Featured DVD Review: Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever

December 15, 2014

Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever - Buy from Amazon: DVD

Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever is a Lifetime channel movie, a Christmas movie, and a movie based on a web series. ... That's a lot of knocks against it. On the other hand, it has Aubrey Plaza providing the voice for the titular cat, so it can't be all bad, right?

The Movie

The film begins with Grumpy Cat telling us that this movie will be a sappy Christmas story and won't have car chases, explosions, or super heroes. Grumpy Cat lives in Whiskers, a pet store in the mall. She loves living there, but is horrified to learn the store owner is behind on the rent and they all might be evicted. The store owner's idea to make enough money to pay the rent is to turn Grumpy Cat into an internet sensation, but Grumpy Cat nixes that idea, so instead the store owner has JoJo the dog, who is an expressive breed and worth $1 million. The store is saved!

That won't matter for long, as we meet Chrystal, who is the friendliest person ever. She knows everyone in the mall, but despite this, she still hasn't made any friends in her new school. Her mom works in one of the restaurants in the mall, while she's helping out at the pet store, which is how she knows everyone. On her way to work, she runs into some of the mean girls at school and while recovering from that, she meets a mall Santa. He gives her a magic wishing coin. She wishes for a friend. When she gets to work, she can suddenly hear Grumpy Cat talk. At first she thinks it's just a trick a co-worker is playing on her. She quickly realizes it is real and figured out it was due to the wishing coin.

That night while she is supposed to be at a Christmas party with her mother, Chrystal sneaks into the pet store to talk to Grumpy Cat. While the two talk, two men break into the mall with the intention of stealing Jojo. Chrystal manages to hide, but the two men walk out with Jojo. Knowing the pet store will shut down without Jojo, Chrystal wants to help get him back. Grumpy Cat, on the other hand, doesn't really care, but is forced to go wherever Chrystal carries her.

That's enough of the plot. So how's the movie? Well... it's a Lifetime Channel movie, so in that regard, it's not bad. It's certainly not good and the budget / rushed nature of the film are evident. It doesn't look like a theatrical release. Then again, it doesn't look as bad as some direct-to-DVD releases are either. The writing is mixed, as the plot is derivative and the villains are cartoonish. On the plus side, Aubrey Plaza was clearly the best part of the movie and Megan Charpentier was much better than a film like this really deserves.

That said, if you can't stand Grumpy Cat, then I don't think this film is for you. However, if you know someone who does and they want to watch Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever on Christmas Day, it won't be the worst thing to happen.

The Extras

There are three featurettes on the DVD, but in total they are less than five minutes long. Then longest of these shows Aubrey Plaza trying to get into character.

The Verdict

Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever is a novelty movie. By all rights, it should be terrible. However, thanks to the two leads it is watchable and I'm sure there will be some who will want to watch it every year... for a little while at least. The DVD has nearly no extras, but it is only $9 on Amazon.com.


- Submitted by:

Filed under: Video Review, Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever, Aubrey Plaza, Megan Charpentier