First off, it would seem that some of you are enjoying/praising the movies I'm listing here. That's cool. As I said, nothing in this section is meant to be taken seriously and it's all good Christmas fun. If you love "Polar Express" or "Black Christmas", and think I'm being unfair on them then great: enjoy them. I don't expect everyone to agree with me. But please allow me to have my own opinions, if only, as we say here, for the craic.
As an old ad for Kit Kat used to have it: just enjoy it!
And now, without further ado, another of the
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer: the movie (1998)
As if the tale of the Ugly Duckling wasn’t enough to show that prejudice exists even in the animal kingdom, we’ve had the story of Rudolph to sing along to now for more decades than I care to remember. This however is not the charming Burl Ives vehicle from 1964, but a sickly-sweet, formulaic, cloying and embarrassingly trite tale of redemption for one plucky reindeer. Yeah it’s for kids but come on: even tots are going to be rolling their eyes at this and wishing Prancer, Dancer (gay or what?) Blitzen and all the other ‘deer would just take ol’ Red-Nose “out back” and teach him a few home truths about life at the North Pole! The plot, such as it is, from our friends at IMDB:
Young Rudolph suffers a childhood accident that sees his nose turn from the publicly accepted norm of black to a glowing red colour. His parents worry about him getting teased, and indeed he does in the end. When he is beaten in the reindeer games by his rival for a doe he fancies, Rudolph runs away and moves into a cave with Slyly the Fox. However can he overcome his fear and reach his true potential?
Animated movies always draw a stellar cast, and this is no exception, with giants like John Goodman, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Newhart, Eric Idle and even the legendary screen icon Debbie Reynolds (those royalties must need a little topping up I guess) lending their voices to the project. Mind you, a character described as “Elf referee at games” has me intrigued. Though not
that intrigued!