Reel Snippet – Noelle
Summary: We all know jolly old Santa Claus (Jay Brazeau), but after he dies…
Let’s take a moment to recover from that blow to your childhood.
…his son Nick (Bill Hader) is selected to take over. The only problem is that he’s quite bad at it and Christmas is fast approaching. His sister Noelle (Anna Kendrick) suggests he take some time off and when he does, he sends the sleigh back without him, effectively leaving the North Pole without a Santa. Noelle takes it upon herself to go down to his last known location, Albuquerque, and bring him back. While she’s down there, her cousin Gabe (Billy Eichner) has to take over and his methods for determining the goodness of children are a tad draconian. It falls to Noelle to get Christmas back on track and maybe even discover a bigger role for her to play.
Review: Noelle is cute but forgettable, inoffensive enough to not elicit much of a reaction. Most of this is because the performances are a little too downplayed for their own good. This is especially a problem for Billy Eichner, whose humor comes from his loud, bombastic personality and as such is incredibly handicapped here. Anna Kendrick is charming as always, even if she’s not given a ton to work with. The real standout, though, is Bill Hader, who is a freaking riot. He’s given the most original material to work with and boy, does he make it work.
There are some other neat details like Noelle’s retractable skates or some of the Santa mythos. It’s also a holiday movie, so it managed to give me a few tears. But really, its main and only real sin is being safe to the point of average. It’s one of those movies that’s hard to recommend, but that no one will really be worse off for watching. So yeah, if you have Disney+, feel free to give it a watch. Just don’t subscribe for the sole purpose of seeing it. There are plenty of other things — coughTheMandaloriancough — worthy of that honor.
Fun Tidbit: Since this is a Disney+ original, there’s plenty of Disney iconography to be found. Naturally, there are a few hidden Mickeys scattered around, but more surprising is the presence of Duffy and ShellieMay, two stuffed bears that are immensely popular in Japan to the point of being almost as popular as Mickey.
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