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Title: Norm of the North (2016)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Rob Schneider | ... | Norm (voice) | |
| Heather Graham | ... | Vera (voice) | |
| Ken Jeong | ... | Mr. Greene (voice) | |
| Bill Nighy | ... | Socrates (voice) | |
| Colm Meaney | ... | Grandfather (voice) | |
| Loretta Devine | ... | Tamecia (voice) | |
| Michael McElhatton | ... | Laurence, the Actor (voice) | |
 |
Maya Kay | ... | Olympia (voice) |
| Gabriel Iglesias | ... | Stan / Pablo (voice) | |
| Salome Jens | ... | Councilwoman Klubeck (voice) | |
| Charlie Adler | ... | Forebear (voice) | |
| G.K. Bowes | ... | Female Tourist (voice) | |
| Debi Derryberry | ... | Daughter (voice) | |
| Ben Diskin | ... | Chef Kozawa (voice) | |
|
|
Keith Ferguson | ... | Human Tourist (voice) |
Norm the polar bear is the son of the king of the Arctic. In his youth, he develops the ability to speak to humans, a trait shared by his grandfather. Because of this, he is made an outcast from the other animals, only being accepted by Socrates, a wise bird, and Elizabeth, a female polar bear whom Norm is in love with. Years later, Norm's grandfather has disappeared and human tourists are filling the Arctic. Socrates shows Norm and three Arctic lemmings a luxury condo that has been installed on the ice. Inside this condo is Vera, a representative for wealthy developer Mr. Greene. After Norm saves Vera from an avalanche, Mr. Greene tells her to find an actor to play a polar bear for their campaign. Socrates convinces Norm and the lemmings to stow away on a ship to New York City..
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First of all, this is not the absolute worst animated film. The voice acting is mainly good. A couple of the jokes are okay too, but may have occurred by accident. There, now the positives are out of the way, let's look at the negatives.
This film is horrible to look at, which is a bad sign for a visual medium. A lot of the characters move in a horribly jarring way, especially the villain, who moves like Mr Fantastic from the Fantastic Four having a seizure. This effect is amplified when they speak and move at the same time, since the line deliveries are clearly intended for a non-Woody Woodpecker character. Throughout the film, it doesn't quite seem like the characters themselves are talking. Then there's the character design. This ranges across a full spectrum, from laughable to just unpleasant.
Onto the writing! The idea for the story is not that bad, but it is not well executed. It feels drawn out for what it actually accomplishes. Aside from the story, many of the jokes fall flat, or actively detract from the viewing experience, particularly the lemmings/fake minions. There are comedy accents for no reason, sometimes so poorly done it becomes impossible to tell which accent they were meant to be.
Overall, this is just bad. I would give it a 3 or 4 out of 10, but there were two factors at play to stop me. Firstly, this is far too ugly for a visual medium. A film can be poorly made without being actively unpleasant just to look at. Secondly, this film has an inflated IMDb score due to fake reviews by the studio, following in the footsteps of Saving Christmas and After Last Season before it. As such, I'm giving this a 1/10.