In the filmmaker's want to create a universe, he neglected the plot (ie what happens in said universe). There's a lot going for the film: some amazing singing, toe-tapping lyrics, some good choreography, dazzling cinematography, set design, editing. You can tell they really tried to make something special and had no limits to get it. That, though is likely the problem. Limits make creatives cunning and conservative with their resources, it leads to re-writes & redesigns & trimming of the fat. Here, you can tell it has no limits and thus an inexperienced filmmaker is let loose, you can hardly blame him for not grounding the idea in originality or complexity. This is obviously a simple child's tale, there's no problem there. Nobody expected this to be The King and I or Sound of Music in subtext, but the characters too often stop everything to sing a full song, when that song has little to do with furthering their character or the plot. When it does, the plot inches forward in a very slow, predictable and tired way. There is more fun when the young cast is going on then when we flash forward. At least the young brooding toy maker has a Phantom of the Opera darkness that is fun and matches well against the bright Christmas backdrop. However, as soon as we go to the later times CGI characters, not unlike the plastic ones in the early days of cinema (90's Flubber or Small Soldiers comes to mind), take over the direction of the scene but aren't likable enough to care about nor dislikable enough to care about either. They are flat, the whole film falls flat, is hollow, too simple for a mega spectacle. It reminded me of the terrible La La Land, in which everybody in Hollywood thought was brilliant, but my family and I kept waiting for it get started, unable to engage with. I love that they have an all black cast, black filmmakers... totally about time to do so... but this film wasn't the right one to invest in creatively. The production was up to being the best Christmas movie of the season, but the story and delivery simply didn't deserve the attention. I hope Netflix and other continue to invest in black cinema, just with better scripts & more interesting deep characters... even in a musical, even for kids, this fell flat.
