Watched: 11/30 and 12/1/2025
Format: Hallmark
Viewing: First for both
Director: AGOOC - Clare Niederpruem / CatCC - Lucie Guest
Sunday we decided to lean into the Hallmark Season with their big dollar movie, A Grand Ole Opry Christmas (2025) and Monday I was doing other things and we let play Christmas at the Catnip Cafe (2025). And it was s study in where Hallmark is going versus classic Hallmark formula and where we are in 2025.
A Grand Ole Opry Christmas was a sincere time-travel movie about a woman (Nikki Deloach) whose father was a 90's country star in a Brooks and Dunn model, but he threw in the towel and quit making music. A few years later he died, and she doesn't know why he quit making music. She, and her best friend (Kristoffer Paloha), are transported to the mid-90's via Christmas/ Grand Ole Opry magic to learn what happened.
Mean, Christmas at the Catnip Cafe is about a big city marketing exec (Erin Cahill) who inherits half of a cat cafe in small town upstate New York. The other half is owned by an overworked veterinarian (Paul Campbell). She wants to sell to buy a condo in LA. He wants to keep his cafe open. But they mutually wish to get to business time.
If the two movies have anything in common, they're part of Hallmark's push for branding movies via their stars. These actors, who you don't know, are wildly popular within Hallmark fan ranks. And there are even cameos by other actors. Cahill herself shows up as a tour guide in the AGOOC, and fan favorite and prior cat-movie-star Kimberly Sustad shows up in CatCC - pretty clearly playing some version of her character Merilee.
AGOOC is deeply sincere and has cameos from a wide range of country singers, past and present. And if I knew who any of them were, I'd be doing great (I am aware of Mickey Guyton thanks to the Thanksgiving Day Parade). But I know jack-all about country music that isn't Americana, like Emmylou Harris or Amanda Shires.
I actually thought this movie was... okay? Like, it had some clunkiness, but so do many movies you'd pay to watch. The time travel was shockingly tight, and they kind of nailed the 90's-country outfits. Nikki Deloach looks like Erin Gray which is not a complaint - but they need to do something with that. It is littered with recognizable faces like Sharon Lawrence (who should have just played present and past self as she looks the same as she always has), Brad Paisley wanders through, and it kinda-sorta is obviously the big-money movie for this year.
The plot is a would-be tear-jerker, and as Jamie pointed out, they couldn't really let people sit with their emotions in a Hallmark movie. No one is *wrecked* seeing their parent or grandparents again. And it is odd how little they want to explore of a Nashville from 30 years prior, or go check on themselves, etc... I would be slipping myself notes to buy Apple stock NOW.
CatCC is smaller, sillier, and the stakes what you expect in a Hallmark movie. Save a business with a horrible business model. Big city gal falls for small-town life and small-town man. There's Christmas activities every five minutes. No one ever goes to work despite insisting they have no time for anything.
But there are many cats, and if you like cats (sure! I like cats.), it's not all bad.
So, yeah, Hallmark is still definitely making the standard cookie-cutter movies, and they're now wildly streamlined. They aren't even bothering with stupid misunderstandings at the end. CatCC had a legit issue at the end, and then a very bad decision (but romance and cats!).
Meanwhile, thanks to what I take to be the roaring and universal success of A Biltmore Christmas, they're also doing Somewhere in Time movies a few times per Christmas. But this one was less about romance (why these two weren't together made no sense and they basically hand-wave that part of the film) and more about daughters who love their daddy. Very country music.
But they hadn't said anything at all about Mama. Or trains. Or trucks. Or prison. Or getting drunk.
I am sure there are Hallmark fans who hated AGOOC because it wasn't CatCC. And vice-versa.
But I guess the days of feeling like we know exactly what a Hallmark movie will be before it begins are kind of over. But they also know they have an audience of cat-ladies to make happy.
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