THE STAR ★½
(G) 86 minutes
If you think the modern holiday period is stressful, try getting ready for the first Christmas ever. How do you tell your partner you're due to give birth to the Son of God? The Virgin Mary (Gina Rodriguez) has to tread carefully when she raises the topic with Joseph (Zachary Levi): "I'm warning you, it might be a bit to take in."
![The film's hero is Bo, a bumbling donkey.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180204013449im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/z/u/y/9/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gzux1s.png/1512018331946.jpg)
This exchange occurs early in Timothy Reckart's The Star, a computer-animated retelling of the nativity story from the point of view of the animals gathered round the manger, in other words a Biblical variant on Ice Age (an opening caption tells us that the action kicks off "nine months B.C").
The hero is Bo (Steven Yeun), a bumbling donkey who is adopted by Mary and Joseph and ends up following them to Bethlehem, accompanied by sidekicks including Dave the wisecracking dove (Keegan Michael-Key) and Ruth (Aidy Bryant), a sheep with untapped leadership potential.
![How do you tell your partner you're due to give birth to the Son of God?](http://web.archive.org./web/20180204013449im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/z/u/y/9/u/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gzux1s.png/1512018331946.jpg)
This thin storyline is padded out with subplots that showcase a bizarrely star-studded voice cast. Tracy Morgan, Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey are bickering camels who serve as mounts for the trio of kings also on their way to Bethlehem; Christopher Plummer is the villainous King Herod, who gets wind of a prophecy about the coming messiah and sends his minions on the holy family's trail.
In theory, this oblique take on the greatest story ever told might generate controversy, as Monty Python's Life of Brian did long ago. But in practice there's no doubting the pious intentions of Reckart and his team, who have taken care to avoid anything that might offend.
This means the talented comics in the cast, such as Michael-Key and Bryant, have little scope for the irreverent ad-libs they might supply under other circumstances; and the specifically Christian content of the script isn't pushed beyond a universally acceptable message of forgiveness and goodwill.
On the same principle, specific references to Judaism are virtually absent and the dark-haired but freckle-faced Mary appears to belong to no particular ethnic group – while, as usual with this kind of family entertainment, both humans and animals are made to sound like 21st-century Americans contemplating a trip to the mall.
![The animation in The Star is personality-free.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180204013449im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/z/u/y/a/0/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gzux1s.png/1512018331946.jpg)
Done on a fraction of the budget available to a high-end studio such as Pixar, the animation is personality-free. Characters widen their eyes to express surprise, narrow them for anger; one of the main villains, a soldier who hides his face behind a helmet, is allowed no identity whatsoever. The backdrops are generally static and depopulated, even in the climactic scenes in Bethlehem, where every inn is supposedly booked out.
This gives the film a desolate quality that at moments becomes inadvertently affecting – as if the characters, even outdoors, were plodding through a series of unfurnished rooms. The alienation effect is reinforced by the overwhelming blandness of the soundtrack, which consists mainly of Christmas standards redone in "adult contemporary" style, including the weakest version imaginable of We Three Kings of Orient Are.