Noelle

The same day Disney+ came out, I watched the two original films on the service. Neither of them are anything spectacular. Noelle in particular is a rehashed version of, basically The Santa Clause mixed with Elf - only this has some questionable visuals and a lack of any holiday magic. At the end of the day, it felt like a Disney Channel Original Movie.

Although there are some things in the script you can see coming a mile away, overall this has an entertaining script. The cast does a good job here, especially Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader. Overall I would recommend this Christmas movie.

{{ CHRISTMAS MOVIE MARATHON - DAY 2 }} Feels like a Hallmark Christmas movie, rather than a Disney production. The budget for the CGI on the reindeer wasn't quite the budget that The Mandalorian got for it's creatures. The North Pole looked like a proper Winter Wonderland, but besides that, the rest of the film looked cheap. Anna Kendrick is good (this is definitely HER movie) but Bill Hader is wasted. There's a lot of cheese and schmaltz here, as it's aimed towards kids. Watch Elf instead.

not so good

I thought the story in Noelle is good. It won't be a Christmas classic like Elf but it wasn't bad for an afternoon at home. I thought all of the acting was pretty good. MacLaine seemed in and out of things. I know actors hate to get typecasted but Billy Eichner's role in this movie was more subdued than I like from him. He was still good. The story overall was cute. Santa's son must become Santa. He doesn't want to. The daughter wants to but because of patriarchy she hides it. Happy ending. Neat

Noelle, the daughter of Kris Kringle, is already full of Christmas spirit. She hopes to fulfill an important role, as her brother Nick does by taking over his father's role as Santa Claus. However, when it seems to collapse under the pressure, Noelle advises him to take a break. When Nick does not return, Noelle decides to look for him to bring him back in time to save Christmas.

There’s a respectable idea for a Christmas film here, but the execution is cheap and slapdash.

Searching for a new streaming Christmas movie to watch, I randomly picked one of the few that didn't look like a terrible romcom. Unfortunately, the surprisingly notable actors were unable to pull off a very generic movie, one of which you know the ending from the very first scene. It does have its feel good moments, the North Pole Village was cute, and it's not a terrible movie, but it's not one I'll be coming back to year after year.

Take the weakest parts of Elf, Enchanted and The Santa Clause and give it a real TV movie look then you have Noelle.

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This was surprisingly magical. It was very endearing and captured the idea of living up to legacies bestowed upon us with a Christmas cheer. Perhaps a lot of that had to do with the film's top bills being Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader who are instantly likable and quirky. The story was rather well thought out and did play up the cheese factor to exemplifiy how things come together all nice and neat of we just believe in the right people. It's a good family film for sure with a decent message.