La mission de Chien Noël

I am just laughing reading all the reviews of parents freaking out about how scary this movie is. When I watched it, it didn't even occur to me how dark some of the events were, but looking back, yes, it does get pretty dark at times for a Christmas movie about Santa and his puppy best friend. But it's not scary, and I'm trying not to judge, but when I read about 8 year old kids being scared and crying because of this movie, I can't help but laugh, and just think about how sheltered some kids are in this world. I know I come from a different era, and having watched Child's Play by age 8, I admit my tolerance for the macabre is higher than others. But if this movie is too scary for your kid, you might be a bit too overprotective and your kid is gonna have real bad smack of reality when they are not under your watchful eye.

Pretty enjoyable movie to watch especially since I'm tired although I wouldn't recommend this to most kids it has some mean spirited actions. Has sweet moments as well though, very cute, and solid amount of entertainment!

Watched this with our grandchildren aged eight and four and they were absolutely enthralled! I can understand why the other reviewer criticised it, if you compare it to the Santa Clause ones, then it certainly falls short but then most Christmas films would, wouldn't they?. Just because a film is not the best one in a category doesn't mean that its a failure. This one certainly isn't! Don't forget you are dealing with children here and they have not seen the hundreds of Christmas films that we adults have. I would guess that they are not watching to see whether the dog's voices are in sync with their mouths, either.... My grandchildren loved it. I won't hear a word against it. Nuff said?

I really enjoyed this movie, and my two girls, age 4 and 1 did as well. The plot line was great, with a lot of suspense. It's just like one of the Buddies movies, without the Buddies. Its has a lot of the same characters as the Santa Buddies movie, which was a little confusing for my 4 year old Buddies lover, when there were no buddies in the movie. This seems like it could be more of a prequel to the Santa Buddies movie. Unlike the previous review, I thought the animated characters looked pretty life like. Of course their mouths moving aren't going to look like humans mouths moving! But if you are familiar with the Buddies movies, you know, and are used to that. I hope you and your children enjoy this movie as much as me and mine did!

...at the vociferously negative reviews... and so many of them. It is almost as though some folks are ganging up on the rest of us. Calm down. Not every movie is for everyone. Just because it has a Christmas motif doesn't make it universal. And it also doesn't mean it's a horrible film.

I found The Search for Santa Paws to be very charming. If some viewers are looking for Christmas stories that are entirely upbeat and positive, then no, this isn't for them. However, others of us have different expectations. Reading reactions from reviewers running off with their hair on fire because the film didn't live up to their standards is very misleading. (I don't care for films in the tradition of Bad Santa, so I simply avoid them. I don't come unglued.)

Now then, that having been said, several characters could have used some more development. Mr Huckle was alternatively both unsympathetic and silly for no apparent reason, while his wife seemed mostly oblivious to his mood swings. The orphanage matron was just relentlessly and boringly obstinate. If she had even tried to be really mean rather than just persistently irritable, we might have learned something about how she even got into the orphan business. (She openly complains that it doesn't pay very well.) Mrs Claus was mostly sycophantic. Surely, she has a lot to say about how the North Pole operation is conducted. We needed to hear that. And Quinn - who is apparently a regular in these movies - is just annoying. Her diction is terrible, and her acting is wooden. (There are plenty of good child actresses. Go find one.)

Still, overall, the film is engaging. It certainly doesn't deserve to be castigated just because the viewer wanted something else. What I mostly read here weren't reviews. That were just complaints.