Snow Day

A year ago in Syracuse, Natalie Brandston is an excited little girl that it's a snow day. A year later, Natalie is desperate for a snow day but the weather is not cooperating. Her older brother Hal pines for the unattainable Claire. Lane is his best friend. When the snow actually comes, Natalie plans to take down Snow Plow Man to ensure a second snow day.

This is little kids in a Nickelodeon musical remake. I don't like Hal and that's half the movie. I don't really like Natalie either and that's the other half. Making it a musical is at least doing something different than the original movie.

Snow Day is more of a retelling than a remake IMO. It is very light hearted and right in line with other Nickelodeon productions. Sure it's absolutely aimed at a younger audience where the 2000 version that is commonly being used as it's litmus test had a bit more adult oriented humor, with actors that were known for adult humor.

I watched Snow Day with my family and really enjoyed the story. Sure, life is way more involved when you are an adult but when you were a kid, a Snow Day was an unplanned "Get out of jail free" card when routine and responsibility got tossed out the window. Who better to enjoy a story based on that than the generation who still hopes for them every winter. (Or by your inner child remembering trading books and tests for a big hill and a sled!)

I thought the casting was great, the acting was fun, and the musicals that were peppered throughout the movie were right in theme. Except for the fact that now I am overly critical of pancakes for some reason, the only thing I got from this movie was a smile.

Take off your adulting hat before watching and enjoy this with the family.

So, I saw the Snow Day remake. It was free on Dailymotion. I thought I was going to hate it. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it. It wasn't the worst movie I ever saw however I will say it's just an unnecessary remake.

Here's the thing it is the SAME movie. It is the SAME story with the SAME characters, and they even recreate scenes almost verbatim. For example, the perfect snow angel scene and the whale in the snow scene. They just made it shorter (this film is 1 hour 17 mins; The 2000 film is 1 hour 34 minutes) and turned it into a musical. They also eliminated a lot of the unnecessary characters and subplots and organized it into a more simple, straight forward plot.

In this film Natalie is now the narrator/protagonist. We find out Natalie is a lazy, underachieving student who is always trying to go out of assignments. She soon finds out She has a huge Math test coming up and if She flunks, She'll attend Winter School over the upcoming winter break (it is the equivalent of summer school). That's not really a thing in reality but I'll go with it. So, instead of actually studying, Natalie wants a Snow Day and then to be greedy a second Snow Day just to avoid having to do schoolwork.

I liked that part because Natalie reminds me of Little Pete from THE ADVENTURES OF PETE AND PETE and actually gives her the motivation to want to stop the snow plan man that the original kids didn't really have.

Hal is a LOT less creepy in this movie than He is in the 2000 movie. He is not a stalker. He is just an awkward teenager who wants to impress the girl He likes. Claire loses her bracelet and Hal does find it and decides to chivalrously return the bracelet.

Fabi Aguirre did a good job as Lane and brought her own unique spin to the character. I thought they softened the character of Lane a bit. "2022" Lane starts off the movie as Hal's platonic friend who actually does try to help him woo Claire. It is not until the snow angel scene (which comes in the middle of the film) that Lane suddenly has an epiphany and realizes She likes Hal. Even then Lane is more like "I just want Hal to be happy and if He is happy with Claire then so be it."

"2000" Lane liked Hal from the beginning and does not even hide it. Lane acts flirty towards Hal the entire movie almost to the point where you think Hal is just blind. She also mocks Hal's pursuit of Claire the whole movie. Instead of helping Hal you get to get the feeling Lane is just following him around because She just wants to see him to fail and make a fool of himself. "2000" Lane is like "I want Hal to be with me and if He isn't then the heck of his happiness I hope He makes a fool of himself." The end credits song in the original 2000 film, "It's Not Her" by (Lane, herself) Schuyler Fisk, all but confirms that's exactly that She's doing I thought Fabi Agguire's Lane was almost too nice and sweet.

I also noticed that the two actresses who play Lane and Claire, Fabi Aguirre and Shelby Simmons, kind of look alike. Honestly Simmons is not that much more attractive than Aguirre. The point is you don't have a 17 year old freckled face redhead and a 24 year old brunette with a tan in Winter playing the two roles.

Another observation: Fabi Agguire is only 5 foot while Shelby Simmons is 5'2". Meanwhile, Ky Baldwin (Hal) is like 5'10". What is with Nickelodeon and casting only petite actresses? For comparison, Schuyler Fisk is 5'5", Emmanuelle Chriqui is 5'3", while Mark Webber was 5'11".

The singing is unbearable, the songs are awful, the acting is so bad, and i just couldn't take it. Snow Day did NOT need a remake, and most certainly did not need to be a musical. The voices of the children were just making my head hurt and it was very cheesy. The movie also kind of felt like a rip off instead of a remake. I really just didn't enjoy it. The choreography was also not my absolute favorite. I would not add this onto my christmas watchlist. I get it is for kids but even my kids did not enjoy it. They did not enjoy the acting or singing, i showed them the original snow day and they liked it much better.

Anything can happen on a snow day!!

Okay, this movie isn't perfect, and several of the songs are forgettable, but much of the cast in this is really good and I think they did a better job with the pacing of this than the original. The storyline with the parents handcuffed by the kid was probably the weakest of the side plots, but I think the good aspects of this outshine the weaker ones. Michaela Russel shines with youthful optimism that I think tops that of the girl from the original. I've always loved Mark Webber from the original, but I think Ky Baldwin does a better job of showing the painful awkwardness of the character. Claire's interest in Hal is done better here, through the attachment she has to the whale necklace. The scene is not about his whale snow sculpture but rather his special the necklace is, and not because the dumb jock boyfriend gave it to her.

The achievement of the second snow day is a LOT more believable here than in the original and I liked the change of the crow to an AI robot. It served the story pretty well and probably saved them the trouble of having to rent a real bird for the shoot.

Again, it isn't a perfect movie, but I don't think the target audience will care about that. Not gonna lie, though, how Lane changed out of her skates so quickly for the big finale musical number is beyond me....