MOVIE REVIEW: NORM OF THE NORTH (2016)

From IMDB:

Storyline

When a real estate development invades his Arctic home, Norm and his three lemming friends head to New York City, where Norm becomes the mascot of the corporation in an attempt to bring it down from the inside and protect his homeland.

Ratings: 2.3/10 from 670 users Metascore: 22/100 

Reviews: 16 user | 23 critic | 16 from Metacritic.com

From Rotten Tomatoes:

MOVIE INFO

A polar bear of many words, Norm's greatest gripe is simple: there is no room for tourists in the Arctic. But when a maniacal developer threatens to build luxury condos in his own backyard, Norm does what all normal polar bears would do...he heads to New York City to stop it. With a cast of ragtag lemmings at his side, Norm takes on the big apple, big business and a big identity crisis to save the day. -- (C) Lionsgate

Rating: PG (for mild rude humor and action)

Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Comedy

Directed By: Trevor Wall

Written By: Jack Donaldson, Derek Elliott, Malcolm T. Goldman, Daniel Altiere, Steven Altiere

US Box Office: $6.8M

Runtime: 1 hr. 26 min.

Lionsgate - Official Site

TOMATOMETER 0%

Average Rating: 2.7/10 | Reviews Counted: 36

Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 36

Critics Consensus: A pioneering feat in the field of twerking polar bear animation but blearily retrograde in every other respect, Norm of the North should only be screened in case of parental emergency.

AUDIENCE SCORE 24% liked it

Average Rating: 1.8/5 | User Ratings: 3,722

NORM OF THE NORTH OPENS ON THE 21st OF JANUARY IN MALAYSIA AND ON THE 15th OF JANUARY IN THE US. FOR EVERYWHERE ELSE FIND OUT HERE. 

This is Norm, he's the fuzzy character you're supposed to fall in love with. If you're like 8 that is. ©Lionsgate

So another animation with talking animals...

It's safe to say that if it's an animation and it doesn't feature human characters it'll feature talking animals or in the case of Pixar anything else that can be anthropomorphized. And if it does feature animals there's definitely going to be some sort of dancing. 

So as you can read up there it's the story of Norm a talking polar bear who's concerned about his home being invaded by a real estate developer. So off he goes to New York with his lemming sidekicks to stop the developer by telling the world of what can happen if the developer's plans go ahead. It's a not so subtle film about saving the arctic. 

Bill Nighy plays that seagull there, he's an amazing actor that you've probably never noticed much but in this one his talents are wasted.©Lionsgate

The film stars Rob Schneider as Norm, you probably know him as that guy who always shows up in an Adam Sandler or maybe as Deuce Bigalow in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) and its sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005). Also lending their voices in this film is Heather Graham as Vera, Ken Jeong as Mr. Greene and Bill Nighy as Socrates. Not exactly the biggest names in hollywood at the moment unless you watch a lot of movies. 

Let's get right down to what I think of this movie. I didn't like it. There is little to like in or about this movie. The characters don't really look all that good nor are they in anyway original. The animation is not subtle and is too exaggerated. The story is as I mentioned above is a not at all subtle message about saving the arctic and even worse the way it unfolds is just so uneven and jarring that you can't really enjoy it at all. 

These are lemmings. They are Norm's sidekicks. Think Minions and the Penguins of Madagascar meets the lemurs from Madagascar but none of the cute, funny or interesting. ©Lionsgate

The whole time I sat watching it it made me think that this film would be better off as a straight to DVD title or a special during something like a Saturday Morning Cartoons line-up. The animation also made me think of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) but not that it's as good as but how it could actually look worse even after 14 years of advancements and progress in the genre. 

There's this feel that the film makers thought that they'd figured out how to make a successful animation by pulling together all the elements from all the other successful animations and putting them in this one. There's the cute animals which aren't very cute, neither are the human characters. There's the cute sidekicks which in this case are lemmings which to me appear to be their attempt at combining the lemurs from Madagascar (2005) and the lovably quirky Minions from the Despicable Me movies and of course their own origin film Minions (2015), except that they're not all that cute or quirky or funny. Norm dances so obviously they thought that would be cute too like how it was in Happy Feet (2006) except that it's not as cute, the choreography seems to be inspired by a drunk man trying to impress girls and when it does happen it seems to be out of place.

These her are all the characters that matter in this movie and they really don't do much for this movie but that's just one of the many things wrong with this film. ©Lionsgate

Over all this was a tedious watch. It's a sloppily put together story with mediocre animation. Sad really when the voice acting by the main cast wasn't all that bad, it was just unfortunate that they had little to work with by way of a script or a story. Honestly I wasn't really expecting much from this movie since I knew Rob Schneider was in it. He doesn't have much luck when it comes to movies, most tend to be quite average and only appeal to folks who think Adam Sandler movies are fun but this fell well below whatever expectations I may have had. I sort of pity him and his luck, he's a fun guy to watch.

The only people that should watch this are kids. Really young kids. They'll enjoy this. The won't understand why and that's good. I'm going to give this movie my lowest rating yet a 1 out of 5. 

Here's the trailer if you're still interested.

NORM OF THE NORTH IS DISTRIBUTED IN MALAYSIA BY TGV PICTURES, SO BE SURE TO HEAD ON OVER TO TGV.COM.MY TO GET THOSE TICKETS FOR YOUR KIDS!