Templeton Moss
No one ever says "hurrah" do they? You never see, "And Gene Shallit says, 'Hurrah!'" in a newspaper. Which is a shame, because it's so much fun to say. Go on try it. No one's looking. Okay, on three, ready? One...two...three. HURRAH! There, that wasn't bad, was it?Anyway, onto the actual film, it's wonderful. The story concerns Robbie (voiced by Irish comedian extraordinare Ardal O'Hanlon), the son of another famous reindeer (whose name is never uttered) who wants to be on Santa's sleigh team. Trouble is, he's lazy. In the end he gets up off his butt, defeats the evil Blitzen ("Around the World in 80 Days" star Steve Coogan) and finds love. The writing, performances, animation and everything are superb. You will find yourself laughing out loud at these reindeer and the silly things they do. But make sure you see the UK edition, because on CBS here in the States they've rerecorded the dialogue with Ben Stiller, Britney Spears, Hugh Grant and Brad Garrett and removed charming Britishisms like, "You're chucked" rather than "I'm breaking up with you."There is an important point here. Americans are obtuse about other cultures. We are so convinced that ours is the best nation out there despite never EVER having set foot off her shores. Anything foreign, we remake and redo and Americanize. This is the logic behind American versions of British comedies, Kevin Costner as Robin Hood and the decision that American primetime TV audiences wouldn't like an Irish reindeer so let's make him Derrick Zoolander instead.See the British version, I beg you. And its sequel, "Legend of the Lost Tribe."
bizkitprinzess
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.
andynortonuk
Ardal O'Hannon, Steve Coogan, Ricky Tomlinson, Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfiled and Allistar McGowan! This must be a dream! No it isn't! They do provide voices in this hilariously rib-tickling Christmas treat! The story is extremely orginal, and the spoof "Chariots of Fire" title just makes it a true gem of british comedy, and aniamtion, of course! The animation is just as good as any claymation classic, like Creature Comforts or the Wallace and Gromit films! In fact it's only slightly better! It well-deserved the BAFTA TV Award forBest Entertainment (Programme or Series)"production team"! It just had one of best production team ever to assemble an animated film ever! Also, at the Berlin International Film Festival, it recieved 2 awards: a Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk - Special Award for Best Short Film, and a Glass Bear for Best Short Film! Well done Richard Goleszowski, who recieved the 2 awards! In addition to his awards cabinet, Richard Goleszowski recieved an Audience Award at the 2000 Leipzig DOK Festival! But it should have received the Academy Award for Best Animated Film, as well but that went to Aleksandr Petrov's The Old Man and the Sea, which I must see!
KenTuccio
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.
AD
