Director: Jason Mills
Writer: Jason Mills (Screenplay)
Starring: Sadie Silcock, Kiana Passmore, Samriddhi Singh, Sarah Houghton, Katherine Aplen, Camryn Macdonald
Plot: When a disgruntled elf takes over the North Pole, she turns time backwards and Santa Claus begins getting younger fast. It’s up to a loyal elf, a little girl with a magic key, and the now-teenage Santa to save the future of Christmas.
Tagline – Unlock the Holiday Spirit
Runtime: 1 Hour 20 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Key to Christmas starts when Santa (Osbourne) is on his latest rounds for Christmas, only to discover the labels have been mixed up on the presents, returning to the North Pole, he turns to Winnie (Singh) to take the blame because of her past mistakes.
When Winnie decides to take revenge on Santa for firing her, it is up to a loyal elf Lovey (Alpen) and a little girl Kirra (Macdonald) to save Santa from being taken away from Christmas forever.
Thoughts on The Key to Christmas
Characters – Santa has always relied on his elves to do the work to make Christmas the best time of the year, when he notices a mistakes from the Head Elf, he fires her, leading to her using magic to make him go backwards in time, getting younger stuck away from the home unable to change the events. Winnie is the head elf that gets fired, she isn’t taking this lightly and decides to plan her revenge by sending Santa away and taking over operating in the North Pole, refusing to give out any presents. Lovey is one of the most loyal elves in the North Pole, one that will try to bring Santa back to the North Pole, risking everything along the way.
Performances – When we look at the performances, we do have a few actors portraying Santa due to the de-aging side of the story, which will give us different laughs along the way. Camryn Macdonald is good as the young girl caught in the middle of everything. Samriddhi Singh as the elf that wants to destroy Christmas brings us a menacing performance, with Katherine Alpen bring all the joy of Christmas with her elf.
Story – The story here follows Santa after he fires his head elf, only for the head elf to look to get revenge by making Santa de-age stranded away from the North Pole, with one loyal elf being the only one that can save Santa and Christmas for the whole world. When it comes to Christmas stories it is always hard to find an original one, here we have a new original take on a Christmas film, seeing how an elf turned evil with their desire of power, with the idea that Christmas is now at risk with a de-aging Santa, going through different ages, which will add to moments of humor. We still get the message of Christmas over, being friendly, nice and treating each other with respect too.
Family – This is a family film that could be enjoyed by whole family, it has the meaning of Christmas all over it.
Settings – The film uses two main locations, the North Pole where Winnie has taken over and the everyday world in which Santa finds himself needing to deal with de-aging and it not being Christmas.
Scene of the Movie – De-aging gets good laughs.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The calendar doesn’t come off as clean as it could.
Final Thoughts – This is a fun family Christmas movie, it will get laughs and brings us a brand-new original idea for Christmas Movies.
DVD/VOD Release Date:11/10/20
