Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 8, 2019

There evidently has to be an audience for Norm of the North, at least if we are to believe in market forces and supply and demand. Despite the fact that Norm of the North didn’t really register at the box office and certainly didn’t win any critical love letters (including by yours truly), the film seems to have spawned a franchise, or at least a thriving direct to video business. As a parent who sometimes struggled to find age appropriate material for my sons when they were little, I certainly don’t begrudge families looking for a "safe" viewing experience (the cover of this release touts that it is for all ages and "Dove Approved"), but the fact remains that this is a technically competent but hardly ever emotionally engaging effort. Just about everything about Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure feels pretty tired and derivative.

Norm (voiced here by Andrew Toth instead of the original's Rob Schneider) has some "new" duties as King which are keeping him relatively busy (when he's not tripping and falling over snowdrifts, that is), and one of his assigned tasks is to officiate the marriage of his grandfather, which can only take place during the "showing" of the Aurora Borealis. Why? Because, that's why (in perhaps another way, this film does provide grist for the parental mill). When grandpa makes Norm guarantee that Norm will be available for the ceremony, you can pretty much bet on some kind of obstacle intruding, and that hurdle predictably arrives in the form of a disheveled archaeaologist who is trying to get a priceless artifact back to its rightful owner. A number of other sidebars accrue, including the entrance of some supporting characters from the original film. It's all by the numbers, with silly sight gags which will probably appeal to the youngest kids, but an overall feeling of attrition and even lethargy that keeps things from ever achieving much momentum.

Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Much as with the original film, the rendering of elements like animal fur continues to look impressive quite a bit of the time, while some of the designs for the actual human characters come off as more patently "cartoonish". There are occasional moments of almost quasi-combing artifacts which can be spotted during fast motion, but otherwise this is a solid if unspectacular example of repurposed basic elements from the earlier film. Some of the best looking moments are actually when the story gets out of the frozen (and often almost completely white) arctic wilderness, and when the film travels to more colorful climes, the palette pops quite nicely and some of the rendering of natural items like jungles and rivers look very good.

Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure features an intermittently energetic sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that tends to spring to live during the more manic moments of the film. An early scene involving a dogfight of sorts between two planes (one carrying the archaeologist, the other carrying his "nemesis", who wants his priceless artifact, of course) has some nice panning effects and some decently rumbly low end. There are some requisite "weather phenomena" that occur, and a blizzard scene provides some nice accounting of things like whistling winds and the like. Dialogue and music are both offered cleanly and clearly, and there are no problems of any kind to report.

Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on this disc.

Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I closed our Norm of the North Blu-ray review by stating that the film was a perfectly acceptable "video babysitter" for younger tots especially, and that assessment holds true for this sequel as well. There's nothing remotely surprising here (probably even to younger tots), but it's genial enough, and there's certainly nothing here that should raise the hackle of so-called "helicopter parents". Technical merits are generally fine for those considering a purchase.