Why so much hype?

Too much of everything

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

When I saw the trailers and posters of it, I just thought it to be just a typical talking-funny-animal film with shoehorned celebrity voices and lame or derivative humor that we normally expect from non-Disney-or-Pixar animated features. However, after seeing it recently, it was somewhat slightly better than I thought. Not great, but just alright. ----------------First off, the idea is very potential. I mean, we are talking about the old but beloved story about the origins of Christmas, the birth of Jesus. Unfortunately, the way they handled that tales isn't that great, resulting in a rather derivative and predictable underdog plot, where donkey named Bo wants more from his life, but accidentally ends up with Maria and Joseph on a quest to arrive at Bethlehem and help them to give birth to a new king, while at the same time save the couple from a hunter with two evil dogs. But the biggest problem with the film is that it rather wants to be more of a funny-animal cartoon with goofball antics rather than a more serious story about Christ's birth. Maybe the idea of telling the story through the point-of-view of the animals could have worked. I mean, there are many good films with the talking-animal aspect, like 101 dalmatians for example. But the way it did there isn't that strong and they probably aimed it too much for children, resulting in a rather flat and lazy storyline.Granted, it does have a huggable sense of heart when it comes to the couple and I found the ending to be rather sweet and really emotional. I also did like the humor a bit. Some scenes were worth the chuckle, but it does get rather juvenile at times like in the scenes of the cross-eyed goat and the pigeon doing some dumb and out-of-place twerking. Boy, how executive-driven it is, isn't it? I did hear the English version of it, but I only watched it entirely in Finnish dub. I feel it sounds a little better and more enjoyable than the original one, so maybe I did find it to be a bit funnier than I expected. Otherwise, the story is rather flat and sometimes childish. -------------------I personally didn't get annoyed by any of the characters, but there are way too many of them. Bo and Ruth, the dogs and maybe the villain are fine, but maybe not so terribly interesting. Mary and Joseph, on the other hand, are quite lovely and probably the most relatable, since their struggle to have a child of God is somewhat believable enough. The rest is not that important and it's so blatant that many of them are for the sake of name recognition. Dave the pigeon could be enjoyable, but I swear Bo could have figured out the things just by himself. The camels are predictably pointless and even the three farm animals, including the surprisingly talented singing horse, at the end are easily forgettable and useless. Yes, even in both original English and Finnish dub, the actors tried their best and I did enjoy their performances at times, but sadly, it doesn't save the one dimensional and many of the pointless characters in here. ----------But I was pretty surprised how good the film looks. Yes, the budget is rather tiny compared to any mainstream animation and it may not be perfect, but still. Designs are very fine. Animals look very good, but it can get a tad generic. Humans were drawn well too, especially the couple looks really beautiful. I was even more impressed with how the lighting and textures, especially the fur of the animals, look believable and how the artists were able to create a time travel over 2000 years back of how the ancient cities and other places look newer and much lusher than now. On the other hand, the animation and the rendering aren't so strong and smooth and that goat looks honestly kinda ugly and seems to reflect too much on the budget. Even with that, the Canadian animators tried their best with the low amount of money they had. ----------------It could have been something great, but it was obviously targeted at kiddies. Sure, the animation is very nice and it has some great heart, but unfortunately, it ain't Prince of Egypt.

I am 19 and along this is my favorite animated movie. I have seen this 3 times in a 3 month period! The movie, in short, is The Nativity in the POV of the animals. This was a very cute idea and I wish it was done before. It has been slammed by critics and IMDB but why? It's silly but it's for kids for crying out loud! If you love Veggie Tales you will love this! This is my favorite movie, favorite animated movie, favorite Christian, favorite Christmas movie, etc. This may be for kids but all ages should see this fantastic movie with a cast including Oprah, Christopher Plummer, Kelly Clarkson, etc.

My daughter and I rented this movie last night; this was the first time seeing it as well. We both laughed so much during the movie, and I know it will be a new favorite to watch for years to come.

After watching this movie, I felt like this movie really had a great way to tell the Christmas story which we have heard all of our lives. But, this was something totally out of the box into the animal's perspective of that "night divine".I think kids will like it b/c of the comedy and the characters. The adults will like it b/c of the way it can introduce the story of Christ's birth to those who have never known about it.The animation was flawless, the accuracy was on point, the jokes were kid-friendly (a little delayed) but overall, a fantastic balance of what the kids want out of the story, and the lesson that the parents want to the children to get!Fantastic movie! Great for kids and parents alike!