The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland

A lovely Christmas film with charming characters, beautiful artwork (that felt very nostalgic the snowman-esq to me which I loved) and well written, catchy songs which are now the sound track to any journey we make in the car. Wonderfully cast with loveable characters. An interesting story with "Alice in Wonderland" quirks, twists and turns and, ofcourse, a classic Christmas redemption story. Contrary to other reviews I have seen, I found the length to the film no issue with my 5 year old who was glued to the story from start to finish. A great feel good family Christmas film I am sure we will come back to time and again.

It is a mashup of Christmas Santa and Alice in Wonderland. St. Nick (Gerard Butler) reads a delayed letter from The Princess of Hearts. He goes to Wonderland and finds The Queen of Hearts (Emilia Clarke) had outlawed Christmas.

It is an expired IP. Somebody thought it would cost nothing. This works better if it doesn't play its hand right off the bat. I wouldn't have guessed from the title that this is Alice in Wonderland. The reveal could be a fun shock to the viewer. Also there is only so much rhyming before it gets tiresome. I get the dialogue style and musical. It's not my favorite. I actually like the simple animation style which is a lot like children's book drawings. The big reveal should come closer to the climax. The climax should be the gift which should quickly lead to the lesson and wrap up. The last half takes too long. In fact, this is not really worth seventy minutes. It should probably be half that which would allow it to be played every year as a Christmas special.

As a lover of 'off beat' Christmas movies (think ''The Nightmare Before Christmas', or Terry Pratchett's Hogsfather) I really looked forward to watching 'The Night before Christmas in Wonderland'!

Sadly while watching it I ended up thinking ''Meh."

I found the music tiring to listen to, with nothing really clever in the lyrics (no, I don't expect Shakespeare in a Christmas film!). Combining these predictable lyrics with the uninspired musical scores, all I wanted to do was fast forward till the songs were over.

The colours used to create scenes were beautiful, and many of the static scenes were lovely to look at. And trying to make the animation look painfully hand created is difficult to do, yet the creators did a good job in meeting that goal. But somehow I couldn't help but think that, in the end, the actual 'movement' of the characters in the film looked just too 'basic', or static - which detracted from the vivid imagery.

I really wanted to like this film! Unfortunately, in the end it just felt flat and uninspired. Certainly not repeatable to look at next year, or any year after that when the Christmas season rolls around again.

I was very surprised by the lower average rating given to this movie on IMDB. I thought the story was very unique, the songs were very catchy, and the animation was wonderful. My 16 month old son has watched it twice now and absolutely loves it. We've recommended it to everyone and they've all loved it as well. I enjoyed it as an adult and catch myself singing St. Nick's opening song randomly.

The story starts with Santa about to take off for the night when a last minute letter to Santa arrives. That is the end of the familiar part of the story and the start of a new christmas adventure begins.

It's actually a pretty good film. It is kind of a mix of most of the classics. This is something different that paints to the newer generations. I good not keep my eyes off the tv and was tapping my foot to the songs. Animation style is made to look more hand painted or drawn, which is a work of art in itself.

This is not your typical holiday animation with upbeat and catchy music. I do recommend that anyone keeps an open mind as this movie seems to be more developed towards children.

There are plenty of scenarios that tie along with classics and what better Christmas "villain" would be someone like the Grinch. The ending ties along with a mixture of Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer and The Grinch. There are bits of Alice in the Wonderland. Overall this movie was put together really well and if you have younger kids it's a must watch.