Nick and Noel Review

 

A featurette included (on VHS) with a book from my childhood, I only recently realized this wasn’t adapting the Gingham Dog and Calico Cat (which does exist out there). For a Christmas story, it’s almost as clichéd as a Hallmark TV movie, but maybe the nostalgia will help me appreciate it decades later?

 

We see a nice looking house and the narrator, a mouse named Barnaby (voiced by Paul Williams, the Penguin in Batman: The Animated Series), tells us how Christmas is special to him, linked back to our titular characters.

 

Flashing back to when the house was unoccupied, Barnaby searches for crumbs, but it turns out to be a duplex, the other half having a family that’s coming home soon. And their cat, Noel (voiced by Kath Soucie) says she’ll get him leftovers, but he has to stay out of sight.

 

Her owners, a girl and her (recently?) widowed father, wonder about the people moving in, though Sarah is content with her pet as a friend. And the father, a writer, is clearly a bit absentminded, not realizing his glasses are on his head.

 

Turns out their new neighbors are Leslie Lee, a famous singer (though they’d never heard of her) and her dog Nick, who sing at all hours of the day and grate on Howard and Noel, who clash with Leslie and Nick.

 

The cat and dog continue the spat outside (Nick apparently okay with leaving the apartment briefly), having a musical number about how much they don’t get along (because cats and dogs).

 

Sarah comes out, helping to mend fences between the two, Noel tolerating the “mutt”. And Nick’s presence helps lighten Sarah’s mood regarding her mother. She even asks Santa to give the toys to more needy children, only wanting a mom for the holidays

Noel realizes Howard forgot to send Sarah’s letter to Santa and asks Nick for help, since he’s travelled with Leslie for her concerts. After she agrees to call him Maestro as a favor, he says the North Pole is at the end of North Street, conveniently right in town.

 

When the cat heads off, Nick, more loyal to his master, decides to follow so he isn’t shown up. Unfortunately, he can’t read, so they’re stuck in actually finding the street

 

Leslie offers to take Sarah with her to shop for Christmas presents and Howard agrees begrudgingly.

 

Meanwhile, Nick and Noel are still heading up North Street and find a Christmas store, Noel mistaking it for the North Pole, seeing reindeer in the window.  It’s not the North Pole (though a sign says as much) and “Santa” heads into a room, the cat and dog following him.

 

Howard and Leslie are both worried about their pets, thinking it’s odd that they’re gone, Leslie even thinking they were stolen.

 

Back at Winter Wonderland, it’s closed down and Nick and Noel run into a guard dog, though they get away when he slips on the ice rink and crashes into a display, the pair escaping through a broken window

 

Sarah’s letter is blown away by the wind, Nick saving Noel from almost getting squished by a snowplow.

 

Leslie lets Howard and Sarah borrow Christmas decorations, wanting to keep their spirits up. She even sings about how a Christmas miracle will bring them together

 

Nick and Noel stay the night at a nearby petting zoo, Noel inspired to try and find Sarah a mother for Christmas. A sow suggests Sarah might want a human mother (you don’t say!), but at a park, all the mothers already have children, Nick thinking it’s silly

 

Eventually Noel wants to give up and go home, Nick comforting her by saying it wasn’t a stupid idea, actually very admirable, the two even hugging to their surprise

 

Howard, Leslie and Sarah go looking for Nick and Noel, the writer’s willingness to ignore his deadline seemingly enough to push Leslie to fall in love with him (touching his hand tenderly)

 

Nick gets his collar stuck on some train tracks, Noel managing to free him, but it looks like she is run over by the oncoming train.

 

Thankfully the two return home, everyone happy to see them and Leslie and Howard get married that night, a minister officiating between Christmas Eve services. They feasted (so Barnaby didn’t starve!) and it was overall a Merry Christmas, the story wrapping up

 

 

 

Noel and Nick are polar opposites, as one would expect, but they complement each other in the quest to help a little girl on Christmas. Noel is much more optimistic, Nick more cautious by comparison, keeping Noel from getting killed at one point. But he keeps her rooted as well, Noel’s ideas almost too random at times and being drawn more by her heart than her head, Nick acknowledging her kindness in the end as important

 

Sarah is overly perfect for a child character, selfless and just wanting a mother in her life, serving as a connecting point for Nick and Noel, initially clashing. Her mother’s death feels like it could’ve been utilized far better in the plot itself and would’ve helped to give Howard and Leslie more depth as well.

 

Leslie and Howard are an obvious pair of love interests and they seem to fall in love over the course of a few days, so it’s very rushed, only plausible in the “Christmas miracle” scenario at most. With Sarah’s mother having passed, I wonder if Leslie could’ve slowly become a genuine maternal presence instead of being shoehorned in as such. And Howard focusing on his work so much could’ve tied into his being a widower, clichéd as it might be.

 

Barnaby is barely important except as a narrator to explain things on a kid’s level (which feels pretty patronizing as an adult remembering how I enjoyed it as a kid, the emotional elements going over my head)

 

While it’s definitely plotted in a weird way, there are emotional moments that work, mostly from a sense of nostalgia and stronger empathy as an adult. I feel like kids would understand the lesson of cooperating and being generous during the holiday season. The family element is nice, if a bit overly hokey and sentimental.

 

If it had been a proper feature length at around an hour, there could’ve been much more to explore and made for a far better product in spouting stuff about Christmas miracles and kindness and such.