In ‘Norm of the North,’ a polar bear takes a stand

Norm of the North is an Indian-American-Irish computer-animated comedy adventure film directed by Trevor Wall and written by Daniel R. Altiere, Steven M. Altiere, and Malcolm T. Goldman. It features the voices of Rob Schneider, Heather Graham, Ken Jeong, Colm Meaney, Loretta Devine, Gabriel Iglesias, Michael McElhatton, and Bill Nighy. The UK version features the voice of James Corden.

It was produced by Assemblage Entertainment, Splash Entertainment and Telegael, and distributed by Lionsgate.Norm of the North was critically panned. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a rating of 9%, based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 3/10. The site’s critical consensus read, “A pioneering feat in the field of twerking polar bear animation but blearily retrograde in every other respect, Norm of the North should only be screened in case of parental emergency.”

On Metacritic, the film has a score of 21 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating “generally unfavorable reviews”. On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of “B–” on an A+ to F scale. Critic Mark Dujsik gave the film 1 out of 4 possible stars, writing that “Norm of the North doesn’t care about the environment, the animals of the Arctic, or even kids for that matter. It wants to be ‘cute and marketable’ as cheaply as possible”.

James White of Empire gave the film 1 out of 5 possible stars, writing that “we wouldn’t recommend you watch it even after you’ve burned through every other possibility – and that includes a blank screen”. Mark Kermode of The Observer called the film a “dull ... below-par Ice Age-style tale in which the highlight is a group of vulgar lemmings”.

Michael Rechtshaffen of The Los Angeles Times called the film “blandly uninspired”, and Soren Andersen of The Seattle Times called the film an “idiotic animated comedy”, writing that “No child should be exposed to this”.