Norm of the North

Norm of the North

"I'm Norm of the North. King of nothing." — Norm

Genre:	Comedy
Directed By:	Trevor Wall
Written By:	Daniel R. Altiere Steven M. Altiere Malcolm T. Goldman
Starring:	Rob Schneider Heather Graham Ken Jeong Colm Meaney Loretta Devine Gabriel Iglesias Michael McElhatton Bill Nighy
Distributed By:	Lionsgate
Release Date:	January 15, 2016 (United States) March 18, 2016 (Ireland)
Runtime:	88 minutes
Country:	United States India Ireland
Sequel:	Norm of the North: Keys to the Kingdom

"You want some perspective to how bad this movie is? Rob Schneider is the star of this film. Rob Schneider is the star of this film! Rob Schneider is the star of this fucking film!"
— BlackCriticGuy

Norm of the North is a 2016 computer-animated comedy adventure film directed by Trevor Wall and written by Daniel R. Altiere, Steven M. Altiere, and Malcolm T. Goldman. It was produced by Assemblage Entertainment, Splash Entertainment and Telegael and distributed by Lionsgate, and opened in cinemas on January 15, 2016 in the United States.

Despite the scathing critical reception of the film, three direct-to-video sequels have been released: Norm of the North: Keys to the Kingdom, released January 11, 2019; Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure, released June 11, 2019; and Norm of the North: Family Vacation, released February 25, 2020, in which all the three sequels also received negative reception.

Plot

Norm the polar bear doesn't know how to hunt, but he does possess the unique ability to talk to humans. When the wealthy Mr. Greene unveils his idea to build luxury condos in the Arctic, Norm realizes that his beloved home is in jeopardy. Accompanied by three mischievous lemmings, Norm stows away on a ship to New York. Once there, he meets a surprising ally who helps him hatch a scheme to sabotage the shady developer's plans.

Why It Sucks

The film suffers from several clichés and unoriginal ideas, including but not limited to:
- The main character is an outcast at the start and later becoming accepted by his society at the end.
- The aforementioned main character is an outcast for being different from everyone else.
- The main character does something idiotic and it easily impresses his love interest.
- Mr. Greene is a rehash of Chester V from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, as both antagonists are the heads of their respective corporations and move their limbs in a rather over-the-top way.
- The Lemmings are also nothing more than carbon copies of the Minions from Despicable Me, as both are groups of small creatures serving as comic reliefs who accompany our main character much of the time.
- The government official is corrupt.
- The child of a character is upset that they would not be able to spend time together due to the latter being busy with work.
- The way Norm saves his grandfather from drowning rips off District 9.
The animation is rather cheap and of low-quality, and looks as if it were from a direct-to-video film rather than a feature-length animated film released in theaters. In fact, it looks more like a mid-2000s film than a 2016 film.
- The camera is also constantly spinning throughout the film, orbiting around specific characters and locations and making audiences feel rather dizzy.
- Characters move in rather strange and uncanny ways, which fails to work in the style they are going for.
The characters' motivations make no sense whatsoever:
- Mr. Greene's plan is inherently flawed, it consists of him building condos in the Arctic so people would buy them and live there; first and foremost, the ice caps are not only unstable (as proven in one scene where the icy ground is splitting apart and Vera is about to fall in) but also melting as a result of climate change, so why would anyone think living there is a good idea? Next, if the condos get destroyed due to either the unstable icy ground or melting ice caps, then the condo owners would sue Mr. Greene and win the case. Lastly, the Arctic is one of the most inhospitable and least comfortable places on the entire planet.
  - It is also even more flawed when taking into consideration that anyone living in the Arctic would have no way to obtain the resources necessary to survive, at least quickly.
  - It should also be taken into consideration that no one would want to live in the middle of nowhere, where there are no movie theaters, no supermarkets, etc.
  - The film is self-aware of how flawed Mr. Greene's plan is, reinforced by when the Councilwoman states, "Condos in the Arctic is a ludicrous idea!"; however, stating the problems of a film does not automatically make them go away.
- He also wants an actor for a polar bear in his commercial, even though an actor is of no use to him whatsoever as he can literally just use Norm's grandfather for his commercial; one could argue that there is no way Norm's grandfather would be willing to be part of the commercial, even though Norm himself simply walks right into Mr. Greene's office, so clearly he also came in there with no plan.
- Norm intends to become an actor for Mr. Greene in his commercial, which is rather pointless since if he doesn't go to New York City, Mr. Greene would not be able to make his commercial and thus make his condos in the Arctic; therefore, Norm would save the Arctic if he were not to go to Mr. Greene.
- Norm plans to pretend to be a human wearing a polar bear costume... because somehow real polar bears resemble fake ones.
- The bad guys who were chasing Norm earlier randomly decide to go after a man in a polar bear costume for some reason.
- There are several instances where characters carelessly approach polar bears, who are supposed to be extremely dangerous animals.
- Vera decides to hire the Lemmings upon Norm's request... even though these are the same lemmings who had just urinated in the fish tank.
- No one in the restaurant thinks it is a good idea to call the authorities to arrest Mr. Greene, a man who had just barged in there intending to shoot someone with a tranquilizer gun; it also doesn't help that he becomes popular after this incident, which involved an individual of the same species threatened with extinction, to the point where his approval rating rises up.
- Norm concludes that his grandfather is in the moving truck, even though there is no evidence or indication that his grandfather is in it, and even then, why would he think the people driving the moving truck would be bringing his grandfather with them?
- It turns out Norm was correct in that the people driving the moving truck are actually bringing his grandfather with them, even though they literally have no reason to do so whatsoever.
Confusing and questionable logic, such as Vera not recognizing Norm as the bear who chased her in the Arctic for some reason, despite him looking exactly alike, or Vera inexplicably being aware of Norm's name despite the latter never telling her his name at any point, or a herd of moose playing poker with actual cards, or Norm somehow knowing what Florida is despite living his entire life in the Arctic.
- Norm gets a lemming stuck in his mouth before he spits it out while chasing the seal; why not eat the lemming when it was in your mouth instead of chasing after the seal?
Internal contradictions, such as Norm stating to Mr. Greene about how he hadn't bathed, even though he was literally shown getting out of the shower a couple of scenes earlier, as well as Norm crying out "No!" for some reason upon arriving in New York City, as if he were complaining about the fact that he was in New York City, even though it was exactly his goal to head there.
The relationship between Norm of the North and its audience is... not so great.
- The film feels the so-called "need" to constantly remind the audience of Norm's goal once every ten or so minutes, as if they were too stupid to know what his goal actually is.
- It also wants the audience to believe that Norm is the rightful king of the Arctic, but it suffers from an emotional standpoint due to it being explained via words of exposition rather than showing it through his actions, and it also doesn't help that none of what Norm does makes him seem worthy of being a king; one technique commonly used in storytelling is "Show, don't tell!", in which however a character is described is shown through their actions so the audience would become emotionally invested within said character.
Norm of the North clearly knows nothing about several things relating to biology:
- First and foremost, hunting is treated as if it were some sort of sport in this movie when it is something animals are required to do to survive.
- Norm is also stated to not be good at hunting; if that were the case, then he should have starved to death long ago.
- At one point Norm is running away from bad guys in New York, even though he should be having a heat stroke as polar bears are not used to these kinds of environments during the summer, where they can get up to 100°F.
- At one point Norm states how the Lemmings lack any bones, even though lemmings in real life obviously do have bones.
Atrocious and nonsensical dialogue, notably "We can use the Arctic to save the Arctic!" from Socrates.
Lackluster voice acting, particularly in one scene where Mr. Greene is shouting at Vera, which sounds as if Ken Jeong was recording his lines far away from the microphone; in another scene near the beginning, Norm's voice sounds distorted, probably due to an issue with the recording equipment and no one noticing.
False advertising: Lots of posters show Norm wearing a Statue of Liberty sunglasses and Norm wearing a New York t-shirt whereas in the movie, he wears none of that.
It constantly panders to 2010s' audiences, even going as far as repeatedly showing Norm twerking and shoehorning in pop songs such as "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk The Moon, the latter of which makes no sense within the context of the montage it is in (where Norm is shown dancing alone without anyone else, specifically), as the aforementioned song is about a man meeting a woman at a dance club before dancing with her; promotional material leading up to the release of the film features "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift.
The Lemmings are obnoxious and annoying, being nothing more than carbon copies of the Minions from Despicable Me, as stated earlier, and having ear-piercing voices; they also constantly provide toilet humor, including one scene where they urinate in a fish tank.
Repulsive designs for the characters; for example, Norm resembles a reject from Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts^CGW, and Vera looks like a child rather than an adult.
It constantly uses the "Disney Death" trope, in which a character is seemingly killed and then is later revealed to be alive all along; neither Norm nor his grandfather are immune from this.
Inappropriate language for a children's movie, such as Norm stating the word "piss" in one scene; not only is Norm twerking considered pandering, but is also rather inappropriate for a children's film, as twerking is "sexually suggestive dancing characterized by rapid, repeated hip thrusts and shaking of the buttocks especially while squatting."^[1]

The Only Redeeming Quality

Norm's grandfather and Olympia are somewhat tolerable.

Reception

Critical and audience response

Norm of the North was heavily panned by critics and casual moviegoers for its animation, plot, characters, writing, soundtrack, voice acting and humor. It holds a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 3/10, with the site's critical consensus read, "A pioneering feat in the field of twerking polar bear animation but blearily retrograde in every other respect, Norm of the North should only be screened in case of parental emergency."

Norm of the North holds a 21/100 score on Metacritic, while also holding a 3.5/10 rating on IMDb.