Niko: Beyond the Northern Lights (2024)

The third Niko film is the best to date, at least as far as the writing is concerned. The eagles in the second movie basically filled the same role as the wolves in the first, which made it feel somewhat recycled. This time, the primary antagonists are a rival group of reindeer with an axe to grind against Niko's father and Santa's Flying Forces, which makes for a more compelling arc, particularly because the series has always made it clear there are good reasons to hate those guys. It also plays with its genre references in more interesting ways, adding in elements of sports movies into the mix. That's hardly new to animated media about reindeer, but this time it means the story's destination isn't quite as obvious from the start.

That's the good news. The bad is the animation feels like a slight step backward. I'm sure it's technically more impressive than the last movie (they had more than a decade of technological advances, after all), but whatever detail they've added results in characters who appear more rubbery. This has never aimed for realism, but the characters don't seem as constrained by skeletal structures as they did before. That's not inherently bad, but coupled with their designs it results in something a little too reminiscent of CG cartoons about toy animals brought to life, as opposed to cartoon animals. It's a subtle difference, but for the most part I preferred the look of the last movie, even if preferred everything else in this one.

I say "for the most part" because there are a few set-pieces and sequences that were quite beautiful this time. Some of the visions Niko experiences in the Northern Lights, for example, looked awesome. There's also a chase sequence through ice caverns with some incredible lighting effects I suspect may have been influenced by Speed Racer. I appreciate anything that reminds me of Speed Racer, so that's a plus.

The action sequences, on the other hand, just aren't as tense or exciting as the chases in the second movie. They're still significantly better than those in the original (which were outright bad), but from a visual standpoint I didn't feel like this one was as inspired as its immediate predecessor.

But, again, the story makes up the difference. This time, Niko is setting out to join the Flying Forces, despite his family's advice he wait another year or two. He's older now and is sick of being thought of as a kid. As character flaws go, it's not ideal but leaves him significantly less obnoxious than what the last movie went with. Also, it's only part of his arc, which also forces him to confront realities about his biological father, who isn't the simplistic hero Niko imagined.

First, he meets Stella, a rival flying reindeer also competing for a spot on Santa's team (arbitrary rules prevent them from taking on two new members at a time, so challenges need to be settled in a series of reindeer games). It took two movies longer than it should have, but I'm glad this series finally added some flying female reindeer, continuity be damned. She wins the first race; he wins the second, which introduces the Northern Lights alluded to in the title.

And they're weird as hell. The interior initially appears like a sort of web of electrical neurons, but when Niko fails to follow the advice to keep his eyes closed while flying through, he experiences strange visions. So, I guess the Northern Lights are some kind of psychic alien entity trying to weaponize its victims' insecurities against them? We never really get any kind of explanation, but it admittedly looks cool and serves as an excuse for Niko to face and overcome a manifestation of his flaws in the third act. Also if you fly too high beyond the lights the atmosphere gets too thin to breathe, and you'll freeze and drift into the void of space. So that's fun. 

Despite their rivalry, Niko and Stella realize they like each other. The night before the last race, Niko shows her around Santa's Fell and even shows her the secret way to the sleigh. The next morning, Stella and the sleigh are gone. Turns out she's the daughter of Ilmar, a reindeer who's bitter about being defeated in a similar challenge by Prancer years earlier under questionable circumstances. Now he's assembled a team of other bitter flying reindeer. They call themselves the Storm Forces, and they want to discredit and replace the Flying Forces. Stella believed they just wanted to be able to see and experience pulling the sleigh, but Ilmar's real plan is to cancel Christmas so Santa will fire the Flying Forces and use the Storm Forces in future years.

So now everyone sets off in different directions to try and find the missing sleigh. Julius and Wilma show up as well and have a side adventure involving a pack of lemmings who decide Julius is their messiah. The lemmings have a couple mildly amusing payoffs later, but they're even more rubbery than the other characters and bear more than a passing resemblance to a number of creatures in other CG animated movies.

Niko and Stella realize their dads aren't the heroes they believed and team up to try and get the sleigh back. Prancer shows up to help, and he gets sidetracked battling his former friend turned nemesis. Eventually everyone else shows up for a giant fight pitting deer against deer against wolverine. Right - did I forget to mention the secondary antagonists? Eh. Honestly they don't much matter to the plot beyond an excuse for the lemmings to be useful and the deer teams to work together. These guys are not a serious threat.

The four main characters (Niko, Stella, Prancer, and Ilmar) wind up going after the sleigh, which is taken up "Beyond the Northern Lights" by Stella's older brother, who... look, he's a symbol of the dangers of an ideology built on hate and the way it can be passed down through generations, but otherwise is less a character than a plot device, which is fine in the context of the movie but not worth explaining in any more depth.

Where was I?

Right. One by the one, the four main characters risk their safety, victory, and even Christmas to protect each other. Niko regains faith in his father while realizing he's a complicated person, not a two-dimensional hero. Ilmar realizes he was wrong to devote his life to a quest of vengeance that brought hardship and pain to his children. Prancer realized he should just admit he used to be a dick rather than lie to his son. And Stella... well, really she learned her lessons about trust thirty minutes earlier: she's fine by this point.

But in the process, they manage to spill all the presents across miles of barren northern tundra. It'd be impossible to find them all without the help of a million helpers. Christmas is rui-- oh, look, here comes an army of a million lemmings that worship one of the minor characters as a god.

So with Christmas saved, the only matter left to resolve is which of the kids will win the last race and which is destined to follow in Ilmar's footsteps, nursing a grudge that will poison their very soul. Anyway, they tell the adults they refuse to race if they can't both join. Since it's the deer's stupid rule, not Santa's, they just put it to a vote and decide anyone can join and they'll just all start taking turns. Hell, they let the Storm Forces sign up on the spot and take that year's run. This also means Niko can spend this Christmas with his family, which was a sticking point earlier.

Everyone's happy. Niko and Stella are friends (and likely more, if they ever made another of these). Roll end credits.

...Which, we're actually going to talk about briefly, because someone made another weird choice. The English language release plays the song December by Gabrielle Aplin and Hannah Grace over the credits. I actually like that song, but it's a sad, melancholy number that would be more at home at the end of a tragic Christmas drama. Granted, this has a darker tone than the first two installments (though not as dark as this interview implies), but it's ultimately a whimsical kid's comedy. The song feels oddly out of place.

Not that it really matters: the music choice is jarring, but it's not going to change your opinion of the movie. Speaking of stuff that doesn't matter, they basically recast the English language version from scratch again, though Aileen Mythen voices Wilma for a third time (assuming you count the UK version of the first movie, since it was different from the US for some reason) and picks up credits for the lemmings and a minor character. I'm assuming this is because these movies were produced to be released in multiple languages, so there's never been much focus on ensuring a continuity in voices (I doubt most kids notice or care).

Taken as a whole, both this movie and series is difficult to rate. After the first movie, whether these are good or not kind of depends what you're comparing them to. Even the first film was better than weaker mid-budget American animated movies. With the second two, it really starts to matter which movies you're talking about. My main criticism with Beyond the Northern Lights is that it feels a bit outdated, like a 2010s animated movie made and released in the era of Spider-Verse.

Christmas animated movies pose an added complication, because they tend to fall into clear tiers. You've got classics such as 101 Dalmatians, Nightmare Before Christmas, Arthur Christmas, and That Christmas (yes, it belongs - I will fight you).... and on the other side of the spectrum, mostly stuff better off forgotten. There's a little middle ground between them with things like The Grinch, this, and... not much else.

So, is this good enough to bother watching? Probably depends whether you've seen the other two. And the answer for the second movie is similar. If you've seen the original movie, by all means you might as well check out the improved sequels. Otherwise... I'm not sure. You could get away with starting with the second movie, but you'd be missing out on some solid throughlines that carry through from the first to the third. The payoffs there are part of what justify the last two movies. But the first lowers the overall quality to the point it's less clearly worth sitting through.

But if you've got a kid who loves animals and Christmas, this is all academic. And, for what it's worth, once you've gotten through that first installment, the next two have more to recommend (cool action sequences in part 2 and some decent writing this time around). That's obviously not a glowing recommendation, but it's not a warning to steer clear, either. I know "fine" isn't the most interesting conclusion to these kinds of reviews, but on the whole, that's where the series lands. And for what it's worth, the third is probably the best of the lot.