a nice film. noble intentions. Inuit folklore/tradition as interesting support . but something essential is missing. sure, magic, envy, the way who transforms the lead hero. all well known from old fairy tale. but the obstacles are not the essence of adventure. it is the mark of improvisation who defines this animation who remains a nice film but nothing more.

Spoilers are likely (Not like you frankly give a damn...)It is the year 1910 in Northern Canada. The Inuit shaman Croolik (Played By Christopher Plummer) has denounced Sedna, Goddess of water And The dead, so he can call upon the Spirit of Darkness. With the goddess withdrawing the region's fauna, Croolik's village is suddenly threatened with a famine due to a lack of game. Our orphan hero Markussi (played by Dustin Milligan), along with arranged couple Putulik (played by Tim Rozon) and Apik (played by Rachelle Lefevre) set out to find the eponymous land of Sarila, where animals are said to be plenty, in order to avert the famine. Along the way, Markussi learns that he has his own shaman abilities, while Croolik makes it his personal mission to undermine the heroes' quest whilst continuously trying to frame his estranged wife (Played By Geneviève Bujold) for his survival and benefit.You walked into this review expecting it to be negative, and while it is, let's first list of the film's (surprising amount of) pros. This film is admittedly better-presented than most of the atrocities i've reviewed; Christopher Plummer and Geneviève Bujold have clearly taken their performances seriously as an estranged couple driven apart by evil itself, while Olivier Auriol's musical score does it's best to keep the audience enticed audibly. Got those? Good, because now here comes the shredding.Right off the bat (as pointed out by I Hate Everything), this film's plot is one of (if not the most) formulaic in the entire animation medium, running in a pattern that any small child can point out with ease. That's right, the film constantly shifts between the perspectives of Croolik and the heroes in a pattern that sees Croolik executing a step in his sad excuse of a "master plan," followed by a section of the heroes' journey, usually with an action set piece thrown in. Also, this film boasts TERRIBLE production design. Even about a film following a nomadic people in the far north, where snow and ice are abundant, the film's backgrounds are in desperate need of detail. The film's environment is very flat with little terrain that desperately cries for that precious detail. It doesn't help that Sarila, which is supposed to be the film's scenic highlight, looks like something right out of a CalArts film project. And while Plummer and Bujold do their best to keep this failed project afloat, the mediocre screenplay upheld by the poorly-realized chemistry between Milligan, Rozon and Lefevere still lingers behind their talent and holds them back from completely saving the film.With it's exotic Inuit setting, Sarila looks poised to be brimming with originality, right? You couldn't be more wrong. The film rips two pages right out of the book of Dreamworks, those being The (underrated) Road to El Dorado And Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. Anything that looks "original" are actually sprinkled on from several other movies, such as Brother Bear and Ice Age. Plus, the film's re-branding as "Frozen Land" means that this film will forever be remembered as a mockbuster held back by a lackluster script, abhorrent production design, awful pacing, a formulaic plot and poor chemistry between it's star-studded cast, among other things.Call me demanding, if you desire. As a critic, i should be used to this kind of mob mentality bullshit.3/10.

Croolik apparently became a shell of his former self when his sons died. Too bad we never learn what kind of person he used to be aside from a shaman and apparently not evil. Also, the writers have a tendency to blame the whole thing on buzzwords for things that turn people evil without putting too much thought into it. ("You're blinded by pride and ambition!" "Ambition? At this point in the movie I'm just trying to kill Markussi.") But I found myself caring about him anyway.Markussi's "I don't want to be a shaman" subplot was interesting, but it's pretty much all we know about him. What's his favorite color? How does he feel about his parents being dead? No idea. Sedna mentions something about using his powers for personal gain versus using them for the good of the tribe, but that doesn't really go anywhere either. Again, I found myself caring about him anyway.We know even less about what goes on in Apik's head. The movie tries to give her some characterization when her mom doesn't want her to go on the journey to Sarila, but since the crow spirit chose her in this ceremony that the whole tribe agreed would determine who goes to Sarila her decision to defy her mother and go on an adventure was really just the obvious thing to do under the circumstances. Depending on how strictly you interpret the criteria she might also fail the Sexy Lamp Test. (Thanks to Sedna and Saya the movie as a whole passes, but the way things are set up it looks like Apik was supposed to be the female lead and they were supposed to be more minor characters.) Again, I found myself caring about her anyway.Poutulik basically just exists so Croolik has someone to give that amulet to. I'd like to say I ended up caring about him anyway but uh... no, not really. Also, he's a hunter who kills animals - but only off screen. Whenever an animal actually appears on screen the others are all "Oh, don't kill that lemming, he's to small to be worth the trouble." "Oh, don't kill that... caribou?, she's pregnant." I can understand the reasoning behind this, but it's still a bit distracting once you notice it.Speaking of animals and weird things, the marketing decision - I mean lemming - is a lot more stylized than the humans or the other animals. Which is not all that good for the suspension of disbelief.Plus there's what basically amounts to a clip show in the middle of the movie. Seriously, why? Basically, if the writers had put a bit more thought into what really goes on inside the characters' heads, dropped the clip show (and maybe one of Croolik's attempts to kill Markussi) and used the extra time for some more character development this could have been a much better movie. As it is it's not bad, it's just not very good either.

On the one hand, it's obviously cool that the Quebecois-Canadian film industry can now put out films that look like this. Fifteen years ago, only a few institutions in the world could have amassed the technology, finance, and expertise to put together computer graphic images like this.On the other hand, however, this democratization of the tools of imaging has, unfortunately, just given more powers of spectacle to incompetent filmmakers who don't have even the most rudimentary idea how to tell a story. This story begins from the premise that an Inuit shaman -- who has gone bad, for badly-explained/justified reasons -- has renounced his ancestral skill set for subservience to an evil god... who nonetheless never gives him any power to do anything about the hateful, unwatchable, noxious, saccharine and awful characters we're supposed to accept as heroes and sympathetic characters. Then at the end, we're supposed to go gooey-eyed because after being stupidly and unconvincingly defeated, he's "forgiven," and thus kinda-sorta redeemed by these horrible "hero" characters who we've spent the last hour-plus wanting to see die... Don't waste your time.