Disney delivers a massive lump of coal with its straight to streaming holiday comedy, Dashing Through the Snow. I use the term “comedy” loosely, as there’s scarcely a laugh to be unwrapped in this messy attempt at holiday humor.

Dashing Through the Snow Plot

Eddie (Ludacris) is a divorced social worker with a strong disdain for Christmas. Due to a traumatic experience involving the holiday from his childhood, Eddie treats the happiest time of the year as a burden and a hurdle. While spending Christmas Eve with his daughter, the pair meet a man (Lil Rel Howery) claiming to be Santa himself. What ensues is a wild and magical night that the two will never forget.

The Critique

Lil Rel Howery (Vacation Friends 2) plays Santa. Although a more fitting description would be to say that Lil Rel Howery plays Lil Rel Howery wearing a Santa outfit. His performance — as with all of his performances — is filled with high-pitched sarcasm, quips and nervous laughter. It’s a gimmick that carried him for a time — even allowing him to shine in Jordan Peele’s Get Out — but has since grown tiresome and predictable.

Dashing Through the Snow strives to be a heartfelt story of a father and daughter mending a relationship on the fray, while simultaneously learning the true meaning of Christmas. Or at least, that’s what it wants its audience to see it as. However, these elements are so thinly developed and so poorly thought out that their existence feels like an afterthought, tacked on to serve the purpose of meeting the necessary, generic plot-points of a family film.

Then there’s Ludacris, sleepwalking through the film while giving the minimal effort allowable. He makes Shaq’s performance in 1997’s Steel (or anything, really) seem passable by comparison. It’s a random reference, sure, but when looking at bottom-of-the-barrel acting deliveries, you can’t go wrong with Shaq. What’s attempted to pass for comedy here is Ludacris — in a dry, monotone delivery — exasperatedly stating, “That’s ludicrous.” Wow, so clever.

The glaring issue here, is there’s no shortage of Christmas films. Every year, a plethora of them make their way down the chimney and onto the television. However, only a select few ever linger in our memories or return as holiday classics for yearly viewing. Home Alone and Elf are examples of the rare Christmas comedy that lasts. In a market as saturated as this one, there have to be genuine efforts to stand out. Violent Night was flawed, but it dared to be something unique by pitting Santa against a violent gang and John Leguizamo (The Menu). Dashing Through the Snow makes no such efforts and as a result, finds itself snowed in by the weight of its own mediocrity.

In Conclusion

Dashing Through the Snow is the type of joyless holiday entertainment that drains cheer rather than delivers it. Yes, it’s a straight to streaming release. No, that is not an excuse for subpar content. Lil Rel Howery has now found himself in two of the worst movies of the year with this and Vacation Friends 2, and that lands him on the naughty list.

2/10

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