Problem you have with a sequel to a beloved, timeless classic Christmas film is trying to recreate some of the magic that made it special. But none of the previous film's successful ingredients are available for the sequel. I felt while watching it that the heart was in the right place, and the casting isn't terrible (Daniel Stern in the Darren McGavin substitute part is fun), but the evocation of its particular period isn't quite as catchy and irresistible. Bob Clark's directorial touches, Shepherd's voice narration (Nat Mauldin tries in the sequel but that richness of Shepherd and the missing quirks in the voice and sense of humor that carried with it a certain charm and wit is missing), the casting of McGavin, Melinda Dillon, Billingsley, and Petrella as the family of the original film is hard to duplicate no matter how talented their "replacements" might be (Braeden Lemasters looks similar to Billingsley and offers a likable, aims-to-please lead but it just feels like a cheap knockoff and Valin Shinyei lacks all of the Petrella whiny, obnoxious qualities as the younger brother who snorts when nosing mashed potatoes; I think the ultimate difference is that Billingsley and Petrella felt like brothers, while Lemasters and Shinyei just don't have the same chemistry). And as I was watching it, what the original film was able to accomplish in little bits here and there (the furnace is a substantial pain in Stern's ass, and Higbee's Toy Store is featured as Ralphie and friends' employer to secure extra cash), the sequel tries to emphasize a bit too much. Stern, as the father who is overly frugal (ice fishing to save from paying three bucks on a turkey, willing to pay less for a much older furnace, using manipulative behavior to save on a car for Ralphie), has the expression of a frustrated family man down pat but McGavin is an impossible act to follow...the blustery working class dad and husband, believing he's almost always right even when he's wrong, often a bit hardnosed even as he's lovably oafish and sometimes unaware of his mistakes even as he makes them. Stern has all the tools to bring us a similar character, but McGavin will always remain the blueprint. Similar to blue-eyed, innocuous Billingsley, Lemasters looks the part and flashes a wide smile and posits a driven personality to secure 85 dollars to pay for work on a car accidentally damaged in a clumsy mishap while inside it (his mission while Billingsley was to get his parents to buy him a BB gun) at a car dealership (the car in the sequel is the BB gun of the original). The sequel also produces a pretty teenage girl Ralphie crushes on, getting both the car and girl as the film closes. There aren't a lot of fantasy sequences (one has Ralphie rescuing his crush from a Nazi), and Stacey Travis can't match Dillon's peculiarities, always seeming to be overshadowed by Stern than his equal. Dillon was every bit as important to the enduring legacy of the original as Billingsley and McGavin. And the tube suction tongue/lips sight gag in the sequel regarding Schwartz is right out of a spoof instead of being a memory of double-dog dare that went terribly wrong...it seems the sequel continues to try and replicate what made the original so endearing (the exotic dancer leg lamp even returns) but just isn't up to the task. This will probably go down as a nice try but failure.