The Flight Before Christmas

The Flight Before Christmas

The Flight Before Christmas
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DVD details

Actor: Andrew McMahon, Carly Baker, Morgan Jones, Norm MacDonald, Patrick Fitzsymons
Brand: Wellspring Media INC
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 81 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-10-28
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Model: 81535
Studio: Weinstein Company
Product features:
  • A reindeer boy named Niko dreams about flying like his father, whom he has never met. Despite suffering from severe vertigo, he sneaks out of his home valley to take flying lessons from Julius, a rare member of a Finnish family of flying squirrels. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN Rating: G Age: 796019815352 UPC: 796019815352 Manufacturer No: 81535

DVD Reviews of The Flight Before Christmas

DVD Review: "A Maury Povich Christmas Spectacular for Kids"
Summary: 2 Stars

While I honestly feel for single-parent households whose children have never met one of the parents, taking traditional holiday characters and turning them into "deadbeat dads" is not the best plot idea for a Christmas special. As you read in other reviews, the basic premise is that the main character's mother (who cannot fly) by chance ran into Santa's flying reindeer after Santa's sleigh broke down. One of the flying reindeer fixed the sleigh, had a "magical time" with the mother, and quickly flew away. Months later, the main character Niko was born. When asked why the flying reindeer didn't come back to visit, the mother said that he "didn't know that (Niko) would be born months later, so why would he visit" and that "no one knows where Christmastown where the flying reindeer stay actually is".

Thus starts a long trek for Niko to find his father and understand why he has dreams of flying. Along the way, he meets a flirtatious female weasel who just happens to know where Christmastown is located. When Niko finally finds the flying reindeer in a bar, the weasel starts a sultry song-and-dance number about giving the flying team a "big surprise," and at the end of the song literally sings "one of you share the same DNA" and points towards Niko, which of course spooks the flying team. When Niko gives his mother's name and asks if any of the team remembers her, he is basically told that the entire flying reindeer team have "magical times" with the non-flying reindeer very often, and Niko is asked to perform a paternity test of showing he can fly to prove that he is actually one of their sons. Basically, to make a long story short, Niko "saves the day" and one of the reindeer steps forward very grudgingly and tells Niko that he can call him dad. Merry Christmas! Niko tries to get his father to return to the non-flying pack, the father says that he's part of a "flying team" and isn't willing to go back, and Niko tells a flying squirrel who had looked out for him since day one that he is more of a dad to him than his real dad would ever be. Then, the credits roll.

While the forced lessons of "it's ok to have a deadbeat dad" and "step fathers can be real fathers even if they look different" could be pertinent to certain families, it can also send the wrong message to children that it is ok to take advantage of others and leave without taking responsibility for your actions. What's worse is that when you watch the movie the second time knowing which one of Santa's reindeer is the actual father, you see a new perspective from the bar scene forward of the father knowingly trying to deny Niko, even going so far as denying meeting Niko's mother in the bar, letting Niko throw himself into a bottomless cliff during the "can you fly" paternity test, and basically saying "well you can't fly, guess no one here is your father" after Niko fails the test.

In all honesty, not one part of this film gave me a warm holiday spirit, and I seriously would warn parents about the movie's message before letting their children see it. Do not be tricked by the cutesy cover, characters, and descriptions... this children's flick feels like it was written and directed by Maury Povich.
More The Flight Before Christmas reviews:
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Description of The Flight Before Christmas

A reindeer boy named Niko dreams about flying like his father, whom he has never met. Despite suffering from severe vertigo, he sneaks out of his home valley to take flying lessons from Julius, a rare member of a Finnish family of flying squirrels.

Stills from The Flight Before Christmas (Click for larger image)

 
 

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