The Star **
Dir: Timothy Reckart. Animation with the voices of: Steven
Yeun, Gina Rodriguez, Zachary Levi, Keegan-Michael Key. 86 mins. Cert: U
Some films are fated to be no more than the sum of their
production companies. This seasonal digimation is almost exactly what you might
imagine from a collaboration between Sony’s evangelical offshoot Affirm Films
and Narnia deliverers Walden Media:
it takes an idea with the potential for irreverent fun – retelling the Nativity
from the animals’ perspective – then plays everything straighter than the
average Sunday-school sermon. Little donkey Boaz’s quest to escape his yoke and
serve some higher purpose meets the religious brief; accompanying him through the
usual series of helter-skelter setpieces, the rotely wisecracking Dave the dove
swiftly puts paid to hopes of divine inspiration, while kooky sheep Abby hews
so close to Ellen DeGeneres’ Dory in personality that, even from this distance,
you can hear the Pixar lawyers’ phones vibrating.
Any wit disappears with the opening intertitle (“Nazareth, 9 Months B.C.”); thereafter, we’re being preached at, an approach that cues sappy John Lewis-ad assaults on carols, and a Joseph and Mary who sound like runaways from Melrose Place. Joe’s response to the Immaculate Conception – “this is a lot for me to take in right now” – begs a “tell me about it” from the missus that never materialises; here, as elsewhere, “the greatest story ever told” (to quote the end-credits disclaimer) is taken entirely at face value. The bland visuals are, in their own way, a perfect fit for the piety of the storytelling: by design, intelligent or otherwise, there’s simply nothing here to frighten the horses – or, indeed, threaten Paddington’s box-office ascendancy. Some future shelf life in seminaries seems likely, but as festive treats for kids go, it’s like asking for a selection box and being forcefed communion wafers instead.
The Star opens in cinemas nationwide today.
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