Il regalo di Angela

Angela's Christmas Wish (also known as Angela's Christmas Wish 2) has better quality animation than the original and is at least 15 minutes longer, but in terms of story doesn't quite match up to its predecessor from three years back.

In this particular instalment our titular heroine is on the hunt for her long-gone father to bring him home from Australia for the festive season. She's accompanied on her travels by her somewhat cowardly brother and a new female friend who may have even more spunk than her.

What follows is a sequence of events around town that could basically be described as a shaggy dog (or reindeer) story. Some scenes are more interesting than others, but as a whole they barely rank above average, and certainly don't feel very Chrismassy.

That is, until the 'big surprise' towards the end wraps everything up nicely, and Angela's song played over the credits is kind of lovely. But it's hard to justify the 45 minutes it takes to get there, unless you're very young or have a hankering for festive fare with virtually nothing in the way of frills or flavour.

Like eating a Christmas pud without any brandy, in other words. 5/10.