Director: Debbie Isitt
Writer: Debbie Isitt
Starring: David Tennant, Marc Wootton
It’s double trouble as rookie teacher Mr. Peterson (David Tennant) takes his underachieving primary school to the ‘Song for Christmas’ competition and goes head to head with his identical twin brother’s posh private school choir.
Embarking on a ill-judged road trip to reach the contest, they soon find that getting to Christmas Castle and the festive sing-off will be harder than they think...
Wow, this is some responsibility – Mel’s first film review, and she’s left it to little old me! As I’m sure you’ve guessed from my ‘Cinema Bud’ name, I do accompany Mel to the cinema on a very regular basis (40 times a year on average!) and although we’ll watch pretty much anything I have a definite preference for action movies (give me lots of explosions and car chases and I’m happy!), and fantasy too of course. Although NOT horror, not my thing at all!
All this goes out the window though when we’re talking Christmas films. I AM Little Miss Christmas, I love absolutely everything about it - the tinsel, the songs, the glitter, the Christmas trees, the satsumas, the shopping (well, you get the idea) and I absolutely LOVE the sentimental stuff. Give me a Christmas John Lewis advert and I’m crying like a baby. Therefore a film like Nativity 2 is right up my alley.
If you’ve not seen the first one, don’t worry, there are a few mentions of things that went on, but nothing to detract from the film itself. The premise is simple – crazy classroom assistant Mr Poppy, who is a bigger kid than any of his charges, whips the kids of St Bernadette’s primary school into a frenzy about an upcoming Song for Christmas competition to be held in Wales. Despite attempts from the headmistress (Pam Ferris) and new teacher Mr Peterson (David Tennant) to put the kibosh on the trip, through a mixture of sheer bloody mindedness, kidnapping, blatant disregard for safety, mass sugar ingestion and ingenious uses of woolly scarfs Mr Poppy gets the kids and Mr Peterson to the competition, ready to sing their Christmas socks off.
As in the first Nativity film, the variety of Christmas songs on offer are fabulously cheesy, with catchy phrases and smultzy routines (although nothing to match Nativity 1’s ‘Sparkle and Shine’). There’s plenty of child-level gags along the way, plus some proper Christmas sentimentality. Yes, out of festive context this film doesn’t stand up to some of the stonkingly good kid’s films that have been out in recent years (Tangled, Toy Story 3), but at this time of year all I heard from the kids in the cinema was laughter, and all I saw from the Christmas-loving adults such as myself was big grins and a sly dance or two to the songs. It’s not Nativity 1 (9 out of 10), but it’s all good festive fun, 7.5 out of 10.
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