Heather Santa is a mixture of various Pagan winter gods (Dionysus, Odin, etc.). The modern Santa we're familiar with came out of the works of Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, and Clement C. Moore (who most notably described Santa as "a jolly old elf"). Santa, this ancient being, has only seemed natural in movie versions of Dickens's A Christmas Carol as The Ghost of Christmas Present, where he is very clearly the god Dionysus. Until now. Journey to the Christmas Star depicts Father Christmas (Santa) as a gnome-shaman who possesses sacred mystical knowledge - the Santa archetype that existed in the ancient world. Thus, there is nothing hokey/contrived or commercial about this movie.

Patricia Parker Possible Spoiler in here: I would of given this movie a 10 had it not been for the movie being dubbed, I couldn't sit and enjoy as I had wished. The voices were way out of sync with each other making it hard to view. Villains I get are evil to begin with so the over acting of them was unnecessary. The plot, the idea, the concept for the movie was wonderful with an amazing story line to go with it. I would recommend this for children everywhere to watch everywhere. I did feel I was watching another rendition of snow white where Sonya was concerned as there was a woman and she had two other girls under while Sonja was made to do all the chores, they did show the reasoning in that and I was proud of Sonja for choosing to say no and follow her heart. I would like to see this movie redone so it can be enjoyable to sit and watch as well. I was amazed to see this is only 3 years old and they didn't do as most actors do and just have the movie watched by all in all different languages as so many shows and movies are done today and have been for some time now, way more than just 3 years. Good Movie all in all

LoupGarouTFTs I really, really enjoyed this movie. As another reviewer said, it does not hit you over the head with Christmas themes. There are no flying reindeer or Christmas gifts and there is no Baby Jesus. But it does touch on wonderful Christmas traditions, such as the mistletoe and the lighting of the Christmas tree, as well as giving some insight about what Father Christmas knows and how he knows it. If I had any complaint at all it was that the story moved a little too quickly--it would have been way too easy for me to watch another 20 minutes or so, so that some areas could have been expanded upon. The villains were a bit one-dimensional, but as they were not crucial to the plot, I forgave that. All in all, a very enjoyable movie and one that I would be happy to add to my DVD collection if at all possible.

brujavu I enjoyed this movie very much, but there was a lot less about Christmas than I would have expected. There's just a narrated storybook bit about one Christmas at the beginning, and then the whole film is focused on the search for the Christmas star, but it's not really tied into Christmas in any meaningful way. Still, if you don't look at so much as a Christmas story but more of a fairytale, then it's very satisfying. The dubbing was decent (although I would have preferred the Norwegian soundtrack with subtitles), and I'm so glad they used British dubbing voices, because the accents fit in so much better with the medieval European setting than American voices would have (I'm American myself, so this is not a manifestation of xenophobia, but I really hate when fairy tales which obviously take place in medieval Europe are acted or dubbed by American actors who use modern vocal expression without any attempt at authenticity. It can throw a whole movie for me). But, I digress. What I really loved about this movie were the breathtaking scenery, all the snow (yes, any decent Christmas movie has to have snow!), the scenes in the old Norwegian town, costumes, etc. The visual aesthetic was like a cross between the Golden Compass and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, but the story was much less sophisticated... as I said, more like a Grimm's fairytale. The villains were typical unidimensional villains. It would have been a better movie if their characters had been better rounded out. And, of course, if we were supposed to be surprised by who Sonia turned out to be, then it wasn't much of a surprise. Pretty predictable. Maybe it would take kids longer to figure it out, but I have my doubts. The animatronic bear was a bit lame, but that scene didn't last long, and the ride on the North Wind was well done as far as special effects. I did like the little foray into the gnome's home in the tree stump. That was really cute. All in all, a cute movie that will keep your attention, and enough snow to put you in the Christmas mood, but in order to get more stars, it would have to have more Christmas themes and decorations in it.