Too much of everything

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

HOOVES OF FIRE is a very pleasant little Christmas special from BBC. Oddly, however, when the DVD for this nice show was released in the US, a "special" audio track was substituted for the original voices. Instead of Ardal O'Hanlon and the rest doing the voices like they did in the original, Ben Stiller and some other Americans did the voices for track #1. Fortunately, the original sound track is included, though oddly it's #3. And, sadly, the original voice credit were all removed from this American edition! That sure seems tacky! As I had already seen this show on American television with the British/Irish voice track, I refused to listen to track #1 and stuck with the original when I watched it again tonight.The story involves Robbie the Reindeer--the son of Rudolph. Sadly, however, unlike his famous father, Robbie lacks ambition or confidence. He also is a bit lazy and doesn't see a need to keep in shape like the other reindeer who hope to pull Santa's sleigh. This mindset is made worse by Blitzen, who turns out to be a jealous jerk who hates Rudolph and by default also wants to see Robbie fail. He encourages Robbie to give up and for the first half of the film, Robbie is a loser. He doesn't recognize how sweet and stuck on him Donner is and he thinks it's impossible to be chosen so he just gives up. However, being a bit formulaic, you know that he eventually gets out of his rut, goes into training with Old Jingle (who is batty, to say the least) and ends up winning the day by the end of the film.Overall, this is a very nice kids show that adults can enjoy as well due to some decent writing and voice talents. Don't expect something of the same high quality as an Aardman production (the famous British company that also makes stop-motion shows--but of a considerably higher quality) but it still is good fun.If you liked this, two years later, a sequel, LEGENDS OF THE LOST TRIBE was made and is quite fun.

In 1999, when Hooves Of Fire was put into production, who could've known that it would have turned out to be one of the best Christmas films ever made. From that echoing opening music, to the brilliant acting by Adral O'Hanen (Or however it's spelt), playing Robbie, "Robbie The Reindeer's" first appearance has blown away fans, not just in Britan, but all over the world.According to the narrator, the film is set in "Coldchester," which is Norther than North, where good old Santa (Father Christmas, Saint Nicolous) lives. Robbie, son of Rudolph, ("Don't EVER... say that name.") has turned up to take a position on the sleigh. At first, there is some mistaken identity ("It's a... It's a... It's a thing!"), which is soon settled ("It must be the last of some poor, endangered animal."), then re-opened ("Cool! Let's kill it!"), and then settled once more ("Call me Robbie, 'cus, I am.") And those jokes are nothing compared to some of the films other lines.This film will captivate audiences all over the world at any time of the year. A FULLY recommended Christmas comedy with a gift. Maybe you could sit down and watch it late on Christmas Eve, early on Christmas morning, after Christmas lunch, or late at night before bed. Whenever you watch it, be it Christmas, Christmas Eve, or April, you will love it.

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.

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.