Annabelle's Wish

Let me just put into words the premise of this film:

Every year on Christmas, Santa throws magic dust onto animals. This dust gives the animals the ability to speak to humans for 3 days, but the animals are expressly forbidden to speak to any humans during that time. Why would he do this? Just to have a brief conversation with animals once a year? Why would he allow them to speak for 3 days, is that just the smallest amount of dust he could use? The animals can already communicate with each other fine. This isn't a gift; it is a curse. Being given a gift whose only purpose is prohibited from being used...that is torture.

Going on with the premise, the villain, Aunt Agnes, wants Billy to live with her instead of his uncle. She wants Billy to live with her because... she thinks he would make Christmas more fun.

There are other villains who are just bullies. Bullies who love to make fun of mute children. There isn't anything more to their characters, they are just the worst kids.

Oh, and Annabelle is a cow that wants to be one of Santa's reindeer. The payoff for that has an additional twist that makes no sense, but since this world makes no sense, I guess it works.

The rest of the movie is very by the numbers straight to video animated kids' movie. The voice acting is all good and the animation is fine. I'm an easy mark for this animation style. And I am a sucker for some of these Christmas clichés.

Not a perfect Christmas, but also not a complete barn fire.

This is an animation for the ages. I thought "Mickey's Christmas Carol" was my absolute favourite of all time, until I saw Annabelle's Wish.

It's the tale of true friendship and unselfishness that I believe EVERYONE should watch. It touches the heart, body, and soul with stunning visuals, a great score, and wonderful art and voices. Buy it if you have kids. Buy it if you are a kid. Buy it... if ... if you still believe there is some good and worth in this world left.

AnnaBelle's wish is still one of my absolute favorite Christmas Movies. It still makes me tear up! It is just as magical as it was for me as an 8 year old when I saw it the first time in 1997. It is a fun story of sorrow turning into joy, love, and sacrifice. It is an absolute joy to sit down with my children and watch this precious story again as an adult. A wonderful family film!

At first, I thought this was just a cheesy little kids' film, not really worth watching. But it turned out to be one of the sweetest little Christmas films I've ever seen. The characters, for the most part, are well-rounded and you can sense the grandfather's love for his grandson, and his willingness to help however he can, even selling his daughter's beloved music box so that he can buy Annabelle back from the mean neighbor; the young friend Emily's devotion to Billy, the rich but selfish aunt's greed, and Annabelle's tender heart and self-sacrifice for Billy, giving up her own dream of being able to fly, and even her Christmas voice, so that her friend can talk again.

There's a lot of love and tenderness in this film! The animation is simple, yet somehow effective. This film would make a terrific live-action film, with some of the missing details filled in. For example, why was the fire in the barn apparently more traumatizing for Billy than the loss of his parents, especially since no animals seemed to have died in it? What exactly had made the neighbor so mean, even though we know he had somehow lost his wife? We didn't even know if she had died or left him. Did the mean neighbor and the rich aunt actually get married? And how did the adult Billy explain to Emily exactly what had happened to Annabelle after she was turned into a reindeer?

Anyway, this is a lovely Christmas film that's definitely worth a watch. Even adults should probably enjoy this one!

This really is such a lovely film and it's not too long so little ones can enjoy it.

I watched this with my first daughter in 1999 when she was 3 and she loved it and watched it over and over. It was such a lovely film and the music just makes it perfect.

She now has 3 little girls of her own and when I sent her a clip she remembered it straight away and the music brought back all the lovely memories. Now they enjoy it too. Why is it not better known? . I never get bored of watching it and it makes me feel warm, fuzzy, nostalgic and very festive.

I'm 52 now and think I'll have to watch it again to get the Christmas feels 🎄 😊