Norm of the North
2016  PG  ANIMATED  1h 28min
CAST— Rob Schneider, Heather Graham, Ken Jeong, Colm Meany, Loretta Devine, Gabriel Iglasias, Michael McElhatton, Bill Nighy
MUSIC— Stephen McKeon  DIRECTOR— Trevor Wall

     Another frigid, family friendly feature film that may leave viewers cold. Norm (Rob Schneider) is a polar bear, future king of the Arctic. But he’s pretty much a disgrace to his father, the current king. Norm does share certain talents with his grandfather (Colm Meany), the ability to speak human being foremost. When shady land developer Mr. Greene (Ken Jeong) plans to sell prefabricated condos in the Arctic Norm travels to NYC to persuade Greene and his assistant to leave his home as is. While in the city Norm gets caught up in public opinion polls that will decide whether or not Greene will get approved to build. Sounds like a blast, right? Yeah. Problems abound in this barely released, barely there kid flick that offers surprisingly good animation and a spirited, though one note vocal performance by Jeong as Greene. The usual morals are to be found here (nature: good, greed: bad, etc.) as is, unfortunately, the always expected crude humor, here delivered by a trio of near indestructible lemmings. Take it or leave it (though anyone over the age of four may be discerning enough to choose the latter).
OUR RATING— * ½