Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie Review

Written by The Wandering Fox

The Wandering Fox comes in wearing a Santa hat, hugging himself to keep himself heated from the great cold outside.

I love the cold now and then, I prefer it over summer. Let's you wear baggy clothes, have hot chocolate, snuggle up and watch a movie. Oh yeah, I love the cold. And hey, it’s that time of the year again! Everybody is shopping, fun is out, toys are on sale at the shops, decorations are up. It’s Christmas ;) this time of the year was always so magical to me in my younger years, Christmas lights made my home community look so magical, we had our own Santa doing presents, loads of people still come here, then there was the fact I could get away from the bullies at school and enjoy Christmas movies and specials such as The Grinch or The Polar Express. Although if there was one Christmas film I had loved since I was a kid, it was Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The 1998 movie to be precise.

In my younger years I always loved this film. The front cover captured my eyes with ease, the dark wintry background with colourful characters, Rudolph smiling, it had me. Watching it, I always loved the animation, so cartoony and bright but so expressive, the background set pieces which made the North Pole community and the workshops just looked so innocent and colourful, the wilderness of the Arctic and Stormella’s castle being a great contrast, it was so good as a kid to watch this. I still love the voice cast as well with Kathleen Barr as Rudolph being one of my childhood favourite voices. Heck, this movie was also my introduction to a famous Christmas song by Paul McCartney. This had me love the Rudolph character that much I even got the cuddly toy of Rudolph which would play his song. Yeah, this is my favourite thing of Christmas.

In my older years though, I have looked at the film with a critical eye. I hated looking at it like that but hey, I’m older now so I’m gonna notice some things which will irk me. Does this mean I hate the movie? No. I still love it and I would happily watch it still for Christmas. I’m also pleased the movie has a dedicated following, hence I’m not alone in loving this.

Though still, I’m here to look at the movie with a more professional eye and talk of my feelings on it.

Story

The story is basic really, it’s about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer growing up, being bullied by the other reindeer but goes through his own trials as a youngster growing up and ends up saving Christmas after a big snowfall makes Santa’s trip around the planet on Christmas Eve hard, Rudolph is seen as a hero and is beloved.

Only it ends up taking its own life with how it tells the story and involving other characters. The story focuses on Rudolph in the first half with him as a little fawn reindeer while beginning the set up with Stormella, who closes her bridge from Santa and the elves after Boon and Doggle accidentally destroy her ice sculpts. The second half then focuses on Rudolph running away from home with him meeting Slyly and Leonard while Zoey ends up captured by Stormella, who casts a huge snow fall over the North Pole, hence Rudolph has to go and rescue her. They do and after Rudolph wishes Stormella to be nice, he saves Christmas.

Honestly, the story is not bad but it could’ve had some tweaking done to it, as in why exactly does Stormella hate Santa that much? Who exactly is she, an ice spirit? There was no setup to the whole “Stormella has to grant Rudolph a wish”. Then there’s how the movie skips a big chunk of Rudolph growing up, and I don’t get why Zoey was dating Arrow when it’s obvious she has feelings for Rudolph. Oh and the Sprites, why exactly were they here? They were only here to tell Rudolph Zoey was caught by Stormella.

Then there’s Leonard. He’s only there to have Rudolph teach Slyly a lesson in always telling the truth, and he doesn’t do much afterwards other than getting captured by Stormella. It’s a shame as it did waste Bob Newhart in my opinion.

There’s also how Arrow is Rudolph’s cousin and how the plot doesn’t go anywhere with them as family, just for Zoey for them to argue over. With Arrow being Rudolph’s cousin, and the fact his dad even mocks Rudolph, could’ve made for a subplot in which Blitzin ends up angry his own brother would mock his son and let his son bully him. Or how Blitzin doesn’t apologise to Rudolph for making him think he was an accident.

However, I do like the smaller scenes in the movie whether it’d be Mitzi trying to help her son, Santa comforting Rudolph is a great example of how Santa ought to be done in other Christmas stories, Zoey talking with Rudolph after he watches his dad help Santa, his friendship with Slyly, Blitzin and Mitzi wanting Santa’s help in finding Rudolph, then we have the moment Rudolph helps save Christmas. Those are really great moments as well as the ending.

The story is flawed. Though it’s still got a lot of heart in there. It’d be better than being mean spirited and utter crap with no effort.

Characters

We obviously have Rudolph himself. The guy is just so innocently adorable you wanna hug him in the bullying scenes. Helps the animation goes out of its way to make him look adorable with his big eyes and floppy hair. Rudolph just wants to be loved by others and he slowly comes to accept himself during the movie thanks to Slyly helping him find some humour in his nose, as well as just being a kind person to just about everybody, even Stormella. What helps is the movie has us see Rudolph is loved by those around him who either are good people or are indifferent to his nose. He’s loved by Santa who tells him he’s in his family, Doggle clearly has no gripes with him, Slyly and Leonard don’t judge him for his nose. It helps by the climax he’s with everybody who doesn’t judge him at all in his fight with Stormella and his wish to have her be nice than having an ordinary nose is sweet. The only thing going against him is the wish itself. Obviously Rudolph isn’t some horrid git for doing this and the writers didn’t think this through, but him wishing Stormella to be nice can be a bit iffy. Despite this, he’s still a lovable reindeer.

We get Rudolph’s parents in Blitzen and Mitzi, his cousin Arrow, his eventual lover Zoey, Father Christmas himself, and the antagonist Stormella, as well as Slyly the Arctic Fox and Leonard. What helps with these cast of characters is the impact they have on Rudolph and what he has on them.

Blitzin is weary at first of letting others see his son, though you can argue he’s more scared for his son than embarrassed by him. He obviously stuffs up when he ends up saying Rudolph’s nose in the race was an accident. He spends the rest of the movie worrying about him, and can only tell him he’s proud of him. Mitzi is a loving mother which is better than nothing.

Arrow is Rudolph’s cousin and a bully. Oh and he was Zoey’s boyfriend for some reason. The only thing about Arrow I can say is he was a bit of a waste. By the end he’s still a bully to Rudolph, clearly angry he got Zoey. He’s Rudolph’s cousin, he could’ve had a more interesting role what with the fact his dad even mocks Rudolph which could’ve had family issues with Blitzen.

Zoey is Rudolph’s lover. Zoey is a nice girl who’s at least brave enough to go out on her own to find Rudolph. It’s better than nothing at least.

Slyly is an Arctic Fox who learns from Rudolph what it means to be nice while he helps Rudolph understand it’s okay to joke about his nose here and there. Rudolph even recognises the good will Slyly has and even gifts him a toy at the end.

Leonard...he’s just there for Slyly to learn a lesson from Rudolph.

Santa is delightful in the movie, a jolly man who happily walks around his town helping others, comforting Rudolph, standing up for Boon and Doggle, determined to bring Rudolph and Zoey home. You want a Santa who is great? Just look at this Santa.

Stormella is quite an enigma. We don’t know why she hates Santa, what her history is what is she exactly, we don’t know. Whoopi Goldberg does a lovely job at voicing her and has a few hilarious moments, though still the character is quite the stranger to me in what they were trying to do.

Boon and Doggle are mostly there to get Stormella in the movie though even then they have their own story of tying in with Rudolph. They try their hardest to make up for what they did, either by helping Rudolph in the race or going out looking for him and Zoey. Like I say, they’re better than nothing in the entire movie.

I think it has to be spoken of the voice cast. You had Gary Chalk, Debbie Reynolds, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathleen Barr, John Goodman, Eric Idle, and even Matt Hill in this movie. They do a great job with the characters. Ironic though that Kathleen and Matt would respectively go on to play Kevin and Ed in Ed, Edd and Eddy. Though you can’t help but think having these actors really did a lot on the budget which might’ve added to why the film flopped.

While this is about the characters I do want to talk of Christmas Town.

Christmas Town is where the elves and reindeer live with Santa, we have the workshops, the sweet shops, the reindeer racing games, the reindeer schools, everybody is jolly and happily at work. It’s how you imagine a Christmas city would be with the elves and Santa all eager to help with making everybody happy on Christmas Day.

Songs

I’m not one to talk about songs that much, but hey, the opening musical take on Rudolph is so jolly and uplifting you gotta enjoy it. The original songs for the movie are catchy enough like “It’s Christmas Town!” “Santa’s Family Tree” “Show Me the Light” and “We can make”. The movie did though introduce me to “A Wonderful Christmas Time!”

Love these songs.

Conclusion

The Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie is flawed. There’s characters who could’ve been better. There could’ve been improvements on writing. Though I still love it. It’s bright, colourful and there was actual effort thrown in. It did sadly end up causing the studio to close down though to those who made this movie have to know this movie has had an impact on others, it has its fan base like those who tried to make a fan film sequel, doing fanfic sequels and lots of fan art, and I still happily have my Rudolph toy.

If you ever want to watch a Christmas film which had lots of effort in there, watch this. I’ll try to watch it again. The Wandering Fox wishes you all a Merry Christmas!