Noelle
Noelle - Disney+
Noelle follows Noelle Kringle (Anna Kendrick), the daughter of Santa Claus, as she embarks on a quest to return her brother Nick (Bill Hader) to the North Pole after he is overwhelmed by his Santa training and runs away. Coming as part of the first wave of products off the assembly line over at Disney+, Noelle is an unsatisfying Christmas concoction made up almost entirely of pieces from other better holiday films. Take a little bit of The Santa Clause, a little bit of Elf, a little bit of Arthur Christmas and stir until it is a certified, modern-day Disney film: formulaic and zapped of a soul.
The major problem with Noelle is that it is so incredibly tedious and dull. Not a single quality stands out as exceptional or even above average. The script is just a string of tired genre cliches, underdeveloped relationships and attempts at humour that fall flat. The talented cast is mostly wasted. Anna Kendrick puts forward an everyday performance, with a few standout moments of charm scattered throughout; Bill Hader is barely involved and is not given much in the way of substantive material.
Billy Eichner, an incredibly energetic actor, is given a boring and stilted character that does not allow him to do what he does best: entertain. Several characters say and do things that do not make any sense and have no build-up at all. For example, quite a few people call Noelle out for being selfish and only worried about herself but throughout the movie, she does nothing that can be construed as selfish with the plot of the film — an apparent contradiction to this theme.
There is a lot of obnoxious product placement crammed in, with one side character wearing a Petco uniform in every scene he is in. However, there are a handful of original ideas — such as how all the residents of the North Pole ride around on roller skates — but those are few and far between. Thankfully, the last twenty minutes or so is an improvement and contains some quite sweet and tender moments but it is not enough to save the overall experience.
The technical aspects are not any better. The cinematography by Oscar-winner Russell Carpenter is flat and has the cheap feel of a made-for-TV movie. The CG effects are horrendous and wildly outdated; every scene that features digital images and/or green screen looks consequently artificial and becomes hard to take seriously. The direction by Marc Lawrence is uninspired and bland, with not a single creative visual idea on display. Nothing but a gun for hire in this instance.
An element that stands out is the production design of the North Pole, courtesy of Maher Ahmad, Andrew Li and David Clarke. The village where the main characters reside is bright and colourful, creating a pleasant environment that is not explored nearly enough. The costume design is also adequate, with Anna Kendrick getting an expressive and festive wardrobe with colours that pop.
All Noelle had to do to be successful was to get viewers into the Christmas spirit but it lacks the magic necessary to do so. It feels like a factory film pushed off the conveyor belt to appeal to young children and undemanding families — not much more. It is not devoid of redeeming qualities or heartwarming moments but everything it does remotely well has been done way better in a hundred different films over the years. On Santa’s list, Noelle leans more toward naughty than nice.
Noelle is streaming exclusively on Disney+