Disney+ Original Review: 'Noelle' Is A Bad Start For The Streaming Platform

Synopsis: "As Kris Kringle prepares to retire as Santa and pass on the reins to his son Nick, the stress of his future role begins to get to Nick. When his sister Noelle suggests that he take a weekend off, Nick abandons his job completely. Noelle faces the world outside the North Pole for the first time when she follows him to try to convince him to return to work. Meanwhile, their ill-prepared cousin Gabriel steps up and prepares to turn Santa's workshop into an online delivery service."

My rating: 45/100 (Link to watch)

While not the first Disney+ original I've watched ('The Mandalorian' was fun and 'HSM: The Musical' is not fun), this is officially the first Disney+ original MOVIE I've watched. I'll say this much, it's not particularly impressive. Considering the scale of money being pumped into the service and the amount of resources at Disney's disposal, there just wasn't much to this. It was more of a C-level Hallmark/ABC movie with an A-list adjacent cast. Fans of those crappy christmas movies won't hate this, and I'm sure it will play well with kids/families better than a 26 year old man like me. 

Anna Kendrick is the star and carries the brunt of the movie. She's  the most perfectly adorable human for this sort of cheery kids movie and fits in as well as could be expected. Bill Hader, who I was excited to see in this, didn't really have much to do with it. Neither did Billy Eichner, which was kind of a bummer. This is a more progressive take on a Christmas movies, so this is understandable that they don't get focus. At the same time, however, they were a big draw because of their comedic chops. Them not getting a chance to shine is kind of a bummer.  

This movie is about as cookie-cutter as they come. Anna Kendrick (Noelle) is Santa's daughter and grows up knowing her older brother Nick will inherit their dads job. While she is perfect for the job, her brother doesn't want it. Therein lies the emotional storyline for the movie. That is what it is. Like I said earlier, this movie is built for kids and families. That wasn't totally surprising, but was surprising was the look of this movie. I can sum up the visuals as follows: It looked like dogshit. 

With the original series they have been making, I don't really expect movie quality SFX throughout. With full-length movies, however, I had sort of a higher bar. This was their first test in that arena and they failed miserably. Not only did the CGI creations look bad, but most of the sets were Hallmark quality, which is a bummer. 

Again, I don't think this movie is really built for the 18-35 year old demo that we here at barstool SPORTS cater to, but all you moms and dads out there might find a use for it. I only warn that you should temper your expectations considering the studio and the cast involved, that way you won't be let down.