Dashing Through the Snow (2023)

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Seemingly out of nowhere, a Disney Christmas film dropped on Disney+ last November. Is it a holiday classic to be watched for generations to come? Or was there a reason it appeared out of nowhere? Let’s take a look at Dashing Through the Snow!

And remember, SPOILERS AHEAD!

Directed by Tim Story, Dashing Through the Snow tells us the story of Christmas-hating Eddie Garrick, played by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges. He doesn’t have an Ebenezer Scrooge-level of hate, but Christmas just annoys him more than the average person. It’s mostly due to when he was a kid, he convinced a mall Santa Claus to give a fishing rod present to his father. Eddie’s parents are separated and he thinks if his father received a great gift like that, he would assume it came from Eddie’s mother, and the two would be united once more! The plan backfires though when the mall Santa Claus comes to Eddie’s house and robs them.

Now an adult, Eddie works as a social worker who assists the police with dealing with people who need a friendly voice to talk them out of doing something rash. He works a lot which was probably one of the reasons he and his wife, Allison, played by Teyonah Parris, separated. Nevertheless he makes time for his daughter, Charlotte, played by Madison Skye Validum, including not working today, the day of Christmas Eve.

Allison drops off Charlotte at Eddie’s house and he promises to drop her back at Allison’s later that evening. He and Charlotte have a fun time together playing games and bonding. As night approaches, he goes over to his neighbor’s house to feed their cat as they’re out of town and bumps into a man dressed as Santa Claus who’s stuck in their chimney.

The man is named Nick and is played by Lil Rel Howery. Eddie helps Nick out of the chimney and assumes that  he’s come to rob the place. But Nick acts strangely; he seems to think that he really is Santa Claus and came to deliver gifts before getting stuck in the chimney. Eddie, of course, doesn’t believe Nick especially when Nick’s beard is only partially dyed white and when his remote clicker to call his supposed reindeer doesn’t work. He realizes that Nick needs some professional help and says he’ll take him to the police station on the way to dropping off Charlotte.

As they drive away, their car breaks down and Eddie’s phone mysteriously stops working. They then take a taxi for the rest of the journey. Things seem to be going smoothly with Nick talking more and more about his life as Santa, Charlotte becoming more and more intrigued with him, and Eddie becoming more and more annoyed.

All of a sudden, Nick jumps out of the taxi prompting Eddie and Charlotte to go running after him. Nick blends into a Santa Claus-themed Christmas party at a club, but Eddie and Charlotte find him. Eddie questions Nick about why he jumped out of the taxi and who he’s running from, but he doesn’t really answer. Instead, they get another ride from a family of Santa Claus-obsessed people known as the Truckles, played by Gina Brillon, Sebastian Sozzi, Gaby Rosario, and Noah Ayden Hernandez. The Truckles believe that Santa Claus is 100% real and have been tracking him for…who knows how long! As you can imagine, they’re super excited when they finally meet Nick!

Nick then jumps out of their van when he reaches “his stop” prompting Eddie and Charlotte to go after him again. They find him at a factory. Apparently Santa Claus outsources the production of toys to multiple cities and there just happens to be one of those toy producing factories here. As they enter, Eddie is amazed to see so much Christmas-obsessed people as well as Christmas decor! He’s also surprised that all these people seem to know Nick as well as believe he’s the real Santa Claus!

It’s here we learn who Nick is running from. Earlier in the night, he went to deliver gifts at the mayor’s house. Mayor Conrad Harf, played by Oscar Nunez, wasn’t aware that Nick was present and was in the middle of telling his three goons, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub, Marcus Lewis, and Ravi Patel, about a tablet he owns that has the names of people he’s collecting bribes from. They soon discover that Nick is there and try to catch him, but Nick manages to escape with the tablet. Since then, the three goons have been after Nick all night which is why he’s been acting suspiciously and jumping in and out of moving vehicles.

Eddie is upset at this as he now thinks Nick is just a common thief whose burglary attempt didn’t go right. He calls the police who take Nick away, but not before Nick slips Eddie an envelope for him to read. When Eddie opens the envelope later, he finds a letter he wrote to Santa Claus when he was a kid which seems to prove that Nick is indeed Santa Claus. He then utilizes the help of the Truckles to find Nick so he can save him.

They end up at the mayor’s house as there is a big Christmas party taking place there. The “police” who took Nick away turned out to be more of the mayor’s goons and they brought Nick back to the house to hand over the tablet. Eddie arrives in time and now because he believes in Santa, the reindeer-calling remote clicker resumes working and Nick’s badly computer-generated reindeer arrive to beat up the bad guys.

The police are given the tablet and arrest Mayor Harf and his goons. Nick bids farewell to Eddie and Charlotte and gets on his sleigh to continue delivering his gifts. Eddie drops Charlotte back at Allison who’s very upset as to why Charlotte is so late. She’s even more upset when he tries to tell her about meeting and dealing with the real Santa Claus. Fortunately, Nick arrives at Allison’s house to back up Eddie’s story. Eddie and Allison rekindle their relationship and they all have a wonderful Christmas Eve.

And that was Dashing Through the Snow! To answer my previous question, no this isn’t a holiday classic to be watched for generations to come. This is one of those films where I don’t even know why it was made! It doesn’t seem to be anyone’s passion project nor does it provide a story that we’ve never seen before. It just feels like a movie that was made to hit a quota of number of movies to be made in a year!

Everyone feels like they’re doing this film for a paycheck especially Ludacris who looks so bored during the entire film! Lil Rel Howery is the only one who seems to be enjoying himself a bit, but goodness, he gets annoying fast with how much talks! Apparently, his role was supposed to be played by Kevin Hart, and it makes perfect sense!

The visual effects are so bad in this film, especially the reindeer! Even the title doesn’t seem to fit! Like what does “Dashing Through the Snow” have to do with anything that happened in the film other than it’s related to a song often sung during Christmastime?

Everything about this film feels so half-hearted and sadly, it shows!

So, my final score for this film is 12/35 = 34.29% (F) !

The next review will be posted on February 20, 2024.