Olive, the Other Reindeer

     Based on the children's book of the same name, Olive the Other Reindeer is about a dog who mishears the words "All of the other reindeer" as Olive the other reindeer, and goes to the North Pole to help Santa. It is basically Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but with a far more interesting characters, and better songs.

    I actually read the book myself when I was in the third grade; it was pretty good, but didn't really leave an impact. But, a couple years later, Cartoon Network was showing the movie, and I remembered the book. It was in the 6th grade when I first saw the movie, and I still love it today.

    But, despite how much I do like it, it does have a couple problems. But first, to the summary filled with jokes I thought were amusing when I first wrote this but may not be amusing when it finally comes out! (Charlie sheen jokes will always be funny right?)

Summary

the TL;DR summary was already given; dog saves Christmas. Skip this section if you aren't interested in the summary or the insights inside it.

    We begin with Olive singing about her love of the holidays, and how she likes Christmas the best of them all. She shows off her helpful and friendly side by helping a family of mice find a decent sized tree (Pine Tree Air Freshener). We then meet Martini, a penguin that was kicked out of the Zoo for being a smuggler, and is selling counterfeit watches and Zoo stationary. (All the animals in the special are sentient, and are treated basically as equal to humans. Though there is still a system of ownership (IE pets) it is more along the lines of mutual beneficiaries.) Olive helps Martini out with a police officer,  and then heads on home.
    When at home, her owner John asks her about her "Dog chores" (barking without reason, chasing cars...) and when she says she hasn't done any of them, John asks how she can call herself a dog, and begins yelling at her, and talking about how there isn't going to be a Christmas that year. Olive, saddened that John was so mad with her, listens to the radio to try and cheer up, and discovers that one of Santa's reindeer was injured and can't fly, and thus the sleigh won't be able to take off. (I say replace it with a giant Snow leopard!) After a misunderstanding, where Olive thinks John is telling her to leave when he's really apologizing, Olive decides to go to the north pole and be Santa's other Reindeer.
    On her way to the bus station (she must be in Canada if she can take a bus to the North Pole and get there before nightfall...) she bumps into a mailman who hates Christmas because of the extra work it gives him. He serves as the antagonist, and gives us a song, "Bah, bug, and Hum." The song is a little banal, but the postman's ham and cheese performance makes it amusing.
    After leaving the postman and reaching the bus station, Olive runs into Martini again. Martini helps Olive escape the mailman who is trying to prevent her from going to the north pole (And therefore ruin/end Christmas), and they head on their way to the frozen north.
    Upon arriving at Arctic Junction, the midpoint between the North Pole and wherever Olive actually lives, Olive and Martini grab a bite to eat. But, Olive is tricked outside by the mailman, who then kidnaps her. After Deus Ex Machina sends her a nail file, (I'm not joking, Deus Ex Machina is the "From" on her package. It is a joke, and I can't believe I only figured out what the words meant two years ago.) She escapes and returns back to the Junction, but she is too late to catch her bus.
    Martini and Olive then go to a nearby bar to hitch a ride. Problem is that everyone there is cynical and grouchy, and of no help, to the point of assaulting Olive and Martini. It is only after Olive berates them that they calm down and offer a ride to save Santa (turns out that even grown men in this universe ask for gifts. Why not I suppose, if you know he exists and is giving out gifts, why not ask for something).
    After Olive manages to get in, she meets Santa and encourages him to try delivering the toys, and she'll replace the injured reindeer. Santa agrees, and they fly off... However, the mailman switched out the bag of toys with his bag of junk mail, thus stealing Christmas (please don't ask why no one quite knows the reason...). The mailman then captures Martini and brings him along in the mail-truck.
    Santa and Olive discover the treachery, and quickly fly after the mailman. They manage to catch up to him and retrieve the presents, and begin their delivery.
    Once they are finished, Olive returns home to John, who finally gives his apology to her and tells of how he is proud of her. We then get a reprise of the intro song, and end this happy special.




     One of the things I have to say about this special is this: Though it makes no attempt to hide that it is pretty much for kids, it doesn't look down on them. It doesn't throw in idiotic humor, it uses some somewhat high vocabulary at times,  and nothing feels particularly padded. Any joke shown is paid off a number of times, making it almost feel like everything is connected.


     Though nothing is without it's problems... the special was based around the designs found in the book, and follows them to the letter... the problem is that the style of the drawing doesn't really work when the characters are walking, as it merely looks like they are picking up their feet, dropping them, and sort of gliding along (a bit like how bad flash animation works now). The CGI in the special is able to blend in with the 2D animation, but there are times where it is blatantly obvious. (But then again, this is a Christmas special. The most iconic ones feature stop-motion models with only a couple different faces.)

Though it isn't really necessary, perhapse the designs could be something along these lines:

Still cartoony, somewhat close to the designs of the book, but more room for expression and for angles other than 3/4s.

     The biggest problem I find is how Olive isn't really careful about the absurdity of calling herself a reindeer. While she mentions the absurdity of it near the beginning, it is dropped form then on, and she simply calls herself "the replacement reindeer" as opposed to simply saying "I'm going to the north pole to help Santa!" people would be more inclined to approve and cheer for you if your first statement isn't something insane. Plus I really hate when characters embarrass themselves, especially in-front of people that could severely hurt them.



You know, I just noticed... I haven't really reviewed anything that I can really repair. I mean, Santa Claus the movie had problems but did what it needed... the SpongeBob special was a massive pain but there is no real fix beyond repairing SpongeBob as a show itself... And the past 3 were all good in my opinion, with little change necessary...
Next time however, something that requires repair.



Oh, one last thing... Drew Barrymore plays the main character in the special... Can you guess the name of her first daughter?

Olive.