Albert (2016) Reviews

• A bit of a rocky start

  Horst_In_Translation2017-04-16

  "Albert" is a 43-minute animated short film from December 2016 and this one was released for the most recent holidays. They made some headlines with the fact that this is the first own animated movie produced by Nickelodeon, but as I already wrote in the title of my review here it is a bit of a rocky start. The director is 2-time Oscar nominee Max Lang and the script writers include another Oscar nominee as well (from Shrek). But still overall, the outcome does not feel too sincere. Thanks to some known songs there is a touch of Christmas to this one, but I personally did not feel it was enough. The characters are not too interesting apart from the one in the title and the story never really feels right with the important messages it delivers in terms of the true spirit of Christmas. The animation is occasionally pretty good I have to admit, especially in terms of non-characters, i.e. the streets, settings etc. But this alone is not enough anymore in the 21st century to really make a difference. Story-wise and character-wise, this one here is certainly rather sub-par and I hope Nickelodeon can improve a bit with their upcoming projects. Thumbs down, not recommended. Or really only around Christmas if nothing better is on.

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• A tree with dreams

  kz917-12017-06-04

  Albert is the little tree that could. He has big dreams and wants to become a famous Christmas tree but lots of obstacles stand in his way. First being his size, he may very well be related to Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree as he's not the most handsome tree at the lot. The capers that unfold have Albert meeting a variety of characters. Entertaining enough...but not worth repeated viewing.

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