In Dashing Through the Snow it’s Christmas Eve and Eddie Garrick is looking after his daughter Charlotte for the night, while his estranged wife is out Christmas shopping. During the course of the evening, Eddie pops next door to feed his neighbours’ cat while his neighbours are away.
After entering their house, Eddie sees a strange man hanging upside from the fireplace. After helping him down, Eddie questions the man about who he is and what he’s doing in the house.
The man introduces himself as Nick and implies he’s the real-life Santa Claus. Eddie isn’t convinced, but believing Nick needs some kind of medical intervention, he takes him home, picks up his daughter, and all three set off to find help.
But while Eddie is busy trying to assist Nick, he is completely unaware he is being followed by three goons. The goons work for a crooked congressman, and are in search of an iPad which Nick has in his possession, which could bring an end to the congressman’s political career.
Directed by Tim Story, Dashing Through the Snow stars Ludacris, Lil Rel Howery, Teyonah Parris, and Madison Skye Validum. The movie is a Christmas comedy which is aimed at families and young audiences, and is new to Disney+ from today.
The film centres around the relationship between Eddie and his daughter Charlotte, and their interactions with Nick. Eddie isn’t a fan of Christmas, Charlotte is, but by spending time with Nick they embark on a festive adventure together.
Unfortunately that adventure is incredibly underwhelming and devoid of any excitement. There’s also a distinct lack of originality in their story, as well as a complete absence of comedy in this film.
There are clear attempts at jokes, but every gag falls flat. It’s as if director Tim Story filmed multiple shots of every actor delivering comical lines, then decided to use all of the bad takes where the cast failed to make their jokes land.
And as for the subplot about three goons chasing after Nick and an iPad, this plot line is so underbaked it arrives practically raw. The idea feels as if it has been lifted from an abandoned Home Alone sequel, before being shoehorned into this picture, and it’s just rubbish – plain and simple.
Things do pick up slightly during the final 20 minutes of the film, and a brief scene involving some aggressive reindeer might stop most audiences from sticking their heads through the television set, but there really isn’t much else going on here. Sure there’s plenty of Christmas content, in fact the majority of the budget appears to have been spent on twinkly lights and decorations, but unless you have some kind of festive fetish it’s unlikely to stir up any interest.
In short: Dashing Through the Snow is derivative and very generic. Even the title seems to have been plucked from a random name generator, and it makes little sense in the context of the movie.
Yes, it snows in the film (thanks to the use of some CGI trickery), but no one is really dashing anywhere, and certainly not in any real snow. If the film wants to be accurate, it should be called Faffing About on Christmas Eve Until Some Visual Effects Artists Remembers to Drop in Some Faux Snow During Postproduction.
As you can probably tell, I’m not impressed with Dashing Through the Snow, and similar to Netflix’s holiday offering Best. Christmas. Ever!, which landed earlier this week, I find the movie dull and unappealing. Once again, this film is another example of a movie existing simply because a streaming service needs to fill a content quota, and this is really not a reason to spend time, effort, and money on such drivel.
Young audiences might find parts of Dashing Through the Snow mildly diverting, but anyone over the age of twelve is going to become disinterested very quickly. So, please do yourself a favour and watch The Muppet Christmas Carol for the 195th time, and remind yourself what quality filmmaking is like instead.
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