Jessica und das Rentier

While not without a couple of problems [like pacing], PRANCER is one of the better family/holiday movies I've seen. I didn't see this until after I saw PRANCER RETURNS about a week ago on cable. After PRANCER RETURNS [the sequel to this] was over, I went to the video store and rented this. Now while this one seemed to have a lower budget than PRANCER RETURNS, it still is just as well-acted and heartwarming [if not even more so]. Most holiday movies tend to show the holidays as times where everything is perfect, but this one shows that the holidays aren't as perfect as we'd like them to be. It's able to capture the ups and downs of the holidays while keeping everything pretty close to reality. Though I really enjoyed the film, CHRISTMAS VACATION remains to be my favorite holiday flick.

With all of the hype that surrounds the many Christmas releases and remakes, here's an original that all of the family should see. It is sweet yet real. It restores hope and decency to movies.

We've rented it before, now we own it. After "A Christmas Story" and the Alistaire Sim version of "A Christmas Carol", this is the Christmas movie our family MUST watch every year.

To me the movie captures the "love" that is so much apart of the reason we celebrate Christmas. It makes me laugh and cry. How great is that!

Not many people seem to remember Prancer, but I saw it in the theater when I was a little girl. The storyline escapes me, since I haven't seen it in years, but I remember I cried quite a bit while I was watching it. Maybe I'll rent it one of these days. It doesn't deserve to be so forgotten.

There's two things I can say about this Christmas movie. One: It made me cry. Not just tear up but gush in an Oprahesque out pouring of emotion. That hasn't happened since I watched 'Old Yeller' when I was nine. Two: I watched it in July. It's that good. Heartfelt, credible performances (especially by Sam Elliot) and great direction and strong script turn this sentimental Christmas story (that could have easily been another one of those horrible Christmas themed 'Lifetime' channel TV movies) into a rich and uncompromising story. It makes my short list of top 75 movies of all times!