Norm, the newly crowned polar bear king of the Arctic, must save New York City and his home. But Norm goes from hero to villain when he’s framed for a crime he didn’t commit. He must work with his friends to clear his good name and help save his kingdom in a winner-take-all hockey match.
Cartoon movies for kids usually start with a plot they will understand and enjoy. Then they move on to cute or humorous main characters before wrapping up with a logical end. Sadly, this simple logical pattern was not in the cards for “Norm of the North: Keys to the Kingdom.” What this cartoon had was more of an episodic format. Three episodes with three different plots all rolled up into one movie to make you say, “What did I just watch?”
Let’s start with a reminder of the last movie. Norm, a bumbling bear who can talk in human (the movie points this out multiple times), went to New York and saved the day. That’s what the internet told me as I never watched the film and now do not plan to watch as the sequel was so bad. Now, I know most sequels fail to live up to the standards of their predecessor but this was so bad I cannot imagine anything with Norm the bear even resembling a decent cartoon to be even background noise or garner the attention of children.
The first plot, which sadly only took the movie to the halfway mark, consists of Norm’s tribe of animals in the Arctic crowning him king. Here comes the political agenda. A large chunk of the animals are not pleased with their new monarch and insult him as if he was Trump on The View. Yes, because we want to teach our children to disrespect the monarch of the country. This isn’t the only indicator in this cartoon that the writer leans heavily to the left but we will get back to that in episode two.
After his coronation, the mayor of New York invites Norm back to the city to be awarded for his heroic acts in the first movie. He takes some little friends, lemmings not bucktoothed chipmunks, and his own son to the city where he visits his old friend Olympia and her mom. Unfortunately, someone sets Norm up as a bad guy and makes him the fall guy for a heinous robbery to discredit the new king. Norm gains a team to help him solve the case of who robbed a bank including a karate Rabbit named Fong for no understandable reason. Despite his inarticulate manner and inability to walk upstairs, the bear finds the true criminal and locks him up before returning home to the Arctic.
Episode Two is rather short. Norm returns to find his brother Stan has agreed to allow a large corporation to take the chunks of ice that create the animals’ homes. Not a smart move. There is a reason his brother and the other animals did not elect Norm’s brother. This is the other political aspect. I’m all for informing kids about politics and even ruining natural habitats but this movie was not the correct forum. Norm works this out by challenging the ice thieves to a winner-takes-all game of hockey. The hockey game was so long it became the third episode. Why did there have to be sports in this already obnoxious and nonsensical movie? The game includes passive-aggressive arguments and harsh words. Feelings were hurt but don’t worry, they hug it out. Thankfully, the hockey game was the end of the movie.
I don’t understand why this movie exists. Nor do I understand why we need to introduce kids to the topics addressed. Just make a cute movie with a bear and kids will be happy. The lemmings are the worst part though. Sidekicks are supposed to be cute. If you think of the penguins from Madagascar, the lemmings fall woefully short. This movie couldn’t even get the sidekicks right! The family dynamic was just off too. Everything was off. The cartoon is not adorable like other animated movies. The whole movie is clunky and nonsensical. If you feel some strong emotional ties to the first movie and feel this tie requires you to watch the sequel, then wait until it’s on Netflix but do not punish your wallet to watch this neurotic movie. Just don’t.
Available on DVD & Digital February 12th
