Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys
by William R. Kowalchuk Jr.

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DVD Reviews of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys

DVD Review: And if you ever saw the reviews, you could say it blows...
Summary: 5 Stars

I will put this very gently. Anyone here who rates this movie with a 1 (or less) and says nothing more than "It's not the original" is a moron. Now let me put things in a proper perspective.

Now I must admit that I've grown up with the original Rudolph for 19 years straight and am a MAJOR fanatic of anything produced by Rankin/Bass, so when my 5-year-old little cousin forced me to watch this movie when I visited him for the weekend, I was VERY worried. First of all, this movie has been bombed online more than the Middle East, and it dons the "Goodtimes" label. (Goodtimes VHS of beloved movie=Adjusting the tracking for at least an hour before you get a good picture, and anything else from Goodtimes Entertainment=crap). Anyway, cherishing what memories I had left of the first Rudolph, I reluctantly sat down to watch. Surprisingly, it was excellent.

First of all, everybody from the original (except most of the original misfit toys have been "replaced" with the next generation of misfits including the "Boomerang that doesn't return", and the Burl Ives snowman was replaced with Scoop the Snowman) makes a comeback (and with voices that are dead-on to the originals). Clarice is now learning how to fly, but will Rudolph's advice help her to stay off the ground? Hermie comes back, and this time, he has built his own super-duper, portable all-terrain dentist cart! He's the best dentist the North Pole could ask for, but he has a crush on someone. Will this timid, shy elf/dentist find a way to ask her out? The Abominable Snowman (now known as Bumbles) and Yukon Cornelius now run a Peppermint Mine. (If anyone would like to know why a Peppermint Mine instead of a silver and gold one, one of the cut scenes from the original shows that Yukon stumbled upon this mine, and that's why Yukon throughout the first Rudolph kept licking his pick after it touched wherever it landed.) Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus look a little different, because they don't have dots for eyes. They actually look better that way. And YES!!!!!! There's more footage of King Moonracer!!!!! Oh my God he is my favorite!!!! He has a horrible toothache!!!!!! Thank god a skilled elf/dentist like Hermie takes his nifty all-terrain dentist cart to the Island of Misfit Toys, but what will poor King Moonracer need done? My favorite of my three new characters was Queen Camilla. I actually knew someone who talked and acted the way she did in real life. I was laughing the entire time she was on the screen. The only character who I didn't care for too much was Scoop the Snowman. I'm not saying this because he's no Burl Ives. If he's not Burl Ives, SO WHAT?!? Sure Burl Ives was better, but I'm saying this because at some tense, thematic moments in this movie (which in the first one would be Bumbles BEFORE he was tamed), instead of hiding behind an umbrella, he tells the story with what appears to be an evil, grinning face. That's the best I can describe it. When Scoop had his "evil" face on during the tense, thematic moments, it scared the crap out of my little cousin, and I had to pause the movie and get him a glass of milk.

Anyway, the story line was brilliant. If anyone can recall a TV cartoon series from 1993 called Bonkers and can remember the two-part pilot episode, then they'd too know what I'm talking about!!! (In Bonkers, there was this deranged cartoon rabbit called "The Collector" and he took cartoons like the "Toy Taker" took toys.) Okay, some people think that the ending was ripped from Toy Story 2, but let me give you all a reality check here. This actual movie was shown on some cable channel for the first time in 1998, and THEN three years later was released onto video. So in other words, this came out BEFORE Toy Story 2. And for those of you who are complaining about the computer graphics, DON'T. This is Goodtimes Entertainment we're talking about, not the multi-million dollar razz-a-ma-tazz computer animation job we're so used to seeing!!! For goodness sake, I found the computer animation to be just fine by me. "Moving tanks", "choppy animation", etc. PLEASE!!!! Okay, so Yukon's beard was off just a touch. LET IT GO!!!!

Now comes the other reason why I give this a four and a half (I gave it a five because that's what 4.5 rounds up to). (Scoop was the first reason for the lower rating). The songs were actually VERY catchy, but the orchestration sounded like it came out of a cheap MIDI module. It sounded chinsy. The songs themselves (if you can ignore the cheap instrument sounds) were very great, and would be so much better if Goodtimes hired a real orchestra.

Anyway, to sum it up, the movie (other than the lacking orchestration) was superb. If you're looking for the original Rudolph, then don't waste your time complaining about this one, but if you're looking for a trustworthy sequel, then go for it. (Note that the DVD has special features showing the painstaking time it took for them to get the computer animation just right). Also, if you people want something to moan and groan about, go purchase "Frosty Returns" and see what an abomination THAT one was to the original "Frosty". Thank you.

Description of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys