I enjoyed this movie very much, but there was a lot less about Christmas than I would have expected. There's just a narrated storybook bit about one Christmas at the beginning, and then the whole film is focused on the search for the Christmas star, but it's not really tied into Christmas in any meaningful way. Still, if you don't look at so much as a Christmas story but more of a fairytale, then it's very satisfying. The dubbing was decent (although I would have preferred the Norwegian soundtrack with subtitles), and I'm so glad they used British dubbing voices, because the accents fit in so much better with the medieval European setting than American voices would have (I'm American myself, so this is not a manifestation of xenophobia, but I really hate when fairy tales which obviously take place in medieval Europe are acted or dubbed by American actors who use modern vocal expression without any attempt at authenticity. It can throw a whole movie for me). But, I digress. What I really loved about this movie were the breathtaking scenery, all the snow (yes, any decent Christmas movie has to have snow!), the scenes in the old Norwegian town, costumes, etc. The visual aesthetic was like a cross between the Golden Compass and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, but the story was much less sophisticated... as I said, more like a Grimm's fairytale. The villains were typical unidimensional villains. It would have been a better movie if their characters had been better rounded out. And, of course, if we were supposed to be surprised by who Sonia turned out to be, then it wasn't much of a surprise. Pretty predictable. Maybe it would take kids longer to figure it out, but I have my doubts. The animatronic bear was a bit lame, but that scene didn't last long, and the ride on the North Wind was well done as far as special effects. I did like the little foray into the gnome's home in the tree stump. That was really cute. All in all, a cute movie that will keep your attention, and enough snow to put you in the Christmas mood, but in order to get more stars, it would have to have more Christmas themes and decorations in it.
Review of Journey to the Christmas Star
