Niko 2 – Niko 2 – Lentäjäveljekset (2012)

Directed by: Kari Juusonen, Jørgen Lerdam | 76 minutes | animation, adventure, family, comedy | Dutch voice cast: Timo Verbeek, Nathan van der Horst, Warre Borgmans, Barry Atsma, Chava voor in ‘t Holt, Bram van der Vlugt, Finn Poncin, Eline de Munck, Peggy de Landtsheer, Stephan Holwerda, Louis van Beek, Joey Schalker, Lucas Dietens, Hymke de Vries, Ivan Pecnik, Oscar Siegelaar, Joey Schalker, Louis van Beek, Marcel Jonker, Daan van Rijssel, Joost Claes, Kees van Lier, Kira van Horsen, Chris Corens, Jan Nonhof, Alexander de Bruijn

At film festivals, it’s almost a fixed point: the best film in the eyes of the visitors is often a completely different one from the favorite of the jury. In 2008 the Finnish ‘Niko and the flying brigade’ played during Cinekid. And it turned out that the noses of the public and the professionals were pointing in the same direction: the exciting animation film about Niko, a reindeer that wants to learn to fly, was unanimously chosen. His parents do not live together and Niko does not know his father well. He does know that he has the coolest profession there is: his father is one of Santa’s reindeer. Niko hopes that when he can fly, he will also be accepted into the flying brigade, so that he can spend more time with his father. Four years after the seasonal success of ‘Niko and the Flying Brigade’, it’s time for the sequel, simply titled ‘Niko 2’.

Niko still struggles with the fact that his father is absent so much. He takes every opportunity to be with him, much to the chagrin of his mother Oona, who thinks Prancer isn’t much of a responsible parent. In addition, she has something else on her mind: she has fallen in love with the widower Lenni. His son Jonni finds it very interesting to have such a big, flying brother like Niko and looks up to him a lot. But Niko doesn’t like it. He doesn’t feel like sharing his mother with anyone else and he doesn’t like to babysit Jonni either. And the worst part, of course, is that when his mother moves in with Lenni, he will never get his parents back together! It should therefore come as no surprise that the first game that Niko is forced to play with Jonni goes wrong. And wrong too, because Jonni is kidnapped by a couple of dangerous-looking eagles, who mistake him for Niko. They do this on behalf of someone who still has a bone to pick with the flying reindeer cub. Nico. Niko is soon plagued with guilt and with the help of an old, almost blind reindeer, who has lived as a hermit for years, goes in search of Jonni.

While ‘Niko and the flying brigade’ already scored quite well on the visual level, ‘Niko 2’ takes it one step further. The use of color is very beautiful, from beautiful pastel shades (note the beautiful skies) to the many shades of white in the snow landscape. The film is rich in details and is therefore hardly inferior to films like ‘Ice Age’ (which ‘Niko 2’ already reminds a bit of, of course mainly because of the landscape). The animals have recognizable human characteristics and their large eyes sometimes seem to look at the audience. The film has clearly been worked on with a lot of love and passion and it is paying off.

Unfortunately, there is something wrong with the story. What is well done is the fact that this is an animated film that highlights blended families. But the central conflict isn’t very special – it does bear a lot of resemblance to Zack Snyder’s ‘Legend of the Guardians’, for example, a film that didn’t win an originality award in its own right. A little more depth wouldn’t have hurt and some more jokes would have been welcome. These are now mainly accounted for by the old Tobias and the Reindeer Brigade, and the screen time of these characters is not very large. That does not alter the fact that young children (too exciting for children under six, the birds of prey and Niko’s enemy can come across quite threatening) will certainly enjoy this exciting adventure. The adults accompanying them can certainly do worse. ‘Niko 2’ can be seen very well without having seen the first part beforehand. But then you are doing yourself and your child a disservice.