The Star

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Christmas 2019

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Bringing things back to Christmas, let's delve into the true meaning of the holiday with a retelling of the Nativity Story through the eyes of the animals, namely a young donkey named Bo (Steven Yeun).

We are introduced to Bo as he breaks free from a village mill, only to run into the virgin Mary (Gina Rodriguez) who has recently been told by God that she will give birth to his son. While they hit it off very well, Joseph (Zachary Levi) is looking for answers on how to support Mary through her pregnancy.

We learn that King Herod (Christopher Plummer) hires an assassin to get rid of Jesus, who he sees as a threat to his throne. When Bo learns of this, he teams up with a sheep named Ruth (Aidy Bryant) who has lost her flock, and an optimistic dove named Dave (Keegan-Michael Key) to stop him. They are further aided by the three camels, Deborah, Cyrus and Felix (Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry and Tracey Morgan, respectively) of the three wise men, Balthazar, Caspar and Melchior (Phil Morris, Joel Osteen, and Fred Tatasciore, respectively)

Despite an all-star cast (some of whom I still haven't mentioned), and being a wide release, this one just didn't make it very far in the grand scheme of things. Even I completely overlooked it for my 2017 Christmas special, as it just looked a bit too childish. I love animation, but there was a certain aura of innocence around this that lead me to believe I wouldn't like it much. Truth be told, I was right, but that doesn't make the movie all that bad.

While it's absolutely not for me, and I was often rolling my eyes at the intensity of the lameness of some of these jokes, I had to kinda go back in time in my head. I ended up asking myself if I'd like this as a kid, and I think I would have, but it still wouldn't have been something I'd keep going back to. Even then, it's a movie for kids pretty much 7 or under. It's perfectly innocent, and fun for little kids, but I'd have to forewarn parent that this is THAT kind of movie.

What I mean by that is that it's the kind of movie your little kid might wanna watch and rewach, but it'll become a pain in your ass as a parent because you know there's far better stuff out there. It's certainly not something I'm gonna be going back to anytime soon, as it has the quality of a straight-to-TV movie. But with that said, if you're an elementary school parent, it might be a good one to sit your young one down in front of for an hour and a half of entertainment. It's lame, but perfectly passable for what it''s trying to do.

Perhaps a good way to do it after the crazy hustle-bustle of the holiday season would be to find it on Netflix, turn it on, and let your kid be entertained while you take a nice nap. 'Cause trust me, this one is kinda sleep-inducing for us grown-ups. It's about as edgy as a movie Ned Flanders would make.

3/5

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