Rent Norm of the North: Keys to the Kingdom (2018)

Norm of the North: Keys to the Kingdom (aka Norm of the North 2) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Norm of the North was an animated abomination that came straight from the dollar-store bin of tired animation concepts. Somehow it was fished out and promoted heavily enough to find its way into the theaters and quickly showcased just why it deserved to be doomed to home video along with the other low-rent animated features built on half-thought ideas. Now we dig deeper into the quarter-store bin of even lazier ideas for the animated farce that is Norm of the North: Keys to the Kingdom. This film attempts to outdo the previous picture in all its blandness. The blocky animation is cheaper, the voice cast even less impressive, and the story so bereft of logic that even the most mindless of Saturday Morning Cartoons would blush at the buffoonery on display.

There isn’t so much a story here as there is stumbling around in the dark seeking funny things to do with Norm. Now recognized in both his Antarctic home and New York City, Norm attends to his polar clan of cold-weather animals. They all still look down on him as a dumb-dumb which really embarrasses his kid. Don’t worry, champ; I’m sure the big goof will prove himself by the end. Until then, Norm ventures back to New York City to receive the key to the city but, oh no, Norm is accused of stealing stuff around town. I wonder if it has anything to do with Norm’s former enemy who now makes a living in a Norm costume. I wonder if this was intended to be akin to Dora the Explorer where the audience is supposed to point on the screen where the villain is.

This city adventure is so believably boring not just for the mundane antics but for the crude animation which seems to lack texture and dimension in several scenes. I’m not expecting the best quality but Norm of the North was already so low on design and structure that this production is unbelievably cheap, to the point where my only enjoyment was seeing how poorly rendered and animated just about everything is in this picture.

After the plot meanders around, we finally get to the tired climax which seems like it could be an animation showcase of great slapstick but there’s no budget for that. Battling for his kingdom, Norm challenges the humans to a hockey match. A very stiff hockey match without many funny antics. If the animation isn’t willing to pull off better deformations or fluid animation with the characters, it’s akin to watching plastic dolls bat against each other. There’s nothing clever or amusing going on here, even for the most forgiving of kid audiences. It also seems to be directed to be as innocuous as possible in its humor to ensure it can be sold to an international market.

Unlike the first Norm of the North, this sequel isn’t baffling enough to warrant a watch for the mere fascination that it exists. Keys to the Kingdom merely finds this franchise of sorts taking its rightful place on the shelf next to other cheaper and less creative animated films used to fill out the kid’s section. Essentially, it’s a crouton of the kid animation genre; a very stale crouton at that.