Sauvons le père Noël

Did you know Martin Freeman can sing? However you think of him, as Bilbo in The Hobbit or Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes or Mandy Moore's husband in Swinging with the Finkels, you probably don't associate him with the cute Christmas cartoon, Saving Santa. Check this movie out; it'll be so much better than you think.

Yes, it's a cartoon, but it's not geared towards young kids. There are romantic jokes that will go right over their heads, quick comic timing that they'll most likely tune out, and a plot so fast-paced they'll get confused. This one's for the teenagers or grown-ups in the audience. Martin voices an elf who works in the reindeer stables in the North Pole who's unhappy with his station in life. He's an inventor, but his presentations never go over well with the other elves. When he finds himself the only one who can save Santa from the evil bad guy, voiced by Tim Curry, he enters a very entertaining rabbit hole. It turns out, Santa uses a time machine to deliver all his toys in one night, and in order to stop Tim from finding and stealing the secret, Martin uses the time machine himself!

This is such a fun movie, with tons of layers you wouldn't expect. You'll see the same scenes played over and over again, from different points of view, and with different time-travelled people making a difference. It's very clever, and the musician in me loves when the songs turn into duets with past- and future-versions of Martin! I know you think it'll be silly, but trust me and give it a shot. I've sat through more than my fair share of lousy Christmas movies, and this one isn't lousy at all. It's great from start to finish. I've watched it three years in a row now!

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. In pretty much every scene, the camera either tilts or swirls, and it will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

It's movies like this that really make you appreciate Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks for the talent in their animation departments because it's when you actually watch a movie like this that makes it so apparent how easy the others make it look because 'Saving Santa' really did lack the animation skills that we have all grown accustomed to.

The story here was actually a lot of fun because it was primarily built around time travel and took all it's basics from a very familiar movie (Back To The Future) so i think the adults probably already know the 'rules' of time travel (for example, don't let your old self see the new you...etc..) .. but the plot - a global shipping company wanting to steal Santa's sled and all his secrets just so they can be the biggest shipping company in the world - just went beyond cheesy... and not exactly one that the kids would understand all that well either.

The voices really didn't offer too much excitement... the songs, which were much more than i had hoped for and were used very 'musical-esque', easily had no excitement and/or energy... and the dialogue was also very predictable and uninspiring, although there were two parts that i thought were legitimately funny.

Even with all the warts, i gave this movie a six - but mostly because it surprisingly excelled in the future scenes and the tying together of the storyline between past moments and present moments (if you are an Arrested Development fan, you may really appreciate how well these all work) and also because it was still a Christmas movie set in the north pole :-)

.. maybe i'm feeling festive this holiday season with an almost undeserving six stars - would be a little more accurate to give it a five and a half - but it was fun and not even a full ninety minutes.

Merry Christmas everybody.

nice animation, lovely characters, a plot not really new but , in same measure, not bad. a holiday animation, perfect for Christmas season, a little too complicated for children, not a revelation for adults, mixture not always decent by music and past travels but nice. as lesson about possibilities of a poor character, for adventures, for the nuances to old ingredients and for the fresh atmosphere who makes all a little different by well known movies about theme. Vera Bannington can be a version of Cruela and Neville Baddington another Captain Hook but the adorable Bernard and his fundamental change, the Santa who has virtue to not be only a classical image , the voices - Tim Curry is important part from long chain of convincing bad guy in animation remembering George Sanders as Shere Khan - makes this film nice and almost convincing pillar for the spirit of an unique event of year.

That movie is so bad, here's my flaws for this movie the animation is boring, the songs are so annoying even Bernard the elf himself, also the humour is ridiculous and I never laughed at all I still believe in santa but this movie sucks I can't believe I saw the re release of that movie back in 2020 that was an absolute waste of money it is one of the worst Christmas movie ever made alongside Mickey's twice upon a Christmas and why does the villain look like a Star Wars character 😡 I still like Star Wars though so my rating on this movie is a 2/10 it is also Martin freeman's worst performance.

Likeable festive fun that seems to be targeting the kids without really caring about the more discerning adults.

The character animation is vibrant and well designed even if it is rendered rather poorly, often looking more like a PS2 cut scene.

But it was still an interesting time travel based narrative that feels like it would have been better used as a double length episode of some TV show.

The memorable aspect is a recurring song that, in each retread of the same moment in time, adds a new voice to it.

I guess it's fine if you want to keep your prepubescents quite but you could do so much better. I would recommend any of the great non-festive family animated movies over this but if you really want something Noelesque I'd suggest "Get Santa" a delightful if imperfect Christmas romp.