The Flight Before Christmas [Niko – Lentäjän poika / Niko & The Way to the Stars] (2008)
Adding complications, there are a few different versions of this floating around, because at some point this was also cut down to 45 minutes and shown on TV. For better or worse, we watched the feature-length version, which clocks in at an hour twenty. While that's already not all that long a runtime, it's not hard to imagine this getting trimmed down further.
Before I go on, I should note this is the first film in what's about to be a trilogy (we'll most likely get around to the sequels eventually). The quality of later installments won't change my thoughts on this one, but it does mean there may (or may not) be reasons to watch this for context and the like.
It probably goes without saying that these aren't the kind of caveats that accompany glowing endorsements. The Flight Before Christmas isn't an awful movie, but the animation falls on the lower half of the spectrum, the writing is a series of questionable decisions, and the jokes mostly land flat. Think bargain basement 2008 Fox Animation knockoff, rather than a full Dreamworks or Pixar knock-off. This things seems to have drawn the bulk of its inspiration from the first few Ice Age movies.
The movie centers on Niko, a young reindeer whose mother had a one-night stand with one of Santa's reindeer years earlier, running away from home to reach Santa's Fell (we're using Finnish lore, remember) in order to search for his biological father. There's more, of course, but I want to pause here for a moment.
The narrative is surprisingly clear as far as Niko's origin is concerned. And I'll admit to spending quite a bit of time chuckling at the disconnect between that backstory making it into a G-rated kid's movie, though it's worth keeping in mind this was produced in countries with less puritanical views on portraying (or in this case strongly implying) sexuality in media. Also, to the movie's credit, there's no element of shaming Niko's mother, who seems perfectly happy with her choices and even happier with the result. The movie is ultimately positive towards both her and her decisions.
Before you go giving the movie too much credit for sex positivity, however, it's worth noting she's a very minor character. The narrative isn't really interested in her story, at all. Instead, the movie focuses on Niko and his dads.
The young reindeer is traveling with a flying squirrel Julius, who's voiced by Norm Macdonald in the American version (though apparently someone else in the one released in the UK - how many goddamn versions of this are there?). Julius has sort of served as Niko's adopted father and has been coaching him on how to fly, despite the reindeer never managing to get off the ground. About halfway through, we learn that years earlier Julius's family (including his wife and young son) were killed by wolves, which feels just about as out of left field in the movie as in this paragraph.
Speaking of wolves, a pack with a particularly scary leader are the movie's antagonists. At the start, Niko's attempts to fly inadvertently reveal his herd's location, forcing them to leave. They blame Niko for this, which... okay, fair. This is what prompts the kid to head out on his own in search of his biological dad. Julius follows, and before long they pick up a singing weasel named Wilma, who transitions from playful antagonist to love interest for the squirrel.
Also, Niko overhears the wolf leader planning to eat Santa and his reindeer, gain their power, and use it to fly around the world eating children, in case this wasn't dark enough already. This ups the stakes for Niko reaching Santa's Fell and warning everyone.
So it's a race to see who can get there first. Niko's team wins, mainly because Wilma has a history with the place. He reveals himself to the reindeer, who are skeptical of his story (despite implying all of them have had dalliances of the type producing Niko). They offer to test him to see if he can fly - we're told this power is passed from father to son (to be clear, the movie uses those gendered terms, and there are no flying female deer in this). He fails the test, though it's initially unclear whether that's because he's not really who he believes or because reindeer can't fly when afraid.
He's about to leave when the wolves break in and attack, leading to an extended chase and fight sequence culminating in Julius saving the deer and Niko saving Julius by flying. The wolf leader falls to his death, and the others run off. Prancer finally admits to Niko that he's his father, and Santa finally shows up and offers to take him on. But by now Niko's learned that Julius is the father he wants to be with, so he returns home, saying he'll visit the workshop.
That's the bulk of it, though there's a pretty extensive side story about a scrawny, kindhearted wolf and a poodle the pack finds and decides not to eat. I actually think I preferred this to the main story - it's a little funnier, and their relationship is a bit more interesting than those in the main story. They end up sitting out the final battle (the scrawny wolf sits out all the fights, in fact), and stick around Santa's Fell at the end. Weirdly, these two characters never interact with Niko or the other leads in significant ways.
The largest issue with this isn't the plot or pacing (though both could have used work) but rather the direction and storyboarding. Great animation conveys emotional beats and character development through the way sequences unfold. Watch the finale to any Pixar or recent Sony Animation movie, and you'll see what I mean. The big, dramatic action sequences layer character growth not just in facial expressions but in the way the characters interact with each other. In an animated picture, every facet of the setting is under the control of the animators: style, action, and story are all one and the same, mirroring and enhancing each other until you're not just following but experiencing the story.
I never felt like the people making this even understood that. The climax of the movie felt lazy, like this was telling a story rather than conducting it. That might fly in live-action, where the reality of what's onscreen can make up for a lack of style, but style is what defines this medium.
And don't expect the technical quality of the animation to make up the difference: this is pretty rudimentary for CG animation in 2008. Granted, that's compared against American studios with much higher budgets - this looks pretty good held up against direct-to-video movies from the era (which this was, at least in America). But that's kind of academic to anyone deciding whether or not it's worth giving this a shot in 2024.
For most people, I think the right answer is, "Not really," though I reserve the right to roll this back if the sequels are unexpectedly good. In addition, I need to carve out an exception for kids who might see themselves in Niko, namely those with estranged fathers or parents they never knew. This offers some representation that's different than most of these movies.
I should add this tiptoes around confronting Prancer's shortcomings as a father. The movie certainly sides with Julius, but it doesn't outright condemn Prancer for not being present. This is something of a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it avoids sending a message to the kids this is trying to represent that their own absent parents are bad people. On the other, it glosses over culpability for emotional hardship. I don't know that there was a way to walk this tightrope effectively, but I do know this stumbles.
There have been a lot of attempts to recreate or revisit the Rudolph formula over the years, and this does deserve some credit for trying a different approach. But the themes it's exploring aren't fleshed out enough, the POV is a bit sexist, and the direction just isn't where it would need to be. Adding to everything else, there's something off in the voice acting. I couldn't put my finger on it while watching, but the IMDB trivia page for the movie claims that while this was animated in English, it was done with a temporary track then replaced with professional actors after the animation was complete. I can't confirm this, but it would certainly explain the sense that the animation wasn't properly emphasizing the performances.
Regardless, this one doesn't come together. It's not awful, but it's an awkward product that never quite works. I found myself laughing more at the movie than with it, which is never a great sign for a comedy.
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