| Little Brother, Big Trouble: A Christmas Adventure | |
| Director: | Kari Juusonen Jorgen Lerdam |
| Producer: | Hannu Tuomainen Petteri Pasanen Antti Haikala Emely Christians Moe Honan Ralph Christians Bernhard zu Castell |
| Starring: | Erik Carlson Juhana Vaittinen Mikko Kivinen Vuokko Hovatta Aarre Karen |
| Music: | Stephen McKeon |
| Editing: | Antti Haikala |
| Studio: | Anima Vitae Cinemaker A. Film A/S Ulysses Magma Films |
| Distributor: | Nordisk Film (Finland) Universum Film/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Germany (Germany)[1] |
| Country: | Finland Denmark Germany Ireland Estonia |
| Language: | Finnish |
| Released: | (Finland) 9 August 2013 (Japan) |
| Runtime: | 79 minutes |
| Budget: | 7,316,273 €[2] |
| Gross: | 1,384,148 €[3] |
Little Brother, Big Trouble: A Christmas Adventure (also known as Niko 2: Little Brother, Big Trouble, or simply Niko 2), is a 2012 animated comedy/adventure film, produced by Finnish studios Anima Vitae[4] and Cinemaker OY,[5] with co-producers Ulysses (Germany), A. Film (Denmark), and Tidal Films (Ireland). The animation was produced in Finland, Germany and Denmark, with post-production carried out in Ireland. It is the sequel to The Flight Before Christmas[6] and was written by Hannu Tuomainen[7] and Marteinn Thorisson, and directed by and . It was released in Finland on October 12, 2012.[8] Anima Vitae and Cinemaker OY were nominated for Cartoon Movie Tributes 2013[9] in the category “European Producer of the Year”. Like its predecessor, it is among the most expensive Finnish films ever produced.
The sequel takes places a couple of months after the events of the first film, and follows the story of Niko the reindeer. He must deal with his mother Oona getting remarried. He gains a stepbrother named Jonni, whom Niko hates at first. However, when Jonni gets kidnapped by eagles, Niko flies off to rescue him.
During his journey, Niko is joined by an old, near-blind reindeer named Tobias, who is revealed to be the former leader of Santa Claus's reindeer, Santa's Flying Forces. However, standing in Niko's way is also White Wolf, Black Wolf's younger sister, who is the leader of the eagles and wants revenge on Niko for her brother's death.
Now, Niko and the rest of the team must come up with a plan to save Jonni, defeat White Wolf and return home. At the end of the film, Oona is revealed to have given birth to an unnamed fawn and introduces Niko and Jonni to their new half-sister.
Little Brother, Big Trouble: A Christmas Adventure was shown at the Hamburg Film Festival[10] on 29 September 2012.
It was released in Finland on October 12, 2012. The film opened in 115 theatres and was seen by 150,889 viewers, grossing €1,384,148.[11]
It was released in Japan on August 9, 2013, after being shown at the Kinder Film Festival.
It entered into limited European distribution in November and December 2013 in Germany, Denmark, Poland, France, Iceland, Netherlands, Russia, Belgium, Estonia, and in Asia in Korea, Israel in March 2013.
Later in the fall of 2013 it was released in Croatia, Serbia, Turkey, Portugal, Hungary, and Sweden.
In 2014, the film was released in Kuwait, China, Spain (limited), and Peru.
The film was released in the U.S. via Grindstone and Netflix in October 2013.
It moved to new territories in late October 2013.[12] [13]
Little Brother, Big Trouble was released in Finland on DVD and Blu-ray on November 13, 2013.[14] It was released in the U.S. on October 29, 2013.[15]
Despite not having a rating as of yet in Rotten Tomatoes,[16] Little Brother, Big Trouble: A Christmas Adventure has received generally mixed to positive reviews. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) gave Little Brother, Big Trouble: A Christmas Adventure[17] a 5.9 rating out of 10. Collectively, reviewers on Amazon.com have given the film a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.[18] Reception for Niko 2 in Japan was quite strong and as a result it was awarded the Grand Prix of the best film in feature section in Tokyo Kinder Film Festival.[19]
The film's original score was composed by Stephen McKeon once again. The original score can be found for example in Spotify "Niko 2 – Little Brother, Big Trouble (Original Score)".[20]