Northpole

Christmas is in trouble! When the world's lack of Christmas spirit threatens to derail the upcoming Yule time, a young elf from the elves's hometown of Northpole (Bailee Madison) sets out to save it. Finding a young boy (Max Charles) whose trying to bring the joy of the holiday to his new town, she believes if she helps him succeed, it will bring enough good cheer to save it for the entire world. Meanwhile, the boy's newspaper reporter mother (Tiffany Theissen) investigates a suspicious real estate deal and romances her son's teacher. Northpole was aggressively marketed by Hallmark with an ad campaign and merchandising before it premiered last year, and a sequel was announced as soon as it aired. With eyes to a franchise, Hallmark actually put some money into this one, with a CGI landscape and an elaborate street block set to create the titular setting. But still, this is not big budget Hollywood or even premium cable cinema, and the majority of the screen time is spend down on plain old earth. Madison has the elf in the real world combination of manic enthusiasm and naiveté act down, and works well with her human counterpart. The mystery element seems slightly out of place but has an interesting payoff. The romantic subplot plays out the way you would expect, but it's more of a minor element than usual, because the focus is on the kids' story. The concept of raising Christmas spirit to save the holiday has been done many times over, but it's a much more favorable choice over the same clichéd sexual tension tropes, and keeps things light and enjoyable. Not to mention, it's resolved in a much better way than having a department store clerk sing "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" on television (I'll say it, Elf was lame). Veteran actor Robert Wagner seems like an unusual choice to play Santa Claus, and to be honest, he's a little creepy. When will these people learn that humanizing Santa doesn't work? If he's not happy and laughing, he's just a scary, unkept old man who wants children to sit in his lap. At least his part is small, and may be some kind of inside joke, considering Mrs. Claus is played by his real life wife Jill St. John, so there's an ephemeral "Ah" factor for those who feel like going to imdb. Nausea factor moderate. Christmas factor high. MSG approved.