Hooves of Fire

Robbie is the son of Rudolph and is determined to follow in his Dad's hooves by getting a place on Santa's sledge team. However he is badly out of shape and is due to compete against Blitzen. He also is distracted by the seducing Vixen and ignorant of the doting Donner. Robbie must give his all in his race.

I've seen this twice but the first time I saw it I assumed that I'd hate it as it appeared to be the BBC trying to catch a lift on the coattails of animation such as Chicken Run etc. I was right in that the humour and the animation is the same, but happily this wasn't a cheap rip off, in fact it almost matches the Nick park stuff in terms of how good it is.

The plot is good but the characters and the side jokes make it worth watching at least once a year! Robbie himself is OK and O'Hanlon is a reasonable casting for the lead. Horrocks is a little dry but Coogan and Quentin are perfectly cast and really go to work with their characters. People like Enfield, Whitehouse, Ifans and Tomlinson just go to back up the calibre of the cast and add to the depth.

Williams is perfect as the narrator as he sets the cheeky tone really well. However far and away my favourite characters are the sports commentators for Robbie's race. UK viewers will know that Des Yeti and Alan Snowman are total spoofs on the BBC's old Match of the Day team. Everytime they were onscreen I was in hoots of laughter – McGowan always does them well in his own shows but here his voices combined with the images just make it even better.

Overall there is plenty for kids to love and they will be happy for the whole film, but adults will be laughing just as hard and will get a lot more of the jokes. Not quite as good as Nick Park's recent efforts but still well worth a look as it'll beat the pants off whatever else is on TV for kids this Christmas.

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.

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.

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"! :-)

I really enjoyed "Hooves of Fire", and thought the voices were an important part of the characters. With all due respect to the US cast, I agree with everyone who feels the "Americanized" version just isn't as good -- and I am an American. I was fortunate enough to see the original on Canadian TV. I have no explanation as to why some British programs get "dubbed into American". But I do I wonder if some US media and marketing people are just rather shallow, insecure, and naive about the rest of the planet, and assume everyone in America is as dumbed-down as they are. It's downright embarrassing at times. My apologies.