“The Christmas Chronicles” is a new Netflix original featuring everyone’s favorite gift giver, Santa Claus. This movie was directed by Clay Kaytis, and he gave this version of Santa a new look. We are all used to that jolly, round man adorned in a red suit, but this version of Santa has the iconic suit, but not the iconic round belly.
The film starts with your typical family celebrating Christmas over the years, but this year they are missing a member. The Pierce family recently lost their father, Doug Pierce (Oliver Hudson), and the family is left to deal with the first Christmas with him gone. It is rough for the family to say the least, but with the two children Teddy (Judah Lewis), and Kate (Darby Camp) secretly filming Santa (Kurt Russell) during his visit and sneaking into his slay, it makes this Christmas like no other.
Because of the siblings spooking Santa, the presents are lost, the slay is busted, Santa’s hat is missing, and they all lose hope in a merry Christmas. They start searching for a way to fix things and fix Christmas before it’s too late.
This film is a funny and a great family film for the Christmas season, even though it felt a bit cliche. There seems to be many Christmas films that follow the same storyline of kid(s) jumping into the life of Santa and eventually learning that family is the most important thing during Christmas. The animation and special effects were well done, and they really embodied the feeling of a child’s imagination and the idea of Christmas magic. The acting was alright, but not perfect. Some parts of the film did not seem as genuine because it seemed like the actors struggled to act out the proper feelings in certain situations. Overall, it was still an enjoyable movie, but the general plot felt unoriginal and the acting was a little on the rough side.