User Reviews

A New York cabbie, in order to distract young girl passengers, tells them a story of another passengers, a young lad who loses his dog, at which point New Yorkers at Christmas come to the rescue, not to mention the (Little) Spirit of Christmas.

The voice talent is fine, especially Danny DeVito as the cabbie. The idea is fine - a little mawkish, perhaps, but not bad. The characters - well, the irritable girl is annoying, and the spirit thingie isn't half as engaging as it is intended to be: the others are OK, though.

But this film is let down, and let down totally and utterly, by the CGI. The characters are appallingly badly designed and animated, the backgrounds are shoddy, and the camera movements are poorly chosen and badly animated. The first Shrek movie was released in 2001: 7 years later, this film is despairingly bad by comparison.

How does something so unoriginal, so lame, so horrifying to the senses even get made? In a long line of cheap, shallow, tawdry, trite commercials that try to pass themselves off as "Holiday specials" - Little Spirit takes the whole genre to a new low.

Let's start with the fact that we have a cast of characters about whom we feel nothing - quite frankly, Leo is simply a boring kid we're all supposed to feel sorry for because his dog ran away - yet I couldn't muster the tiniest bit of sympathy for this flat character. The "city of strangers" with whom Leo is supposed to be bonding throughout this hour of misery are nothing but worn-out New York City clichés. The dog is annoying - and Macy's has yet to grasp the concept of subtlety when it comes to brand placement.

Then we get into the "magical" part - Little Spirit seems like nothing but a cheap rip-off of "Lilo and Stitch" - voice and all - with flashbacks to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" - but without the fun nor the depth.

If this is the new bar which holiday specials must reach, then God help us, every one.

I expect three things from a child's Christmas movie: good storyline, good message, and most importantly GREAT visuals. The storyline of Spirit:Christmas in New York was good and the actors voiced it sufficiently. The idea of embodying Christmas spirit in a little character was right on. The message was not crystal clear but even a younger child would, at least, understand the importance of finding a lost, cherished pet even if the spirit of Christmas was not understood. The visuals were awful. At times, I would describe some of the characters as revolting including a central character, the dog. It was almost unwatchable. Some of the characters were ethnic and revolting which would have lead to me questioning racism, but since it was revolting across the board I think it was just baaaad artwork. The artwork was so bad it was seriously distracting. This is another example of excellent conception but poor execution.

My son and daughter loved this movie! Everyday they ask to watch Little spirit.(Or rather, Ramona.) That's the Boston Terrier in the movie. We have a Boston terrier that looks just like her. So they feel like their watching their puppy on TV. I really enjoy the Children who are in their own world but soon find out that life is bigger than just them. They start to regain that Christmas spirit that they lost. Danny DeVito did a wonderful job of narrating the story. We liked it SO much that we DVRed it. Thank you DVR. Plus, we love the songs. My son can sing along and he's only 2. I think it's a great movie to show your kids. Plus, it teaches them that something new isn't always something bad. I say, watch it, love it, and buy it.