History WesternAnimation / TheFlightBeforeChristmas

* {{Expy}}: Quite a few from ''Disney/TheLionKing'':

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Niko gets an annoying younger step-brother in the form of Jonni. To everyone else, he's an AdorablyPrecociousChild.

The film is a holiday movie about a young boy reindeer named Niko, who believes his father (whom he doesn't know) is one of SantaClaus's flying reindeer. Niko lives in the wilderness of Northern Finland with his single mother Oona and his adult friend/surrogate father Julius the flying squirrel. Niko wants to become just likes his father and tries to learn how to fly, much to the scorn of other reindeer in his herd. One day, returning from his flying practice, Niko unknowingly leads a pack of wolves to the herd, forcing them to flee from their safe Home Valley to the snowy tundra, where the food is scarce. Niko is blamed for what has happened and he runs away from home to find his real father from Santa's headquarters in the North Pole. He is accompanied by Julius, who wants to protect Niko as he is the only person he cares about, and Wilma, a musical weasel the two meet on their journey. After an eventful journey, the three of them arrive at the North Pole, where Niko will finally find out if his dreams of his father come true or not. Meanwhile, the wolf pack (unwillingly aided by Essie, a naive, pampered poodle who got separated from her vacationing owners) are also looking for Santa's workshop, for their own sinister reasons...

* BigBad: Black Wolf, the leader of the wolves.

* CarnivoreConfusion: Regarding the previous one, Black Wolf and the rest of his pack have an evil plan of eating [[spoiler:Santa's flying reindeer to gain their magical power of flight, then to eat Santa, and then to wreak havoc across the world!]]

* ICantFeelMyLegs: PlayedForLaughs. After an avalanche, Specks tugs at what he thinks is his own, now dead, legs, but they're actually Smiley's.

* {{Redubbing}}[=/=]SameLanguageDub: The voices for Julius (Creator/NormMacDonald) and Wilma (Creator/EmmaThompson) were redubbed in the American version of the of the film. In the original English dub, released in the UK and Ireland, Julius was played by Morgan Jones and Wilma was played by Aileen Mythen.

* InterspeciesRomance: Between Specks the moss-eating wolf and Essie the poodle.

* PsychoactivePowers: The Flying Forces (and Niko) can only fly if they truly believe they can, and have confidence in themselves. When the wolves attack, the Forces are too scared to fly. In the sequel, it is said that they can only achieve "Santa Speed" if they possess a "happy heart".

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Niko's grandfather and Saga's father are absent in this movie.
* CoolOldGuy: Tobias, the former [[spoiler: leader of the Flying Forces]].

* ShipperOnDeck: At the beginning of the movie, Niko tries to get Oona and Prancer back together. His hopes are dashed when Oona starts a relationship with Lenni.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Nico is very clearly the result of his mother's ''one-night stand'' with one of Santa's reindeer. His mother didn't even know his father's name, and his father didn't even know he had a child. This caused controversy judging by how frequently it's mentioned in reviews for the film. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcV2cYv0VkE Scene.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Nico is very clearly the result of his mother's ''one-night stand'' with one of Santa's reindeer. His mother didn't even know his father's name, and his father didn't even know he had a child. This caused controversy judging by how it's frequently mentioned in reviews for the film. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcV2cYv0VkE Scene.]]

* LovableJock: The Flying Forces come off as this.

* PsychoactivePowers: The Flying Forces (and Niko) can only fly if they truly believe they can, and have confidence in themselves. When the wolves attack, the Forces are too scared to fly.

* DisappearedDad

** The Black Wolf - Scar

* PsychoactivePowers: The Flying Forces (and Niko) can only fly if they truly believe they can. When the wolves attack, the Forces are too scared to fly.

* SavageWolves

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Niko gets a step-brother in the form of Jonni. To everyone else, he's an AdorablyPrecociousChild.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Niko's grandfather and Saga's father are absent from the sequel.

* MistakenIdentity: The Eagles mistake Jonni for Niko.

----

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Niko gets one in the form of Jonni. To everyone else, he's an AdorablyPrecociousChild.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Niko's grandfather is absent from the sequel.

''The Flight Before Christmas'' is a Finnish-Danish-Irish-German computer animated feature film first released in 2008. It is different from most computer animated films that mostly rely on pop culture references and silly characters (Pixar films are the exception) by focusing on the story that is filled with exciting adventure and heart-warming scenes. It's more in the tradition of ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' than ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}''. The film was written by Finnish screenwriter Hannu Tuomainen and directed by Kari Juusonen from Finland and Michael Hegner from Denmark.

The film was released theatrically in several European countries, but in the US it was released DirectToVideo and broadcast on TV by Creator/{{CBS}} around the holiday season. It was marketed as a Christmas Special (and with misleading cover art, shown above), which was just wrong. Firstly it was an understatement of the film, and secondly the film featured some scary parts and adultish subject matter, that many American viewers couldn't take in a Christmas Special (Resulting in a tsunami of [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0885415/usercomments negative reviews]] because of that). In subsequent rebroadcasts, the 46 minute CBS edit tends to be shown after prime time, perhaps to avoid this confusion (although it was shown during prime time in 2013 and 2014).

The film was released theatrically in several European countries, but in the US it was released DirectToVideo and broadcast on TV by Creator/{{CBS}} around the holiday season. It was marketed as a Christmas Special (and with misleading cover art, shown above), which was just wrong. Firstly it was an understatement of the film, and secondly the film featured some scary parts and adultish subject matter, that many American viewers couldn't take in a Christmas Special (Resulting in a tsunami of [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0885415/usercomments negative reviews]] because of that). In subsequent rebroadcasts, the 46 minute CBS edit tends to be shown after prime time, perhaps to avoid this confusion (although it was shown during prime time in 2013).

!!Tropes:

* {{Redubbing}}: The voices for Julius (Creator/NormMacDonald) and Wilma (Creator/EmmaThompson) were redubbed in the American version of the of the film. In the original English dub, released in the UK and Ireland, Julius was played by Morgan Jones and Wilma was played by Aileen Mythen.

* {{Redubbing}}: The voices for Julius (Norm Macdonald) and Wilma (Emma Thompson) were redubbed in the American version of the of the film. In the original English dub, released in the UK and Ireland, Julius was played by Morgan Jones and Wilma was played by Aileen Mythen.

The film is a holiday movie about a young boy reindeer named Niko, who believes his father (whom he doesn't know) is one of SantaClaus's flying reindeer. Niko lives in the wilderness of Northern Finland with his single mother Oona and his adult friend/surrogate father Julius the flying squirrel. Niko wants to become just likes his father and tries to learn how to fly, much to the scorn of other reindeer in his herd. One day, returning from his flying practice, Niko unknowingly leads a pack of wolves to the herd, forcing them to flee from their safe Home Valley to the snowy tundra, where the food is scarce. Niko is blamed for what has happened and he runs away from home to find his real father from Santa's headquarters in the North Pole. He is accompanied by Julius, who wants to protect Niko as he is the only person he cares about, and Wilma, a musical weasel the two meet on their journey. After an eventful journey, the three of them arrive at the North Pole, where Niko will finally find out if his dreams of his father come true or not.

''The Flight Before Christmas'' is a Finnish-Danish-Irish-German computer animated feature film first released in 2008. It is different from most computer animated films that mostly rely on pop culture references and silly characters (Pixar films are the exception) by focusing on the story that is filled with exciting adventure and heart-warming scenes. It's more in the tradition of ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' than ''{{Shrek}}''. The film was written by Finnish screenwriter Hannu Tuomainen and directed by Kari Juusonen from Finland and Michael Hegner from Denmark.

The film was released theatrically in several European countries, but in the US it was released DirectToVideo and broadcast on TV by CBS around holiday season. It was marketed as a Christmas Special (and with terrible [[http://www.freemoviestheatre.com/media/images/TheFlightBeforeChristmas%282008%29.jpg cover art]], ECCH!), which was just wrong. Firstly it was an understatement of the film, and secondly the film featured some scary parts and adultish subject matter, that many American viewers couldn't take in a Christmas Special (Resulting in a tsunami of [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0885415/usercomments negative reviews]] because of that). In subsequent rebroadcasts, the 46 minute CBS edit tends to be shown after prime time, perhaps to avoid this confusion.

* CoversAlwaysLie: According to [[http://www.freemoviestheatre.com/media/images/TheFlightBeforeChristmas%282008%29.jpg the cover of the American DVD]] the film is about "Santa's little helpers", which is hardly the case.

* {{Expy}}: Quite a few from Disney/TheLionKing:

!!This film provides examples of: