Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Powerful

Not even bad in a good way

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

As another reviewer said, (for the American, anyway) this Norwegian movie is more a fairy tale set at Christmas-time than 'a Christmas movie' per se, and that's part of what's so good and refreshing about it for me. A little girl is separated from her family, does not know who she is, but after several years is driven by a feeling that she's not supposed to be where she is now. I think the dubbing was just fine, I don't get distracted by that usually anyway. I'm so glad I found this while searching Netflix, and hope others will watch and enjoy it. It's beautiful visually, and very relaxing... no violence or frightening physical predicaments.

Santa is a mixture of various Pagan winter gods (Dionysus, Odin, etc.). The modern Santa we're familiar with came out of the works of Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, and Clement C. Moore (who most notably described Santa as "a jolly old elf"). Santa, this ancient being, has only seemed natural in movie versions of Dickens's A Christmas Carol as The Ghost of Christmas Present, where he is very clearly the god Dionysus. Until now. Journey to the Christmas Star depicts Father Christmas (Santa) as a gnome-shaman who possesses sacred mystical knowledge - the Santa archetype that existed in the ancient world. Thus, there is nothing hokey/contrived or commercial about this movie.

I really, really enjoyed this movie. As another reviewer said, it does not hit you over the head with Christmas themes. There are no flying reindeer or Christmas gifts and there is no Baby Jesus. But it does touch on wonderful Christmas traditions, such as the mistletoe and the lighting of the Christmas tree, as well as giving some insight about what Father Christmas knows and how he knows it. If I had any complaint at all it was that the story moved a little too quickly--it would have been way too easy for me to watch another 20 minutes or so, so that some areas could have been expanded upon. The villains were a bit one-dimensional, but as they were not crucial to the plot, I forgave that. All in all, a very enjoyable movie and one that I would be happy to add to my DVD collection if at all possible.

I enjoyed this movie very much, but there was a lot less about Christmas than I would have expected. There's just a narrated storybook bit about one Christmas at the beginning, and then the whole film is focused on the search for the Christmas star, but it's not really tied into Christmas in any meaningful way. Still, if you don't look at so much as a Christmas story but more of a fairytale, then it's very satisfying. The dubbing was decent (although I would have preferred the Norwegian soundtrack with subtitles), and I'm so glad they used British dubbing voices, because the accents fit in so much better with the medieval European setting than American voices would have (I'm American myself, so this is not a manifestation of xenophobia, but I really hate when fairy tales which obviously take place in medieval Europe are acted or dubbed by American actors who use modern vocal expression without any attempt at authenticity. It can throw a whole movie for me). But, I digress. What I really loved about this movie were the breathtaking scenery, all the snow (yes, any decent Christmas movie has to have snow!), the scenes in the old Norwegian town, costumes, etc. The visual aesthetic was like a cross between the Golden Compass and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, but the story was much less sophisticated... as I said, more like a Grimm's fairytale. The villains were typical unidimensional villains. It would have been a better movie if their characters had been better rounded out. And, of course, if we were supposed to be surprised by who Sonia turned out to be, then it wasn't much of a surprise. Pretty predictable. Maybe it would take kids longer to figure it out, but I have my doubts. The animatronic bear was a bit lame, but that scene didn't last long, and the ride on the North Wind was well done as far as special effects. I did like the little foray into the gnome's home in the tree stump. That was really cute. All in all, a cute movie that will keep your attention, and enough snow to put you in the Christmas mood, but in order to get more stars, it would have to have more Christmas themes and decorations in it.