Nico, el reno que quería volar

Love Christmas films, and Christmas is my favourite time of year. Am also a fan of animation, always have been since 2 years old getting into the Disney classics and always will be. So would see anything that are a mix of both, especially when this mix has seen films and specials that are good to classic (notably the best of the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials).

While there are better examples of Christmas films, animated films and animation centred around Christmas around (as well as far worse), this animation from Finland 'The Flight Before Christmas' (not hard to guess what famous Christmas story the title is a play on of) is worth going on board for. It's not perfect, not many films are in retrospect, but to me as a family film it ticks most of the right boxes with room for improvement.

Sure the story is standard, a lot of it has a seen it all before vibe. Won't hold that against 'The Flight Before Christmas' too much. The weakest aspect is the film's translation and dubbing. Too much of the translation doesn't flow very well, there is a good deal of stilted cheese going on, and some of it is downright odd and feels out of place within the setting. The voice acting isn't awful as such, the voice actors are spirited and do their best but some of it is disjointed and a lot of the problem is the pacing and writing of the translation.

Occasionally, the animation lacks a little finesse and parts are a touch blocky. That apparently more than one studio was involved comes through clearly, but the unevenness (in terms of animation style and budget) with that being taken into account was unavoidable. The reindeer are mostly fun, but can act a little too stereotypically and act somewhat too disconcertingly differently than how they're usually portrayed in stories.

However, most of the animation is great. It's very lavishly coloured and most of the characters are drawn well particularly the reindeer. Where it scores most highly is in the meticulously imaginative and colourful backgrounds and the attention to detail for the little things as well as the big effects, including the animation of the snow (some of the best for animated film seen recently) and the movements of the wolves.

The music has liveliness, atmosphere and nuance with some catchy songs in the mix. 'The Flight Before Christmas' mostly is successful as a family film with something for children and adults like it clearly strived to appeal to all ages. The former will lap up the amusing and innocent humour, the cute characters, the easy to relate to themes the film teaches, the exciting adventurous elements and the quirkiness. The latter will be surprised at the more mature content that appeals to them and how mostly well handled it's done, it's not disturbing or overdone and doesn't feel misplaced or like the film didn't know what it wanted to be or who to aim it at.

This aspect may go over children's heads but they have enough to enjoy anyway elsewhere so it shouldn't be a problem. Meanwhile adults will like its cuteness, charm, the family values and how sincerely and not patronisingly they're delivered and the universal message, as well as seeing how children are enjoying it. As for the darker, more tense scenes, they may scare the very young but actually one might be surprised at how they'll take it, children's taste are under-estimated often and parents saying things like "this film is not for children" or "this scared my child" doesn't help.

Characters are easy to warm to, one will relate to the main character's story (another aspect that both children and adults will like), the action excites and the film flies by.

Overall, worth the watch if not blowing the mind. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Niko and the Way to the Stars is an animated story of a young reindeer boy Niko, taking place somewhere in Lapland. Niko's father is gone, and his mother tells him dad is a member of Santa's Flying Reindeer Squad. Niko is supervised and taken care of by a flying squirrel named Julius who believes Niko will be able to fly someday, just like his father. The reindeer aren't allowed to go outside the valley because of the wolves who stalk there. After his disobedient visit outside the valley and a consequent incident with the wolves which forces the reindeer to move on, Niko decides to run away and look for his father further north where Santa resides. Adventure ensues.

From a Finn's standpoint this film felt a bit odd. It's written, produced and animated in Finland - yet the Finnish version of the film feels like an American animation film that has been translated and dubbed into Finnish. I wondered about this, but a friend explained to me the film is actually primarily intended for the international, mainly American market, and was written and lip-synced accordingly. Considering the country of origin, I was expecting a bit better Finnish translation though. The characters' lines were full of clumsy Anglicisms. Because of this, I have a feeling that native English viewers will enjoy this film more than Finnish viewers.

At a standard issue family entertainment level this film performs competently. There's family friendly humor and family values, there are no odd quirks, cussing or violence. It's exciting at times, but not too scary for young children. Perhaps with all this it is a bit bland, but still likable.

If you're looking for something to watch with your kids around Xmas, I can recommend this. However, if you're looking for something odd, quirky, eye-opening or original, look somewhere else.

There is a very important moral and the two main characters learn a lesson fro each other: Niko learns that there's no need to look for your real dad if you are surrender people who love you. Julius learns not to be too cautionary toward Niko. And it's the Christmas spirit (and a hilarious weasel called Wilma) which will teach them to appreciate each other. The animation is not the best, I mean, it's very good for five minutes, then it gets bad, then good for other five minutes and then bad again, because the animation has been created by more than 3 different studios set all over the Europe, and the directors weren't able to keep animation homogeneous all movie long. You can easily find out each animator's style and this is horrible because all the characters take turn to be badly animated, and this is sad. But graphics, score and story are gorgeous. I would have rated 9 if animation was better. Dave

I just watched this with my 3 year old grandson and 1-1/2 year old granddaughter. Lucky most of the appalling story plot went over his head and she lost interest and started playing. I considered turning it off but decided to let him finish watching it, so I wouldn't have to explain why I didn't think it was appropriate.

Aside from the fact that Niko's mother had a one-night stand with one of Santa's reindeer, Prancer is a dead-beat father who first didn't even want to admit that he was Niko's dad. Afterall, what would a womanizing, conceited, barhopping, flying reindeer want with a little kid around, right? And then they even showed all the reindeer burping after they had their drink, giving Niko some too and looking expectingly at him until he burps too. Nice manners to be teaching! That singing weasel was extremely annoying, I could have done without that. And that tune she was singing at the bar reminded me an awful lot of "Santa Baby".

And don't even get me started on the pink poodle lost in the woods and the moss eating (vegetarian?) wolf who wants to be taught how to be a dog.

I'm glad the 1-1/2 year old went off to play before the black wolf and his horde started getting really mean, she might have gotten scared. She started crying during the part of Disney's Snow White, when Snow White was lost in the woods in the dark and all those eyes were scaring her. I can just imagine what would have happened, had she seen those growling, snarling wolves.

The dubbing was terrible. Like one of the other commenters, I also had trouble understanding what they were singing in the beginning and caught on to it later on: flying forces, not flying horses. And why did some of the characters call the kid Nieco and others pronounced it like Nicko? No consistency whatsoever.

Terrible terrible movie. No humor whatsoever and a plot more akin to a reality show. What a waste of time, money & talent.

This is excellent movie. This film tells us about dream. Especially, how great it is to have a dream that you want so badly. And, I think it's great to have a super father that can make you dream higher to be in the future. This film also speaks not to give up your dream even though there are many obstacles. And it also speaks that you don't live by yourself in this world. I do catch the Christmas spirit (though I never celebrate it anyway). It's that Christmas will be so much wonderful day ever when we spend it with people who love us and we love them back as well. In the end, this movie "Niko & The Way to The Stars" is really great after all. Worthwatching!