Nobody operating on a low budget (roughly, anything less $100 million) has yet worked out how to make human figures look like anything but plastic dummies brought to unsettling half-life.

Every line is delivered like the actor is patting a kid on the head, and each eyebrow lift and head turn is scored to obnoxious staccato music.

This weird holiday movie is not a winner. It's middle of the pack at best. But when your craving holiday cheer and switch-your-brain-off fun, you could definitely do worse.

The entire thing is so misjudged, with a plot that is cloying, saccharine and poorly sketched out. It's like a Frankenstein's Monster of a Christmas animation, picking and mixing the various parts of much loved, and much better, movies.