Being an animation critic is both a blessing and a curse. Although I always enjoy watching great animated movies, watching bad animated movies is really the big challenge in all of it. It's something I actually consider what I do a chore. A few years back I had to sit through the dreadful "Norm of the North", one of the worst animated movies I've ever seen in my entire life. The film was incredibly stupid, had some awful animation, and the dumbest characters I had seen in a movie in a very long time that I couldn't for the life of me give the film a recommendation. Then again, it was a movie featuring a twerking polar bear played by Rob Schneider. I would've been insane to actually recommend it. After seeing the film, I assumed the worst was over for me and that I never would have to deal with Norm again. I was wrong. Lionsgate and Splash Entertainment were not only stupid to greenlight a sequel but also decided to put it into some theaters meaning I was forced to review it. So, here we are with "Norm of the North: Keys to the Kingdom" and if you think it's just as terrible if not worse than the first film, you'd be right. It really is just as horrendous as you imagined.
After the events of the first film, our titular character Norm (Andrew Toth) is nervous about being the new king of the Arctic. He now has three new children and is wanting to make a good impression on his subjects. One day though, Norm is called up by his old friend Vera (Jennifer Cameron) and her daughter Olympia (Maya Kay) to tell him that he is being presented the key to New York City by the mayor (Brian Drummond). Along with his son Quinn (Cole Howard), Norm travels to New York to get the key the city only for the next day to be framed for a massive crime that he didn't commit. Along with a rabbit named Fong (Lee Tockar), the group helps to try to prove Norm's innocence while finding out who committed the crimes around the city. Though the story doesn't end there. After that little mishmash, Norm sees that the ice in his home is being used for bottled drinking water and then along with his brother Stan (Alan Marriott) decides to put on a hockey match to stop the evil foreign workers from using their ice to make drinking water.
This story is seriously a mess. From what I read, the film initially had two sequels and for some reason, the filmmakers ran out of time and couldn't find a way to stretch out both so they decided to put them both together to terrible results. The film also had some awful jokes ranging from one of the characters saying he would go "pluck himself" to a joke where they parodied Bill O'Riley. It left me so flabbergasted that the filmmakers of this movie really did think that it would be suitable for children. As for the animation, it's even worse than the first film. While watching it, I noticed so many computer animation errors as well as un-rendered models that it was astonishing. Not only that, the character animation once again is horrendous. It was clear no effort was put into making them great and the result was just them looking like they were made my a first-year student who had just started to learn how to animate. As for the characters, they're all terrible once again. The older characters like Norm, the lemmings, Vera, Olympia, and Stan are all bland, stupid, and boring while the newer characters aren't any better as well. Quinn is a forgettable character who I just remember for being Norm's son, Fong was a racist Chinese stereotype which I was astonished by, and even the hockey team Norm competes with at the end were racist Russian stereotypes. I can't believe we are living in 2019 and these films still have stereotypes in them. It's astonishing that something like this actually got made.
If anything, "Norm of the North: Keys to the Kingdom" really is one of the worst animated movie sequels I have ever seen. The story is messy and inconsistent, the animation is atrocious and some of the worst ever, and the characters are all stupid and annoying and are hard to like. It shouldn't be a big surprise to you that I hated this movie, but there you have it. I hate this movie. I hope this time I never have to talk about the twerking polar bear ever again because every time I do bring him up I just get a headache. At least the best part of this movie is that this was the rock bottom of the year. It'll all be uphill from here. Let's bring on the better-animated movies this year.
