Headscratchers / The Santa Clause

• Is anyone else disturbed by how emotionless the Elves are at the news of the old Santa's death? They don't show any grief and in fact, aren't perturbed in the slightest. Didn't they have any affection for him at all? Who was this guy? Did he have a family like Scott? He at least would have had parents. Did the Elves notify them? Let them know they wouldn't have a body to bury? Did they attend the funeral?
  • Considering how old all the elves are, it's possible they're just used to it by now.
  • Maybe they've been going through a period of getting a new Santa practically every year because incompetent guys keep getting the job, so at this point, they're just resigned to it and have avoided getting emotionally attached. Note that they don't really start making an effort and engaging with Scott until he starts showing some sincere zest and aptitude for the role.
  • Maybe the old Santa didn't die. His body disappears, leaving the suit empty. When there is clearly magic of some kind involved, it is just as likely that the old Santa simply vanished from Scott's lawn and reappeared elsewhere. Maybe he gave up the mantle and returned to his old life. Or went to some kind of magical retirement home for legendary figures. Either way, the elves would know that is what happened to him, and they would have no reason to grieve for someone they know did not actually die. To them, their boss just retired and they got a new one.
  • The Santa Clauses reveals that it was all planned ahead of time.
    • The Elves have had Scott under observation as far back in the film as his trip to Denny's (A boy in the background as they're sitting down has pointy ears). Even in the original Scott's tenure as Santa was no accident.

• Why doesn't Scott just show everyone his magically growing beard to prove that he has no control over his new appearance?
  • If magic was making that beard grow and changing his physical appearance, what else could the magic revolving around the Santa Clause do? If Scott managed to get photographical or video evidence of the beard growing, magic could alter it; it could have the picture of the beard become him in his underpants, or the video now showing him singing in the shower. Either way, it's not going to let him get out of the Clause.
  • I think the point the OP was trying to make was that Scott's beard grew almost instantly after he shaved it off. Wouldn't it have been easy to invite Laura and Neil to his house, come out of the bathroom clean-shaven, and then let them watch as his beard grew back? The way they talked, they thought he was trying to look like Santa, and thus not shaving at all.
    • You're missing the point of the response. Scott's beard isn't growing because his genes have been reprogrammed to grow his beard extremely fast, it's growing because of magic... magic that specifically works to assist in the Santa myth, which includes keeping the secret of his existence. If Laura and Neil came over and Scott shaved, the magic would be entirely likely to just not grow his beard while they were around, making him look even crazier, and then poof back into wavy snowy locks the moment they left.

• The first female elf that Scott meets says he's "head elf" even though he obviously means he needs to talk to someone. Bernard is right there, fills an obviously supervisory role, and can answer all of his questions. Was she being deliberately obtuse? Furthermore, if Santa's title is "head elf" in 1 and we know Bernard's is the same thing in 2, why would an (admittedly high-ranking and experienced) elf take Santa's title, and what would they be calling Santa now?
  • Maybe Scott delegated whatever job 'head elf' entails to Bernard, possibly being a bit less directly involved in running the North Pole than the previous Santa. With how we see Scott going around the North Pole in the second film the delegation was probably meant to give him more time to come up with new ideas, get to know and befriend the elves working for him, and probably simply not have to personally look at paperwork as much.
  • As Santa Claus, he is the one in charge at the North Pole. Scott was just asking the wrong questions.
  Scott: Kid, who's in charge here?
  Elf: You are.
  Scott: Who gives the orders? Who's your boss?
  Elf: You are.
  Scott: No, no, no. Uh—W-Who's the head elf?
  Elf: You are.

• Charlie says at the end of the film that he wants to continue the "Family Business" when he grows up AKA became the next Santa. Doesn't that mean that one day he'll have to kill his dad?
  • Or his father could just retire and hand him the suit.
  • Turns out, that was indeed going to be Scott's plan in The Santa Clauses, he offers the role of Santa to a now adult Charlie (who's now around the same age as his father was in the first film when he first put the suit on), he was actually his first choice to succeed him. Charlie respectfully turns it down since the North Pole isn't a good location to raise a family, forcing Scott to select another person.