Norm of the North (movie review)

    Opening day for Norm of the North got me out of the house this morning for the first showing at my local theater.  The last commercial yesterday that I saw told my daughter it would be out tomorrow.  It must have said tomorrow 3 or 4 times and by the time the preview was over it hit her that although on January 1st she didn't know when January 15th was exactly (she's  5) she did know when tomorrow was.  She was so excited then that she told me, " You need to call the movie theater because they didn't tell me what time the movie was playing!".  I reassured her that I would look up the times and we would venture out appropriately.

  We arrived slightly early (privileged enough to see an abundance of other kid previews which equals me noting all the movies in my future) and  had plenty of seating to choose from. We had our popcorn, drinks and made our last stop at the restrooms.

Showtime!

  Norm of the North is rated PG and runs for about 1 hour and 26 minutes.  PG  in this instance may be towards the word "twerk" being used (lucky for me my daughter did not ask what that was nor ask for a demonstration) lemmings (look them up for a nice education) peeing in a fishtank or maybe I overlooked some other comment or gesture.

  Norm is the main bear of the story.  He decides he will save Arctic from housing developments and travels to NYC to the source of the problem.  He travels with an entourage of lemmings which are very entertaining creatures.  Norm gets a gig to be the spokesbear for the builder which puts him in the best position to bring light to Arctic and how it's not the place to build new homes.  He gets into and out of trouble and finds out something smells familiar to him in his new environment.  There are areas where he sings and you may know the songs which gets you in the mood.  You obviously see how the movie will end but kids don't necessarily know how.  There's even some tense issues towards the end.  In all the bear who is the underdog wounds up on top!

  I laughed at parts, as did my kids but I'm not sure my daughter was "into" the movie.  She laid on my lap and maybe if it was longer could have even fell asleep.  I asked her if she liked it, asked what she liked or didn't like and what it was about.  She could answer everything but even when she got home she just wasn't talking about it.  I don't think she hated it; it she just wasn't that good to her.