"Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" is a film I hadn't seen in forever, and I'm not even sure it comes on Cartoon Network, anymore. I saw it the day it premiered, and have always had a soft spot towards it, in my heart. It has so many great things about it, for the nostalgic taste of someone who actually cares about it, but it definitely has flaws I've only now picked-up on.
Essentially, this is a film that takes that hilarious, homey classic song and adds a story around it. It's not necessarily in need of existence, and yet I've always enjoyed it, no matter how much everyone I know hates it.
You have a family literally called the Spankenheimers (lmao), and there's a grandmother whom owns a store everyone in town seems to love. A businessman tries to purchase the store, but the grandmother is not interested in selling the old, charming place. Eventually, grandma gets cold-cocked by Santa and his reindeer, and they kidnap her from the yard of her own home, even though they claim they don't know where she lives. Again, though: they kidnapped her from the front yard lol. Santa and his team take grandma to the North Pole, and keep her for almost a year. The grandmother's grandson (grandson Spankenheimer lol) doesn't believe his grandmother is dead, and he tries his best to find her. And that's the story, pretty much. Very cooky. Very odd. Very silly. But lovable, quite frankly.
I personally think the voice acting is fine from almost everyone, except for Cousin Mel (a sellout within the Spank-Bank family tree). That actress can sometimes sound sadistic, and sometimes makes me laugh out loud about her line delivery-as if she didn't understand what she was supposed to be saying.
The music is quite a mess. The original song and title is very solid, and something heartwarming for me, since I grew-up on it. But, Good Lord, it spirals downhill with songs like "Grandpa's Gonna Sue The Pants Off Of Santa". That's a real song, and it goes on for almost five minutes. It's pretty rough stuff.
The animation is not very smooth. Sometimes, it feels like they hadn't drawn enough frames, and so they just slowed-down the footage they actually drew.
The coloring is absolutely vivid, however, and I feel it makes this special movie a lot more personable and cozy in my memories from when I was younger.
If you can't tell, I really love it, in an odd way, and probably always will. I really hope, if I'm blessed with children of my own, someday, that they'll enjoy this as much as I had, for so many years.
Surprisingly, I would call this a modern Christmas classic, even though it probably shouldn't exist.
