To me, this movie is perfection.

Better Late Then Never

A Brilliant Conflict

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Everyone else has fairly well summed up this movie for you. It is a truly superb movie with tremendously good writing and voice talent (UK version).As others have noted, the addition of a US voice cast is appalling!! Having seen the former release with ONLY Hooves of Fire on it, the default US voiced version which came on the new Hooves / Lost Tribe double disk was a shock! This does not mean that I don't like the voice actors, in fact I quite like several of them, but the UK cast is FAR superior. The problem is that this is a British comedy which has British dialog (as previously noted, the English re-writes don't work), and I kind-of expect the British accents (OK, I should say UK-ish accents since Robbie is voiced by an Irishman). I don't think you should boycott it, though, just make sure that EVERY time you play it for anybody you first go to AUDIO OPTIONS and switch to UK VOICES!! Trust me, you'll thank me for that...

The British have been best known for creating wacky claymation masterpieces, like "Wallace & Gromit" and most recently, "Chicken Run". Around this holiday season, you see A LOT of claymation Christmas stories, i.e. Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. So, the creators of "Robbie" think up the idea...what if Rudolph had a son?But that's not nesscessarly what they were thinking. By the looks of it, they were trying to do a remake of "Rudolph" with certain twist. Nevertheless, "Hooves of Fire", the first Robbie film, tells the story about Robbie the Reindeer, the son of Rudolph. Robbie wants to become a reindeer on Santa's sleigh, just like dear ol' dad. But, of course, there is a conflict. Rather than slicing Rudolph's notorious red-glowing nose, Robbie has a huge honker that he could bounce with. Robbie and his good friend, Donner, throughout most of the 20-minutes of the story, practice for the Reindeer Games, an Olympic-type event held in the North Pole. Robbie wants to impress this other female reindeer, Vixen, who's going with Blitzen, a clithe-jock that you see in practically every 80's teen flick. Robbie trains with an insane reindeer, Old Jingle and he eventually makes it to the games, but trouble (I'm not gonna say) occurs and stalls Robbie. But could he make it? Is that really important?The voices of the characters are most likely celebrities in England, because I have never heard of them (besides Robbie Williams, who narrates the story.) Recently about a week ago, CBS showed the "Americanized" version of the special, that featured the voices of Ben Stiller as Robbie, Britney Spears as Donner and Jerry Stiller as Old Jingle. All and all, the Americanized version was pretty bizarre. Like I said, those crazy Brits! However, they also showed the follow up story to "Hooves of Fire", with a even weirder "Robbie the Reindeer and the Lost Vikings", whom Stiller and Spears both did, along with "Everybody Loves Raymond"'s Brad Garrett, James Woods and Jeff Goldblum.Most of "Robbie" is not only bizarre, but also kind of adult subject matter. Donner, along we already know is a girl, has boobs! Reindeer boobs??? In a way, that's kind of Tongue-in-cheek, spite that Britney Spears plays her in the American version! There is also some violence and sexual innuendo. But it's still a fun movie to watch. I hope Amazon.com sells the American version (no offense to the British). Very funny.

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).

I was winding up my weekend, doing house-y errands with my television humming in the background......but I had to drop everything when this came on. A 30-year-old adult, watching this alone, and I was laughing out loud. I'd never heard of it before, but I'll be sure to tell everyone I know to add this to the list of Christmas "must-see" classics. Great voices, great animation, and a feel-good story as well.