This Anna Kendrick Christmas vehicle was one of the initial originals released upon Disney +’s original US launch. When Disney + arrived in the UK this past March the film was missing. The Disney + UK and US sites aren’t exact mirrors of each other. Someone at Disney had the good sense to realise there’s no point releasing a Christmas movie in March. Nine months later the film has been repackaged and marketed as a new release on the UK service. The film itself sees Kendrick play Santa’s daughter who has to go on a real-world adventure after a series of events result in her brother and incoming Santa Bill Hader going AWOl. Almost every facet of the film (plot, screenplay, themes, lighting and colour palette)are a basic riff on the formula established by Enchanted 12 years on from this films initial release. Luckily for director Marc Lawrence and his team, this formula is one that proves solidly effective. Kendrick’s natural charisma does a lot to elevate the central role. Bill Hader is not utilised well enough and steals the majority of scenes he is in. The film does possess a few decent laughs and wants to work on some satirical level some level of satire on the commercialization of Christmas. Billy Eichner is the villain who wants to reduce Christmas to nothing more than a hollow commercial shell. .This is a well the screenplay goes back to throughout but viewers may get the sense whilst watching that the film didn’t go nearly as far as it could with this theme. At the end of the day, this is a Disney product first and foremost. The film is generally pleasant enough while offering nothing viewers won’t have seen before (especially when Enchanted is on the same service.)Disney even looks to have another similar film coming out with 2020 Christmas release Godmothered (which this reviewer has not seen. )Beyond its obvious formula this film is perfectly fine and may prove an entertaining distraction for kids and adults this Christmas season. That said it will not trouble any viewers list of favourite Christmas movies or make some wonder why on earth that Enchanted sequel is still stuck in development hell.
6/10.
A Little Bit Of Everything 