Norm of the North

OK, it's another year which means another year of animated films to sink our teeth into. Hollywood didn't waste anytime on giving us the first animated film in the form of "Norm of the North". While I know there will be some very well done animated films produced for this year yet to be released, this film isn't an exemplary good kickoff of the year. Hey, the year is young.

This is a story about a polar bear of many words, Norm (Rob Schneider). His greatest complaint is simple: there is no room for tourists in the Arctic who come to visit quite often. But when a developer, Mr. Greene (Ken Jeong) threatens to build condos in his own backyard, after consulting with wise Socrates (Bill Nighy), Norm does what all normal polar bears do... he heads to New York City to stop it. As Norm Arrives with his ragtag lemmings at his side, Norm soon meets Vera (Heather Graham) and her very smart daughter Olivia (Maya Kay) whom he befriends. But with all that he experiences in the big apple, he finds that he has to take on the city, big business and a big identity crisis to save the day.

Others to round out the cast are Colm Meaney as Grandfather, Loretta Devine Tamecia, Michael McElhatton as Laurence, the Actor, Gabriel Iglesias as Pablo/Stan and Salome Jens as Councilwoman Klubeck.

This was whimsically and deftly directed by virtual newcomer, Trevor Wall (TV). For someone who has absolutely no feature film experience, this filmmaker excelled incredibly well. Obviously his TV experience honed him enough to be able to make the transition from TV to feature films without a difficult time doing it. This is why I have repeatedly mentioned in other reviews that one should 'cut their teeth' on something like TV before making that proverbial plunge. It was written by newbie writers to feature films as well. Even though both Daniel Altiere and Steven Altiere have a ton of TV experience, Malcolm T. Goldman has virtually no experience before this film at all. Truly, the lack of experience is indicative here in that for a 90 minute running time, it seemed to take forever to get to the end credits. It was choppy in places, and jumped around a bit too much. Could these guys write a better script in the future? Sure. Given other projects and enough time to hone their basic talent that I believe is here, and a solid screenplay will definitely be generated. The best thing I can say for this is the fact that Hollywood doesn't seem to care about good family films, and this certainly is something any parent could allow their small child to watch and not be worried about the content. I know, marketing wise, that the 18-34 single male demographic is what Hollywood shoots for when it comes to producing films that make a ton of money, but com'on, I believe families need good, clean films as well as any male teenager needs adrenaline, many explosions and a lot of sexy chicks. 

As animated flicks go, this certainly isn't the best I've seen, however if you're a parent or guardian looking for a good, clean fun film with a wholesome message, this is the film for you. Enjoy!

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                             Rated: PG                                90mins.