I knew what the video cover looked like, I may have seen a tiny segment of the film in school, and it is an easy to remember title, so wondering if was terrible like I thought it would be, I watched. Basically Mitzi the reindeer (Singin' in the Rain's Debbie Reynolds) has given birth to her new baby male reindeer, she and father, the well-known Blitzen (Gary Chalk) name him Rudolph. Their son however is different to all reindeer because after a little tumble learning to walk, he sneezes, and his bright red nose glows, but they ignore this. Growing up, Young Rudolph (Eric Pospisil) is taunted by all the other reindeer in school, including Cupid's son Arrow (Christopher Gray), only Young Zoey (Vanessa Morley) doesn't laugh. He also gets an assurance from Santa Claus (John Goodman), who when Rudolph was born had to deal with two of his elves causing trouble and making Stormella, The Evil Ice Queen (Whoopi Goldberg) mad, threatening to send a storm if anyone crosses her bridge. Older Rudolph (Kathleen Barr) has grown up with antlers, Zoey (Myriam Sirois) pretty much his girlfriend, and he is competing in the sleigh race, and even though he wins he is disqualified for his red nose, he overhears his father Blitzen saying his nose was an "accident", and he runs away angry and upset. Not caring about anything he enters the Arctic, and Zoey also runs away to search for him, and she unintentionally walks across Stormella's bridge, making the witch send her nasty storm. Unaware of what his girlfriend has done, Rudolph has made friends with Slyly the albino arctic fox (Eric Idle), and after trespassing in his cave and being forgiven, Leonard the Polar Bear (Bob Newhart). When Rudolph finds out from the Sprites what is going on at the North Pole, he and his new friends go to the rescue, and our hero's red nose glows so bright that it causes Stormella to topple over a cliff. Luckilly she grabs onto an edge and is rescued by the reindeer, and in gratitude grants him a wish, and he decides to wish that Stormella will be nice, so it is so. The only bad news is that the storm she created cannot be stopped, so it looks like Santa and the eight reindeer are going to be unable to deliver this Christmas Eve. But Santa catches a glimpse of Rudolph's bright red nose, and asks if he can guide the sleigh (tonight), so it comes to pass that he becomes the most famous reindeer and everyone has a Merry Christmas. Also starring Richard Simmons as Boone, Alec Willows as Prancer and Lee Tockar as Vixen. Everyone knows the catchy song, and the cast list is reasonable, Goodman being a nice Santa, I admittedly found the songs "Show Me The Light (Love Theme)" (performed in the end credits by "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" singers Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes") and Idle's "It Could Be Worse" a little catchy. But the animation is lame, the story is predictable and pretty lacklustre, and as a Christmas film, there are way better ones for the family, an unsuccessful animated seasonal fantasy. Adequate!
