- Released: July 21st, 2024
- Directed by: Kari Juusonen, Jørgen Lerdam
- Running time: 1 h 26 min
- Rating 3/5
Synopsis
Niko and his new rival Stella set out to retrieve Santa's sleigh after it has been stolen.My Thoughts
Okay, so you probably know me and my soft spot for the Niko movies. I by no means think these are great, but I do have a fondness for them and I do usually watch them at least once per year during November or December. So when a third movie in the series was announced about a decade after the last movie, I was quite excited. Again, not that I was expecting a lot of quality, but more Niko is always welcome in my book.
And the movie is...yeah, pretty much the same quality as the second movie. Nothing special, but an overall fun and wholesome Christmas movie. It's just fun and charming for the most part. And that's sometimes enough for me. I don't need every movie to be a cinematic masterpiece.
The story this time around is that Niko is about to become a part of the Flying Forces, but is met last minute by a rival named Stella who wants to take his place on the team. A competition between Niko and Stella is arranged, for only one can join the team. But then Stella steals Santa's sleigh, and it's revealed that she's been working for a group of evil flying reindeer known as the Storm Forces, who are led by a reindeer named Ilmar. Stella pretty much immediately regrets her actions and joins up with Niko to get the sleigh back home before it's too late.
A perfectly functional plot. I quite liked some aspects of the movie. The animation, while nothing groundbreaking, is still rather good. I also like Stella as a character, and I'm glad that she comes around to Niko pretty soon instead of them endlessly dragging out her character arc. She's not a bad reindeer, she just ended up working for the wrong guys and it's difficult for her to part from them due to Ilmar being her father. There's also a character arc for Prancer here (who didn't get that much to do in the previous two movies). There's also some friction between Niko and Julius at first, but again their conflict is thankfully resolved pretty early on as they both accept that they've grown as people. It was just a nice way to tie up their relationship as Julius is now finally letting go of his "son", but still will always be there for him when he needs him.
Now, for some things I am not as pleased with. One, them aging up Niko. I mean, I don't have a problem with the fact that he's aged up to be a teenager here, heck, I encourage it! I love it when movies age their kid characters throughout the series. But the problem lies with that Niko still looks the exact same, yet we're supposed to buy he's a teen now. Like, his design is no different or bigger or anything from how he was before, they just gave him a deeper voice this time around. If they wanted to age him up, I really think they should've gone all the way with it and given him a different character design. Or at least some bigger antlers to imply that he's aged. Because right now we kinda get the Alpha and Omega sequel thing where time clearly passes yet the child characters never age. So while I'm glad that Niko is growing up as a character, I wish they'd applied this to his character design as well. Because right now it just looks like kid Niko suddenly has a teenager voice.
Another thing...where the heck are Tobias and Saga? Both were pretty significant side characters in the past two movies, so to suddenly have them be gone just feels, well, weird? Tobias is mentioned offhand once but again we're still given no hints as to where he is. I guess the implication is that he's passed on as he was already old in the sequel and obviously more time has passed since then. But Saga? Niko's best friend/implied love interest is just nowhere to be seen or even mentioned. Which, again, feels weird. Especially when the reason she's gone here is obvious: They wanted her out of the picture to make room for Stella as Niko's new friend/love interest.
Now, Niko and Stella technically never end up together throughout the movie (the same applies to Niko and Saga in the previous two films), but they do clearly like one another and there is room for a romance to bloom here. But it still just feels weird that Saga is just utterly gone with no explanation given. I just think that at least an offhand mention or showing Saga in the background (even if just without lines) could've made a difference.
That said, I do like that this time around we actually get reindeer villains (with the previous two having wolves and eagles as evildoers), and villains who are redeemable. Like sure Ilmar does have evil plans, but compared to the previous villains, who all wanted to eat the Flying Forces and children or something along those lines, stealing a sleigh to ruin Christmas is not all that bad by comparison. And I like that Ilmar and his crew actually all get redeemed. Some a little faster (such as Stella), some take a little longer. But they all eventually come around and end up becoming besties with the Flying Forces, and the movie ends with them sharing the flying-of-the-sleigh duties.
If I do have to bring up one more flaw though, it's that the existence of Stella and the Storm Forces just feels kinda odd and like a plot-hole. Like sure, it was never 100% established, but it was always implied in the first two movies that being a flying reindeer is extremely rare and a genetic thing that pretty much only seems to exist among Santa's reindeer. That's one of the reasons why nobody believed Niko to be a flying reindeer at first, it's simply that rare and unique in this world.
But then in this movie Stella shows up flying and nobody is really like "Huh, there's another flying reindeer here." And then later on it turns out it's not just Stella who can fly, but her family too and even the entire rest of the Storm Forces. So this seems to more so imply that a flying reindeer isn't a fully unique thing, but rather that they're just some type of subspecies or genetically different reindeer from others (as they carry the flying gene). Which just feels odd and kinda like it break the world-building.
Like, it would've been one thing if the movie actually addressed this by having the characters be surprised by there being other reindeer that can fly, followed by an explanation of something along the lines of "it's rare but not impossible" or something like that. But because nobody really questions it and flying reindeer suddenly aren't very uncommon anymore. Which just feels like it goes against the first two movies where flying reindeer are pretty much exclusive to Santa's forces and it's a genetic rarity.
So yeah, not a perfect movie but it has some good and some bad aspects. But overall still enjoyable and fun.
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