Now, I bet you're all wondering what the hell is this movie & why am I reviewing this so close to Christmas? Well, I found it on Sky when looking at Christmas movies. I was running out of ideas because I wanted to do more animated Christmas movies instead of just specials as my comeback for this year, especially given that I've done a few live action movies to add to the list. Starring the likes of Martin Freeman, Ashley Tisdale, Tim Curry & Joan Collins, will this movie make Santa worth saving, or is it getting strange now the number of times Christmas needs to be saved? Let's take a look!
Story: There are three words I can think of to describe the story: it's bland, confusing and annoying. What if I told you that this was in fact about an outcast elf who longed to be an inventor who has to save the North Pole & Santa from an evil corporation longing to be the fastest at selling products online? Yeah, to say this is generic and ridiculous is an understatement. It lists every single stereotype known to man in these movies, making it so predictable from the very start. Filled with plot holes, the time travel aspect is what makes it beyond confusing and there are no rules about how it works in their world. The execution doesn't really help because it does absolutely nothing to make it new or exciting. It's just one scene after the next with not much pay-off, leading to dull and predictable action scenes with no sense of peril or danger. And this leads to one question: why should we care if the villain's company wants to find out Santa's time travel secret? Santa has to work one day while the company have to work 365 days, so why should we believe Christmas will be ruined? As for the humour, none of it made me laugh, mostly because of the characters' incompetence and the surprising mean spiritedness of all the elves around Bernard. Oh yeah, and the obligatory gas humour and low brow jokes. So, pretty much, I can't get angry at this movie because I was that bored while watching it, I really couldn't give a flying crap over what would happen by the end!
Animation: It is a tad better than other rip offs, but the animation still has a lot of flaws. Made by Prana Animation Studios, the overall quality looks like a direct to DVD movie. The character designs clearly try to emulate works like Disney, but none of them look that charming or distinguishable because they all have similar features and it's clear that they reused character models and changed a few elements on them. The texturing is also very inconsistent as the skin can look more like plastic, the hair feels more like clunks than individual strands and the fur on the reindeer is virtually non-existent. The backgrounds of the North Pole also don't help as it never really dives into the world itself, mostly looking more like a toy set than an actual North Pole. It doesn't really help that they're so limited that they use very generic fonts for different areas, even if I'll admit that it is really colourful. And I will say that some aspects like the time machine and memory machine are pretty creative, even if it feels like some parts of the modern technology feel like something out of Arthur Christmas or Prep and Landing. Wait a minute...oh, that's why the animation felt familiar! This is blatantly trying to copy Arthur Christmas' world! The similar elf designs, modern technology & even the stables look familiar! I guess that sums up the animation: despite being colourful, the glitches & elements it rips off all drag it down!
Characters: Given what this movie clearly is, then it's safe to say that the characters are exactly what you'd expect. Bernard (Martin Freeman) such a generic loser outcast stereotype, that even I believe it and don't even really root for him to save the day despite it being obvious he will. Snowy (Noel Clarke), is the black stereotype always doubting Bernard until he sporadically decides to help him save Santa in his mission. Shiny (Ashley Tisdale) is the kind of sort of love interest to Bernie, but she's really just an optimistic elf as she believes in Bernard and that Neville can be stopped. Even with that she can easily be qualified as the token sassy girl. The villain, Neville Baddington (yes, that's really his name voiced by the obligatory voice actor for hammy-and-over-the-top-evil-villains himself, Tim Curry), wants to discover the secret to Santa delivering presents super fast so his Amazon-esque company can be the fastest at delivering packages. I think it's safe to say that he's a terrible villain despite Curry's admittedly fun times with hamming it up and his plan being beyond ridiculous. His mother (Joan Collins. I'm not kidding) is the eviler of the two as she constantly puts her son down despite his 'efforts' in their convoluted plan. Oh yeah, and Blitzen is the unfunny comic relief with a confusing running gag of being incomprehensible despite Bernard's reindeer translator! Even Santa himself isn't that interesting just as the generic older wise figure like in many films featuring the big guy and Tim Conway just doesn't suit the character & Mrs Claus (Pam Ferris) barely appears nor does contribute much. But do you want to know who was the most infuriating character out of everyone? All the elves in the North Pole! Somehow Santa hired the most mean spirited and close minded elves who immediately turn against Bernard and give up when Neville invades the North Pole without even trying. I get that Bernard wants to fix his mistakes, but it doesn't really help when literally everyone around him blames him for causing the villains to find the North Pole when it was actually their fault for breaking his inventions without listening to him! So, it's safe to say that from the extras alone, the characters are all beyond one dimensional & annoying!
Songs: Yep, this is a musical and yep, every single song in this is lazy! A majority of them are stupid dated pop songs with banal melodies and lyrics which aren't worth listening to! Bernard's first song, Prospects, is his I Want song which tries way too hard to be all chipper and optimistic, although it can make him look a bit egotistical when he sings about wanting everyone to be like him. An Elf Like Me is the bland 'sad song' juxtaposed with the first song to hammer down that Bernard believes he's a loser and all hope is lost. Do or Die is such a terrible pop song to motivate the other elves to stop Neville and to be more like Bernard. My Christmas Wish is a cloyingly annoying song that tries to be all sentimental & sweet to manipulate the audience. It doesn't really help that it's shown at the beginning and the end of the movie in some 'big plot twist' over who the kid was who may or may not be a young Neville. There's only one other song in the credits, Some Kind of Miracle, which is a dull pop song sung by Ashley Tisdale and sounds just like every generic pop princess song from the mid-2000s despite being made in 2013. I think it's safe to say that the songs are just in here for filler and have absolutely no purpose in the story or characters whatsoever!
Story: ðŸ˜
Animation: ðŸ˜
Characters: 😡
Songs: 😡
Overall:ðŸ˜
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