Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie

This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. This is not the Rankin-Bass version by any stretch of the imagination. That was a stop-motion short that is now considered a Christmas classic. Rudolph: THE MOVIE is no where near that special. The entire package, from the animation to the characters, should never have been released in theaters. That's right, this thing was on the big screen for, like, a whopping three weeks b4 going straight to video. As I said before, the animation would be right at home on UPN's Saturday Morning Lineup right next to the New Tex Avery Show. It's not The Prince of Egypt, let's just say that. Also, what is with the army of wacky side kicks? We get a polar bear voiced by Bob Newhart (Bob, what happened?), a thumb-sucking Arctic wolf, some kareoke singing faeries who painfully narrate the story, and a penguin who wears a tuxedo (Ha! My sides!). At the very, very least they added a new element to the old legend of Rudolph with the ice queen, who is voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, but even she isn't that interesting. Plus, it's a musical. And a bad one, at that. Listening to two different people do Rudolph's speaking voice and singing vocals is hilarious, since Singing Ru is about eight octaves deeper than Speaking Ru. So basically, stay away. This is one tiresome flick. 1 out of 4 stars.