Natale eXtraterrestre

Alien Xmas (2020) -

I was instantly hit by how much this film had borrowed from other things that had gone before it - 'Robbie The Reindeer in Hooves Of Fire' (1999), 'Elf' (2003), Star Wars (1977-), Star Trek (1966-), 'Third Rock From The Sun' (1996 - 2001), The Grinch (2018), 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' (1993), 'Gremlins' (1984), Roary The Racing Car (2007-11) and so many more. Every sentence or image made me think of something I'd already seen. And actually even the voice over reminded me of 'Family Guy' (1999-) because I kept expecting swearing and other crude humour due to an adult feel that it had, no more so than when Santa (Keythe Farley) turned a candy cane in to nunchucks.

It was also quite a basic story and delivery and I wasn't sure that it was exciting enough to keep kids interested let alone their parents/guardians, etc.

And some of the non clay animation felt a bit cheap and simplistic, lacking a bit of polish.

I supposed that aliens coming for Christmas intent on stealing everything was technically something new, although 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' did something similar in 2022 (Holiday Special) but it also just didn't hit right as if the creators of ruder cartoons had been asked to make a Disney film for the under 8's and just couldn't help making it too mature, which ultimately made it not really suitable for anyone.

But I'm not under 8 and I could see that some of the silliness and colours might appeal to the really young, I just felt that we'd moved past this sort of unoriginal storytelling that was almost something from the 1960's.

Maybe it was just the post Christmas blues, but it didn't have the heart that I needed. We've been so spoiled in these later years with thoughtful ideas and intriguing plots that this was just lacking something and clearly from my list of other media, it was also too similar to so many other things.

600.99/1000.

Such a lovely story and really cheered me up. Definitely recommend

This movie has VERY distinct bits and pieces of the plot copied from other Christmas movies - I easily recognized things from Polar Express and Dr. Seuss Grinch, plus others. For some people this ^ may just feel super boring or cliche, but the stop-motion was awesome, and the concept was just original enough, so the mirroring of other classics was almost charming actually, not lame.

Nice average addition to throw on the seasonal Short/Special watch-list along with Peanuts, Dr. Seuss Grinch, etc.

Virtually no mention of any religious Christmas themes (jesus birthday, nativity scene, etc).

This was quite a good christmas film that i enjoyed watching

Most of this film was just ok so i would have given this a five but the ending is really nice so i brought it up to a seven

Would i recommend watching this film? Yes, if you have an extra 40 minutes then you should watch this film

Our three year old absolutely adores this film!

At 40 minutes it's a great film length for younger children, and rather than padding it out with song after song, it relies on the strength of its story.

The animation is lovely, it's funny, heart warming and it's not annoying - which is nice! In fact, I'd go as far to say I really like it too.

I'm really surprised it has got such a low score.