Danger
In The Manger (aka Nativity 2/2012/Inception DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: B- Extras: D Main Program: A-
Mr.
Peterson (David Tennant) is a new teacher, but his first class is in
an underdog school, with the most unruly students and an assistant
teacher who is more childish than the kids and gets into more trouble
than he is worth. On the first day, they start an epic journey to a
castle in Wales to win the National Christmas Song contest, and Mr.
Peterson is taken along for the ride. As they get lost along the way
they learn the meaning of family, friendship, faith and the spirit of
Christmas.
In
Debbie Isitt's Danger In The Manger (2012), Peterson has the
worst of luck when he is paired with Mr. Poppy, an assistant teacher
with no sense of responsibility. On his first day he is shanghaied
by his class into an amphibious bus and gets lost in the wilderness
and somehow they have to find the castle in time to join the
competition, but that is the least of their problems when they find
out they are in a competition against Mr. Poppy's rival, Mr.
Shakespeare (Jason Watkins) and Mr. Peterson's perfectionist brother,
Rodrick (also played by Tennant). As Mr. Poppy is the happy go lucky
idiot and Mr. Peterson is the realist and just wants to get his
students home safely, they might just learn something from each other
about believing in one self and the meaning and spirit Christmas.
This
was a more entertaining movie than the cover let on. The movie
features BBC superstars David Tennant (a one time Doctor Who) and
Jason Watkins (of the UK version of Being Human) and was a
comical Christmas story on adventure, faith and miracles. It
featured many well done songs done by school choirs in beautiful
holiday costumes, with singing and dancing. On an interesting note,
David Tennant plays two masterful roles as a good and evil twin
brothers competing with each other. This was much like story of The
Best Christmas Pageant Ever, but they should of called the movie
instead the 'Best Christmas Song Ever'. Still, it was good family
Christmas movie for all ages.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a Christmas Soft
digital shoot, but we suspect some of it is intended that way and as
this has been issued on Blu-ray elsewhere, could look easily better
in full HD. A music-based tale, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
fares better and is not bad, but there are sadly no extras.
-
Ricky Chiang
