Noelle - A Movie Review

Where did Santa Claus go? It’s three days until Christmas and he is still in training!

Noelle was released to Disney+ in 2019. Taking on the role of Santa, Nick Kringle runs away from the North Pole days before Christmas Eve. It’s up to Noelle to find her missing brother. Along this trek, the entire North Pole learns a valuable lesson.

Last year, I was excited to see Noelle when I saw the trailer. Only, I did not get a Disney+ account yet. Once December was around the corner, I watched Noelle in a heartbeat. While Noelle is a festive Christmas movie, it is not as original inserting concepts from other well-known Christmas movies.

Anna Kendrick had a blast as Noelle. She is quirky, loves Christmas, and includes everybody. Because she has never left the North Pole, her reactions to the norms of the real world are hilarious. While funny, her character reminded me too much of Giselle from Enchanted.

I have become a big fan of Bill Hader over the past year. It’s inspiring how he embodies a role, finding new and different traits. Nick Kringle struggles to be the new Santa, clumsily destroying houses in test flights and failing to embody the true nature of the role. Kendrick and Hader did a fabulous job conveying their sibling relationship.

Shirley MacLaine makes a memorable appearance as the grandmother. Other credits to include are Kingsley Ben-Adir, Julie Hagerty, Billy Eichner, Maceo Smedley, Diana Maria Riva, and an ensemble to fill in for all the elves of the North Pole.

Noelle is well-cast though storywise, it could have been stronger. As I mentioned, Noelle uses concepts from other well-known Christmas movies. I learned that Noelle is based on a scrapped concept of a fourth Santa Claus film. And it also had reminiscent themes of the films Elf and Enchanted. The film could have been more original.

I feel like the writers missed a chance to show more of Nick’s angle of the story. I would have liked to see scenes when he first arrived in Phoenix, Arizona. Did it take a while for him to adjust as it does for Noelle?

In fact, I feel like the story should have focused more on Noelle and Nick instead of Noelle assisting Jake (Ben-Adir) to help make this a great Christmas for his son. It took away from the story. It would have been a better idea to show more of the family dynamic between the Kringle family, especially their father who is rarely ever mentioned after the beginning.

Visually, the design of the North Pole is fun and festive. Every Christmas movie has a different look for the way Santa’s workshop appears and I like that. Noelle creatively inserts fun, albeit noticeable CGI penguins and reindeer. One design looked like it was copied from Elf.

Noelle still manages to find the Christmas spirit. Marc Lawrence demonstrates the true meaning of Christmas. For some, Christmas is a different definition. We may not have much, but the holidays inspires us to be nice. That is a beautiful takeaway from this film.

The message about finding your path is dictated very well. Noelle is influential to female audiences. The strongest energy of Noelle is that we should not let our gender determine our role. Be who you want to be.

For anyone looking for a festive Christmas movie to watch this holiday season, watch Noelle. Despite some flaws in the story, I still had fun watching it. Kendrick and Hader are the highlights. It will make you smile and gets you into the festive spirit.