“That Christmas” is a family/comedy movie that was released on December 4 on Netflix.  It was directed by animator/director Simon Otto, who worked previously as the head of character animation of the Oscar nominated “How to Train Your Dragon.”This is Otto’s first time directing a feature film.

“That Christmas” takes place in Wellington, a small town in England that experiences a huge blizzard which affects a lot of the kids. .One kid, named Danny Williams, is alone on Christmas. He sees that his neighbor and teacher, Mrs. Trapper, is also lonely, and when he offers her a piece of cake that he baked with his mom, they make a plan to bring everyone home, but that might not be enough to save Christmas. 

The main story in the movie was interesting. I liked how the teacher goes from mean to someone who cares about other people. It was a good message about how people hide their emotions. However, there’s another problem the characters deal with and that one didn’t catch my attention as much.

Music 

This film has a new song from Ed Sheeran called “Under the Tree,” which is featured in the film when Danny gets a call from his dad saying he can’t make it. The song is slow and sad to match Danny’s feelings that his parents won’t be home for Christmas. 

I personally liked the track because it added to the emotions in the scene. The song is a hit, currently having 5.2M views and 151k likes on YouTube after only 2 weeks.

Animation 

The animation in this movie reminds me of Disney’s animation because they both are realistic and have the same art style. For example if you look at The film “Coco” that was released in 2017 they look really familiar in art styles.

The environment really feels like Christmas, a lot of the houses in the town had lights and a tree. Kids were outside playing, making it feel like the season. But they also make sure to change the lighting and emotion when Danny feels sad. 

Recommendation

Should people watch “That Christmas”? It’s a good movie for families and their kids to watch, especially if they enjoy movies like “Minions,” or “Coco”. I personally don’t rewatch movies that often, but if my little cousins were over and it was Christmas time, I would want to watch it with them. It’s a well directed movie that shows both joy and sadness that comes with the holiday that has a wholesome ending.

8/10 

“That Christmas” is streaming on Netflix.