Norm of the North (2016)

Genre

Adventure | Animation | Comedy

Director

Trevor Wall

Country

USA

Voice Cast

Rob Schneider, Heather Graham, Maya Kay, Ken Jeong, Colm Meaney, Loretta Devine, Gabriel Iglesias, Michael McElhatton, Bill Nighy, Salome Jens, Charlie Adler, G.K. Bowes, Debi Derryberry, Ben Diskin

Storyline

When a real estate (Ken Jeong) development invades his Arctic home, Norm (Rob Schneider) and his three lemming friends head to New York City, where Norm becomes the mascot of the corporation in an attempt to bring it down from the inside and protect his homeland.

Opinion

I am speechless. I've had my fair share of animated films in my 22 years, but never, and I repeat, never before I saw an atrocity like this one.

Easily one of the worst animated films ever made, "Norm of the North" is an embarrassing, horrendous film in every possible way, and while some believes it should have been released straight to DVD, I believe it shouldn't have been released at all.

The story, just another fish-out-of-water kind of story, is utterly boring and unengaging, and it's dragged on and on to fit in 93 minutes of life I'll never get back. The bear can speak human, so he is the one supposed to save the north from humans, but the character is so lame - a twerking bear, seriously? - you don't even care about him, and you are most likely to root for the bad guys.

Okay, this film targets a young audience so you may say it doesn't need to have a good story. What about the message that it is supposed to send to kids then? The film fails completely. It indeed takes for granted the severity of the environmental impact that a human settlement at the North Pole would cause, and even though the adults will understand that, I highly doubt kids will.

"Norm of the North" is also supposed to be a comedy. But is it fair to call a comedy a film that is so unfunny that the only person who would have a smile on his face while watching it would be the Joker? Or maybe not, because the jokes are so atrocious, maybe the Joker will find a way to erase that smile from his face.

And now the most important thing when talking about animated flicks. The animation. Guess what, it's atrocious, so atrocious if this was the first animated film ever made, it would have also been the only one. The early episodes of "The Simpsons" are better animated, and we all know how they looked.

Bottom line, unless you like polar bears twerking and/or you have the IQ of a peanut, don't watch it.