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Oh my Garland! Let's talk about Noelle (2019)
173 Plays1 year ago
In their first festive episode of 2023, Satsunami and Andrew take on film newcomer Noelle and it's impact on the Christmas film scene. But is it holly and jolly enough to leave an impression? Or does it put the No in Noelle? Let's find out!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami.
00:00:17
Speaker
Aloha everybody and welcome to another episode of Chatsunami. My name is Chatsunami, and joining me for this incredibly festive season is none other than the one and only, Andrew. Andrew, welcome back. Oh my garland, I can't believe you invited me on for Christmas month. And that is the end of the episode if you would like it.
00:00:39
Speaker
Yeah how are you doing today
Getting into the Christmas Spirit
00:00:40
Speaker
Andrew? I'm good thank you. Already in the Christmas spirit by having watched my first Christmas movie of the year. We are just recording this just prior to the December festive season but we're already kicking it off. Yeah I wish I could say oh it's like months ahead of schedule and everything and we've got it lined up but yeah we're only a week or two off.
00:00:59
Speaker
not that bad yet. I've not even got my Christmas tree up yet. I was about to ask you, what bring ours up this weekend? I mean, as of publishing this episode, my tree probably will be up and they'll probably be lovely pictures up. Now all you have to do is ignore the Getty stock image, watermark on it. I think people are going to dox you from your Christmas tree photo. I've seen people get doxed for less.
00:01:20
Speaker
Docks to hold. Definitely. If you want to listen to our Christmas album, you can pre-order it in spot of legal reasons. That is indeed a joke. But you know what's not
The Timelessness of Christmas Movies
00:01:31
Speaker
a joke, Andrew? The Fest of Spinner.
00:01:34
Speaker
Christmas films. Farrah La indeed. Of course, growing up celebrating Christmas, you and I of course have really consumed a plethora of Christmas films, haven't we? Yeah, I'd say we've watched our fair share. I know there's certainly many that are just kind of repeats every year that you have to watch your Christmas favourites.
00:01:52
Speaker
Yeah, because you do get your classics that, quite frankly, won't die. You know, you've got your It's A Wonderful Life, your Christmas Carol, your Grinch's, just so many iconic stories that are told in various different lenses, and then you get the hallmark films
00:02:09
Speaker
where oh boy they just milk that cow dry. There's actually a great image of that where it's two people with the same Christmas jumpers on but it's advertising different films. Have you seen that? No. So it's hundreds of these covers and it's like coming home for Christmas, speaking for Christmas, shooting Santa for Christmas, you know. And it's all the same couple smiling with the green and red jumpers on and you're like how did you get such a monopoly on that?
00:02:36
Speaker
because it obviously must be successful since it's still going but yeah recently and I say recently but I'm gonna cry because I do know that it's probably been over 10 years since half of these films came out but you had your more contemporary takes on the season with films like Elf and Arthur Christmas of course but this whole fish out of water genre do you feel as if that's getting more and more popular within Christmas films?
00:03:04
Speaker
Hmm, hard to say really. I can't think of too, too many Fish out of Water films and I think there's usually quite a big gap between them. But I mean, Elf being the kind of benchmark, I would say, for that in terms of Christmas movies at least. And it's very much like a jungle to jungle Tarzan and the big city kind of thing of bringing someone who's not familiar with our modern world in and just kind of hilarity ensues. And the topic we're discussing today is very much of that
Introduction to 'Noel' (2019)
00:03:29
Speaker
kind.
00:03:29
Speaker
Yeah, because I have to admit I actually didn't realise that this was one of the flagship films, like obviously it wasn't the thing that was going to sell people on Disney Plus when it was released in 2019, but apparently they actually delayed this film until 2019 because I think it was made in 2017.
00:03:50
Speaker
they were going to release it later in the year and then they had to push it back and it's quite interesting to see that they are trying to put their own spin on the Quintus Angel Christmas story as it were and of course the following we are indeed going to be talking about today is none other than 2019's Noel. Yeah I know we'll get into more in depth in the main part of this episode but did you hear much about this when it came out?
00:04:15
Speaker
No, when the film initially released, I didn't really know much about it. My partner has always been a big fan of Anna Kendrick and I like her too. She's very cute and I enjoy her films as well. And so we're like, all right, we'll give this a shot. We'll try this out. And so we watched it and my partner absolutely loved it. She thought it was so cute, so wonderful. I wasn't quite sold on it at that point. And it wasn't until the following year that I kind of got a bit more into it. And then I absolutely loved watching it again this year.
00:04:40
Speaker
I have to say I did hear about this film when it came out but I didn't really hear many people talk much about it and I don't know if it's because when it comes to Christmas films a lot of people are very defensive as it were about new films coming in because last year you and I of course talked about the Christmas film Claws which I actually don't know if that came out at the same time. Came out at a similar time
00:05:05
Speaker
Yeah, obviously it wasn't competing side by side, but yeah, it's really interesting and puts people, not on the edge, but they're quite curious when they see someone try to make a film that's going to be a Christmas classic because it's a bit like when people release Christmas songs and then
00:05:23
Speaker
It's either going to be like a hit that everyone's going to listen to year in year out. Shout out to Mariah Carey who's defrosted by now. But for this one I was really surprised. At least initially the lukewarm reception but recently I have watched this film and I've got to say I'm probably spoiling my whole outlook here but it's
Review of 'Noel': Humor and Charm
00:05:41
Speaker
a
00:05:41
Speaker
funny enough for them. It's quite cute. The actors are quite funny, they do a great job. But same without any further ado, will we just jump into it and talk about why this is either going to be a Hollywood drama review or going to be put in the naughty list? After the ad break, we'll jump down that chimney and discuss it.
00:05:57
Speaker
And yeah, we'll be right back after these festive messages. Welcome to Chatanami, a variety podcast that discusses topics from gaming and films to anime in general interest. Previously on Chatanami, we've analysed what makes a good horror game, conducted a retrospective on Pierce Brosnan's runs James Bond, and listened to us take deep dives into both the Sonic and Halo franchises.
00:06:20
Speaker
Also, if you're an anime fan, then don't forget to check us out on our sub-series, Chatsunani, where we dive into the world of anime. So far, we've reviewed things like Death Note, Princess Mononoke, and the hit Beyblade series. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can check us out on Spotify, iTunes, and all big podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.
00:06:42
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters! I'm Erin, a self-confessed mythology addict and occasionally scholar. Myth Monsters focuses on the monsters of global folklore and mythology. With sometimes a cryptid thrown in once or twice, we go from looking at Jackalopes to Gorgons to Wendigoes to Bigfoot from dwarves to elves.
00:07:04
Speaker
and honestly everything in between. Why should I listen to this podcast over any other mythology podcast out there? Well we're only 15 to 20 minutes long so we're perfect in time for your little commute and also we focus on a different culture and monster every single week, a real in-depth look into modern media where they're found in films, TV, video games and books and also the origin description and if I believe they existed
00:07:30
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So it's perfect for any short trips or if you're into any specific monsters that you fancy. So come join the fun every Thursday, and stay spooky babes. This episode is sponsored by Zincaster. If you're a broadcaster that records remotely like me, then you'll know how challenging it can be to create the podcast you've always wanted. That's where Zincaster comes in. Before I met Zincaster, I was put a naive broadcaster, recording on low quality, one track audio waves.
00:08:16
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I want you to have the same easy experience I do for all my podcasting and content needs. It's time to share your story.
00:08:27
Speaker
Overall, you see compared to other films of a similar genre, and I'm not talking about just Christmas films in general, but you're kind of elf films and things like that. What were your thoughts after watching
Comparing 'Noel' with 'Elf'
00:08:40
Speaker
this film? Yeah, as I said, my initial thoughts when I first watched the film was that it just kind of felt like an elf rip-off. It was a bit cheesy, but it was okay. I didn't really think highly of it, but I didn't absolutely hate it.
00:08:52
Speaker
Now, kind of looking at it, I think it has a lot of things it does better than Elf, things I enjoy more. You're always going to compare it to Elf because of its idea of exploring what would it be like for someone who grew up in the North Pole to experience our world. But that's not really necessarily the whole point of the movie. It's very much more of a self-discovery film than what Elf was. Elf very much did rely on the, this person was raised among sugar plums and fairies. How is he going to deal with the gritty real world?
00:09:21
Speaker
Find her next time on Elf Ball Z. But that's not really what this film is about. This film is a female empowerment Christmas spectacular. Not quite, but it does certainly delve more into realizing your potential, what you can do and the responsibilities of your family.
00:09:40
Speaker
initially when I saw it, I did like the fact that it was, although it was predictable, I did like the fact it was more female led to the fact that it was that twist of, and again I don't want to be like, oh it's like Buddy the Elf, but oh it's a woman, because I think as a character she did really well, and obviously as an actress she is a very good actress, but the thing I
00:10:04
Speaker
probably have the most gripes with with Noel is probably because it's the opposite of Elf in the sense that Elf is the energy is up to a hundred. If you know what I mean, Will Ferrell is constantly singing, he's constantly shouting, he's doing all these very large loud actions, which obviously you probably would
00:10:26
Speaker
that may be of an elf, but in this one she does seem a lot more grounded, even though she is dressed in the very colourful Christmas attire. It's not something that you would really say, oh that's so weird, who would wear those kind of things, you know. It's
00:10:43
Speaker
quite grounded and I feel as if it doesn't really take and again I'm not trying to judge this as some kind of black and white epic or anything but it doesn't really take any chances with the narrative does it? It seems to play everything very safe but I don't mean that in the Christmas safe, just everything seems to just happen and then that's it, the film ends.
00:11:05
Speaker
Yeah, I can kind of get that. It's interesting because Will Ferrell's Elf, this is going to kind of become a theme of this episode where we keep bringing up Elf as well. But Will Ferrell's Body the Elf is a child in like a large man's body and he's constantly thinking like a child would. Whereas Noelle isn't really like that.
00:11:24
Speaker
Noelle is an adult. She's clearly been a spoiled brat for a lot of her life. And she's kind of learning about the importance of giving to others. And Christmas isn't just about presents. And it's about what she can do to add more fulfillment in her life. Because as the film starts, she just makes Christmas cards. And her job is to make sure everyone else is having a good day.
00:11:45
Speaker
which is fine, but doesn't seem like a very fulfilling role in her life. And so it's interesting seeing her learn to be herself, her true self, whereas in Elf it's very much a, where am I from? I don't belong here story. And so they're very different in that regard, but the storytelling itself, or the theme of the storytelling, I don't know that necessarily it kind of things just happen. I think that it does kind of just take you scene to scene. There's not like a whole lot to the movie.
00:12:11
Speaker
It isn't exactly the Citizen Kane of Christmas movies, but it never needed to be. And I can't think that there really is a Citizen Kane of a Christmas movie, except for Claws, which we reviewed last year. I was going to say there is. It's called Citizen Kane. It's a wonderful life, might be the closest thing to Citizen Kane for Christmas movies. It wasn't at the time though, as we spoke about in our episode. I wasn't part of that one, which means I didn't listen to it. That is true.
00:12:38
Speaker
Yeah, no, I know what you mean though. It's not a film I went in expecting some high drama and detailed narrative or anything. That would be very at best
Subverting Christmas Tropes in 'Noel'
00:12:48
Speaker
facetious and at worst downright disingenuous to be like, oh yeah, I wanted action. I wanted explosions. No, no, no. I don't know what it is about this film. There's just something about it that I just thought didn't click
00:13:01
Speaker
The right way. I love Anna Kendrick in the role. I think she's fantastic. She does amazing. I did feel obviously happy at the end when she finally became Santa Claus. Although I have to say, halfway through you get a semi-resolution and then they just kind of drop it.
00:13:17
Speaker
because the other thing I thought was quite initially I thought was interesting because ironically enough it reminded me of another film Arthur Christmas where this day and age Santa Claus used to be this guy who would deliver wooden toys and things like that that were believably made in the North Pole and now because of technology and the advancements of that after that I did find that pretty funny when everybody wanted
00:13:43
Speaker
an iPad. But when I saw the guy with the, he had an idea for the drones and everything that he wanted to modernize, the delivery service, initially I thought, okay, that's interesting. I thought, is that going to be like a twist villain or is it going to be something along those lines? But that just never went
00:14:03
Speaker
they were. See, I disagree. It seemed like the obvious route to have Cousin Gabe be the antagonist, but he never was the antagonist. He was never trying to usurp Santa. He kind of was just happy doing his job and was kind of forced into it. So I think he was almost relieved when Noel took the reins. Don't pardon the pun. And so I quite like that they kind of subverted that. So there wasn't really a villain. It was more just a case of just the resolution of their own. The villain is the establishment and sexism. America.
00:14:34
Speaker
And so, I mean, I joke a little bit, but like, that is kind of the main focus of it, that there's this sexist North Pole society that doesn't consider women to be worthy of the Santa Claus mantle until just at the end. Something that actually did rub me the wrong way when I was watching that, other than the fact that there's just a very kind of tactone at the end. Oh, we didn't read that clause. Again, all puns intended there. Oh, we didn't read that clause. Turns out women can be Santa Claus. I was like, really? That's the route you're going for, the illiterate.
00:15:03
Speaker
pencil on the LCR didn't read the fine print. If you notice at the very start, the helper Polly actually does say when... Oh, yeah. She's like, that doesn't technically say that. And then Noel's like, quiet, Polly. The elves know what they're talking about. So they do set it up at the start, but I do agree that it does seem a bit silly kind of setting up this super sexist council. It's like Chekov's candy cane. She's going to fit that in the wall. Just wait and then, yeah, bring it back at the end.
00:15:28
Speaker
The only other thing that I really wasn't a big fan of was the fact that they were quite mean-spirited to Noel, and they never really apologise for it as far as I remember. I think maybe they do at the very end, but you know when she gets the letter and I know it's her comedic effect where they're like, oh it's your fault he left blah blah blah, but they just seem unnecessarily cruel towards
00:15:51
Speaker
I mean, that's part of her confidence issues, I guess, in herself, that they're all thinking that everything she does is wrong, or that her role is very minor in many ways. So they remove her from having much responsibility initially, and then when she has a suggestion that he should take some time and her brother ends up leaving the North Pole to avoid becoming Santa Claus, she's to blame for sending him off. But
00:16:15
Speaker
There is a lot of kind of scenes that I do take issue with. The singers, the little carolers that I've saw like everywhere. I found them really annoying throughout. I don't know what your impression of it was. I didn't mind them to be honest. I thought, finally some holy jolly music.
00:16:32
Speaker
I didn't think they were the worst, to be honest. I thought some of the things were quite funny, but I know what you mean. They could probably get quite grating if that was the whole film. At least they had the decency to spread them out, whether you liked them or not. At least they made sure to ration them, is what I'm saying. There were certain recurring jokes that I didn't quite land on. I mean, like you mentioned the iPad thing earlier, which was funny quite a few times, but they did overdo that one a little bit for me.
00:16:55
Speaker
The product placement though must have been insane for this phone though. I know it's a Disney film, but you know, you had iPad, you had Amazon Prime. I can't even truly remember if there was any other ones, but those were the two major ones that stuck out for me. There certainly was other random product placements. When they went to the mall, outlet mall area, I think they referenced a bunch of random stores there as well. I did notice this and I said to my partner just that Apple have come out really well from this.
00:17:23
Speaker
Oh yeah, I was surprised when they also were using Macs and everything. I thought, really? Apple made it to the North Pole? If that's not an indictment of capitalism on Christmas, I don't know what is. I mean, this has always been an age-old question, but like, what's the North Pole economy? They have all these stores, and there's a currency there, and what's the currency base off of? Who's giving out money? Is the main point the factory? Because they're not making money, because you give out toys to children. There's no payment involved there. How does this work?
00:17:53
Speaker
Yeah, because she gives over two coins that are basically chocolate coins, but they're covered in metal. And don't get me wrong, you know, that's kind of a funny hash. She's from the North Pole. She pays her taxes and candy canes probably. But yeah, why? That is no way to run an established government.
00:18:12
Speaker
I have to admit, that's definitely one of the things that you can wave off. But if you think about it for too long, you're just like, yeah, this doesn't make sense. And again, you know, it's a Christmas for home. It's not something that, you know, you're supposed to think about too much, especially when it comes to Santa, because you really just leave it off with Christmas magic, don't they?
00:18:32
Speaker
I did like that we got to see kind of a developed North Pole Christmas Town. In Elf it's very much almost like a cartoon style, just get the factory and some trees, whereas you have an actual like town and community in this, which is quite neat. I did like the fact that Polly went in having to disguise herself in the real world, and she was doing the same thing they do in Star Trek with Spock whenever they have to get a Vulcan in, but they have to put a hat on to cover the pointed ears.
00:18:57
Speaker
And then, of course, when they show it off to the characters, they're like, whoa! Which I have to admit, it was funny. But before they go into the things that I thought this home did extremely well, because I know I'm kind of nitpicking a lot here, but one of the things I thought was quite jarring, and it wasn't jarring when I watched it, but it was more when I thought about it was the intro of this film.
00:19:17
Speaker
So it's like you're sitting there and you have this really cute lovely scene of Santa returning home one Christmas and comes home to his wife who I'd convinced poisoned him but that's another story. Here he comes home to his wife and his kids and he talks about how his son will take up the mantle of Santa and so forth. Literally in the next two minutes they're like, anyway dad died. They're like, what?
00:19:43
Speaker
Santa died? Yeah, five months ago he popped his clogs. Imagine starting your Christmas song like that. Yeah, Santa's did. Merry Christmas kids. Bye Disney Plus.
00:19:54
Speaker
I mean, it's not too different from the Santa Claus, is it? He just knocks him off a chimney, off a roof, sorry. But I want to know, how did he pass away, but Mrs Claus is like, I'm still kicking and going, Hey, when you've been having the frequency of cookies that he's been having every Christmas, I think you'd pop off too. Do you think she slipped in an oatmeal and raised one? And he choked. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love those kinds of cookies, but I don't know, there's something fishy going on there. If any true crime podcasters would like to, you know, take up this case, please feel free to contact us.
00:20:23
Speaker
I have a question for you, actually. At the very start, they have this whole thing of she wakes up and like peaks and it's like, oh, it's Santa and we haven't had that reveal yet of it being her father. When you were a kid, did you ever try and sneak a glimpse of Santa?
00:20:35
Speaker
kind of, but then I would get told off by my parents and told to get to bed. But, you know, I would listen out, maybe. I was always so nervous that he would catch me not being asleep, because he knows if you're sleeping, he knows if you're awake, kind of thing, that I'd force myself and I'd have my eyes closed, but I'd try and listen
Santa Claus and Childhood Nostalgia
00:20:53
Speaker
out for him. Yeah, because he would obviously listen out for the footprints and sleigh bells if your parents, you know, rung them as if it was the reindeer and things. I mean, she did a good job at hiding. I'll give her that.
00:21:04
Speaker
Here's the thing though, I can't believe I'm saying this, they must have imported the Jackson 5 at minimum to the North Pole. Because she said she makes this joke of, oh I used to say, oh I saw mummy kissing Santa Claus, which is a Jackson 5 song.
00:21:22
Speaker
Yeah, is that all they listen to? That and Mariah Carey. I assume they exclusively listen to Christmas songs and nothing else. That's all they get, just all year round. So what you're saying is it's a retail workers' hell. Oh god, yeah. But they seem really into it. Maybe that's just their jam. That's true. I mean, they say, oh my garland. I don't know about you. That's very quotable. My partner says that with frequency, usually just around Christmas time, but that's one of her favourite things to say now. After a minute. That is quite a good one.
00:21:49
Speaker
But I have to say, going on to the good points of this film, I have to say the characters weren't that bad. There's always one character that you would point out and say, oh, I absolutely hated that character because of X reason or Y reason. But I have to say in this, there wasn't many. The only one that semi annoyed me was the... Private eye? No, no, no. I liked the private eye. I was going to say more of the baby reindeer. I was going to ask what your opinion on Snow Cone was.
00:22:17
Speaker
I mean, it was cute initially but I don't know if it's just me being bitter with Disney films where I look at cute animals and things and I think, alright, when's the plushy toy gonna come out for Christmas for this? Or, you know that way where it's just one thing that's manufactured just for that sole reason? I did find it funny when she tried to call in Snow Cone and she did the Disney Princess thing and then she just straight up had to yell at them and be like, come on!
00:22:46
Speaker
One other thing that I was surprised at, speaking of something you mentioned earlier about subverting tropes, this is something that it actually did probably better than Elf, but I did like the fact that they didn't really go for the love
00:23:00
Speaker
Yes, that's something I wanted to bring up too. It seemed, and you can kind of interpret it as maybe a future love interest or chemistry they had between them, but like they didn't really go down that route. And then it did very much seem like the relationship between her and the private investigator was very platonic. And it was more of a case of just her trying to improve his relationship with his son.
00:23:19
Speaker
Because after Matt, I did even like the son character, to be honest, because I was expecting that he was going to be one of these, oh, and well, you're weird, blah, blah, blah. You know that stereotypical, the kid kind of looks at the fish out of water character and they go, oh, I don't know about this. You mean the kid from Elf? I mean, he was more supportive of Buddy. He wasn't until that snowball fight.
00:23:42
Speaker
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, it was surprising to see, especially that dynamic as well because it's not really something that is overly explored. The fact that the dad was separated from his ex-wife and everything and they had to deal with a Christmas that, you know, a fracture Christmas essentially where he was trying to appease his son but at the same time he didn't want to impose himself on his ex-wife's new life.
00:24:08
Speaker
And I thought that was really fascinating because initially when they said it's complicated, the wife isn't around anymore, I kind of thought, oh god, Disney, you've claimed another mother. You've done the Bambi treatment here and you've shot her dead. But then when they said, oh no, she's still alive and she's split up from me, I thought it's better than them coming off parental figures. I mean, I felt as if in the 90s and early 2000s they had like a bloodthirsty Mickey with the axe.
00:24:34
Speaker
What's wild is, and my partner pointed this out, that how quickly she moved on because he said it was their first Christmas since the divorce but we're always already talking about her new husband. Oh yeah. And so in less than a year since the divorce she's gotten in a new relationship and married that person. I was going to say she's a bad person but I can't judge a fictional character.
00:24:58
Speaker
based on one-liner dialogue. She may be fine, she may be wonderful, but she moves on very quickly. That's not moving on quickly. That is the Olympics. That is the speedrun of moving on quickly. I never even thought of that, actually. Oh my god. Yeah, overall, I do think that this film is
00:25:15
Speaker
again it's quite a safe film by all means but it's honestly it's not an offensive film and i don't mean that in the sense of it's gonna say anything terrible but it's just a safe pick isn't it in terms of if you're gonna put it on for christmas if you want to feel good about things then
00:25:31
Speaker
Oh no! Oh no! But what do you think? Do you think you would include this in your yearly cycle of Christmas songs?
Final Recommendation for 'Noel'
00:25:40
Speaker
In the Christmas rotation? Yeah. I personally, I'd say it's like a 1.5 to 2 year rotation for me, but my partner loves it and so she wants to watch it every year. I probably will end up watching this every year going forward for a wee while. We may take a break from it every once in a while, but
00:25:55
Speaker
I think it's fair to say that it's likely that it'll become a regular pick for the rotation. I don't rank it as highly as a lot of other Christmas films that I enjoy watching each year that certainly would fall into the rotation for me, but I'm not protesting watching it each Christmas. I probably wouldn't rank it.
00:26:13
Speaker
highly on the Christmas rotation myself, if I was just judging it by myself, but I can see why people would. I don't think it's one of those films that you can completely discount and just think, oh it's the worst thing ever, things like that. Because it is, as much as I'm saying it is, a safe film and everything, it is quite an interesting take.
00:26:35
Speaker
on this particular genre because obviously with a lot of these films you do have a main character that is usually like a guy, whether that's it's a Wonderful Life, whether it's Christmas Carol, these obviously traditional ones or even with ones that came later like Claws and Elf where again it's a guy who's in a fish out of water situation tries to come in but I do think it's quite nice we're getting
00:27:01
Speaker
a female character that's coming in and not only putting their own spin on this season as it were but also appealing to a wider audience that I think will be more interested in a story like this and I do think that is a really cool thing to have.
00:27:19
Speaker
I mean, it is quite a different story because, let's face it, when you think of traditional Christmas stories, or rather if you think of more female-led Christmas stories, usually it's your Hallmark films, which don't get me wrong, we will get into next week, but you know, it's just cool. It's cool to see a film like this, especially backed by Disney, to be, yes, I know, the corporate overlord, but you know, to promote
00:27:46
Speaker
quite essentially just a nice film with a very nice message. Yeah, it is nice to see. And it's refreshing. I mean, there's not been a huge number of recent Christmas movies that I've enjoyed, I think, Claws being an outlier. And so, I mean, we're saying recent, this did come out three or four years ago now. Don't remind me. This came out before the walkdowns, would you believe? It came out just as places like things are, well, not just as things are looking down, but like just before Covid. It came out before this podcast was, I think,
00:28:14
Speaker
It's very true, yeah, so film predates the podcast. It's not super modern, but it and Claws are the two that I've identified as being two recent Christmas movies that I've enjoyed, and I don't think that's really been the case for quite a number of years that I found a more modern Christmas movie that I've enjoyed.
00:28:29
Speaker
All credit to it in that way. I think that there is a lot to praise about. And there's some things we didn't get to touch on. There was some very funny lines. Confusing yoga pants and yogurt pants line was quite amusing. The struggling with silent meditation was quite funny. Closing the bead curtains to try and cancel the noise of them like shouting at each other was funny. That doesn't offer that. Yeah.
00:28:48
Speaker
And there's a scene at the end where one of the elder elves is like, Santa can't be a girl. And this girl elf crowd just holds up her hand and goes, whoa, that's not OK. And my partner and I just burst out laughing at that character because she's very quotable. But as a closing point, though, would you recommend us? This is how we're always in the episodes, of course. But would this be a Christmas forum that you would be recommended to people?
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think I would recommend this film, especially if people like Elf, then I think they should check this out, because it's very cute, it's very sweet. There isn't a whole lot of steaks in the movie, it's very chill. It might be quite a nice one for people to put on while they're decorating their Christmas tree, but they don't really need to pay as much attention to it. It's still enjoyable, I don't want to discredit it in that way. Give it a shot. I think people will enjoy it, those who haven't seen it. We've kind of spoiled it for a lot of people who haven't seen it, but... Oh yeah, spoiler warning.
00:29:38
Speaker
She finds Christmas. Spoilers. She is Christmas. She is iconic, she is Christmas, yes. Yeah, there's lots of like out of this movie and I think the people should give it a chance. I can only co-sign that, to be honest. I do think, although I kinda said, oh it's a safe film and everything, at the end of the day it is a Christmas film and it does obviously borrow a lot of the tropes of
00:30:01
Speaker
previous Christmas alms so it's not going to be one of these ones that unlike something like Claus for example where although it was kind of a similar story that we knew about it took it in a very unique direction and as I said all Christmas alms don't necessarily have to be unique
00:30:19
Speaker
Blockbuster.
Closing Reflections on 'Noel'
00:30:20
Speaker
Citizen candy canes, my god, how have I not made that? Exactly. But you know, they don't have to eat like that, but I totally agree. It's something that you would watch either if you're decorating or, you know, if you had kids and you were watching this.
00:30:36
Speaker
Definitely. This one I'd say is worth checking out. It is not going to blow your festive socks off or anything, but it's a cute film. It's got a lot of, as you said, a lot of quotable moments. It has got some genuinely funny laughs. I have to say, I actually did laugh quite a lot throughout this film. Is there anything in particular that really got you?
00:30:56
Speaker
I mean, the beads really got me, as you said, when they said, stop shouting, they could hear you. And then they pulled the beads, as I said, the calling on Snoko. And I thought that was quite funny. I liked when she was pulling the lever on the slushy machine. Yeah. And she's like, this toy is messy. I have to admit, not so much you're the yogurt pants interaction, not so much what they were saying, but see the fact she was just in the fridge. And I mean, to me, I'll hear that Simpsons episode with Jasper mooned by. What a time to be alive.
00:31:34
Speaker
I enjoyed her mimicking back. She did the yoga pants thing and she had like a little yoga pose and then Anna Kendrick copied it back at her. That made me laugh a lot.
00:31:45
Speaker
As I said, it's a nice form, it's very cute, it's quite entertaining. Again, it's not one that we put up on top of the Christmas tree of Christmas albums, but you know what? It's still a nice bobble to decorate, so yeah, if you haven't seen that, definitely go check it out at Disney Plus. Speaking of Simpsons references, one note I made during the movie was that there was a scene where Snow Cone was wearing a leash, and then a second later the frame changes and Snow Cone's not wearing the leash anymore.
00:32:11
Speaker
And I was like, I sure hope someone was given coal for that blunder. I mean, that is Disney, you know, I wouldn't be surprised. Although then again, they did the coal for the animation furnaces. Andrew, thank you so much for joining me in the first of hopefully many Holly Jolly episodes.
00:32:27
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me. It was lovely to speak about this movie. Hopefully the listeners at home enjoyed our episode and what we had to say about the film. And as always, if you want to catch more of our Christmas themed episodes, or, you know, you just want to reach out to us to have a chat, you can check us out on the website, chatsunami.com.
00:32:43
Speaker
You can also subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content, episodes one week ahead of time, and much more. You can follow us on that Patreon at patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami. It starts at like $2 a month or something, so there's a very easy entry point if you're interested in joining. Or a pound for people we like. Wait a second. I didn't know about this pound!
00:33:04
Speaker
Nobody knows about the pound. And yeah, I'd like to thank our Panda Blue Rain Patrons, Robotic Plateau Toaster and Sonya. Thank you so so much as always for supporting the show. But yeah, thank you all so so much for listening to this episode. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated. Bye.