Movie review | The third Niko animation looks great, but would need some surprises

Animated

Niko and the Riddle of the Reindeer, directed by Kari Juusonen, Jørgen Lerdam. 85 min. K7. ★★★

To fly The adventure of Niko the reindeer in the sky of the animated film has been a success story of the Finnish family film.

The two Niko films, which were completed as Finnish-Danish-Irish-German co-productions, have each achieved higher numbers of viewers internationally than Aki Kaurismäki A man without a past and Le Havre or Jalmari Helanderin action film Go.

First Niko premiered in 2008, the sequel in 2012. The third film that is coming out now has already been sold for distribution in over a hundred countries and is dubbed into at least 20 languages.

Four countries the production know-how and the budget of 7.2 million euros are visible from the first few meters of the film in the lightness and spectacularity of the visual narrative, which does not lack jumps and twists.

The textures of snow and ice, the use of light and shadow and the natural imitation of different materials catch the eye even when they are not in the main part of the narrative.

The most interesting are the blatantly different environments, from ice caves to space and nightmares. In them, colors, compositions, different surfaces and elements that are flexible and disintegrate in different ways come into their own.

The story progresses so beautifully in the space and under the conditions of the spaces – from one direction to the other, from top to bottom – that the whole takes on the characteristics of a video game. I would like to jump into the flight scenes with a game console in hand, which speaks to the general nature of the plot.

The characters lack the kind of specificity or surprise that would make you focus on the story instead of functionality.

In the first Niko film, the stakes were high: a mystified, absent father and a young protagonist defying his fears, who risks his whole life up to that point to show what he’s capable of.

The third part searches for the weight of the first part, but only finds some kind of light version of it. The father has become a gently chattering Santa’s reindeer, and Niko is a defiant teenager who has to compete for his place in Santa’s air force, while the mysteriously talented, unknown girl reindeer Stella seeks the same position.

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The characters borrow from The Lion King, but without the sense of mortal danger.

The story, in which a competitive girl opponent beats the self-confident main character with an old man, has been ground into an unsurprising porridge in the strollers of teen movies.

Nor is it surprising that the unknown challenger has something to hide – or that the heroism of the previous generation is not as pure as it seems.

In character types are quoted directly The Lion King From the Scar villain with herds of hyenas, although typically for modern times without a real sense of the danger of death.

The plot, in which a familiar magical object becomes a bone of contention between tribes of two different air directions, cleverly refers to the Kalevala fable about Sammo’s robbery.

The whole family animation set in the world of snow and ice cannot avoid being compared to at least a popular one Ice Age – to the animated film series.

Although the part of the scumbag in the recent film is entertaining, it does not last Ice Age -to the legendary silent movie slapstick of Jyrsis the chipmunk guarding his acorn.

The most recent Niko film presents such undeniable animation expertise that Niko’s flight in the international animation sky hardly stops. If the script, which is still very safety-oriented, reached the same enormous proportions as the visuals of the film, we could even have an animated classic at hand.

Script: Kari Juusonen, Hannu Tuomainen, Marteinn Thorisson, voiced by Pauli Halonen, Viola Käki, Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Vuokko Hovatta, Petteri Summanen.