Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
I saw the Christmas film ‘Noelle’ on Disney+ last Friday. This film was released on Disney+ in November 2019. I enjoyed ‘Noelle’. It’s an intriguing take on the Santa Claus story especially with a young woman becoming Santa. I don’t know if it’s original concept, but it was very entertaining here.
I don’t usually take Santa Claus tales seriously as there have been many variations of them over the years and I’m more believing in ‘The Nativity Story’ about Jesus Christ’s birth as opposed to Santa Claus. But I like a good Santa Claus tale now and again such as the likes of ‘The Santa Clause Trilogy’.
I’ve also enjoyed interpretations of Santa in ‘The Santa Paws Trilogy’. ‘Noelle’ sees the journey of Kris Kringle’s daughter, Noelle Kringle, helping her brother Nick to become Santa before it turns out that she has more of the Christmas spirit than her brother has and she dons Santa’s outfit instead. 😀
Some would argue that this film is encouraging woman empowerment whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I’ve seen that happen quite recently in the ‘Star Wars’ sequels trilogy and with Jodie Whittaker becoming the Thirteenth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. I don’t mind that aspect seeing it in this.
Like I said, as I don’t take Santa Claus seriously like other people do, I found the notion of a female Santa Claus interesting. It’s also intriguing how that gets built upon in the film when Noelle doesn’t realise she’s meant to be Santa Claus as everyone else thinks from a male-dominant point of view. 😐
In fact, the people of the North Pole are mean-spirited to Noelle when it’s her fault for sending brother Nick away to spend some time not being Santa and this is like four/five days before Christmas. I wish the North Pole inhabitants were kinder to Noelle and didn’t treat her very unfairly!
Anna Kendrick stars as Noelle Kringle in the film. I enjoyed her performance in the movie and she does deliver an intriguing balance of comedy and drama into Noelle’s character. She’s fascinated going out of the North Pole to find her brother Nick in Pheonix, Arizona and discovers a new world. 🙂
Bill Hader stars as Nick Kringle, Noelle’s brother. It was amusing when Nick isn’t up to the job of being the 23rd Santa and has Noelle helping him. He finds life preferable in Phoenix than the North Pole where he becomes a yoga teacher, I think. Nick even states that Noelle should be Santa instead.
It was fascinating how Noelle was able to pick up sign language with a little girl in Phoenix, even though she’d never learnt sign language before. Noelle is also able to read the minds of children in whether they’re nice or naughty. She’s able to do this more than Nick which is so unusual in the film.
The film also features Shirley MacLaine as Elf Polly, Noelle’s childhood nanny. Amazingly, my Dad recognised Shirley MacLaine since she was in ‘The Apartment’, a 1960 film with John Lemmon. I was amazed my Dad recognised her. It was nice to see her in this Christmas film after ‘The Apartment’. 🙂
There’s also Kingsley Ben-Adir as Jake Hapman, a private detective whom Noelle befriends and there’s Billy Eichner as Gabriel Kringle, Noelle and Nick’s ill-prepared cousin in tech support at the North Pole. Billy Eichner voiced Timon the meerkat in 2019’s ‘The Lion King’. I recognised his voice. 🙂
Julie Hagerty stars as Mrs. Kringle, Noelle and Nick’s mother. There’s also Jay Brazeau as Kris Kringle, Noelle and Nick’s father at the beginning of the film; Maceo Smedley as Alex, Jake’s son and Diana Maria Riva as Helen, the manager of a shopping centre. All the cast are good in this Christmas flick. 🙂
There’s a nice little kid reindeer in the film whom Noelle is friends with called Snowcone. I’m pretty sure Snowcone was computer-generated as were all the other reindeers in the film. Sadly, reindeers are mostly CGI nowadays as opposed to real-life. I do wonder if there are any real-life reindeers left.
Or if there are, they were probably difficult to train for Christmas films. I enjoyed ‘Noelle’ very much when I saw it on Disney+. It’s a nice Christmas film to sit through and I enjoyed the take on a female Santa Claus played by Anna Kendrick as Noelle. I hope I’ll get to revisit this Christmas film again soon.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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