BACKGROUND
The festive season is a time when we see a wide array of Christmas films coming to theatres and our television screens.
This movie selection covers a range of genres and age groups. Given the Hallmark and Hallmark-style movies I’ve already watched this year – and there have been plenty – we could also say the film options vastly differ in quality too.
It would seem that Christmas movies are being pumped out at break-neck speed when you think of the number that come out at this time of year, seemingly with very few story constraints and very little budget. Any idea will do; it just needs to be festive enough.
With all that in mind, you might think that Disney Channel would simply follow in the footsteps of other production companies and be able to throw out at least one new DCOM every year themed to Christmas. But that has not been the case, with there actually being very few Christmas-specific Disney Channel movies, only five in total over the years.
Only two have been released in the 2020s so far. One in this decade was Christmas…Again? (2021), a story very much inspired by Groundhog Day (1993) but a surprisingly touching one nonetheless. At least from my point of view. Not everyone agreed.
The other was released in 2023 and was technically labelled a Disney Original Movie. This film was The Naughty Nine, a holiday heist movie perfectly suited for children. It saw two kids lead a group of other naughty children, each with their own talents, to steal back their presents that Santa didn’t bring them because they are all on the Naughty List.
Sadly, I didn’t much care for The Naughty Nine. I’ve always liked heist films but this movie was obviously not aimed at me. I didn’t particularly enjoy the overall story, and it didn’t make me feel very festive. But that’s ok, because it is certainly not the worst Christmas movie I’ve watched this year and not the only one I won’t be rewatching!
PLOT
The Naughty Nine begins in the Principal’s Office of a typical school. It is the day before Winter Break and yet the principal is dealing with a student in trouble. This student is Andy who always seems to be in trouble. Deep down, the principal knows Andy is not a bad kid, and after he turns on the tears, saying he can change, he is sent back to class. However, Andy has no intention of heading back to class, and with his friend, Dulce, they have a mini-heist planned for the end of the school term. Andy has already stolen the keys for the Confiscation Bin, the place where all confiscated items are sent before being given to charity at the end of term. Dulce and Andy prepare for the heist to begin.
First, they tamper with the film that is showing to all the students in the hall, changing it to a recording of the principal, making it seem like she has told everyone to leave school early. Andy and Dulce use this distraction to bag up all the items from the bin and put them on a cart to get them out of the building. The principal catches the two of them leaving the school grounds with a big bag of stuff. She looks into the bag and finds…cookies. Andy says they were meant for all the staff. The principal thanks Andy for his kindness and takes them away. It is revealed that Andy swapped out the bags just before seeing the principal and hid their one in a bin. The janitor has since picked up the bin and taken it outside to the dumpsters, allowing Andy and Dulce to retrieve it. Outside, Andy and Dulce charge kids to get their confiscated items back. One, tech whizz Lewis, worries that this might cause him to go on the Naughty List. Another, Albert, manages to get his slingshot back for free by using a fake innocent look. Andy and Dulce try to tell them that returning confiscated items back to their rightful owners is actually a good thing. The two discuss their most wanted gifts for Christmas, with Andy wanting a games console, and Dulce wanting a bow and arrow. They hope that Santa will give them these gifts on Christmas Day.
Back at home, Andy’s sister Laurel tells their parents that Andy got sent to the principal’s office today, hoping for him to be punished. Andy says that he was actually helping the principal, and his parents say no more about it. Laurel hates the fact Andy never gets in trouble, despite obviously doing such bad things, and she warns Andy that one day, all his naughtiness will blow up in his face. Later that night, Andy overhears his parents talking about one of his father’s colleagues, a pilot, who allegedly hit a reindeer whilst on one of his routes. This reinforces to Andy that Santa is on his way.
On Christmas Day, Andy gets plenty of presents from his parents, but doesn’t get anything from Santa. Laurel, however, has a secret gift, an official tracksuit for her gymnastics, that seemingly was from Santa. Andy asks his friend Dulce if she got a gift from Santa, and she says she got nothing from him either. They go over to meet with their friend Lewis, to get information about Santa’s Naughty List, to see if they might be on it. Lewis has handily written an algorithm in order to find all the naughty list kids across the globe; there are apparently over a million of them. Andy is horrified that Santa has so much control over these naughty kids’ happiness and decides they must go to the North Pole and retrieve their gifts themselves. Lewis knows the exact location of Santa’s Village so now they just need to assemble the perfect team to help enact the plan.
Firstly, Lewis, Andy, and Dulce head to the park, where they recruit their getaway driver, a reckless go-karter, Ha-Yoon, who is on the naughty list for this reason, and animal whisperer Rose who will be useful in getting the reindeers at the North Pole on side. She is on the naughty list for illegally releasing captive animals. Next, they’ll need a gymnast for a very specific stunt. Andy goes to his sister’s gymnastics club and attempts to recruit the mean, snooty top gymnast Bethany, Laurel’s rival at the club. After some persuasion, and her desperation to get the top-of-the-range phone she wanted, she agrees to a meeting. They also find Jon Anthony, a young fashion designer who owns his own store selling his own original designs, who will create the elf disguises they’ll need to blend in at the North Pole. The fake innocent kid from earlier, Albert, is also added to the squad.
The group meet up at Andy’s house, in the basement, for a top-secret meeting to discuss the mission. A whole model of Santa’s village has been created to plan out the exact stages to the plan. At the location, Lewis will be tasked with shutting down the security cameras. The gymnast’s task is to flip over a large icy chasm to release the bridge from a centre platform to get over to the present vault. Bethany isn’t overly enthusiastic about joining a group of little kids, but she thinks the stunt will be simple enough. Laurel overhears this meeting taking place and tries to get her parents to catch Andy in the act of planning something naughty – but when they get down to the basement, Andy has already planned the perfect cover for this meeting: Recycling Club. His parents and Laurel leave. Andy then gives all the kids files with their alibis written inside. Each one will be at a different sleepover, with Dulce taking calls from the parents to make it seem these sleepovers are legitimate.
Now all they need is transportation to the North Pole. Andy goes with his father to work at the airport, where his father works as the cargo manager. Andy sneaks into the pilot’s lounge and finds Bruno, the pilot who saw a reindeer on one of his flights. Bruno is currently off duties for now, awaiting a psychiatric assessment. Andy tells him about their plan to steal from the North Pole and Bruno agrees to fly them all there, in the hopes of finding evidence that will prove to his colleagues that he is not crazy! But that’s not all because Bethany just dropped out of “The Naughty Nine” as her parents bought her the phone she wanted. Andy knows his best alternative is his goodie-goodie sister Laurel. Knowing she won’t agree to helping them because it is “bad”, he tells Laurel that Bethany doesn’t think she could’ve done the difficult stunt anyway, making Laurel join the group in an effort to prove she is just as good a gymnast as Bethany. Now they have a team.
On the day of the heist, the whole group board the plane with Bruno and they take off for the North Pole. En route, Jon Anthony has a crisis of confidence about his elf costumes as he admits he has never designed his own clothes before, instead just copying others and passing them off as his own – which is fraud, and the reason Jon Anthony is on the Naughty List. He is convinced to finish the costumes and the group actually really like his take on elf fashion. Bruno invites all the kids to look at the Northern Lights through the cockpit window, showing they are close to the North Pole, but an announcement comes over the radio saying they are flying into restricted airspace. Andy tells Bruno to lie about having a mechanical failure, but Bruno is a terrible liar and almost messes up the plan. Dulce grabs a part of the aeroplane and breaks it off, making them actually need an emergency landing at the North Pole! All the kids hide as officials board the plane and ask Bruno what he is doing here. Bruno shows them the broken piece and they say mechanics can fix this for him, telling Bruno to stay put. The kids then disembark the plane. They have two hours.
All eight children head off to Santa’s Village. Albert is told to go on alone to a security cabin and pretend to be lost. He is taken in by the security elf there. Lewis is sent to the control room to deal with the cameras, whilst Rose and Ha-Yoon head to the reindeer stables to make a getaway vehicle. The other four, Andy, Dulce, Laurel, and Jon Anthony, walk in the direction of Santa’s Workshop, coming across a party in full swing. After initially seeming suspicious of their strange outfits, Andy manages to blag their way into the party, and they are welcomed in by the elves. Andy quickly finds the door to Santa’s Workshop, but discovers that the other three are too distracted to notice. He is unable to get their attention when he is forced into dancing in a conga line!
Meanwhile, after some misunderstandings between Ha-Yoon and a reindeer, which Rose has to diffuse, the two manage to find a sleigh and have the reindeer lead it. Lewis has had some problems at the control tower as an elf interrupts his work and he must hide. The elf does not move, leaving Lewis trapped and unable to shut down the cameras.
Back at the party, Andy manages to grab the other three and they head through the door to Santa’s Workshop. After climbing what seems to be hundreds of stairs, they finally make their way to a rooftop – but they find that Lewis has not shut off the cameras! They start throwing snowballs to try and detach the camera. Dulce succeeds at doing this. They continue on to Santa’s Workshop. Inside, they see all their names on the official Naughty List and continue to the vault. They come across an icy tunnel and the huge chasm that Laurel must cross. Laurel initially prepares herself to do the huge stunt, however, she doesn’t think she can do it, and tearfully tells Andy she has failed his plan. Andy says they can always find another way in. As the others turn to go back to Santa’s Workshop, Laurel finds some inner motivation and proceeds to do the complicated trick. She succeeds and lands in the centre platform, releasing the bridge so the other three can cross over.
In the middle of this platform is some sort of coded lock. Dulce recognises the symbols on this lock as being birds. She starts to sing “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and one symbol lights up. It quickly turns off as the others discuss this. They think that if they sing the song in full, they’ll be able to enter the vault, so they do just that. After singing the whole song, the vault opens and the four go inside, taking their presents out of the vault. However, we see that Laurel has succumbed to the dark side and has taken Bethany’s phone that still sits in the vault. They then hear the security alarm going off. Ha-Yoon and Rose set off in their sleigh to pick up the others, and Lewis runs out of the control room. Albert leaves the security cabin too. As Andy, Laurel, Jon Anthony, and Dulce run through Santa’s Village, pursued by security, they are picked up by the girls in the sleigh. Lewis finds himself inside an inflatable ornament and runs through the village. Dulce uses her bow and arrow gift to deflate a large inflatable onto security, giving them some time, although they find themselves at a dead end. Lewis then rolls into the Santa statue at the village, which collapses onto the security guards. The others pick up Lewis and Albert at this point and head back to the plane. On the way, Andy sees that Laurel picked up Bethany’s phone as a “reward” and starts to wonder if what they’ve just done was right at all.
They see the plane heading down the runway without them. Bruno’s plane was fixed quicker than expected and the officials told him to leave immediately so he was unable to wait. Bruno opens up the cargo door and Ha-Yoon speeds up the sleigh so they can all jump into the cargo hold from the sleigh. Each one does this, until it gets down to Ha-Yoon and Andy. Andy takes over the driving of the sleigh, and tells her to jump in. He then stops the sleigh and allows himself to be caught with the gifts as the plane takes off.
On board, the others feel like Andy has betrayed them, but Dulce says that is not the case, and that as her best friend, she cannot leave him behind. Andy is taken to Santa, who shows Andy that he and his seven friends are all on the Naughty List still. Andy pleads with Santa to put all the blame on him as it was his idea. Santa agrees to take some names off the list, but he leaves Andy and Laurel’s names there, due to the fact Laurel stole the phone that wasn’t even meant for her. Andy says he can get the phone back, so Laurel’s name can be removed from the Naughty List. The others, who came back for Andy, are then brought in to see Santa as well. Andy apologises to Laurel for turning her bad like him. Laurel apologises to Santa and returns the phone. Santa then gives them all a message: that they must earn the right to be on the Good List, and that if they can promise they will try and be good from now on, then he will remove their names from the Naughty List. They agree to do this. Bruno, being an adult, was never in danger of being on the Naughty List as it does not apply to him, but came back to help Andy with the others anyway. He asks Santa for a selfie as evidence that he wasn’t going crazy when he saw that reindeer!
They all return to their homes, where Dulce is surprised to find that her large family actually noticed she was gone. Andy comes clean to his parents about everything he did, but they don’t believe him. Him and Laurel decide to get along from now on too.
One year later, we are back at school with Andy and Dulce on the day before Winter Break again, where they appear to have turned a corner and are no longer “naughty”. However, Andy is called into the Principal’s Office yet again. He tries to say he hasn’t done anything wrong, when he discovers it is actually Santa in the principal’s chair. Santa says he needs Andy’s help urgently with a problem.
CHARACTERS & CAST
Andy is the ringleader of the Naughty Nine, and the one with all the plans. He doesn’t like that fact that Santa has taken away gifts from him and his friends, and wants to settle the score by stealing back his much-longed for games console, enlisting the help of seven other children – and one adult – to do this. Eventually, after their getaway goes wrong and he sees his sister acting naughty like him, by stealing that phone, Andy realises the error of his ways and admits what he planned to Santa, so he can protect his friends and his sister. Santa knows that sometimes kids make mistakes and won’t always make the right choices, with Andy promising that he will try and be good from that point on, so this doesn’t happen again. Winslow Fegley was cast as Andy in The Naughty Nine. For Disney, he has previously been cast as Timmy Failure in the Disney+ film Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (2020) and appeared as Mel in the Disney Channel series Fast Layne (2019). Outside of that, Fegley played Young Jake Doyle in the HBO Max movie 8-Bit Christmas (2021) before starring as Josh Primm in Lyle, Lyle Crocodile (2022) with Javier Bardem.
Dulce is Andy’s best friend and second-in-command, so she is always willing to join Andy on his crazy schemes. She is very loyal to her friend, and even convinces the others that they have to go back to rescue Andy after he gives himself in to the North Pole security, because he was actually trying to protect them. Dulce is from a large family, and feels ignored most of the time, so that is probably why she has such a close friendship with Andy, because they are always there for each other. Dulce was played by Camilla Rodriguez. She played Angela del Toro in Daredevil: Born Again (2025-present).
Following on from that, we have Lewis, the IT expert in the group. Lewis actually kicks off this heist plan by showing Andy and Dulce his algorithm for finding those on the Naughty List and for discovering the exact location of Santa’s Village. His algorithm and data gathered from that is later used to find contenders to join The Naughty Nine team. Lewis’ task at the North Pole is to turn off the security cameras, something he does not succeed in doing. Being useful for one half of the plan isn’t bad, I suppose! Anthony Joo was cast as Lewis. He played Hudson Frickley on The Really Loud House (2022-24).
Jon Anthony is recruited to The Naughty Nine for his costume-making skills, as Jon Anthony is believed to be a fashion designer. His costumes are required so that they can be dressed as elves and blend in at the North Pole. It later turns out that Jon Anthony is on the Naughty List for fraudulently copying and then selling other designers’ work to the public, meaning he has no confidence in his own designing abilities. Once he sees the reaction to his elf costumes from the others though, he starts to believe he might actually be a great designer one day. Jon Anthony’s gift from Santa was meant to be a fancy sewing machine, which he retrieves from the vault. Jon Anthony was played by Deric McCabe, who had previously been cast as Charles Wallace Murry in Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time (2018). McCabe went on to play Wesley Witherspoon in Apple TV’s Home Before Dark (2020-21).
Albert is the youngest of the group and he uses his angelic face to get away with things, like getting his slingshot back from the confiscated items for free, and distracting the elf at the North Pole. He doesn’t actually have to do much in the heist, other than eat cookies and sit by the fire in the elf cabin, occasionally telling the elf not to call security, which must’ve been much less stressful than what the others were going through. Ayden Elijah was cast as Albert. He voiced AJ in Nickelodeon’s Blaze and the Monster Machines (2014-25).
Then we have the two members of the getaway team. Rose can communicate with animals, making her the ideal person to be able to convince a reindeer to lead their getaway sleigh. Rose is on the Naughty List for freeing animals in captivity, which doesn’t sound so bad in the grand scheme of things; she’s trying to do good after all, just not necessarily in the right way. Clare Stack was cast as Rose. Stack is currently appearing as Lilly Bainbridge in the HBO horror series, and a prequel to IT (2017), IT: Welcome to Derry (2025-present).
Ha-Yoon is in The Naughty Nine taskforce because of her insane racing abilities. They need someone who will drive fast and recklessly for when they have to get out of the North Pole fast. Luckily, Ha-Yoon doesn’t let them down by making some risky manoeuvres and outsmarting security. Ha-Yoon was played by Imogen Cohen, who played Zina Zacarias in the Paramount+ live-action series The Fairy OddParents: Fairly Odder (2022).
Finally, for the kids, we have the two gymnasts. Andy’s initial pick for his team is Bethany, Laurel’s rival in gymnastics, due to the fact she is already on the Naughty List for her conceited behaviour, and would want to join The Naughty Nine just to get the gift she wanted, which was a new phone. She later decides against joining the heist as her parents got her the phone she wanted. Talk about selfish! Liyou Abere was cast as Bethany, having previously appeared as Jamie in the Netflix series Locke & Key (2020-22) and as Janine in Amazon Prime’s The Boys (2019-present). Abere currently voices Lyla in the PBS Kids’ series Lyla in the Loop (2024-present).
Instead, Andy turns to his sister, Laurel, who is not someone who would normally break the rules. She only agrees to go along so she can beat Bethany at something, but she actually ends up liking the thrill of the heist, and in a moment of madness, takes Bethany’s phone from the vault, apparently as some sort of reward. She eventually comes to her senses after Andy is caught by the elves and taken to Santa, apologising for what came over her. Andy and Laurel end the movie with a much better brother-sister relationship than they had at the start of the film, where Laurel is trying to get her parents to see how much of a bad kid Andy is – kind of like how Candace is with Phineas and Ferb in the series Phineas and Ferb (2007-15, 2025-present). Madilyn Kellam was cast as Laurel. Prior to The Naughty Nine, Kellam had played Cindy in the Netflix sequel Full Out 2: You Got This! (2020).
For the adults, firstly, we have the only adult member of The Naughty Nine, Bruno. He is just the pilot who flies them all to the North Pole because apparently there were no kid pilots available – or Disney didn’t feel it was appropriate to show kids illegally flying planes. Since Bruno can’t be on the Naughty List as an adult, his motivation for joining is to prove that Santa is real after being mocked for apparently seeing a reindeer in the sky on one of his flights, with his job even being at risk for it. Bruno gets his proof though, by getting a selfie with Santa at the end of the film, just before they head home. Bruno was played by Derek Theler, best known for starring as Danny Wheeler in the Freeform series Baby Daddy (2012-17), alongside former Disney Channel stars Tahj Mowry, Jean-Luc Bilodeau and Chelsea Kane. More recently, Theler was cast as Blue Granite in the Disney Channel series The Villains of Valley View (2022-23).
Now, most Christmas films need a Santa Claus, at least those that take place at the North Pole. So, for The Naughty Nine, they got quite a surprise casting, by having Danny Glover play Santa. But Glover’s Santa is not the jolly, happy Santa we’d normally see. Here, Santa is very disappointed in The Naughty Nine, or eight since adults don’t come under his judgement, and he guilt trips the kids into trying to be good, by threatening them with the Naughty List. He seems quite strict, or just annoyed that he is having to waste his downtime disciplining more kids who seem to think getting on the Good List is some sort of right. Kids are just so entitled these days! Anyway, Santa ends up needing Andy’s deviousness by the end of the film, going to him for help with a problem we don’t know about.
Danny Glover is well-known for his role as Sergeant Robert Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise. He was later cast as Justice Thurgood Marshall in HBO’s Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fright (2013). More recently, Glover was part of the all-star cast, including names like Joan Cusack and Dermot Mulroney, who were cast in the Hallmark movie The Christmas Train (2017); Glover played Max Powers. This shows that The Naughty Nine was not his first television Christmas movie. This was also not the first time he had starred in a movie aimed at children either, as he voiced Jethro in DreamWorks Animation’s The Prince of Egypt (1998). Glover also played Milo Walker in Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), where Danny DeVito was also a new character for this sequel.
There is one other member of the cast that I’d like to mention, despite not being a main role, just because they looked familiar and now I know why. The Security Guard Elf in the cabin, who helps Albert by letting him stay in their cabin until they can find his parents, not realising this was actually just a distraction so The Naughty Nine could rob Santa, was played by Ci Hang Ma. Ci Hang Ma played Quinn, one of the marching band spirits, from Season 2 of the Paramount+ series School Spirits (2023-present).
PRODUCTION
The Naughty Nine was first confirmed to be in the works by Disney in February 2022.
At the same time, a sequel to Under Wraps, the 2021 remake of the first official Disney Channel Original Movie from 1997, was also announced. Under Wraps 2 came to Disney Channel in September 2022.
When discussing more details about the movie, The Naughty Nine was labelled a holiday heist movie, where Disney called it Ocean’s 11 at the North Pole. In this press release, a brief plot description was given, along with the name of the director and writers[1].
The director for The Naughty Nine was Alberto Belli. Before The Naughty Nine, Belli had directed the horror-comedy film Gatlopp (2022), which starred Emmy Raver-Lampman from Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy (2019-24) and Jon Bass from the anthology series Miracle Workers (2019-23). Belli has since directed Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado (2025), a live-action movie based on Dora the Explorer, for Paramount+ and Nickelodeon.
The writers of The Naughty Nine were Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas, who already had some experience of working for Disney, Disney Channel specifically. Together, the duo developed, and wrote several episodes of, Raven’s Home (2017-23) for the channel, this being a spin-off of the very popular series That’s So Raven (2003-07). They also created the series Best Friends Whenever (2015-16) prior to that, and have more recently developed the sequel series to Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-12), titled Wizards Beyond Waverly Place (2024-present). This duo were therefore well-placed to write this Disney movie.
The Naughty Nine was filmed in Quebec, Canada, more exactly in and around the city of Montreal. The movie is said to have filmed some of its scenes in the Pointe-Claire area of Montreal. Many other Disney Channel movies have been filmed in Canada, including some films within their successful musical franchises Descendants, Camp Rock, and ZOMBIES. Shooting took around three months, going from February to April 2022. After the shoot was over and production had left the area, there were some complaints from the local residents of Pointe-Claire about the mess they’d made from all their productions vehicles. An area of green space was covered with gravel to use as a parking lot during filming and residents were not happy that this gravel was seemingly going to be left. The production company, Poutine, said they would repair the area during the spring. It made these residents very hesitant to allow any more filming to take place here in the future[2].
Despite filming taking place so early in 2022, a 2022 release date was not possible due to the amount of post-production required. As they had filmed The Naughty Nine whilst some of the world was still dealing with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, there had been a significant delay with the FX team involved, with their requirement necessary for this film. Since The Naughty Nine is Christmas-themed, this meant the release date of the movie had to wait until the next festive season rolled around in 2023.
Despite the need for some special effects, such as the CGI reindeer and the background at the North Pole, proven by the fact the getaway sleigh sequence was actually filmed in a studio in front of a blue screen – it couldn’t be a green screen as the cast’s costumes were green, the director Belli has stressed in interviews that around 70% of the film uses practical effects and real sets[3]. The Santa’s Village set, for example, was viewed as being very impressive by many audience members, due to its vast size and detail. The ice cavern with the vault entrance was also a real set that was built. The team working on The Naughty Nine enjoyed designing their own version of the North Pole for this film[4].
It was said to be extremely cold at the time the cast and crew were shooting, with this being made worse by the number of nighttime shoots there were. Still, the cast of mostly kids kept their spirits up during this time, by building snow forts in the snow, and Winslow Fegley building his own igloo, which later became an icy slide for the cast as it started melting. They also spent time together in the lobby of their hotel playing games and cards during their downtime, where they grew close as a group[5].
The costumes on The Naughty Nine were designed by Julia Caston, who had previously worked on such screen projects as A Bad Moms Christmas (2017) and the ABC sitcom The Middle (2009-18). Just a year after The Naughty Nine came out, Caston was the costume designer for another Disney Channel movie, Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024). Caston enjoyed designing the elf costumes for the kids. They had to be quite stereotypical, as this was what the children all believed elves to look like, so the costumes are primarily red and green, but they also had to suit each character’s specific skill. For example, Ha-Yoon’s costume looks similar to a racing suit, Andy is wearing a hoodie to suit his casual, no-fuss leadership style, and Laurel has a gymnastics leotard on underneath a thick fit and flare coat. Caston then had the opportunity to reinvent the typical elf look that we see all the time, to contrast the costumes that the children are wearing. These real elves of the North Pole wear a variety of colours and although their outfits are uniform in style, they are embellished with accessories. Santa also had to have a slightly different look for The Naughty Nine, because the events take place after Christmas, so during Santa’s vacation. In this case, they kept the classic red coat and hat, but you can see he is wearing loose fighting trousers and a white jumper, instead of the buttoned-up coat and matching red trousers[6].
MUSIC
The composer on The Naughty Nine was Kenny Wood, who has collaborated with director Belli on some of his other projects, by working on the music for Gatlopp and Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado. Wood has also worked as a musical arranger on films like F9 (2021) and Despicable Me 3 (2017), as well as on the CBS series Magnum P.I. (2018-22, 2023-24).
When asked about his inspiration for the music on The Naughty Nine, Wood said he was inspired by magical family Christmas movies like Home Alone (1990) and The Polar Express (2004), whilst also mixing in spy/heist music to complement the film’s genre[7]. You can hear this blend of themes in the opening and end titles of The Naughty Nine and during the scene where the children see Santa’s Village at the North Pole for the first time. Kenny Wood was nominated for The David Raskin Award for Emerging Talent at the Society of Composers and Lyricists Award in 2024 for his work on The Naughty Nine. The award was actually won by Catherine Joy and her work on the documentary Home is a Hotel (2023).
Alongside the score are a selection of songs that also feature within the music of The Naughty Nine. In movie order, whilst Andy and Laurel are opening their presents on Christmas morning, a jazzy version of “Jingle Bells” is playing. “Jingle Bells” was originally written by James Lord Pierpoint, but this rendition seems to have been performed by The Whispering Pines Holiday Orchestra. Following that, in Jon Anthony’s store, just before he gets recruited into The Naughty Nine, there is a song playing as background music. It is “Christmas Every Day” by the group Sweet Sundays.
At the North Pole in Santa’s Village, there is more music. At the security elf’s cabin, a piece of music is playing on the gramophone but we only hear it briefly, all I can say is that it seems to be some sort of take on “Jingle Bells”. Later, we return to this cabin and another song is playing. I didn’t know what this song was, but it seems to be “Hej tomtegubbar”, a traditional Swedish song that children sing at Christmastime. It is also used as a drinking song nowadays. Another song is also playing in this cabin later on and it is a version of “Silent Night”, but I’m unsure what language it is. According to the website I found much of this soundtrack information on, What-Song.com, it seems to be French.
At the elf party, there is even more music. As Andy, Dulce, Laurel, and Jon Anthony step into this party, the song “Holla for the Holidays” performed by Wizardz of Oz is playing – until the elves abruptly halt the party to check who these intruders are. This song was actually used in a routine that appeared on the Season 3 Christmas episode of Dance Moms (2011-19), performed by Abby Lee Dance Company’s biggest rivals, the Candy Apples. The party soon restarts and the song playing seems to be “Christmas Time of Year”, written by Dave Feldstein. A third song is heard at this party and it is “Share My Christmas with You”, from SATV Music, written by John Ross and Natalie Williams. There is also a Spanish song that Dulce sings with some other elves, but I do not know what this song is. A fourth party song also plays briefly, I also don’t know what that is, before the conga begins. This “Conga” was written and performed by Kenny Wood and is the only credited song here. I think this song is also used in the End Credits.
You can also hear “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, sung by the cast, within this film, as this is the way they open the vault, by singing this song in its entirety – but don’t worry, we don’t have to hear all of it; that song is way too long! “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was written by English composer Frederic Austin[8]. There is one other song playing towards the end of the film, as we move forward one year and Andy is called to the Principal’s Office again. This song is “Are You Ready for Christmas?”, by Karl Karlsson and Krissie Karlsson.
RECEPTION
The Naughty Nine first came to screens in November 2023.
After the teaser trailer was released on 28th September 2023, Disney Branded Television announced the release dates for The Naughty Nine, as it would air on Disney Channel in the US and later come to Disney+ for international audiences to enjoy. It was decided that it would premiere on Wednesday 22nd November 2023 on Disney Channel, before coming to Disney+ on 23rd November 2023, which happened to be Thanksgiving Day that year[9]. The official trailer seems to have been released on 27th October 2023.
Now that Disney Channel doesn’t exist in most countries, as they were shut down, with the majority of the content being available on their global streaming platform, Disney+, this is the way most Disney Channel Original Movies are being released, although in some cases, the gap between the Disney Channel and Disney+ premieres have been much larger.
The Naughty Nine received mixed reviews, as many Disney Channel-type movies tend to have. On the positive side, The Naughty Nine was compared to lots of different films, such as the children’s action movie franchise Spy Kids, and theOcean’s franchise. This film also reminded me of The Polar Express at times, specifically when the kids are secretly trying to get through Santa’s Workshop because there is a similar sequence in The Polar Express. The sets and costume design were also considered to be impressive, especially for a smaller, television movie, and many felt it was entertaining. Some preferred it to the other recent Disney Channel Christmas movie Christmas…Again?!, although I did not. The Naughty Nine was seen to be a fun, family-friendly film to watch over the festive season.
But this opinion was not shared by all viewers. Many felt The Naughty Nine showed a lack of real consequences for the children, despite their bad behaviour, and due to the number of characters in this film, many of which would be counted as main characters, there wasn’t much opportunity to give the characters their own backstories or any real depth, which led to some being boring and others being underused. Others also said The Naughty Nine didn’t feel particularly Christmassy, which I can agree with, although that doesn’t necessarily make it bad. Sometimes the standard Christmas movie events, like decorating, baking cookies, and family feuds can feel very overdone, so at least The Naughty Nine did not have that. There were comments that Danny Glover’s Santa was not kind enough to be Santa Claus. I can only assume the filmmakers wanted to take Santa in a different direction, and by making him strict and authoritative that might be the only way for The Naughty Nine to understand that what they were doing – trespassing and stealing – was very wrong. If the children had been younger, this type of Santa probably wouldn’t have worked, but these kids were older and could take the criticism.
There was one other very specific criticism of The Naughty Nine that irked some viewers, mostly parents, that I did read in various reviews online. This was around some “flirtatious” language used by the character of Jon Anthony. When we are first introduced to the character, Jon Anthony calls a slightly older male buyer a “hottie”. This upset some more conservative audience members, who felt this was an inappropriate comment to be coming from a child. Others didn’t feel this comment was so bad, likening it to teenagers having crushes on older celebrities. This all comes down to personal preference and what we individually consider to be appropriate in a family-aimed film. I personally didn’t even notice this line, only hearing Jon Anthony later call Andy “cute”, but that didn’t bother me. It was also a very minor line that didn’t add anything to the plot, or add much to the character, so you could argue for and against it; that it was a throwaway comment that didn’t need to be considered, or that because it wasn’t needed, the line could’ve been removed from the film[10].
Viewing figures for The Naughty Nine have not been made available from its Disney+ release, nor has Disney Channel confirmed its data from the premiere night, so it is unclear how well the film did from that aspect. But The Naughty Nine went on to be nominated for four Children’s and Family Emmy Awards, along with a large number of other Disney content. These nominations were in the categories of Outstanding Fiction Special; Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Live Action Program; and Visual and Special Effects. In the first category, it lost out to Apple TV+’s The Velveteen Rabbit (2023) and for the other two, it lost to the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2023-present). The Naughty Nine was also nominated for Best Sound Editing – Movies For Television & Mini-Series at the Directors Guild of Canada Awards, but the winner was the Showtime miniseries Fellow Travelers (2023) and its episode “White Nights”.
LEGACY
Disney Channel don’t have much of a reputation for making Christmas or festive-themed movies each year, and The Naughty Nine did nothing to change that.
Despite the fact Christmas…Again?! in 2021 was followed by The Naughty Nine in 2023 and seemed to be suggesting that Disney Channel were perhaps going to be producing more of these types of movies in the years to come, especially given the ease that new content can be released via Disney+, there have been no more Disney Original Movies announced for the holiday season in the last couple of years. In fact, the only movies they’ve confirmed so far are sequels to already established Disney Channel musical franchises.
However, The Naughty Nine ends on a cliff hanger, with Santa asking Andy for his help, and the matter seems to be quite urgent. No sequel to The Naughty Nine has been confirmed, despite the fact this ending was clearly meant to be building up to one. This annoyed some fans who said there is no point in setting up a sequel if there is no confirmation that one is going to happen. This is the same critique that was levelled at Secret Society of Second-Born Royals (2020), another Disney+ movie that had a cliff hanger ending leading up to a sequel that has not come to fruition.
The director of The Naughty Nine stated that he would like to make a sequel, shortly after The Naughty Nine was released, but Disney don’t seem to be making any moves to greenlight a sequel[11]. I think something would’ve been announced by now if they had plans to. It would seem that The Naughty Nine did not do as well as expected.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Naughty Nine was a different kind of Christmas film for Disney, although with other festive heist movies coming out in recent years, like Netflix’s The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star (2021) and Jingle Bell Heist (2025), maybe it wasn’t so different after all.
Still, the intent was there to try something new. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to have worked out that well for The Naughty Nine and that possible sequel that they teased at the end of the film does not seem to be coming.
So, where does this leave Disney Channel and their festive content now? I can only assume there will be another Christmas film from them someday, but who knows when!
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Alexandra Del Rosario, ‘Disney Orders ‘Under Wraps’ Sequel & ‘The Naughty Nine’ Original Movies For Disney+, Disney Channel’, Deadline.com, 7th February 2022.
[2] Credit: John Meagher, ‘Disney movie shoot leaves Pointe-Claire neighbourhood stoney’, MontrealGazette.com, 20th March 2022.
[3] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘Behind the Scenes of Disney’s The Naughty Nine I NEW Disney Christmas Movie’, Disney Channel YouTube Channel, 24th November 2023.
[4] Credit: Roger Palmer, ‘Behind Disney+’s “The Naughty Nine” Newest Christmas Heist Movie With Director and Composer I Exclusive Interview’, WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com, 21st December 2023.
[5] Credit: Just Jared Jr, ‘‘The Naughty Nine’ Cast Dish On What Went On Behind-the-Scenes While Filming the New Disney Holiday Movie (Exclusive)’, JustJaredJr.com, 22nd November 2023.
[6] Credit: Spencer Williams, ‘Unwrapping ‘The Naughty Nine’: Behind the Costumes with Julia Caston’, TheArtOfCostume.com, 2023.
[7] Credit: Roger Palmer, ‘Behind Disney+’s “The Naughty Nine” Newest Christmas Heist Movie With Director and Composer I Exclusive Interview’, WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com, 21st December 2023.
[8] Credit: What Song, ‘The Naughty Nine Soundtrack’, What-Song.com, no date.
[9] Credit: Disney, ‘Disney Original Movie ‘The Naughty Nine’ To Premiere Wednesday, Nov. 22, On Disney Channel And Thursday, Nov. 23 – Thanksgiving Day – On Disney+’, DetPress,com, 28th September 2023.
[10] Credit: Zach Gass, ‘Disney Accused of “Sexualising Kids” in ‘The Naughty Nine’’, InsidetheMagic.net, 23rd December 2023.
[11] Credit: Roger Palmer, ‘Behind Disney+’s, “The Naughty Nine” Newest Christmas Heist Movie With Director and Composer I Exclusive Interview’, WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com, 21st December 2023.
The Disney Purist 