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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.

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.

This film proves that there are still unspoiled hearts left on Planet Earth. Those who find it sappy or irrelevant have spent too much time wearing Grinch suits and need a good dose of humanity to thaw that hard matter in their chests that passes for a heart.

The child actors are the heart of _Prancer_. They are real, never overacting or coming off as children playing at making a film. Sam Elliot is the epitome of the overstressed, depressed man who has lost his wife and despairs of losing everything else too. His transformation is believable and worthy of the time spent to watch his character unfold. Cloris Leachman is a delight as the female Scrooge who is touched by two children--Jessica who reintroduces her to the joy of Christmas, and a little boy in church who reintroduces her to the joy of human fellowship.

Above all, this is a story of transition. The earnest child must move forward to knowledge, and the jaded grownup must move back to mystery and faith. If your Christmas is too much take and not enough give, I prescribe hot chocolate, hot buttered popcorn, and a viewing of Prancer with people you love. Better yet, do as we have and make this movie part of your personal holiday tradition. It might help make you a better person the rest of the 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!

Some occasionally clumsy dialogue only mildly undercuts the virtues of Greg Taylor's thoughtful script, which provides a surprisingly realistic depiction of the joys and heartaches of simple lives at Christmastime.

Rebecca Harrell is superb as 9-year-old Jessica, who finds an injured reindeer in the woods near her Michigan farm and determines to nurse it back to health in time to help pull Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. She's a marvelously realized character, refreshingly minus the cute kid mannerisms of many a Hollywood acting tyke. I particularly liked the way she deflected her father's tirades with her singlemindedness of purpose: he might get mad at her, but she was still going to do what she had to do. Very childlike, and very real.

A subplot about Jessica's helping a reclusive, eccentric neighbor (played by Cloris Leachman in a virtual cameo) seems truncated and unnecessary, but for the most part Taylor's scenario sticks to the basics and is better for it. Characters surrounding Jessica act like real people, not stereotypes, and events transpire with a sense of realism, not melodrama.

Credit for this tale's effectiveness also goes to Sam Elliott, who plays Jessica's father, a recent widower, with a harsh demeanor that seems to mask real pain and desperation. Thus his rapprochement with his wayward daughter carries unexpected depth of feeling and could not fail to move all but the most cynical. For a dad like me, I admit it put a big lump in my throat.

Despite a somewhat flawed climax -- to my mind, the vfx shot of Santa's sleigh coursing across the sky is unnecessary, given the magic moment just prior to it that reveals reindeer hoofprints leading to a precipice -- this nice little holiday film delivers a timeless message about faith and selflessness. Recommended for mature kids of 8 or older.