A Christmas story from the point of view of the animals! I can't speak for the cultural appropriateness of this angle, but once you get past the fresh premise, it's a decent retelling. This film focuses on the donkey and other animals but it does show the main points of the overall nativity story so you're not missing out on anything. Their adventure is genuine and heartfelt, just maybe more profane than sacred.
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marygracelia22-926-4485659 December 2017'The Star' is a delightful animated adaptation of the story of the Nativity of Jesus, aimed for younger children. It includes a lot of entertaining animal characters (some of which accompanied Jesus in the manger when he was born) and some songs to make it appealing to young and old alike. While not exactly Disney-standard, there a lot of redeeming qualities that differentiate 'The Star' from other uninspired adaptations.
This film follows the story of Bo, the ambitious donkey working for the town's miller who wants to be part of the Royal Caravan one day. One day he manages to escape with the help of his old friends, who at last recognizes the beauty of Bo's dreams. By focusing on Bo instead of Christ or the story as it is written in the Bible, I was initially afraid that this film was going to be out of focus. You might argue that it still is so it can amuse its very young target audience. But I believe that at in its heart this film is still about Christ, the film just uses Bo's story to give a fresh perspective on the narrative of the Nativity we all know so well.
This point is worth some emphasis. 'The Star' focuses more on Bo than on Christ, more on Herod's buff soldier who tries to hunt down Joseph and the pregnant Mary than Herod himself, more on the camels carrying The Three Wise Men on their journey following the Star to the place where the Messiah is born in Bethlehem than on the Three Wise Men themselves and so on. Yet, when taking into consideration its target audience of young children, most of them not older than 7 or 8 years, it wouldn't have made a lot of sense to portray the story of the Nativity as it truly was, with all of the persecution (of Christ by Herod) and bloodshed ("the massacre of the innocents") the real story has. If you want a loyal adaptation of the story of the Nativity for your children, unfortunately you have to look elsewhere, but if you want a lighthearted, fresh and new perspective this is as good as it gets.
A lot of comic relief is supplied by Bo's amusing and loyal friend, the pigeon Dave. The villain, as those familiar with the Bible should know, is Herod, voiced by Christopher Plummer. The voice acting, it must be said, is not outstanding, in the sense that none of them really stand out, not even Mariah Carey as the horse, Rebecca, or Oprah Winfrey as one of the Three Wise Men's camels, Deborah. Nevertheless, all of the voice actors manage to get the job done satisfactorily.
To conclude, I would like to add something about the film's religious theme and inspiration. Even if you're not a particularly religious person, you cannot fail to appreciate the epic grandeur and poetic beauty of the biblical account of the Nativity, such as the metaphoric and symbolic nature of the Star and the ironic facts that Jesus, the son of God, was born in a manger of all places and that Bo does end up working in a royal caravan by accompanying Joseph and Mary. The point the film wants to emphasize is that we are all following our own unique star, like Bo and Joseph and Mary, even if some of us don't know where it is leading us or going to lead us yet.
I would recommend 'The Star' which offers a fresh new perspective to the story we all know so well, obviously keeping in mind all of the liberties in takes. To their credit, the producers do try to preserve all of the Christian values and significance that are to be found in the biblical account of the Nativity (if not the Bible itself). And that's arguably the most important thing in an adaptation like this film. -
lisafordeay2 December 2017The Star is a 2017 Christian movie starring a load of A listers including Kelly Clarkson,Tyler Morgan,Oprah Winfrey and Zachary Levi and tells the tale of a donkey called Bo(Kevin Jeun) who escapes his cabin and bumps into Mary and her husband Joseph(voiced by Gina Rodringez and Zachary Levi) who are going to become parents to the messiah(Jesus) after Mary had a visit from god (apparently) who gave Mary the messiah as her child. But when an evil guy and 2 dogs are after Mary,its up to Bo and dove pal(voiced by Keegan Micheal Kay) to protect Mary and Joseph and to follow the star.
Overall I enjoyed this film. Is it as good as The Prince Of Egypt No but is it a great family film yes it is. My only grip and this may sound odd is Zachary Levi. Don't get me wrong his a very underrated actor and has starred in Chuck and my all time fav Tangled, but I honestly couldn't buy him as Joseph,I literally thought of Flynn Eugene Fitzherbert Rider the whole time and I couldn't stop thinking of him whenever Levi would speak.
But my final verdict is at the end of the day its a nice film. May get some negativity with Christians but as a Christian myself I had no problems with it. -
cschultz-221 November 2017Set in "nine months B.C.," "The Star" is a gentle and affectionately- irreverent computer-animated retelling of The Nativity, as seen through the eyes of a clumsy and accident-prone donkey and his friends as they accompany Mary and Joseph on their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
With animation by Cinesite in collaboration with The Jim Henson Company— Cinesite provided the special effects for several of the recent hits from Marvel Entertainment, and the Hensons are the people behind The Muppets—"The Star" mostly abounds with mild slapstick, as animal characters support each through mildly perilous situations on their way to the very first Christmas pageant.
Along with his friends, the donkey—named "Boaz" by Mary, or Bo for short —seeks to protect the Holy Family from King Herod's Roman Centurion hit- man and his two ferocious hounds, occasionally encountering along the way the camels transporting the Three Wise Men along a parallel path to the same event.
Bo is also trying to elude his disgruntled owner, from whom he recently escaped chasing dreams of glory. Mary and Joseph are unaware of the dangers of their journey, due partly to Bo's inability to communicate beyond the elaborate comic pantomime which sometimes earns him a belly- rub from Mary.
Possibly "The Star" with its gentle humor, colorful characters, and superb animation works best as a means of introducing small children to the story of the first Christmas. And the picture receives considerable help from its all-star assembly of voice talent, including Steven Yeun as Boaz, supported by Keegan-Michael Key, Kelly Clarkson, Aidy Bryant from television's SNL, Patricia Heaton, Kristin Chenoweth, Kris Kristofferson, and Ving Rhames.
The unlikely team of Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey, and the wonderful Tracy Morgan are heard as the bickering camels transporting the Three Wise Men, Christopher Plummer voices Herod, and Zachary Levi and Gina Rodriguez are the frequently-harried Joseph and his practical but playfully affectionate young wife, Mary.
The picture itself has received mixed reviews—Rotten Tomatoes reports a 62% approval rating from 26 critics, with an average score of 5.2 out of 10—but audiences polled by CinemaScore give "The Star" an average grade of A.
That's the only score that really matters. "The Star" is appropriate for viewing by all audiences, but is especially recommended for the very young. -
"The Star" is an animated story of the first Christmas, with cartoon animals as the main characters. I think it's a good production, and one that may help toddlers and tykes get some inkling of the Christian origin of Christmas. But for most over that age, it probably rings more like an "Ice Age" or "Madagascar" adventure for animals. The humans in this instance do have much bigger parts - especially Joseph and Mary, and a fictitious monster man. So, there always remains a thin thread that leads the animal adventures toward Bethlehem.
Except for the monster creature, the story is mostly accurate in following the Bible story of the birth of Jesus. And, the producers did a fairly good job in the art work of depicting the land and settings realistically. Unfortunately, they transposed 21st century social ways on an ancient setting. So, we have some wisecracks by Joseph at times. And, we see his temper and impatience at times. As for the animals - they have all the modern cultural behaviors and speech. It may be light-hearted fun and funny, but all of this detracts from any sense of awe, reverence or anything special taking place.
The animals talk about the star, but then the mayhem and pursuit of the story picks up again, and the real meaning of the story is subjugated by the comical and adventures of the animals. So, as a cartoon and animated picture, "The Star" is good and entertaining. But for getting the message across of the first Christmas, it misses mostly with the primary audience it might have reached. -
rgkarim19 November 2017The spirit of Christmas a common theme of movie around this time of year trying to teach us the main reason we get a vacation and give gifts in December. And about every five years, we get the retelling of the first Christmas that brought with it hope, grace, and salvation from how horrible of people we are. This weekend that retelling comes through again, but this time from the perspective of the animals and what they went through that fateful night. Robbie K here with a review on the Star, an animated movie that hopes to shine bright in this weekend of big releases. What's in store? Read on to find out my friends!
LIKES:
Good animation: With the age of computers, you expect fluid animation, and the Star doesn't disappoint. The animal movements are excellent examples of anatomical study, capturing the foot, neck, muzzle, or whatever other body part you want your animal to move in an accurate manner. In addition, the designers do a nice job of anthropomorphizing the animals as well, creating a hybrid of personalities that are fun to watch. And while your either admiring, or ignoring the animation, you can be sure that your little one will be stoked to see the characters clumsy antics and slapstick humor result in a laughable adventure.
The Voice Acting: While acting in full form is a highly challenging task to try to accomplish, there is something to be said about the art of voice acting. The assembled cast gets two thumbs up for me in their ability to bring the simplistic animal roles to life with semi-memorable characters. There are too many characters to name, but Steven Yeun as the main character carried a heavy load as the adventurous, yet stubborn donkey Bo who was a fun character to watch. Keegan-Michael Key was another welcome addition to the cast, his solid comedic delivery perfect for the comical character of Dave the Dove whose quips have been diluted down for the kid friendly atmosphere of this movie. However, my favorite character was the camel Felix, Tracy Morgan who had the most zany, crazy, and comedic punch of the whole movie with his sarcasm and sheer idiocy. All in all, they do their parts well, and create that wholesome family feeling.
Artistic Tale of Christmas: When it comes to religious and kid's movie, it can be difficult to find the balance that lays between cheesy, annoying, and of overzealous religious zeal. Fortunately, the Star was able to accomplish this goal to the point that it delivers the manner in a heartfelt way without falling into Hallmark sappiness territory. The Star maintains its cute, slapstick tones throughout the whole movie up to the predictable ending that we all know is coming. And when that climax occurs, it somehow delivers the powerful message and keeps things fun, which isn't easy given the imbalance that plagues the cinematic world. Nevertheless, this movie has an art to its delivery, which nets points in my book.
DISLIKES:
Character Use: The Star is another example of jumping the gun and hiring too many actors for a limited cast. While there are a few characters, Bo, Dave, and the wolves, who get an adequate amount of screen time on camera, many of the characters are reduced to unnecessary cameos that serve little purpose. The Field Mouse, the random goat, even the bad king himself are just expensive shout outs that could have been used towards developing a stronger story. Hollywood may be doing favors for the friends, but this reviewer found much of the characters a waste of time.
The story: Before you shout blasphemy towards me, I don't hate the first Christmas story, far from it. What I mean in this dislike is how bare the story felt in this telling. It's one geared towards kids, doing little to curtail the story to adults, which limits its entertainment purposes for a variety of people. Yes, I get it, it's a kid's movie, but think of how well Pixar can cater to both audiences and get the job done. The Star's message is great, the package is cute, but it's limited in the audience members it can truly entertain.
The animation. Other major studios know that every detail is important in animation. While Bo and the main characters movements look great, the rest of the characters (primarily the secondary background characters) walk stiff or are limited in their movements. While a minor dislike to some, this reviewer has developed an eye for world building, and the Star kind of failed on that level for me. Biblical times may not have been the mega city behemoths of the modern world, but I'm pretty sure it had more splendor than this movie made it out to be. The Star seemed to cut costs on this movie where it could, unfortunately making the world succumb to characters caught in mundane worlds.
The VERDICT:
The Star is cute, it's spiritual, and it is one of the most family friendly movies of the entire year to bring your little ones too. With good primary animation, voice acting that is energetic and fun presentation, this is a Christmas story I can get on board with. However, this studio dropped the ball on using their characters and world building, cutting corners to give a simplistic presentation that is dull compared to Disney's worlds. In addition, the limited audience entertainment faction is also a strike against a tale that held much potential. The Star is good for a church group to go to, but it's place would have been better in a direct release film in my opinion, instead of a costly theater run.
My scores are: Animation/Adventure/Comedy: 6.5 Movie Overall: 5.5-6.0 -
ohnoyoudidinmmmhhhmmm26 December 2017All reviews negative towards this film are censored. As such I cannot post any lengthy review.
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dgranger18 November 2017I'll start this review off by mentioning something specific and unique about this film that proves that I have seen this film while I suspect one reviewer didn't. The film handles the traditional nativity story while modifying the King Herod's attempt to find the Christ child and the Holy Family and murder them. (And, frankly, IMO, that part of the story that leads to the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem is not a suitable subject for family animated movie for children and is wisely left out of this film.) How they changed the King Herod part was to tell the story from the animal's point of view. The donkey Bo, Dave the bird, and Ruth the lamb all notice a new star in the sky and conclude that something great is doing to happen. Now Bo, who is a donkey of a miller, escapes his cruel master, and is adopted by Mary and Joesph. Only after Mary and Joesph leave on their journey to Bethlehem, does Bo learn that Herod has sent a soldier henchman with a long nasty looking sword and two mean chained together dogs to search for Mary and the baby and kill them. Bo enlists the aid of his friend Dave the dove and a lamb named Ruth, to chase after Mary and Joesph in order to warn them of the Soldier hunting them and to protect the holy family. Bo doesn't know why Mary is being hunted. The camels of the Magi, who Bo, Dave, and Ruth don't meet until the end of the film, witness Herod's original plotting. As I said, the film wisely leaves out the massacre of the children of Bethlehem and stops before that point in the biblical narrative means this film does not have a very violent, bloody, and adult scary scene in it for children to watch.
While telling the nativity story from the animals' point of view is not a new idea, using them to modify, and soften Herod's part is.
The animation is stunning in this film.
The story is easy to fallow and treats the traditional nativity story respectfully while infusing the obviously fictional part of the animals talking. It also has jokes in it to keep the tone of the picture light and easy .
The soundtrack's use of the carols and new music is lively, and enjoyable without getting too heavy handed with the religious theme. But the soundtrack doesn't get too light ether. It hits the right balence of seriousness and entertaining.
I would highly recommend taking children to see this film. -
ElliesWonder19 November 2017People are voting too low and criticize too much. This is just an animation, targets children and families the most. Storyline is clear, characters are funny, CGI artworks are beautiful, and I like all their songs. The songs are classic and beautiful. The movie taking the side of the animal, nothing too much about Jesus, it is not a religious topic movie, just a normal cartoon.
I went to watch the movie alone because the trailer was interesting and I have nothing to do on Saturday. The movie was even better than my anticipated. -
andreacam8 December 2017The story of Jesus birth from the point o view of the animals, mainly the donkey. It's absolutely boring for adult and kids. Not funny, not interesting. There many better movie to watch. I's really difficult to understand why they made such a bad movie.If you have kids they will get bored after 10 minutes.
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tavm14 December 2017This was quite an entertaining take on the birth of Jesus as experienced by various animals done on computer animation to both humorous and dramatic effect. The traditional holiday songs are well done in scoring some of the picture. Of the celebrity voices, I noticed Tracy Morgan's from the first time I heard him, while my movie theatre-working friend also noticed Oprah Winfrey's. In summary, The Star is worthy of the tale it tells on film.
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bonniejoy-978-6876312 February 2019I know I'm late on reviewing this, but better late than never. So now that I've seen this, how is it? Officially it's a mess. 60% of it had a lot of not so good moments while 40% actually had some profound moments I didn't anticipate. Let's start with the good stuff: 1) Mary and Joseph as characters: the emotions they go through are solid. Whether addressing the unborn child or the animals, it all feels genuine and not forced. There's even a moment where Mary has an emotional breakdown while on the road. As for Joseph, it shows him dedicating everything to helping Mary and the unborn child while trying to hold his sanity together. That's a real character arc. Bravo 2) The theme: Life doesn't always go as we planned, but in the end it will turn out okay. 3) I enjoyed Bo's (the donkey) story 4) The voice acting is terrific from everyone 5) The animation is terrific!
Now what doesn't work: 1) The animals being the main focus. I don't object to it necessarily, but the execution was sloppy in writing. One moment it involves Mary and Joseph dealing with being pregnant and on the road and the next moment it's about the camels comedically spying on Herod. 2) The extra villain: Seriously? Herod aside, why do we have a hunter going specifically after Mary? Even Herod could not figure out which child was the Messiah in the first place. 3) The animal commentary (mainly from Oprah's camel): In moments that should play out, the animals add unnecessary dialogue to it. For instance, there's a moment Oprah's camel comments about Jesus' birth always being celebrated. Why? What made her the expert? 4) The moping and doping: Bo saves Mary, Joseph kicks him out, Bo randomly rejects his friends, everyone is sad, and through it all "His Eye is on the Sparrow" plays (worst situation for the song ever). Then he turns around back to Mary. The whole scene was pointless. 5) At the end credits, the words "Be Moved" stand out. Um you can't tell people that, you need to allow moments to play out and rely on the audience to actually be moved. It's called "trusting your audience".
I'm not necessarily demanding the story of Jesus' birth to be told in an all serious light I'm asking for a better balance in writing. If you have to make the animals the main characters, you need to have a balance of both situations and comedy and drama, not sloppily combine the two; that's part of good storytelling. However, I don't regret seeing it, especially for the few terrific moments in the film. Compared to the Emoji Movie (which came out months before), this was a bit healing but didn't go all the way through. Do I recommend it? Um................not sure. Certainly if you're looking for a straightforward story on Jesus, you won't get it here. Comedy? Um not really either. However I don't think it's that bad either. It just depends on your point of view - at least it's not talking down to kids the way Nut Job/Emoji Movie did. Score: 3/5 -
riverinhouston23 November 2017I took my child to see "the Star" yesterday thinking it would be a nice holiday movie. I mean, a story promoted as the first Christmas and birth of Jesus should be fairly safe, right? Warning, spoiler alert: it is NOT a nice holiday movie. 95% of it was about Mary and Joseph being hunted by the king's henchman, accompanied by his vicious dogs, while the donkey tries to find/save them. Let me say that just because the dogs try to be "good" at the very end, after the henchman falls off a cliff, doesn't make it a happy ending.
Of course, I know that persecution, hatred and violence existed and was part of the history. But Hollywood, please don't sell this to unsuspecting parents as a feel good holiday film! My child said to me afterwards, "I never want to see that movie again!" - this 4yr old is wiser than the producers. -
kathleenmcnab14 November 2017I took my 7 year old son to see this film and we had a great time. He was laughing out loud at the animals and their antics. There is a scary soldier that was pursuing Mary and Joseph, but not too scary. If you are interested in the traditional Christmas story for your family...this is just the ticket. Great animation. Funny characters. Happy and uplifting. I wish they would make more kids movies like this!!!
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matthewssilverhammer20 January 2018The biggest upside to this surprisingly strong representation of the Christ's birth is found in its failures. It falls short in similar ways as other kid's movies (corny moralism, on-the-nose thematics, generic humor, Tarzan-syndrome soundtrack), but none of that really overwhelms. Where it succeeds, however, is as a faith-based film. Instead of being banal & frustratingly pandering like so many Christian films, its theology & its heart hold up nicely, along with its simple story.
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bobytom8 July 2018When I saw the trailers and posters of it, I just thought it to be just a typical talking-funny-animal film with shoehorned celebrity voices and lame or derivative humor that we normally expect from non-Disney-or-Pixar animated features. However, after seeing it recently, it was somewhat slightly better than I thought. Not great, but just alright. ----------------
First off, the idea is very potential. I mean, we are talking about the old but beloved story about the origins of Christmas, the birth of Jesus. Unfortunately, the way they handled that tales isn't that great, resulting in a rather derivative and predictable underdog plot, where donkey named Bo wants more from his life, but accidentally ends up with Maria and Joseph on a quest to arrive at Bethlehem and help them to give birth to a new king, while at the same time save the couple from a hunter with two evil dogs. But the biggest problem with the film is that it rather wants to be more of a funny-animal cartoon with goofball antics rather than a more serious story about Christ's birth. Maybe the idea of telling the story through the point-of-view of the animals could have worked. I mean, there are many good films with the talking-animal aspect, like 101 dalmatians for example. But the way it did there isn't that strong and they probably aimed it too much for children, resulting in a rather flat and lazy storyline.
Granted, it does have a huggable sense of heart when it comes to the couple and I found the ending to be rather sweet and really emotional. I also did like the humor a bit. Some scenes were worth the chuckle, but it does get rather juvenile at times like in the scenes of the cross-eyed goat and the pigeon doing some dumb and out-of-place twerking. Boy, how executive-driven it is, isn't it? I did hear the English version of it, but I only watched it entirely in Finnish dub. I feel it sounds a little better and more enjoyable than the original one, so maybe I did find it to be a bit funnier than I expected. Otherwise, the story is rather flat and sometimes childish. -------------------
I personally didn't get annoyed by any of the characters, but there are way too many of them. Bo and Ruth, the dogs and maybe the villain are fine, but maybe not so terribly interesting. Mary and Joseph, on the other hand, are quite lovely and probably the most relatable, since their struggle to have a child of God is somewhat believable enough. The rest is not that important and it's so blatant that many of them are for the sake of name recognition. Dave the pigeon could be enjoyable, but I swear Bo could have figured out the things just by himself. The camels are predictably pointless and even the three farm animals, including the surprisingly talented singing horse, at the end are easily forgettable and useless. Yes, even in both original English and Finnish dub, the actors tried their best and I did enjoy their performances at times, but sadly, it doesn't save the one dimensional and many of the pointless characters in here. ----------
But I was pretty surprised how good the film looks. Yes, the budget is rather tiny compared to any mainstream animation and it may not be perfect, but still. Designs are very fine. Animals look very good, but it can get a tad generic. Humans were drawn well too, especially the couple looks really beautiful. I was even more impressed with how the lighting and textures, especially the fur of the animals, look believable and how the artists were able to create a time travel over 2000 years back of how the ancient cities and other places look newer and much lusher than now. On the other hand, the animation and the rendering aren't so strong and smooth and that goat looks honestly kinda ugly and seems to reflect too much on the budget. Even with that, the Canadian animators tried their best with the low amount of money they had. ----------------
It could have been something great, but it was obviously targeted at kiddies. Sure, the animation is very nice and it has some great heart, but unfortunately, it ain't Prince of Egypt. -
. . . takes dead aim at the Holy Bible during its latest Trojan Horse attack against the USA and Our Christian Religion, THE STAR. From THE STAR's opening moments--in which the twisted filmmakers label Christ's impending birth "9 months BC," when ALL Biblical Scholars and even Wikipedia concur that Jesus was born in 4 BC--to its anti-Semitic attitude throughout, which goes so far as to transfer the Old Testament's Goliath to the Other Side, anyone who has read more than a couple Bible Verses will squirm uneasily as they notice something "off-kilter" in each and every lamentable scene of THE STAR. This should surprise nobody who's familiar with the Business of Cultural Warfare, as the first thing you learn studying that science is that Sony is the official propaganda arm of the Japanese Government, still sore that their rogue Samurai Codes forced the World to nuke them a couple times in the 1900s. These deviants always have had it in for the Christian Religion, as Martin Scorsese's 2016 feature film SILENCE documents how the failed island state Crucified about 230,000 Christians during the Shogunate. Such perfidy continued right into the modern era, as Angelina Jolie details in 2014's UNBROKEN how Louis Zamperini vanquished Japan's Religion based upon Emperor Worship through Christianity as the Holy Hellfire of Atom Bombs rained down upon Japan (aka, "Skull Island"). Leader Trump must not allow Sony's prevarication during THE STAR to start another World War. THE STAR tries to equate Biblical Israel with Today's Chicago, arguing that the latter's Black-on-Black Crime Epidemic simply echoes a similar wave of Jew-on-Jew terror--epitomized by the Racist depiction of King Herod here, and his henchman Goliath--as Sony rewrites the Bible. SHAME on Sony's American Fellow Travelers who participated, aided, and abetted during the production of THE STAR's travesty. Leader Trump MUST revoke their U.S. Citizenship ASAP for High Treason against the Holy Bible, and deport them to their employers back in Japan BEFORE nuking those incorrigible islands another time or 13 (he can just tell the so-called "United Nations" that we were aiming for North Korea, but messed up the coordinates a little).
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Horst_In_Translation9 December 2017"The Star" is an American English-language animated movie from this year that premiered here very recently, so you could definitely say it is one for the holidays. It's not too long at under 1.5 hours, but features still a whole lot of known actors that you may have come across in other projects. Maybe you won't recognize their voices, maybe you will. But you sure will recognize their names. This film here takes us into the Bible by telling us about the nine months before the birth of the Christ as a bit of a fable with speaking animals and an ancient background as this one plays over 2 millenniums in the past. The good news is that I enjoyed almost all the animation aspects here. There was one especially beautiful shot that may have been among the greatest of the year when we see the humans and animals moving forward while also seeing the beautiful star-studded sky. The music was fine too overall with some beautiful songs.
But sadly, the film had also far too many mediocre and forgettable moments that made this one seem way too long for its own good and that is even more shocking as it really wasn't a very long film at all. It easily could have been kept at under an hour I believe. On the one hand, there were just far too many (animal) characters in here that had hardly no impact at all on the story. Quite a pity. They were included for one or two funny ("funny") moments and then disappeared as quickly as they appeared like the ones at the end at the location where Mary gives birth. And as for the approach to the comedy here, it was not as successful as I hoped. Here and there, there was a solid moment including a witty joke, but most of it was really just loud and over-the-top sadly and on a level where just the little ones would enjoy it. And this means quite something when I say or write it because it is a statement coming from somebody who is off the opinion that quality animated films are as much for grown-ups as they are for children. Anyway, the ending was somewhat better again and I liked how they included the subject of forgiveness with the two dogs, but also weren't afraid of killing off a really sinister character. By the way, the two dogs could really have their own movie as a sequel. They were one of the better components here.
All in all, however, I did not like the film as much as I hoped I would. Donkeys sure are the greatest thing ever (next to guinea-pigs), but the thing I found distracting here is that the German voice in the version I watched did not satisfy me at all and I wasn't too happy in general with the dubbing also for other characters, especially the animals. Let me add too that I am an entirely nonreligious atheist, so I won't go too much into detail about the biblical and more serious contents here and their accuracy. I would just say that the dramatic plot was never really as good as I wanted it to be. So yeah there are some glaring weaknesses here and it may not be the greatest effort by Oscar-nominated director Timothy Reckart at all. Then again, this may be more the two writers' fault than the director's. I for once can only say I am surprised how much attention this has received from the Annie Awards. An Oscar nomination seems possible, but I think it really isn't that good. Watch something else instead. -
nofitatjam26 December 2019Just watched this with the kids, "The Star" A really underrated movie about the journey Mother Mary had since the day The Angel visited her. It is funny, touching. The songs are great. It is a good movie to watch with the whole family this Christmas.
This movie made me appreciate Mother Mary even more while at the same time get the magical feeling about Jesus Christ birth 🤗🙏😇. Just watch it. It is in Netflix. -
armyofmuhammad28 December 2021Essential values. Because it gives a touching - precise message about the fundamental importance of faith. And, sure, for the admirable courage to be a confession because, in the age of relativisation, "The Star" becomes a honest remind of the basic Christian Truth.
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nancyrea-7915115 November 2017One of the best animated films I have seen lately. The idea of the Christmas Story seen through the eyes of the animals was totally a new angle on the story and a wonderful inspiration for children and adults.
Although there is obvious evidence of artistic right in the story, (has to be with talking animals) it does follow along with the heart and written encounters of Baby Jesus family journey to His birth in Bethlehem.
I will be going this week for second viewing and checking with friends and family about borrowing some children to take with me. I want every child I know to see this.
As soon as it becomes available on DVD my order will be placed. I have 4 groups of children I will be encouraging to have their parents take them to see this. Movie night at my house will have several showings of this movie. -
raynald-carre8 December 2019You're better off rewatching the Peanuts Christmas
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QueenPendragon23 November 2017The oldest review is rather shameful...it's not indoctrination to tell kids the truth and Mary was a virgin, no need for the quotes. The movie's good and worth seeing. It's great that it got a theater release, considering the junk in Hollywood today. Also I don't agree that it trivializes the story at all.
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dmbelafan31 December 2017Religious movies can be outstanding. Children's movies can be outstanding. The combination may be tricky, but is certainly manageable (see "The Prince of Egypt" for reference). Sadly, "The Star" fails in both regards. There were redeeming elements, but the film as a whole lacked direction and polish.
In an audience half comprised of children, laughs were sparse, and hinged almost entirely on butt jokes. To be fair, there were some clever jokes that depended on the viewer's familiarity with scripture, but they were few and far between. It didn't help that the movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be funny, sacrosanct, suspenseful, or none of the above.
The major liberties taken with the story were for the sake of giving the movie an element of fear and suspense, and added little to the movie's message. Critical plot-altering moments came regularly out of left field with a single line of explanatory dialogue and no narrative support. With some focus, surely the writers could have done better, but their performance here is reflective of Sony Pictures Animation's trend of rushing out unfinished products.
The soundtrack was quite good in general and is probably worth owning by itself. Aside from an uninspired performance of "His Eye is on the Sparrow" by Casting Crowns, the other renditions of classics were beautiful and fitting.
I'd hoped for more from what could have been an interesting angle on the Christmas story, but I doubt it will be added to our collection. While not unpleasant, it left much to be desired. -
takert2 February 2018I tried to be very optimistic to enjoy this movie but was not able continue after 20mins. am not saying like i hate this movie it just lacks the concept of animation films. nothing fun just a cartoon replica of bible story.