Norm Of The North review

This family animated adventure features a polar bear that twerks. While the makers of the movie probably want us to remember it’s the story of a talking bear who goes to New York to stop his Arctic home being turned into a housing estate, the image that will be burned into parents’ retinas forever is that of a white furry mammal suggestively waving his hairy butt about. And it’s not even the most grating thing about the film.

The plot will have you shaking your head in despair, too. Norm, the gyrating polar bear of the title, can also talk to humans. None of the other Arctic beasties can speak, just him, but this comes in handy when property developer Mr Greene (Jeong) decides to build housing on Norm’s icy home. Stowing away in a model home destined for New York along with his lemming pals (added to the movie, one assumes, to be cuddly marketable sidekicks like Minions), Norm’s plan is to talk to the man in charge (while pretending to be a man in a bear suit, not a talking polar bear… don’t ask) and stop him.

With dull animation, weak humour and a forgettable story featuring the old ‘be who you were meant to be’ trope, this is pretty charmless stuff for kids and adults. Really young viewers may like the lemmings, but a handful of cute fuzzies isn’t a good enough reason to sit through 90 minutes of this nonsense.