Hooves of Fire

Hooves Of Fire was a Christmas televisual event, much like the Wallace And Gromit animations before it. There's an unwritten rule that a big original Christmas animation needs to be created every year for BBC and Channel 4.

Robbie The Reindeer (voiced by a charismatic Ardal O'Hanlon) is a clumsy, naive reindeer living in the shadow of his father, presumably Rudolph. After being expelled from "The Sleigh Team" for being unfit, he retrains to win back his place on Santa's team.

The animation is Grade-A, stop-motion animation evoking Aardman Animation of the past. It was done by BBC Animation Studios\BBC Bristol and has a very similar style. The voice talent reads like a Whose Who of the time with some future A\B-list talent in the form of Robbie Williams, Steve Coogan and Rhys Ifans. This film tied in with Comic Relief and Sports Relief so there are a lot of references from the obvious "red nose" to Alistair McGowan playing sports commentator Des Yeti (obviously based on Des Lynam).

There's some big laugh out loud moments from Ricky Tomlinson playing a boy-racer Santa Claus who wears gold jewellery and tracksuits, musician Seal as a fish-eating Seal and the Fonzie character, Old Jingle an old, crazy reindeer played by Harry Enfield who sounds a lot like Adrian Edmonson.

Personally for me even at 30 minutes I don't get the same amount of joy watching it as I do The Snowman, Father Christmas, Charlie Brown's Christmas or even The Treacle People Christmas special.

Not shown on UK TV since 2003 according to the Genome project for unknown reasons. This has also stopped it reaching a younger audience, but it is fondly remembered by Millenials and older. A DVD was released as was two sequels of more of the same.

What to watch on Christmas Eve just before the 7pm news bulletin? The programmer at the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) who scheduled this little gem of a film should be given a cigar, one hell of a raise and a promotion (to CEO of the network)!!

I cannot remember the last time I laughed so much in 30 minutes. A romp from go to whoa this film (incidentally named Robbie the Reindeer in Australia) follows the trials and tribulations of Robbie, son of Rudolph, trying to get a guernsey on the team leading the sleigh for Christmas. Robbie's secret weapon is, curiously enough, his nose, but not for the same reason his father was famous. Robbie can pin-point an exact location anywhere on the globe with his nose!! Double entrends, take-offs and a very, very slick script make this a highly enjoyable film. You'll like this film even more if you are a fan of "claymation" (think Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit et al).

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."

This was the funniest programme on the television at Christmas in Britain. It follows the adventures of a young reindeer called Robbie (the son of Rudolph)who has been sent by his father to Lapland to train and navigate Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. However, there are a couple of problems in Robbie's way. He is lazy and will do anything to get out of work , a female reindeer called Vixen has caught his eye and made him go all gooey and the leader of the sleigh team, Blitzen, is constantly conspiring to keep Robbie off the sleigh team because he hates Rudolph (Robbie's father) and wants to humiliate him. However, Robbie's friend, Donner, learns of this plan and informs Robbie and tells him to train like mad for the Reindeer Games. You can be rest assured that all turns out well in the end. British viewers will enjoy the depiction of the British sport commentators, Des Lynam and Alan Hansen as a yeti and a snowman respectively, and look out for a joke about the singer, Seal. All in all, it was one of the funniest short animations I have ever seen. I was in stitches on Christmas Day and it is well worth watching, whether you're an adult or a child, or just a big kid!!!

As are most of the plasticine short films made, this one is funny, entertaining and very worthwhile! :-) Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be that well known and someone made an American version, which (not having actually watched it) seems ludicrous a wee bit stupid. From what other people have said, it seems that it is not good so let us all avoid it!

The original English version is very amusing. Entertaining for just about everyone, with slightly dirty jokes for the wee ones, jokes that make sense for older children and jokes that adults will get and find amusing!

Robbie, Rudolph's son (with a lovely Irish accent), is going to be getting ready for his first sleigh pull while his father is away elsewhere. Unfortunately, he is not very well exercised and is pretty gullible with Blizten - who seems suspicious... He is also head over heels with love for Vixen, ignoring Donner, who wants his affection more. Clearly he's in a wee bit of a pickle...

Enjoy "Robbie The Reindeer: Hooves On Fire"! :-)