The Naughty Nine

I'll be honest, at first I thought it was gonna be a stupid movie just by judging the concept for this. After watching this, it kinda is, but turned out okay. The Naughty Nine is a mixed heist where some may have gone well, while others that have been blown. It may have a generic story, stale jokes and some of the characters being bland. But there are some of the things that surprised me such as good acting, creative set ups for the North Pole, and the heart of the film that connects well. I won't say that it's a must watch, but if you're looking for a Christmas movie from Disney Channel, this might be something during Christmas time. But maybe at least once to see what you think of the movie more than the stupid concept of a naughty list heist. It may not be the best heist I've seen, but like the Naughty Nine themselves, at least it's to change a little bit of Disney Channel's colors for Christmas movies.

Staring the obvious: Home Alone meets Oceans Eleven. Some characters are frustrating cliches (I sincerely cannot handle Jon Anthony) and adults serve merely as plot-furthering side characters, but it's tolerable. If I'm subjected to more watches of it, however, it might wear me down as I have low tolerance for the genre of Precocious Kids Who Manipulate and Outsmart Oblivious Adults genre. As another reviewer mentioned, they try to cram as much individual character development as possible, but that comes at the expense of getting in depth enough for most of them. Also, let's just address the fact that the pilot is clearly to be a Chris Pratt type - I swear this guy must be his body double. I wish it had a touch more edge but I'm not the target audience. Grab some (potent) 'nog and you'll be OK.

Andy is a smart kid. His schemes keep getting him into trouble. Santa's Naughty List is real and Santa Claus (Danny Glover) puts Andy on it. He recruits 8 other naughty kids to do a heist on Santa's workshop.

It's a Disney Channel TV movie. I recognize one or two of these kids. I don't particularly like any of these characters. I do like the silly concept. At least, it's unique. The execution is another story. It's just so tween in filmmaking. Maybe you have to be that age to like this. There may also be too many kids. Fewer kids would allow each to stand out. In the end, I don't care about all these kids or their scheme by extension.

This is a Disney Christmas heist movie with the title being The Naughty Nine (2023), which has an interesting idea for a Christmas heist movie involving naughty kids breaking into Santa's workshop to take the toys/gifts they deserve. The movie The Naughty Nine (2023) is an entertaining enough little movie that has an interesting premise, good enough performances, and nice enough visuals to give the Christmas feeling to it; there are over the top moments, and there are moments in the movie that was unbelievable, but it also has an ending that went by quickly by getting things resolved in time to fit the one hour and twenty-three minute long runtime.

The performances from the main characters are entertaining enough to follow, and the main character who leads The Naughty Nine named Andy, along with his friend, do scams or heists in a way at school to take things back that also involves lying to people; that is how he gets on the naughty list, which makes sense, and he has the skills in planning out a heist to get into Santa's workshop. The rest of the members of The Naughty Nine have certain skills that Andy needs to break into the place, and there is a character who knows where Santa's village and workshop is found, and I thought it was unbelievable that a kid like him could do something like that. Also, Andy's sister, who is on the nice list, is brought in for a role in their plan, even though she is always trying to prove to their parents that Andy is lying and producing a plan without them knowing, but Andy lies his way out of it.

The look of the North Pole Forest and Santa's village looked like sets, but they also looked like miniatures when the characters are walking around because the trees and buildings looked like they were miniature made to look bigger; also, you have Danny Glover as Santa Claus who appears near the end of the third act, but he is not bad in this. The movie does have a Christmas feel to it, along with the sets being well put together and Santa's workshop looking and feeling big in scale in a way; the movie has entertaining moments with occasional funny moments that are not that bad.

There is not much to expect from this, other than that it is an entertaining enough Christmas heist from Disney, and kids will like it fine, with it also not being something rush and watch on Disney+. The movie The Naughty Nine (2023) is harmless and entertaining enough for a kid friendly Christmas heist movie, because it also has known tropes from heist movies like Ocean's Eleven (2001), which are done well despite seeing them before. Not a bad movie, but you will be entertained enough if you just watch the movie once.

Let me begin with the positives first because there aren't too many. The sets in this movie are probably the best I've ever seen for a Christmas film, which is unfortunate because the rest of this movie is complete garbage. Not only does this movie teach kids to be naughty, but it also represents everything that Christmas shouldn't be. And Danny Glover as Santa? Really? Not that I'm opposed to it, but why him? He comes across as judgmental and unforgiving, contradicting everything Santa is known for. I simply don't understand why this movie spends almost its entire runtime teaching children to misbehave, steal, and lie, and then, in the last 5 minutes, Danny Glover appears at the very end, telling the naughty kids that he needs their help, with no explanation whatsoever. Sure, the naughty kids might learn their lesson to some extent, but to have an entire movie completely undermine the essence of Christmas and the importance of being good? I don't think this movie sends kids the right messages at all. But as I said, the set design in this movie is the best I've ever seen, and that's the only good thing about it. It seems like Disney wanted to create a naughty Christmas movie to teach kids that it's okay to misbehave.