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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Snowtime!

SNOWTIME! (Jean-François Pouliot, François Brisson). 82 minutes. Opens Friday (February 12). See listing. Rating: NNN


The French-Canadian animated film Snowtime! is far more old-school and docile than the hyperactive muchness of typical kids’ fare. There’s a lightweight charm to this tale of grade-schoolers in a small, still mountainside town who engage in a deliriously epic snowball war to fight boredom.

In their adaptation of the 30-year-old live-action film La Guerre Des Tuques (The Dog Who Stopped The War), directors Jean-François Pouliot and François Brisson and their writing team often fill the time – a two-week school break – with pandering cute bits and cloying humour.

But they also create well-drawn characters: attention-hogging kids whose pettiness, playfulness and warmth are evident even when (or, perhaps, especially when) nothing particularly exciting is happening. 

The film’s focus is on timid, fatherless Luke (Angela Galuppo) and headstrong new girl in town Sophie (Lucinda Davis), who are cautiously attracted to each other while serving as opposing team leaders in the elaborate snowball war. The supporting characters are just as memorable, from the temperamental super-nerd who designs a Bond-like snow fortress to the mopey bystander who wearily reminds everyone that it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

Like the original, Snowtime! delivers that lesson with a final-act tragedy that could devastate young viewers. If your kids aren’t easily consolable, maybe stick to Treehouse instead.

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