The Magic Reindeer: Saving Santa's Sleigh

In The Magic Reindeer: Saving Santa’s Sleigh, attempts to conjure up the magic of Christmas fail to come together. Following the efforts of Niko (Matthew Whelan), a young reindeer who longs to assist Santa during this festive period’s all-important day, this inoffensive and safe narrative rarely enters interesting territory.

There is potential in Niko’s adversarial dynamic with the hard-hearted Stella (Emma Jenkins), another young reindeer with big aspirations who isn’t afraid to play mean to get what she wants. Her thorny qualities present a unique challenge for this kind-hearted, naive protagonist, but interactions between the pair never feel all that pressing or engaging. Stella’s tough resolve quickly withers away, removing any intrigue in their dynamic, while Niko’s bland niceness is a little too pronounced for this adventurous tale.

The animation appears to reveal a fairly low production budget, with the movie at its most fake-looking when characters are in motion, an unfortunate trait given that it revolves around creatures that fly. When the reindeer are kicking their legs through the air it never feels as though they exist within their environment. The SFX in such moments is also lacking, where varied ambient noises could have covered up the visuals’ lack of immersion. That said, the backdrops are always pretty to behold, particularly in night-time scenes.

While there are plenty of life lessons for kids to pick up on along the way, it’s difficult to find much meaning in them throughout The Magic Reindeer when the story they’re presented in is rather bland. The humour doesn’t have any sharpness to its writing, where viewers will be hard-pressed to remember a single one of the movie’s jokes by the time the end credits have rolled. Antagonistic feelings between a number of key players in this film are set up, yet never feel compelling or worthwhile given these characters’ tame interactions.

While there are competent comedic relief characters, there is no overarching villain that makes the fate of Christmas seem as if it’s in jeopardy. It’s this edge and outlandishness that a story like this desperately needs to ramp up its stakes, sadly coming up short when there’s no one in this roster to fulfil that role.

Though The Magic Reindeer: Saving Santa’s Sleigh works as passable, mild entertainment for kids, even they might be getting bored as they near this film’s conclusion, which, for all its mention of Christmas and the importance of this occasion, never feels as if anything of note hangs in the balance. More damning is how small-scale this fictional world appears, where it never feels as if these characters’ quests amount to a true adventure. In the end, the film’s storytelling is as flat and incompatible with its surroundings as its animation.

The Magic Reindeer: Saving Santa’s Sleigh is now out in UK cinemas.