Christmas Story (a J!-ENT DVD Review)
November 27, 2009 by Dennis Amith
A film from Finland featuring a storyline on how Nikolas grew up to become Santa Claus. An enjoyable family film that is hurt by its lack of inclusion of the original Finnish dialogue on the DVD.
Image courtesy of © 2009 Starz Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Christmas Story (Joulutarina)
DURATION: 78 minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation 2:35:1, Dolby Surround 5.1 and Dolby Surround 2.0
COMPANY: Delphis Films/Anchor Bay Entertainment
RATED: PG
Directed and Produced by Juha Wuolijoki
Screenplay by Marko Leino
Story by Marko Leino, Aku Louhimies, Juha Wukijoki
Executive Producer: Xiaojuan Zhou
Co-Executive Producer: Penny Luedtke, Michael Badalucco, Joseph Scarpinito
Cinematography by Mika Orasmaa
Edited by Harri Ylonen
Music by Leri Leskinen
Casting by Tuts Paananen, Pia Pesonen
Costume Design: Anu Pirila
Starring:
Hannu-Pekka Bjorkman as Nikolas
Otto Gustavsson as Nikolas 13-vuotiaana as Nikolas (13-years old)
Jonas Rinne as Nikolas (7-years old)
Kari Vaananen as Lisakki
Laura Birn as Aada
Mikko Leppilampi as Hannus
Minna Haapkyla as Kristiina
Mikko Kouki as Eemeli
Antti Tuisku as Mikko
Alp Sipila as Mikko (9-years-old)
This Christmas, a great secret will be revealed. Have you ever wondered how Santa Claus came to be Santa? A long time ago, the world’s greatest story was born when a young boy named Nikolas took on the mysterious mission and created a legend that would be carried on from generation to generation. This magical and heartwarming tale of how the gift giving tradition was created will bring holiday joy to the entire family!
In 2007, the holiday film from Finland “Joulutarina” (Christmas Story), which was directed by Juha Wuolijoki and a screenplay by Marko Leino was released in theaters and won a Jussi Award in 2008 for “Best Cinematography” and an Audience Award in 2008 from the Sarasota Film Festival for “Best in World Cinema”.
The film focuses on Nikolas, the boy who would one day be known as Santa Claus. Of course, with a variety of different stories of where the origination of “Santa Claus” came from, in “Christmas Story”, the film revolves around a boy named Nikolas who lives in a small village where most of the surroundings is ice and snow.
One night, Nikolas’s parents had to leave him at home as they had to bring their daughter Aada to the doctor because she was sick. Because they had to leave Nikolas (who was 7-years-old) home alone with enough food and firewood for a few days, the parents took a short cut. But with the parents not arriving back home, Nikolas receives the tragic news that his family fell under ice and died during their trip to the doctor. Now an orphan, Nikolas is brought to the main village where a few families live.
But with everyone with their own families and money tight, the village elder and the families agree that Nikolas will live with one family and on Christmas day, he will move to the next family. During his time with each family, to show his gratitude, Nikolas would use his father’s knife to carve out animals or toys from wood, which he would then give to the kids of families of the homes where he stayed at.
For the most part, things went well for the next six years…that is until food became more difficult for each family to obtain. Because of this, families are no longer able to take in Nikolas.
But one day, a mean salesperson named lisakki, a man that literally scares the children has come to the village. Nikolas who doesn’ t know why people are scared, gives lisakki one of his wooden toys. lisakki doesn’t believe a young boy could make such a thing but learning that he has no place to live, he takes Nikolas in.
Of course, lisakki is quite mean to Nikolas but gives him a place to live and clean up the workshop. While lisakki is sleeping, Nikolas would continue making wooden toys for the kids at his village which he wanted to make sure he continued to give as gifts for appreciation.
It becomes a routine for Nikolas and as he gets older, he wants to give back to children not just in his original village but also in other villages as well. So, throughout the film, we see how the young boy grows up along with his guardian lisakki and suddenly becomes a man who has the long beard and dons a red suit, why he uses reindeer to pull his sled and why its so important for him to deliver toys to the children in different villages.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Christmas Story” is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen (2:35:1). For the most part, the film looks absolutely beautiful as most of the film is shot in a small village and we can see homes in the middle of nothing but snow and trees. The cold, winter weather was captured quite amazing on camera and was not CG’d. the cast and crew had to bare harsh conditions to make this film because a lot of the electrical equipment had difficulty working in cold weather and the wiring would easily snap because of the cold weather. But the scenes overlooking the mountains, snow covered trees, varying seasons during the fall and winter. Simply put, Mika Orasmaa’s cinematography is amazing and beautiful.
Audio is presented in English Dolby Surround 5.1 and 2.0 and for me, this is probably the most disappoint part of the DVD. The English dub was well, but I prefer to watch this film in its original Finnish dialogue. It’s quite interesting because the special feature features the dialogue in Finnish. For the most part, dubbed dialogue is clear and understandable. I didn’t notice the surround channels being used all that much but the film is pretty much center and front channel driven.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Christmas Story” comes with the following special features:
- “The Making of Christmas Story” – (21:57) the cast and crew talk about the challenge of making this film in the extreme cold (a lot of the equipment would not work in the intense cold and the wires would snap like branches because of the cold weather). We learn about the scene location and certain scenes that were shot (and cut) from the film.
- Christmas Story Trailer – (1:16) The theatrical trailer for “Christmas Story”.
Overall, “Christmas Story” was an enjoyable holiday film. The film would make a good family film but children under 6-years-old, that’s a tough call because it is a PG film and some children might get scared of how lisakki treats young Nikolas and the fact that there are dramatic scenes in the film.
I enjoyed “Christmas Story” and the special feature was very interesting to watch, especially to see how difficult it was to shoot the film due to the weather conditions. But I have to say that I was very disappointed that Anchor Bay Entertainment did not include the Finnish audio track and English subtitles to accompany it. We’ve come to a point in time where many people who are getting exposed to international films want to enjoy a film spoken in the original language. And the fact that it’s not included on this DVD is disappointing.
Yet, it’s hard for me to dislike the film because the cinematography is beautiful and I did enjoy the film because although it does feature Santa Claus, it was an intriguing take on how Nikolas became Santa Claus . “Christmas Story” is an entertaining holiday film…and if you have been watching the same Christmas films for the last few decades, its something different this time around.
Overall, if you can overlook the DVD not including the original spoken dialogue, then “Christmas Story” is definitely a holiday film worth checking out.
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