Nerdly » ‘Dashing Through the Snow’ Review (Disney+)

27th Nov2023

‘Dashing Through the Snow’ Review (Disney+)

by Alain Elliott

Stars: Ludacris, Lil Rey Howery, Madison Skye Validum, Teyonah Parris, Oscar Nuñez, Ravi Patel, Marcus Lewis, Mary Lynn Rajskub | Written by Scott Rosenberg | Directed by Tim Story

Not only do Disney have a second season of The Santa Clauses being released this holiday season, they also have a handful of new festive movies coming too. The first of which is Dashing Through the Snow.

Ludacris plays a divorced social worker who despises Christmas after a painful childhood memory but has to spend Christmas Eve on a call with his daughter and a man who very much loves Christmas.

I think this movie’s biggest problem is that it seems to try to have several different stories run alongside each other, with the lead one just being ‘daughter tries to convince her Dad that Christmas is a happy time of year’. There are some weird subplots here that of course involve Santa and reindeer, but also involves a holiday scandal of sorts. It’s the kind of story that could only work in a Christmas movie. One thing the movie does though, is keep things Christmassy. It all plays out on Christmas Eve and most of the main characters are somehow Christmas-related.

On top of the Christmas-heavy story and characters, this film very much feels like Christmas, and that’s important to people like me. All the lights, trees, decorations, music and colour are here, in every street and pretty much every scene. You couldn’t ask for much more on that front.

Although it’s clearly a Disney production – the young daughter as a lead character will make sure children will get plenty of enjoyment from it – it still has the feel of a Hallmark Christmas movie. It goes almost all out for the feel-good, pull-at-your-heartstrings, cheesy moment. Even if it doesn’t work for much of it.

That’s not to say Dashing Through the Snow is a bad movie though. Far from it. You’d be hard-pushed not to smile throughout its runtime. There are plenty of decent jokes and laugh-out-loud moments, many coming from Lil Rey Howery playing ‘Nick’ (I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say he plays Santa, to be honest). He’s the stand-out performance here. He’s never too over the top and brings his own style to a role played by many many people. Ludacris does fine but you kinda feel like he’s holding back a little – the character does have that kind of side to them too, so maybe that was part of the problem. Madison Skye Validum is fun as the daughter, naturally charismatic and cute. Perfect for this type of role. She has previously been seen in Ivy & Bean on Disney, and it seems she’s having a good year for Christmas movies because she’s in the film I previously reviewed for Nerdly, Best. Christmas. Ever!

I wouldn’t say Disney have got a new Christmas hit to watch every year with Dashing Through the Snow, but they have got a new feel-good family movie that is worth checking out this holiday season.