This terrific stop-motion short film isn't quite up there with the best of Aardman, but it's darn close, and better than some of Aardman's lesser efforts (incuding 'Chicken Run', in my opinion anyway.) Add to this the fact that the thing was made by a charity organisation, it took over two years to make, and the voice actors all worked for nothing, and I think a round of applause is due.

Before we go any further, a note about the soundtrack. The British and Australian versions, and (as I understand it) the original USA release featured the British voice cast. Considering that the voice talent is great, and the acting uniformly wonderful, and the thing just LOOKS British, the decision to re-dub it with an American cast for the second release defies comprehension. Now, if my information is correct, the second release, which also includes the second Robbie the Reindeer movie, 'Legend of the Lost Tribe' DOES have the original British voice track hidden away amongst the extras, but only as a dolby 2.0. You have to search for it in the extras menu, and you lose the original 5.1 option, if things like that matter to you.

Robbie is voiced by Ardal O'Hanlon, who used to play Dougal in 'Father Ted'. Since FT was my favourite sitcom of the 90's, and I think Dougal is maybe the funniest TV character of the last 20 years, and seeing as how Ardal has a pretty conspicuous Irish accent, I thought this might distract me a bit. Actually it did, but in a good way. It was almost like seeing Dougal reincarnated as a reindeer. Well, a two-legged reindeer made out of resin, anyway.

Whereas the Wallace and Gromit shorts rely a lot on situational humour and sight-gags, Hooves of Fire includes a lot more humour in the form of straight out funny dialog (not that it lacks sight gags or situational humour). Some of these are pretty damn funny, and maybe even more so in 'The Lost Tribe', though 'Hooves of Fire' is probably the better of the two overall.

'Hooves of Fire' sees Robbie (Rudolph's son) as the new recruit to the sleigh team, facing a Blitzer who is insanely jealous of both him and his father, and who will stop at nothing to "crush him into dust, and then throw the dust to the wolves. And then blow up the wolves." How the bumbling Robbie deals with this makes for a very fun half hour which ought to keep both kids and adults entertained, as the film isn't dumbed down at all. In fact both shorts are full of film references, which are usually slightly more subtle than you get in 'Shrek 2'. Actually I'm pretty sure the opening scene in 'Legend of the Lost Tribe' is a reference to a scene from 'Father Ted'.

The music is very good - unsurprisingly, as it's by Mark Knopfler.

This is a perfect Xmas short. The second film doesn't have such an obvious Christmas theme (actually it's about theme parks, Vikings and disco), but who really cares - especially since it opens the possibility of them maybe one day doing some more, since they're not married to the Christmas theme.

Great fun. And whatever you do, try and find the British voice track. I mean, God almighty, when they re-dubbed it they cast Hugh Grant as Blitzer. Since when did he stop being British? And Jeff Goldblum is in the second film. Did they replace him? The mind boggles. British people can understand American voices. Why do film producers think Americans can't understand British voices?

Anyway, two thumbs up from me. I only say that because Roger Ebert says it all the time. Actually I suspect Roger Ebert would say it if you showed him a cardboard box, but that's beside the point. This is way above your average schmaltzy Christmas thingie.

BTW, the funny looking thing with orange bits dangling off it in the picture on the 'profile' page, is a Christmas Toy Robbie invented, called 'Octo-Monkey'. Slighty out of shot to the left is his arch enemy, a three-armed whale.

Oh, one small thing: I read a review somewhere of the second film, where someone is outraged that (in the American version) Britney Spears plays a female reindeer with breasts. I think I would have been sufficiently distraught at the thought of Britney Spears being involved at all to worry about who she was voicing, but for what it's worth, they're very small breasts and they don't have nipples. There is also one line of pretty obvious sexual innuendo in the first movie, between Vixen and Blitzen ("I need somebody to stoke my fire" or something like that), but really, that's about it. I don't think you should deprive your kids (or yourself) of the fun of it because of that, but if you think that sort of thing is going to bother you, fair warning.