Alpha and Omega 2: A Howl-iday Adventure

Rating: 3.0

Mediocre garbage that looks much worse than the original. It wasn't even animated well some backgrounds are unfinished. Just watch the first and be done with it.

Yeah, I am not a fan of Alpha And Omega, but seeing as this is a Holiday movie, I had to watch this, and let me tell you, the sub-title is a lie. A horrible lie.

The plot has nothing to do with the holidays. Not Christmas, and not the other holidays like Hanukkah. Instead, the story is about Kate and Humphrey having to save Runt, the youngest of their three pups, from a group of rogue alpha wolves that is led by King, a wolf who is denied leadership by Winston, Kate's father. That is basically it. There are no Christmas songs (or songs about other holidays), no Santa. Only a couple mentions of Christmas, and one scene I won't reveal. Also, the jokes are hit-or-miss, with some crude humor and violence, and the animation looks ugly. Not the kind of holiday movie I would recommend to kids (it gets two stars mainly because of the voice acting being good for replacements).

Made the decision, despite not caring much at all for the first 'Alpha and Omega', to see its follow-ups (yes there is a franchise) out of curiosity and as an enormous fan of animation, would see anything regardless of critical reception. Would see anything to do with Christmas too.

Anybody who disliked the first film but wants to see the rest of the franchise to see whether it gets better or not will be shocked to find that 'Alpha and Omega: A Howl-iday Adventure' (the title alone is enough to make anyone dubious) is even worse. One of the worst sequels personally seen to me and proof that 'Alpha and Omega' didn't need a sequel let alone a franchise.

Let's start with the animation. The animation wasn't the best in the first film but it had its decent moments. It however is 'Toy Story' compared to the animation quality here, which is not quite Video Brinquedo, Spark Plug Entertainment or 'Foodfight' bad but almost and on the same level as 'The Swan Princess' CGI films. Blocky character designs, almost creepy expressions, very flat colours, a complete lack of fluidity in movement and less than meticulously detailed backgrounds are reminiscent of computer animation and video games in their infancy, something that one does not expect at all for 2013 even for low budget when technology as much as it has.

Can say no better for the music either. None of it fits with what's going on, stylistically it feels out of place and out of kilter, it's obtrusive and it's not even good music on its own. The writing is even worse, summing up in one word it's abominable. half-baked ideas and any parts that strive to be funny or poignant instead come across as eye-rollingly cheesy or cloying.

Worse are the "funny" jokes and dialogue, which are not funny at all, one groans at some of the wordplay/puns and older audiences who are children at heart whenever seeing animation (like me, one is never too old to appreciate animation and it is not strictly oriented towards kids only) will question the appropriateness of some of it.

Story-wise, there is not much of one at all. 'Howl-iday Adventure' is short but feels longer thanks to plodding pacing and thin plotting. There is very little Christmas spirit either, there is no heart or charm and it all feels very mean-spirited. The characters are never engaging, they are either bland or irritating and some of them are completely pointless.

Voice acting is weak all round, the first 'Alpha and Omega' at least had Hayden Panettiere giving a pretty good account of herself and Dennis Hopper. There is nobody of that calibre here, some overdo it and some act as if they weren't even trying.

Overall, a howlingly bad mess. If the rest of the franchise is like this, 'Alpha and Omega' has potential to be as over-milked as 'The Swan Princess' and 'The Land Before Time' franchises. 1/10 Bethany Cox

When Alpha and Omega was released back in 2010, its reception wasn't very positive. Both critics and movie-goers alike blasted the film, criticizing it's story, animation, and just being an overall bad film. It managed to find some fans, but it's still a film many people just simply forgot... or wanted to forget.

Admittedly, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. Yeah, it's bad, and it's not something I'd recommend to anyone... but I can find some enjoyment out of it, and I don't think it's as bad as many claim (close, but not quite). With that said, in no way did I ever wish for it to receive a sequel. Honestly, it's just not necessary, and again, not too many people even liked the first film. It's fan base, if one even exists, is quite small, so who's the targeted audience? Why even bother making a sequel, knowing it probably won't sell?

Well, they made one anyway, and because I somewhat enjoy the first film, I decided to give it a shot.

...And what a mistake that turned out to be. Any charm the first film might have had is completely absent here, and there's many reasons why. The story is predictable (even more so than the first), the characters (both old and new) are terrible and useless, the script is lousy, the jokes are lame, the animation is often very sloppy and unpolished (amateurish mistakes that would make any newbie and up-and-coming animators blush with embarrassment), among numerous other examples. For that matter, any and all wolf sound effects (Howling, growling, etc.) all sound like poor-quality stock sound effects, as if they found them off some free sound effects website. The amount of effort they put into this film is... practically non-existent.

The worst offender is how short the movie is. It's not even a full- length film... no, it's only 45 minutes. And considering how the finale goes down, there's so much evidence for me to believe the film was cut short and left unfinished... as if they ran out of budget or lost the motivation to complete it (I'm leaning towards the latter).

Everything about this movie screams "Lack of effort". It's an abomination to viewers and fans of the original film. Even after renting this for $4 off of Amazon Instant Video, I still feel cheated and want my money back. Avoid this movie like the plague... trust me, you won't regret it.

Only the final 2 minutes had anything to do with a "holiday theme".

Animation quality was a lot worse than the original and the voice actors are different in this one too.

The plot was ridiculous.