Christmas is Here Again

Released back in 2007, this was released as a direct to DVD movie by Renegade Animation, who are mostly responsible for cartoons like the Mr Men series & Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi. This is also funnily notable as this would be made into a stage show & would also be the second Christmas themed movie for Ed Asner after 2003's Elf! Gee, it seems even before Pixar's Up people thought getting Ed Asner for an animated movie would make everything better (which my first entry for this year The Nutcracker Sweet proved VERY wrong indeed)! And strangely, this would be nominated 1 Annie each in 2008 AND 2009 for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production for Madison Davenport as the protagonist & Best Animated Home Entertainment Production. Why? I don't know! Anyway, will this movie make me glad that Christmas comes every year, or will this make me wish that Christmas would never happen again? Let's take a look!

Story: To be honest, the story is a bit of a mix for me. It's mostly just your generic journey/adventure plot as an orphan called Sophianna along with an elf, reindeer, fox & trying to get Santa's stolen sack to deliver the presents back from the evil Krad & his minion Selves. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that because the sack was stolen, there was no Christmas for thirty years! Not a lot is done to make it original besides the Christmas concept & whatever is done is pretty predictable, including the mole redeeming himself, the message of not giving up, the cliched characters, the cute orphan & the animal sidekicks. It's all a paint by numbers script. And do you want to know the ridiculous reason why Santa's sack is so vital to the North Pole? The sack is made from the blanket used to swaddle the baby Jesus! I am not even kidding even if it's a reason behind why they just can't make another sack from scratch! I mean, that's like the Easter Bunny's basket being made from the straw in the manger Jesus slept in! They simply don't mix together. However, I will give this credit that there are some good emotional scenes thanks to the focus on the characters along with the subtle message of not letting your disability hinder what you're capable of doing (even if Finding Dory did that better 9 years later). It's definitely not bad, it's with no doubt harmless, but it just felt a tad...mediocre.

Animation: Yeah, given that this was a direct to DVD film, the animation isn't really the best. In fact, this feels very limited. The character designs all look pretty generic, but admittedly cute, with what type of characters they're supposed to be up to the point that they're not that memorable except for the villain. The backgrounds can also for the most part look generic like the orphanage and North Pole, although the design of Krad's lair looks pretty cool despite the execution. Funny enough, the overall design sort of reminded me of cartoons like Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends & The Powerpuff Girls (it makes sense for the latter since this was made by the same animation studio.) There were moments where it looked creative rather it be in a few musical numbers or just the backdrop itself. It doesn't really help that there is hardly any lighting featured, making the movie look virtually flat with no sense of depth to the locations or characters. Sure, the animation may look generic for the most part, but I've definitely seen MUCH worse works than this.

Characters: When it comes to the characters, they can mostly be categorized by their stereotype. Sophiana (Madison Davenport) is an orphan who has a limp & after freeing Don Rocco, tries to get Santa's sack back from the evil Krad. To be honest, she can be a little too perfect with her forever optimistic personality despite being who I like to call Little Miss Woobie because she's just so darn cute (if not cloyingly). Miss Dowdy (Kathy Bates) is just the generic strict woman who runs the orphanage, but isn't really the villain & shows that she does have a heart by the end. Buster (Norm MacDonald) is admittedly funny as the snarky sly fox who helps along with his friend the polar bear Charlie (Brad Garrett), his moral conscience. Wait, why am I getting a sense of deja vu with these two characters...? Paul Rocco is the elf Sophiana befriends and is just your generic sidekick with an obnoxious personality and Dart is just your cute animal sidekick reindeer who happens to be the grandson of one of Santa's original reindeers and wants to follow in his footsteps. Santa (Andy Griffith) & Victoria Claus (Shirley Jones) are just your generic loving parental figures towards Sophiana and don't really do that much to further the story despite his sack being the plot device. But then there's the villain Krad (Ed Asner), who despite his interesting design & Asner's performance, is one of the weakest villains I've seen for an animated film. His only motivation behind stealing Santa's sack besides being evil is just revenge against the big guy for not letting him give coal to children! Despite the good voice acting, a couple of funny sidekicks and not really being that unlikeable, these characters just feel really bland and generic.

Songs: To be honest, all the songs in this feel like they were made up on the spot! Someone Stole Santa's Sack feel very generic and bland. When Will I See? is an overtly schmaltzy song which feels a tad manipulative with making the audience feel sorry for Sophiana despite being a perfect Mary Sue. Easy To Dream is equally as syrupy and doesn't actually say that much other than the 'positive message' like the previous song. It was clearly just there for Shirley Jones to have a song. The Storytelling Song is just there for Paul to recap everything we've literally just seen ten minutes ago to Sophiana and felt obnoxious and annoying. All Because Of Me is the song Santa & Mrs Claus sing about what would happen if the children didn't get presents. It's just filler given that we already know the consequences of what would happen if the sack was stolen. I Stole Santa's Sack is a terrible villain's song which states the painfully obvious and hardly explains Krad's motivations for stealing the sack nor is it even that memorable or catchy. This is What We Should Do is just another 'motivational' song which yet again explains what happened and why they should get the sack back.  I'm Evil is another generic villain's song which, again, doesn't explain Krad's motivations for being evil in the first place. Apparently he was just born evil. The title song is a cloyingly cute song sung by children after Christmas is saved and is equally as generic as all the other songs. The songs overall feel mediocre and uninspired and make the movie feel like it's going on for an eternity.

Overall this is just...meh. The story is pretty bland, the animation, while colourful, is generic, the characters are mediocre at best and the songs were really unnecessary. I don't not recommend it, it's just that it's...OK (seriously, that's the best word I can describe this movie) in the grand scale of other animated Christmas movies out there. Is it a holiday classic that I'll watch every year? No. Do I regret watching it? Absolutely not!
Story: 😕
Animation: 😕
Characters: 😕
Songs: 😠
Overall: 😕