Joulutarina

One of the more believable and realistic Santa movies I've ever seen. It is set in Lapland and is well acted with beautiful scenery and costumes. It's a great story for kids to see about how Santa came to be, why he gives presents and why he cares for children as he does.

The original Finish is clearly dubbed over, but as that goes it's not really disruptive to the story at all. There's no fluffy magic or elves or flying reindeer or anything like that. But a much more believable story of a man and how the myth of Santa has grown.

Highly recommended to add to your young children's annual Christmas movie list.

I actually got to see this movie for the first time in Rome, Italy this past October during a film festival. Before that, I had never heard of this movie, let alone that they were dubbing a version in English. I got to meet the director who was very nice. He talked about all the things that a beginning filmmaker should never do, including working in bad weather, working with children, special effects, and animals, all of which were done for this movie. Shot on location in the dead of winter, with real reindeer, this is a pretty impressive piece of work. It's also a great movie to add to the collection of other Christmas films. I can't predict whether it will become a Christmas classic, but I can say that I liked the back story given to Santa Claus in this movie.

This movie has a lot more depth than most Santa movies from the big US of A. This becomes a major commercial problem for the movie since many people like to see shallow movies that are "heart warming" even though it smells fake long way, and prefer to place their dollars in such movies instead. This is not the issue with Joulutarina. The movie has dark sides, let's face it all tales have dark sides, the matter is if you present them or not. This is a REAL movie. Heartwarming, beautiful scenery and good acting.

If you want to see the real thing - go watch this movie.

By the way, the kids (8 and 12) absolutely ADORED it. I've lost count on how many times they have seen this already.

SEE IT!

I love holiday films. I also love good fairy tales (and I don't mean "good" to mean "cleaned up and sanitized for our protection"). So, when a good fairy tale and holiday film get together and give birth to a wonderful film, I'm very happy. The film isn't "pleasant," but it has a lot of heart-warming sequences. It's not "fun," but it does help to anchor the fact that all situations have more than one side to be told. It has some humour (at least, in the English dubbed version), and the voice acting was very good. The scenery was beautiful. As somebody else said, it's not good for children under 10 to watch, unless a parent or older friend/relative are watching it too, who can answer what or why things happened.

I watched the film, cried a lot, smiled a good deal, and sighed with contentment at the end. Definitely a film to watch with a cup of cocoa and a disinclination to go out, afterwards.

Amazing scenery, beautiful music and of course our "Nikolas", who became something we all want to be. In northern Finland we do not need false snow, not to mention the degrees below zero :o) Kari Väänänen made a very good role as "Iisakki", the carpenter. After all he was just a lonely man and much more kind as his character first appeared. Also Hannu-Pekka Björkman was as lovable and as cuddly as "Nikolas" can be. I think, the way "Nikolas" remembered his younger sister Aada during his life was also very touchable. We remember, we care and most of all, we can learn from the things we do and which are done to us. This is to me a film which I think will become a tradition for every Christmas. And you know, I'm only 40 years "young". Have a joyful sleigh ride!