Christmas at Dollywood

This made for TV Christmas themed film missed their target audience by a country mile. Sorry Dolly, we love you but your earlier film in 2016 "Dolly Parton's Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love" was so much better and much more personal that touched on the true meaning of Christmas. This film which tried way too hard to make sure that every single scene that actress Danica McKellar appeared in would warm our hearts just did not work. Danica McKellar plays Rachel Davis a widower Special Events Planner whose childhood dream was to be a children's book writer.

Although Rachel reminisces around the family kitchen table with her own parents and her daughter while making homemade Christmas ornaments, the scenes felt so much staged that I thought I was watching an extended commercial that just dragged on.

Of course there is a romantic interest between Rachel (Danica McKellar) and Dollywood's new general manager Luke Hackman (Niall Matter) but the nauseating banter and shallow cat and mouse foreplay was just too much for Mrs. Shullivan and I to want to even watch the rest of this so called Christmas themed film with the phony cotton ball snow on the set, and the word Christmas repeated ad nauseum.

Most irritating though was how often the director thought the next scene would be the BIG tear jerker scene, but our tears were saying "oh please, let's get this show over with."

I give Christmas at Dollywood a paltry 5 out of 10 IMDB rating and will state affirmatively that this is a forgettable film that Dolly would be better served calling it Christmas Ad Nauseum.

Danica is cute but the story is boring. There isn't much Dolly apart from a few songs and a few minutes at the end. A generic theme park and parade set romance.

If you take out Dolly Parton and Dollywood, this movie is a very lackluster production which almost could have been written by a phone app or a bunch of monkeys using past scripts and piecing them together. The story elements had no originality. The dialogue was blah. The acting was not worthy of note. There might have been a smidgen of chemistry between Danica and Niall.

I'm sure most viewers noticed Mckeller's real life book which in the story, and probably in real life, was being distributed by Dolly's foundation to children's charities. Someone made a reference talking to Danica's character saying that maybe she too would one day have her book from the movie story distributed by Dolly's organization.

As a season pass holder for dollywood I was very interested in this movie. First of all, this move is not about the theme park, which was to be expected. It was the standard hallmark movie made in Canada. It has the usual career conflict. The party planner from the big city meets the local hero who wants more. Also all the town scenes were not in Tennessee. There was too much snow, not enough moutains, and no tourists to be pigeon forge. There are no western bars to which the locals go line dancing.

It was okay. The romance was fine. It was not very funny, but did have a few moments. Dolly Parton had a very minor role at the very end. The movie did not do the park's Christmas celebrarion justice as it was filmed on a very small portion of it.

I was hoping that the plot would center around the individuals who work in dollywood's shows and have a litte more real and human story. Somthing a little different. Even if had all been shot on site or in the area immediately around the park. This was not different at all. I think that is why it dissapointed me. In summary while it was okay, it could have been better.

6/10 - I love some Danica McKellar, but unfortunately this one did little to distinguish itself