Movie Review: Norm of the North

After watching a more serious movie last week, I felt the need to check out something a bit lighter. And no, not just in contrast. Norm of the North made promises of being both family friendly and funny. So here is what I think of the movie.

The movie starts with Norm (voiced by Rob Schneider) chasing a seal through the Arctic, but failing to catch it. After slipping off the edge of a snow mound in the middle of the chase, he runs into Elizabeth (Voiced by Kate Higgins), who he has a crush on. After talking to her, and slipping on the ice while doing so, he continues the chase. He and the seal end up ice surfing, causing the seal to get trapped by Norm. They spot tourists there, and he goes into a monologue to the seal about his history up to that point. The other animals then start laughing at him because instead of hunting and eating the seal, he is cuddling with it.

The theme of the movie is to do what you know is right by being who you are, and this is not a new or original theme. I had hoped this would be more of an original movie, but it isn't. This is like a cheaper version of Happy Feet. It was first set to be a straight to DVD release, and I think it should have stayed that way. The basic moral of the story is one that kids should hear often and learn from, but I honestly think that this will be one of those movies they forget shortly after watching and ask to see something like Frozen again. The adult jokes throughout the movie will also make it harder for kids to relate, and if the kids don't enjoy it you won't win the adults over. The only saving grace in terms of kid viewers is the lemmings. The kids will love those little guys like the minions, but that is not enough to carry the whole movie. They really needed more balance to the script that way. You will get most of the good parts of the movie in the trailer below.

The voice acting was good, but with so many great movies out there with amazing voice acting, this one just seemed to squeak by the passable zone. With the many talented actors doing the voices, there really should have been more emotion put into it, so maybe it could be more enjoyable to watch. That would have made it a little more bearable to sit through (pun not intended).

Overall, I think you should spend your movie money on another movie at the theater, maybe even go see Star Wars again instead of this one. If you are wanting to have your kids watch a movie with relatively the same theme, then put on Happy Feet. For these reasons I would rate this movie 3.4/10.