back on schedule next week with the post instead of this releasing on Tuesday because I’ve been very busy stuff. The movie will be a Hallmark movie because of course I’m going to include something like that. Holly’s Holiday will be up next week. Come on back and enjoy whatever I write about that one.

Santa Jaws (2018)

The holiday season is upon us once again. Christmas trees are going up. Lights are being strung on houses up and down every street. Radio stations are changing their formats for a month so that people can feel festive while driving to and from their daily jobs. If they’re not working from home, that is. Christmas movies have taken over television networks. And, for the next three weeks, Sunday “Bad” Movies will be diving into holiday movies.

Every year brings a variety of Christmas movies to Sunday “Bad” Movies. Usually, there’s a Hallmark movie or something equivalent to that thrown into the mix. There’s usually a random one that could be animated, a Santa movie, or a religious movie. And there’s always horror. The movie kicking off this year’s holiday string of movies falls into that last category. It’s a horror movie that fits right into a niche horror subgenre that has come up in Sunday “Bad” Movies a few times now. It’s a Christmas shark movie called Santa Jaws.

This post is going to be a little different than what I’ve been doing recently. It’s going to be a kind of blog post that I haven’t done in a while. It may have been a few years since I last did one of these. This is going to be a running commentary of my thoughts while watching the movie. I’ve never seen Santa Jaws before, which might make it a bad choice for a blog commentary, but I’m going to do it anyway. I’ll put time codes and such to make it easy for anyone who watches the movie to understand whereabouts in the movie the stuff I’m writing about would go. Why don’t we get started, then?

00:00:06 – I can already see how self-aware Santa Jaws is. The title came up on screen. The “Santa” resembled the font from Home Alone, while the “Jaws” resembled the font from Jaws. They added a string of Christmas lights around the letters in case you didn’t know about the Christmas connection that the movie had.

00:01:12 – This movie feels like it’s the bad movie that people watch in another movie. There’s a Santa threatening to throw some woman into shark-filled water, and a heroic guy pointing a gun at Santa. There are lines like “Are you going to shoot me like a naughty little boy or fight me like a man?” and “No sugar cookies for you. You’re gonna eat your words.” There was effort put into making the movie feel like the bad movie within a movie. That’s for sure.

00:01:37 – Good guy kicked Santa in the balls. Maybe I should say bells. They sure jingled like bells.

00:02:15 – Evil Santa was kicked into the water and chomped up by a shark. If this doesn’t turn out to be a bad movie within a movie, I’m pretty sure that will be the origin of a Santa shark that will terrorize people.

00:03:08 – Ah, okay. So that opening bit was a comic book that a kid was drawing. That explains why the tone was what it was. Everything is falling into place.

00:04:30 – The comic book kid has a partner. The comic book kid draws what the partner writes. The partner’s sense of humour, though… Woof. It’s a lot of puns. He really likes puns. And all the puns are bad. Very bad.

00:05:25 – There’s a very television movie feel to the score. That makes sense. Santa Jaws was a movie that aired on SyFy. The music feels cheaply bombastic. That will probably keep up through the entire movie, though it should end up turning from the upbeat nature of the early music to something darker as the story gets a little darker. Still feels like cheap television quality, though.

00:07:08 – Cody’s family includes a grandfather (I think) who looks sort of like Santa Claus, a mom who is busy in the kitchen, a brother who is a baseball pitcher, a guy who I assume is the dad who isn’t doing much of anything, a rich uncle Mike, and the uncle’s model wife. The model wife is a “Snapstagram” model because the movie didn’t have the money to pay for Snapchat or Instagram name rights. You probably understood that already, though.

00:09:20 – Apparently, Cody used his art skills to draw a satiric picture of his principal. He was sticking it to the man because uniforms suppress individuality. His parents weren’t having any of that and now Cody isn’t allowed to go to the comic book Christmas party. There’s a surprising amount of drama that has nothing to do with a Santa shark in this movie.

00:09:48 – “Who wants eggnog? Homemade! Made it myself.” I think that’s what homemade means, my dude.

00:11:07 – The tropes are just a rolling in. Cody got in trouble for his rebellious cartoon. His uncle Mike wanted to make him feel better and revealed that Cody’s strict, by the books mother had a rebellious streak when she was younger. “You should ask her about her punk phase.” This is parental writing 101. When a kid feels like their parents just don’t understand, the parents always understand more than they think. Because the parents were like them, you see? Like parent like child.

00:13:51 – Cody got a pen as a gift and started drawing Santa Jaws with it. Santa Jaws then came to life. This must be some sort of a Stranger Than Fiction sort of thing. Instead of an author, it’s a comic book artist. Instead of Will Ferrell, it’s a shark.

00:15:17 – I should mention that Cody has a crush on the neighbour girl. I don’t know if she lives next door or across the street. I don’t think that has quite been established yet. But he’s been embarrassing himself around her multiple times. She caught him looking at her from his bedroom window (with binoculars, like a creep), and then he tripped over a Christmas decoration while waving to her in the front yard. This will definitely be a romantic thing through the rest of the movie.

00:17:55 – Cody and his grandfather had a nice talk about how Cody felt like he could never get the girl. It was a nice heartfelt moment. They finished it off with some of Gramps’s homemade eggnog that he made himself. Then the Santa Jaws shark jumped out of the water and ate Grampa right in front of Cody. That was the best thing that could have happened in this movie. I love it.

00:18:35 – Here comes another parent trope. Cody tried to tell his family that a shark ate his grandfather and they didn’t believe him because he’s a kid who was supposed to be grounded. The parents not listening to children who know something is wrong trope is all through the horror genre. If there’s a horror movie that stars kids, it surely has this trope. Until the adults see it with their own eyes, they won’t believe it. But the kids know. Cody knows. He saw it.

00:23:47 – Cody goes to the comic book store to try and get his friends to help him. The owner tells him about a girl who frequents the shop and likes Cody’s art. Guess what? It’s the neighbour girl. Who could have seen that twist coming?

00:31:12 – Uncle Mike got eaten by Santa Jaws. His model girlfriend hasn’t been eaten yet. She lost her phone in the water, though, so she won’t be sharing anything on Snapstagram for the rest of the movie, I think. I’m a little sad the movie didn’t show Uncle Mike being chomped. It showed a POV heading toward him, then cut away to his girlfriend as he screamed. I want more of the imagery of the Grandfather’s death.

00:31:43 – It seems like a good time to bring up Cody’s clothing. Ugly Christmas sweater. I know that these sweaters are supposed to be ugly. That’s the point of them. For some reason, in movies, the costume designers always seem to choose ugly Christmas sweaters that aren’t that ugly. Cody’s shirt is not that ugly. It’s red with white snowflake-like stripes on it. That’s not that bad. Just wanted to say that ugly Christmas sweaters and movie ugly Christmas sweaters are two entirely different beasts and the movie versions aren’t really that ugly.

00:36:59 – There’s a guy dressed as an elf sitting on the pier with his feet in the water. Santa Jaws pushed a boat into him, which cut off his legs at the knees. This is what I wanted! I want more of this! Give me more!

00:39:41 – This kid really reminds me of Edward Furlong.

00:41:28 – The parents just saw the shark. Now they’re surprised that their kid was telling the truth, even though Cody had zero reason to lie about his grandfather being eaten.

00:46:05 – Santa Jaws lassoed the Snapstagram model with Christmas lights because she was on a dock eating a candy cane. That might have been the most ridiculous kill situation of the movie. Maybe not the most ridiculous looking, but definitely the most ridiculous details of a kill so far.

00:51:42 – Cody’s brother and his comic partner join Cody and the neighbour girl to fight off Santa Jaws. They brought weapons. Mostly, it was a box of explosives marked “Danger Explosives” in giant writing on every side. It looks very cartoonish, which kind of fits because they’re fighting off a comic book character.

00:52:30 – Another trope just reared its head. “Honey, we can’t help our boys if we don’t stay safe.” That’s always the reason that people don’t jump to action in movies. Or in television shows. I know there’s a risk vs. reward sort of thing going on, but if the reward is saving someone you love, I don’t think risk really ever factors into it.

00:53:12 – Best friend/comic partner just got his ass chomped. It was glorious.

00:59:20 – Clark, the comic store owner, has been an ass the whole movie. He insulted the kids. He wouldn’t help them fight a shark, instead sending them out without adult supervision. He kept Cody’s comic and gave it to a random person in town. Now he stole Cody’s pen and is acting super suspicious. Is he a surprise villain?

1:00:49 – It’s time for a car chase because Clark took off when they confronted him. Surprise villain!

1:05:48 – Clark just got eaten. He tried to steal the pen so he could draw himself whatever he wanted and instead got eaten by a shark. Neighbour girl got eaten too, after scrapping with Clark to get the pen back to Cody.

1:08:58 – Santa Jaws got more festive. Cody drew out her teeth, but she ate some ornaments that gave her red and green teeth. Cody drew a candy cane to impale her, and it just gave her a horn. The obstacles keep piling up as the movie moves toward its ending.

1:11:11 – The parents are back to not believing the kids. How are they back to that stage? On another note, I’m pretty sure that Cody will just write all of his friends/family back into existence with the magic pen. And the Snapstagram model because… Why not?

1:13:48 – I’m getting major Home Alone vibes from this “getting ready to fight” montage. First off, they’re getting ready to fight like they’re Kevin from Home Alone. So the scene kind of has a thematic tie to those montages in the first two Home Alone flicks. The music also sounds eerily similar. It’s not the same music. I know it’s not. But they chose something really close to it. I’m almost positive they’re going for a Home Alone homage with this scene.

1:18:04 – So the family decided that the best plan was to slingshot exploding Christmas turkeys at Santa Jaws. It was kind of like the idea in Jaws to just blow up Bruce. It didn’t work and half the family got killed. The brother, Josh, did get a solid moment before he was impaled. One of the turkeys fell off the slingshot and he just did a giant yeet of it at the shark. Badass, but immediately followed by Santa Jaws horning him. The dad was just an idiot and jumped in the water when his son died.

1:18:33 – Cody saw one of the turkeys floating in the water. When Santa Jaws went to eat it, he shot it. Big explosion. Santa Jaws sank to the bottom of the water while Ave Maria played and I laughed heartily.

1:20:28 – Santa Jaws isn’t dead! Cody’s mom got ate!

1:23:34 – Okay, so there’s clearly a lot of Home Alone in the movie. After spending the entire time trying to stop Santa Jaws and losing his family, Cody wakes up on Christmas morning to his family alive and well. He’s happy they’re back and he’s nice to them, for a change. It’s like the end of Home Alone. Cody even offers to pull Grandpa’s cinnamon buns out of the oven. Everyone is surprised and thanks Cody. But instead of pulling the cinnamon buns out, he runs to the neighbour’s house to check in on the girl. Screw family. Think about the girl. Right? Yeah… Uh… Okay movie.

1:26:36 – Credits are rolling. That pen is evil. That pen is the villain.

Okay, so that was Santa Jaws. Final thoughts. The movie clearly took inspiration from three other movies in a big way. The first two were two that I mentioned throughout the commentary. Home Alone kept creeping into the movie. The family theme, the font of the title card, and that montage all screamed Home Alone to me. The font, the shark, and the three exploding turkeys all felt like elements of Jaws making it into the movie. Then there was Lord of the Rings. That pen was very much the one ring. It had an inscription. Everyone wanted it and it turned people evil. The ending hinted that Cody would keep the pen and bad things would come of it. Clark was Gollum. There were parallels.

That ending felt a little off. Need I mention the cinnamon buns that never got taken out of the oven again? Cody was the only person who remembered the events of Christmas Eve. What happened on Christmas Eve for everyone else? What do they think happened? Their memories of Santa Jaws were completely wiped. The neighbour girl still had the comic that Cody burned to kill the shark. What? Oh, and Cody never checked in on his friend/partner or Clark, the comic book guy. Are Clark’s things still around? He used the pen to conjure a car, a bunch of money, and a Russian girlfriend names Svetlana. Is Svetlana still running around? Did she get erased when time reset itself or was she still created in this timeline? Was it all a dream? Then why did Cody know that the neighbour girl had the comic book? I’m super confused by the ending and only getting more confused by writing about it.

Santa Jaws was, overall, a fun and light shark horror movie that fit well into the holiday season. If you’re looking for something a little different, it might be up your alley. It has the Christmas spirit without being too overwhelming. It has the shark fun that SyFy usually resorts to in the summer, without losing any of the genuine effort that should go into movies. It’s one of the better shark movies that the channel has released. That was a fun way to kick off the new year of Sunday “Bad” Movies.

Now for a few notes:

• Santa Jaws featured Ritchie Montgomery, an actor who also appeared in Playing for Keeps (week 21), Monster in the Closet (week 55), and Road House 2: Last Call (week 200).
• Danny Cosmo was also in Road House 2: Last Call (week 200) and Santa Jaws.
• You might have noticed Jim Klock in Santa Jaws. He was previously seen in American Ultra (week 261).
• Finally, Santa Jaws featured Carrie Lazar from Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver (week 302).
• Have you seen Santa Jaws? What did you think of it? Was it filled with as many influences as I thought it was? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
• Twitter and the comments section are the perfect places to find me and suggest movies I should be covering for Sunday “Bad” Movies. Get those suggestions in so I can schedule them at some point.
• Sunday “Bad” Movies is on Instagram. Head on over there to see what’s cooking.
• Finally, let’s talk about next week. It will be a franchise week. Yes, it’s that time again. I’ll be revisiting a franchise that has been covered before, which has three Christmas movies in it. Well, one Christmas movie in it and two Christmas spin-offs. I only covered the first three films in the franchise before, and now I’m moving to the next one. I’ll be watching Santa Buddies, The Search for Santa Paws, and Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups. I don’t know exactly what to expect. Hopefully they’re more Snow Buddies than Space Buddies in quality. One can only hope. See you next week for that one.