"Albert" is a 43-minute animated short film from December 2016 and this one was released for the most recent holidays. They made some headlines with the fact that this is the first own animated movie produced by Nickelodeon, but as I already wrote in the title of my review here it is a bit of a rocky start. The director is 2-time Oscar nominee Max Lang and the script writers include another Oscar nominee as well (from Shrek). But still overall, the outcome does not feel too sincere. Thanks to some known songs there is a touch of Christmas to this one, but I personally did not feel it was enough. The characters are not too interesting apart from the one in the title and the story never really feels right with the important messages it delivers in terms of the true spirit of Christmas. The animation is occasionally pretty good I have to admit, especially in terms of non-characters, i.e. the streets, settings etc. But this alone is not enough anymore in the 21st century to really make a difference. Story-wise and character-wise, this one here is certainly rather sub-par and I hope Nickelodeon can improve a bit with their upcoming projects. Thumbs down, not recommended. Or really only around Christmas if nothing better is on.

Albert is a small Douglas fir tree in a tiny pot with all the lighted ornaments. Grandma owns the plant shop Earth Mama's and declares that he's not ready. Empire City is searching for a Christmas tree and Albert thinks that he could be that tree. He stowaway on the delivery truck with Maisie the plam tree, and Gene the weed. Along the way, they get into trouble with Cactus Pete, but Albert refuses to give up.

The premise is sweet. It's a good message. I actually like the plant designs even with the older animation CGI. The story is a little clunky. It has its heart in the right place. It's a Nickelodeon movie, not a full length movie.

Don't know why so many low reviews. It's not your budget breaking 3D animation, but the artwork is lovingly drawn and the characters, which consist of 99% plants, were adorable and had great voices. It's not a story that's all candy coated in "everything is wonderful lies". It shows that life has struggles if you want to reach your dreams. This is up in my top 10 Christmas movie list for people with a sense of humor and childlike wonder, along with: In no particular order: (1964) Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, (1983) A Christmas Story, (2003) Elf, (1992) The Muppet Christmas Carol (2017) A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong. (2019) Last Christmas (especially if your a George Michael and Emilia Clark (aka Khalissi) fan) (2003) Love Actually (1965) A Charlie Brown Christmas (2019) Klaus