Niko, the brave little reindeer is back! After Niko was able to attract 700,000 enthusiastic children to the cinemas three years ago with his search for his father, one of Santa's flying reindeer, the adventures of the little flying reindeer are going into the second round. Once again, Christmas is just around the corner. And Niko had secretly hoped that this year would see a final reunion between his father Prancer and his mother Oona. But instead, Oona introduces him to her new partner Lenni and his son Jonni, who already sees in Niko his older brother, whom he admires not only for his ability to fly. But Niko doesn't want to have anything to do with the little pain in the ass and wishes Jonni would disappear from his life again very quickly. But when the little one is kidnapped by a group of eagles who mistakenly believe him to be Niko, he gets a guilty conscience and sets out to rescue his stepbrother-in-law. Time is running out as the little reindeer finds himself in the clutches of the vengeful white she-wolf who is out to kill Niko, blaming him for the death of her brother (from Part 1). With the help of flying squirrel Julius, weasel Wilma and the old, short-sighted reindeer Tobias, Niko wants to save Jonni, no matter what the cost - as long as his mother doesn't find out.
Niko 2 is a cute sequel to the nice Christmas movie from 2009, which can convince with charming characters, child-friendly suspense and a lot of unobtrusive Christmas spirit. Although part 2 is again aimed more at the very young viewers, there are, as with the predecessor, a few scenes that have turned out very dark and so could scare young children a little. However, these moments are usually followed immediately by relaxing laughs, so the film is never in danger of being too scary or too exciting for the young target audience.
The characters are lovingly drawn, with the flying squirrel Julius again providing some of the best laughs. But old Tobias, who makes his first appearance here, could also quickly become a favorite of the kids, precisely because of the amusing moments created by his extreme myopia. The dramaturgy this time makes use of a topic that is very topical for many children: that Niko wishes for his parents to finally get together properly, but that he then has to accept that his mother has found a new partner, is a situation that is truly not uncommon in our society. What is to be credited to the makers is the sensitive, but then very realistic handling of the subject. Where every Disney movie would have made the little ones believe that the parents find together in the end, because family is the highest good and it just has to be that way, here it is shown that even the restructuring of the family, which at first glance seems like a disaster, can have its good sides in the end and can even be better for everyone involved in the end.
Besides that, Niko 2 is of course first and foremost an adventure film that doesn't want to convey any big moral messages to children, but should simply be fun. And this sequel succeeds in doing that very well again. Although the enjoyment is likely to diminish quickly as soon as the children are older than 10 years, especially little Niko fans between 5 and 8 years of age should have a lot of fun with this second adventure. An endearing and charming animated film that, while not a masterpiece, should still be absolutely worth watching for its target audience!
Ein Artikel von Frankfurt-Tipp
