Hooves of Fire

Coldchester is the town at the North Pole. Robbie the reindeer arrives in town trying to be the new navigator for Santa's sled like his father, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He's an out-of-shape slacker and only pursuing the job for the sake of his father. Blitzen is jealous of Rudolph and plans to secretly block Robbie from the team.

It's a half hour stop-motion animation TV special. I like Aardman, so this should be up my alley. The problem is that I don't care that much about Robbie. It makes this a somewhat unstable watch like that house. Still, I love my stop-motion animation and this is an inventive one.

I'm a huge fan of Robbie the Reindeer- and this is definitly the preferred version. CBS's American-ised re-dub of the voices is bland where the original sparkles with dry wit and humor. Robbie the Reindeer is the best Christmas special since the original Grinch, and everyone should get to see it at least once in their life.

What to watch on Christmas Eve just before the 7pm news bulletin? The programmer at the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) who scheduled this little gem of a film should be given a cigar, one hell of a raise and a promotion (to CEO of the network)!!

I cannot remember the last time I laughed so much in 30 minutes. A romp from go to whoa this film (incidentally named Robbie the Reindeer in Australia) follows the trials and tribulations of Robbie, son of Rudolph, trying to get a guernsey on the team leading the sleigh for Christmas. Robbie's secret weapon is, curiously enough, his nose, but not for the same reason his father was famous. Robbie can pin-point an exact location anywhere on the globe with his nose!! Double entrends, take-offs and a very, very slick script make this a highly enjoyable film. You'll like this film even more if you are a fan of "claymation" (think Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit et al).

I really enjoyed "Hooves of Fire", and thought the voices were an important part of the characters. With all due respect to the US cast, I agree with everyone who feels the "Americanized" version just isn't as good -- and I am an American. I was fortunate enough to see the original on Canadian TV. I have no explanation as to why some British programs get "dubbed into American". But I do I wonder if some US media and marketing people are just rather shallow, insecure, and naive about the rest of the planet, and assume everyone in America is as dumbed-down as they are. It's downright embarrassing at times. My apologies.

I saw a review of this DVD and I automatically became interested. I mean, how often does a show come out where Vixen asks Blitzen to " stroke her fire " .... this is definitley an awesome DVD to have in my ever growing ( and may I say freaking awesome ) DVD collection. I highly reccomend picking this bad boy up as you will really like it.