A twerking polar bear in the middle of an unseasonably hot March: sound like fun? Norm of the North would have been fun if it went beyond that one note. Alas! that is not to be.
Everything about this movie is pedestrian: the plot, the animation, the jokes, the action. With Rob Schneider leading the voice cast as the aforementioned Norm (a polar bear that talks human, and is too sensitive to hunt), can jokes involving bodily functions be far behind? So there are the lemmings to oblige.
The story involves Norm, the reluctant leader trying to save his home, the Arctic from the evil plans of Mr Greene, who spends his time meditating, chanting Om (after the Brits, are Indians the new bad guys in Hollywood?), and building ugly condos for the “one per cent”.
Vera, a bright sales exec, who wants Greene’s help to get her precocious daughter Olympia into a genius school, is a reluctant collaborator in the Arctic condo project. Norm defeats the bad guys, gets the girl, and saves the world. Yay! Now we can go home.
The only redeeming factor about the movie is that it’s not too referential. Yes, there is Nanook of the North reference in its title, and (the characters played by) the lemmings play on as the ship sinks ( Titanic , anyone?), and watching all that ice and snow in an air-conditioned theatre. That’s it, now let’s just wait for Batman V Superman.
Norm of the North
Genre: Animation
Voice Cast: Rob Schneider, Heather Graham, Ken Jeong, Bill Nighy
Director: Trevor Wall
Runtime: 90 mins
