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Dom Robinson reviews

Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire

Distributed by

Cert:
Cat.no: BBCDVD 1028
Running time: 29 minutes
Year: 1999
Pressing: 2000
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 6 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
Languages: English
Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing
Widescreen: 1.77:1 (16:9)
16:9-enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: No
Disc Format: DVD 5
Price: £12.99
Extras: Photo Gallery, Music Video

Cast:

Robbie: Ardal O'Hanlon
Donner: Jane Horrocks
Blitzen: Steve Coogan
Vixen: Caroline Quentin
Old Jingle: Harry Enfield
Head Elf: Rhys Ifans
Santa: Ricky Tomlinson
Mrs Santa: Jean Alexander
Prancer/Elf 2/Polar Bear: Paul Whitehouse
Des/Alan: Alistair McGowan
Elf 3: Tony Anscombe
Narrator: Robbie Williams

Robbie the Reindeer is another short film from Aardman Animations, creators of Wallace and Gromit, in which Santa's sleigh team have been increased by one with the arrival of Robbie (Father Ted's Ardal O'Hanlon) as their new navigator because he's got the nose to lead the way.

To ensure he gets the job on the one night of the year that matters though, he'll need to get fit, as the reindeer least in shape will have to stay home. While there he faces competition from Blitzen (Steve Coogan) and falls in love with Vixen (Caroline Quentin), but to win the respect of her and the rest of Robbie's team-mates, he must take part in the annual reindeer games.

The cast also includes AbFab's Jane Horrocks as Donner, The Royle Family's Ricky Tomlinson as Santa and Corrie's Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander) as his wife. Impressionist Alistair McGowan fills in as the spoof voices of Des Yeti and his sidekick Alan Snowman, while other characters are voiced by Harry Enfield, Rhys Ifans, Paul Whitehouse and Tony Anscombe. The narrator for the story is pop-star Robbie Williams.

As the BBC's SkyDigital picture quality goes to pot because of their insistence to drop the bitrate and let the artifacts dominate, rest assured this disc suffers no such problems. It's presented in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen. The average bitrate is 5.38Mb/s, varying wildly and often peaking over 9Mb/s.

One pleasant surprise is the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack which is implemented all the way throughout the film for many a special effect.

Extras :

A 23-page photo gallery shows the various stages of animation for Robbie and there's a Music Video for "Come Fly with Me", sung by Robbie Williams. The DVD links this to the end of the film to extend the running time to 32 minutes, as stated on the back of the box.

There are only six chapters, but it's not a particularly long short film and it contains subtitles in English for the hard of hearing.

All the menus are animated with sound as well.

Overall, it's an enjoyable piece of entertainment even if the DVD is a bit on the short side for £12.99. Fans looking to collect all the Aardman Animations output will no doubt buy it though.

DVD Trivia: The music is performed by Mark Knopfler and all profits from the sale of this DVD go to Comic Relief.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

The following is a list of all the Tweenies DVDs reviewed online to date :

2000	Tweenies: Ready to Play & Song Time
2000	Tweenies: Animal Friends & Party Games, Laughs and Giggles
2000	Tweenies: Merry Tweenie Christmas

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