Mihai Toma Since he was a small child, Nikolas had a habit of carving wooden toys which he would gift to other children for Christmas. But, once he loses his parents, he's being moved from family to family for shelter, year after year, until nobody could afford to keep him. Finally, he gets adopted by a grumpy and strict carpenter which is determined to make him his apprentice, but still young Nikolas isn't going to give up his habit. Against all odds and difficulties this caused him, he'll deliver to each kid he knew a new toy, every year at Christmas, with some help from time to time.It's a dramatic story of a kid, struggling with poverty in a cold and remote village, who finds joy and relief in creating and delivering toys to other children. Although he grows up and his life becomes harder and harder, he's determined to do whatever it takes to bring joy to other during Christmas. We're presented his life since he was tiny until he becomes the famous Santa Claus we all know today. Although predictable, the story is rather solid, bringing plenty of drama and emotion along the way. Yes, it has a couple of boring moments, or fillers you might call them, but it still is a good watch overall.It can bring a lot of warmth into one's heart although all the action happens in a freezing environment. It presents a good story, with good characters, in an unique winter atmosphere which manages to create a very good movie to watch especially during the winter holidays.

dwwebtv I liked this movie having seen it in the English dubbed version. I was not aware of any of the actors so the for-mentioned appearance of a Finnish Pop Star (Antti Tuisku) wasn't something I was looking for and felt the character blended in well as it was kept short.For those that mention this Santa version vs the USA version, I have only one thing to say....The North Pole is in Canada, not the USA. And I think the Finnish version did a nice job of giving Santa (of any version) that classic look of what he may have seemed like in the beginning. For reference purposes the USA/Canadian version of Santa was created by the Coca Cola company for advertisement purposes and was never meant to become the North American standard version.The movie to me was sad, funny and thoughtful. I thought it went a long way to give a classic children's myth a realistic beginning. My three daughters (21, 18 & 13) watched this with me and all loved it. The only complaint was the dubbing. They had never seen a foreign movie before and assumed no matter where it was made the lips should match the English words......kids.I gave this movie a high rating based on what I saw. I don't look at the cinematography or pay much attention to musical scores. I watch a movie and it either resonates with me or it doesn't and this one did.My only regret is that I don't speak Finnish so I could judge the difference between the acting and hearing the characters as they were written as opposed to the overdub.

HeedZ This movie has a lot more depth than most Santa movies from the big US of A. This becomes a major commercial problem for the movie since many people like to see shallow movies that are "heart warming" even though it smells fake long way, and prefer to place their dollars in such movies instead. This is not the issue with Joulutarina. The movie has dark sides, let's face it all tales have dark sides, the matter is if you present them or not. This is a REAL movie. Heartwarming, beautiful scenery and good acting.If you want to see the real thing - go watch this movie.By the way, the kids (8 and 12) absolutely ADORED it. I've lost count on how many times they have seen this already.SEE IT!

Wqdi OK, so the scenery was great and the photography nice, but that's not why I rented this DVD. I wanted to see a nice heartwarming Christmas story. This was not what I considered to be a good "family" picture. It is dark and depressing at parts. I'm sure the translation loses something and the way people see "Santa" is different overseas.In the Netherlands they have an assistant to Saint Nick that frightens bad children, so not every culture is the same. Parts of the English dubbing were so poor the characters simply grumbled or made noises to cover lip movement of the original Finnish.But, taking all the high points and low points together about this film I would still not recommend it for American kids under 10.Obviously I did not enjoy this dark and poorly told story of Finnish/Lapland Santa Clause. I don't think most Americans will relate to the story.