Boo the reindeer Prancers straight into our hearts in this confusing Christmas tale. In this episode, we snuggle up next to our mics with a cup of hot cocoa and chat about Prancer (1989).

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Episode intro (00:00) 

Paul: Every once in a while you come across a question that's just completely unanswerable like "what is the meaning of life?" or "what came first the chicken or the egg?" Today it's if the 1989 film Prancer starring Boo the reindeer is a good film. And in this episode we're going to try to figure it out, because I don't know.

But, did you know that Boo was actually pregnant during the filming of this movie? And how did that get her the gig? Learn about all this and more as we're Hoofin’ it in Hollywood.

[Intro theme song plays]

Introductions (00:55) 

Paul: Ho ho [coughs], sorry and welcome to our holiday episode of Hoofin' it in Hollywood. I'm your host Paul and today I have my guest host Jordan [Jordan: Hi], Audrey [Audrey: Hello hello], and Melissa [Melissa: Ho ho hello] 

[Deep sounding laughter]. 

Melissa: Oh no, Audrey’s laugh!

Paul: You sound like Groucho

Melissa: You sound like you sound like a smoker or something [laughter] oh no.

Paul: All right Jordan I kick it off.

[Film facts theme plays]

Film facts: About the movie (01:40) 

Hosted by Jordan

[Punky rock music segment intro]: 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. Film facts, film facts, film facts!

Jordan: Prancer was a family drama directed by John D. Hancock. Now the thing about John Hancock that I read was that he was from the area that the movie was based. Tthe movie is filmed mainly in Three Oaks, Michigan, and La Porte, Indiana, and his family had a farm out there that he spent summers on. And so he spent a lot of time there.He had a lot of love for what the area reminded him of or how it looked, and he says specifically about the town in Michigan, is that it hadn't changed since, in like 50 years. And so everything kind of looked the same and he really liked that kind of small town, olden feel for the look of this movie.

The screenplay was written by Greg Taylor, who actually did the Jumanji screenplay. And this one started some pretty big people. Stars (human stars): Sam Elliot from Tombstone and Big Labowski, Cloris Leachman from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Abe Vigoda from Godfather and Look Who's Talking and then Johnny Galecki from Christmas Vacation and Roseanne. And then Ariana Richards, who was Lex in Jurassic Park, she played kind of like the teenage hacker from Jurassic Park. So then the main character of this one is Rebecca Harell Tickell and she did not — she acted in like a few more things, but she's now like a director and does her own thing. 

As far as box office goes, this one had a budget of $7 million and it returned $18.6 million through box office sales, so it was a pretty good success. The reception here was 6.4 on IMDb, 67% Rotten Tomatoes, and a 50% audience score. And I think the overall consensus over a lot of the reviews that I read was that it was a sweet movie, nice Christmas time feels, if not a little overly sentimental in some places. But generally regarded as okay.

Melissa: And, like, slightly depressing at some points. 

Paul: Tonally all over the place.

Audrey: I feel like the okayest Christmas movie is maybe the best description there is.

Paul: For this… yeah okay, so it also had some competition that year. It ranked 62nd for the year 1989 in box office return. So imagine 61 movies did better than Prancer.

Melissa: oh wow 

Paul: That’s not that hard.

Jordan: Stop, okay! It still did well, it was a success. But, Batman came out in 1989, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Back to the Future 2, the original Pet Cemetery. And on opening weekend it had to compete with The Little Mermaid, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and Harlem Nights. Melissa:Yeah, there's no way. 

Jordan: I mean it was stacked — ‘89 was a stacked year. 

Paul: Those were all bangers, dude.

Jordan: But it still did pretty good. People still remember it quite fondly as I'll get into a little bit later. 

Movie summary (04:23) 

Jordan: So what happens in the hour and a half, or so, that Prancer is on screen? It starts off, we see 8-year-old Jessica Riggs. Her story is she lives with her dad, John, played by Sam Elliot, and her brother, Steve. And their mom, her mom has passed away, and he's raising them as a single dad, with help from the aunt from time to time.

They have an apple farm and it's not doing very well this year.

[Audrey, in a gruff imitation] We got apples. All you can eat is apples. We got apple pie, we got apple turnovers, we got apple bananas… 

Jordan: He went on a rant about apples. 

[Audio playing] “We got apples. You can eat applesauce and apple cider and apple pie. There are stewed apples and baked apples, dried apples, apple butter. Heck no we're not going to starve.” 

Audrey: I feel like they were pooping all the time.

Melissa: They had to have been.

Jordan: Yep, definitely had no issues with that in the fam. Um, it kind of just it introduces us to Jessica, it shows that she's kind of rambunctious as like there's this weird joke about her singing really poorly and loudly in music that kind of serves as the opening. 

[Audio playing of high-pitched, off key singing]. 

Melissa: Ugh, her voice.

Jordan: So that's it. Kind of just that introduces her character and kind of her charm. 

And right away she's got this on again, off again friend Carol. They're like best friends and then they're not. Well, they get into this discussion about “is Santa real?” Carol doesn't believe it. she's like, “well just think about it.”

Melissa: Carol's very progressive.

Jordan: Immediately Jessica's like “well what about if Santa's not real, then God… what, and then like my mom.” Immediately there's like this drama about her feelings about her mom and whether or not Carol's sensitive to that. And so there's a big fight.

Audrey: But I also feel like it gives us a really key insight into Jessica's character and the reason she so strongly wants to believe.

Jordan: Yes, exactly. On their way home from the Christmas musical they spot this reindeer it kind of goes away. They're like, oh it's a real reindeer! She sees its tracks in the woods, tries to go — she's about to go find it, and then her dad drives by in a truck, somehow on the road. And like “Ah, get in here! What are you doing?” and grabs her back. 

Right as they're about to leave, they see the reindeer in the middle of the road and it's injured and the dad's going to, like, put it out of its misery. Just immediately that's where he goes. He just grabs his rifle and she's like “no, no, no, you can't!” And when they look back it's gone. 

So they go home, she dreams about him that night and wakes up. And this leads her to go outside and she actually finds this reindeer in her barn, and she's like well you can't stay here, my dad will kill you, let's go to the shed. She has to take it out of her barn and take it to the shed. 

So she gets Abe Vigota to help — he's like the town vet — she tells him that it's a cow or something that she's nursing back to health. And he comes over and it's a reindeer he's like “no, your dad's just going to kill it,” and he kind of goes away. But I think she does convince him to help. 

And she just happens to be talking to a guy… oh, he's the mall Santa. So she's like “I know that you're not the real Santa, but you can get this letter to Santa., I have this reindeer he really needs.” And this guy is like “oh this is super cute,” so he tells his newspaper friend. 

The newspaper man writes an article about it, which ends up getting published in the local newspaper. So, then the dad hears about it and all the people around town hear about it and everybody gathers back at their house. And the dad's about to shoot it again because the reindeer had gone around the barn and let all the animals out and then was in the house wrecking things. And he tries to kill this thing and he points the gun and everybody's just, like, ducking out of the way, and they're like “Please don't kill it, please don't kill…” 

[Clip playing, ominous music, gunshot sounds, people shout “he’s got a gun! Don’t shoot, don’t shoot”]

Jordan: So, he doesn't kill it he, ends up selling it to Mr. Drier put it on display, and Jessica's horrified because everybody's just going to pay to see this reindeer. And he looks unhappy, and he has to get back to Santa because she's told Santa that she's going to meet him at this special place. 

She decides to go break him out, her brother advises against it but decides he better go help her because there's no talking her out of it. The most horrible scene in the movie comes because as she's, like, up on this tree for some reason trying to get this gate open to get the animal out, she falls out and smacks her head on the ground.

Melissa: That part…We, okay, I'm not going to lie, we might have rewound it — that's not even the right term, ‘cause it's not a VHS tape — [Jordan: watched it over] Watched it over because it was just terrifying and it looked real. It looked legit. 

Audrey: Girl fell face down in that snow.  

Melissa: Yeah, she face planted hard.

Jordan: So, she's injured, she has to go back home, and she's just beside herself. She thinks Santa's, you know, going to be missing out and finally her dad's like “well you know, I'm grumpy all the time because the farm's not doing well, but I don't really care about the farm as long as I have you. Without you there'd be nothing.” And that was the first, you know, nice or sentimental thing that Sam Elliott's character said the entire movie, so it's very poignant in the moment. 

And then they decide to go out and take Prancer, try to get him to meet Santa. Prancer runs away, goes off this cliff and they get to the edge of this cliff and they're like “there's only one place he could have gone,” but he's not down at the bottom of the cliff. They see Prancer like flying through the air and he joins Santa's sled.

Creature chronicles: About the animal actors (14:02) 

Hosted by Paul

[Piano music segment introduction: Hm? What's that? It's Creature Chronicles.]

Paul: Alright, it is time for Creature Chronicles. And, I'm going to be honest with you guys, we started the movie, I had to research what type of animal it was, because… I still don't know if I believe that reindeer are real. That's like one of those things throughout my life, I've just been like “wait, are they real?” And like part of me knows that they are, but I keep — like that girl, Jessica, when she fell from the cage and like lost her memory, I keep doing that to myself, and I keep just forgetting if they're real or not, and have to keep looking it up.

Jordan: Yeah, I know what you mean. Like you know that they're real, but like when you think about them you think that they might be like made up for Santa stories.

Paul: Yeah, yeah. So the lead actor in this film who played Prancer was a reindeer named Boo. And, yes she is a “she,” not a “he.” And there were actually technically six reindeer who took part in the role, but I couldn't really find much information on it.

Boo was just, like, the principal actor in this and yeah that's all I could find. And I'll start off by saying that most of the information I found about Boo and her journey is from AL.com, which is an Alabama-run website and then Christmas Tales from Alabama by Kelly Kazak and the website alfafarmers.org. 

So, let's start off a little bit by talking about reindeer. They are large mammals in the deer family. Reindeer and Caribou are technically the same species, but they're named differently based on the geography. 

So where are they found? They're found across northern Europe, Siberia, North America, and Russia, Iceland, and a bunch of different other places. So they're kind of like all over, so my point about not knowing if reindeer are real… apparently they're f******* everywhere. I just I missed it somehow.

What's interesting about reindeers is there's like some kind of weird, cool, interesting facts about them. Both the males and females grow antlers, which is very unique among deer species. Their hooves adapt to the different seasons, so they get broad and soft in the summer and then they get sharp edged in winter for traction.

Melissa: I think their hooves are really cute, by the way. They're like big, they're different looking.

Audrey: You know I had it looked, but now I'm very curious 

Melissa: They're cute.

Paul: So, along with the different seasons their eye color changes as well. In summer and winter to adapt to the light. [Melissa: Whoa]. They're like Transformers basically, and like in spring they transform into a car to be able to drive on the roads.

Jordan: They don’t.

Paul: They also have tendons in their rear ankles that click, so when you hear that song … “Up on the rooftop — [everyone expressing disbelief] — click click…supposedly it's true. Hey guess what? Guess what? I didn't write that song and I didn't make up reindeer.

Jordan: He's gonna say “one of my facts was fake, which one was it?” and I'm calling it now, this is fake.

Audrey: Oh, Jesus it's because, it's because their tendon slides over their bone.

Paul: yeah what up! 

Jordan: Stop celebrating, she didn't say that's why they call it click click click in the song.

Paul: Well I think they're just saying that they…

Jordan: Made that up to sound. cool yeah that part you made up.

Paul: No, I didn't make it up. I pulled it from a website. 

Audrey: One of the theories as to why they make this clicking sound is that it could help them find each other through the fog and, like, basically make sure they stay with their herd. So I mean I'm sure it probably evolved as just something, you know, just as a variation, that and it wasn't harmful, but it did help herds stay together, so it persisted.

I found a video where they're walking by and they're all like clicking everywhere 

[Audio plays. It sounds like hard rain or like applause in the distance].

Melissa: No way that's what that is! 

Paul: [singing] Up on the roof top, click, click, click, here comes Santa Claus Nick.

Audrey: Ok, no, Paul. That part is not true and I don't believe it.

Paul: Oh wait, do reindeers make click sounds? Hmm. Sounds like they do and guess what there's a song about reindeer walking on a rooftop and they click, they didn't say “stomp stomp stomp,” they said “click click click,” because I think — 

Jordan: I think, a horse —

Paul: Up on the rooftop “walk walk walk,” [laughter] not the song, “march march march.”

All right, some myths about reindeer because this is also pretty fascinating. A shamanism myth that most likely isn't true is that the Sámi people of Lapland, a region in Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia would filter and drink the urine of reindeer after those animals ate the fly agaric mushroom. The reason they did that is because if you eat the mushrooms just raw it induces vomiting, but if you drink reindeer pee apparently you get really high and you would fly. So when they talk about reindeer flying, they think that's maybe where the myth came from.

Audrey: Wait are you sure? Really?

Melissa: So are we doing reindeer pee shots this weekend, or what, what's happening? 

Paul: We should be. 

Melissa: Hell, yeah. 

Paul: And then like another myth is supposedly, like, when they're traveling long distances and migrating, they pee like every five to six miles and they basically said that you could measure the distance of it by following the reindeer piss or [attemping to pronounce] “por no cerama —” no “por no poronkus,” which is the measuring of distance reindeer… “por on kusuma,” which is measuring the distance of reindeer pee. Which is five to six miles.

See, I don't know I thought that was really interesting. Like if you ever get lost, look for the reindeer piss. If you're heading in the right direction, six miles from where you're at, you'll know if you're going the right way. 

Jordan: So yeah if you, you get six miles and then you're like “I don't see any more,” then you, what do you do …?

Paul: oh man you go back. [Laughter] I know. 

So let's get into the history of Boo because that's what everyone came here for, right? The history of Boo. Boo was born in Nome, Alaska, in 1974 or 1975 I'm having a hard time find the official year. 

But she was purchased by an Alabama Huntsville rancher known as Bobby Baldwin in 1980. He was the trainer in the Handler for Boo, basically her entire life. So at the time he purchased six deer and this was in Alaska, driving them all the way to Alabama, and five made it back, including Boo.

But like if you can imagine their home turf is like cold weather and Alabama is like the exact opposite of…

Jordan: Alabama is not cold weather.

Paul: Yeah yeah, and it is just an insane journey. It was over 4,000 miles from home to where she ended up in Alabama. She lived in this farm in a temperature controlled area.

Boo was actually known to be very skittish when she was on the farm and that's actually how she received her name Boo. Bobby actually used the reindeer as like a “Meet a real reindeer,” kind of thing with Santa Claus, and so in that time he realized that she was really good with dealing with children. 

So in 1987 Baldwin came across an advertisement requesting for reindeer to audition for a Christmas movie —

Audrey: [laughing] Who puts on a casting call for reindeer?

Paul: That was my exact thought. I made sure to copy it for that reason, because I was like what the f***, like “calling all reindeer.”

So, basically he took several reindeer to the audition and he brought Boo because he thought that she would actually probably be awesome with the child on set, Rebecca, and so it actually turns out that was the case. Boo and Rebecca Harell Tickell actually had a very strong rapport together. They connected a lot on set.

But another reason that Boo got the job was because she was actually pregnant and the reason for that is because pregnant reindeer actually hold on to their antlers longer. And because the filming was going to take place between January and March they wanted to have, like, insurance that she was going to keep her antlers. And actually the day after they stopped filming she lost her antlers, so that was an insane coincidence.

Paul: Baldwin mentioned very little bit about how she was on set, but apparently she was a team player. There were a couple shots in a snowy forest where she had to run alone, and I guess maybe they were worried about the other reindeer running away, but she always returned back to set whenever they were filming because she was herd animal and you always want to be a part of the herd.

That being said, not all reindeer are created equal and some of the other reindeer I guess bordered on being completely untrainable. They were either camera shy or downright stubborn in their refusal to look into the lens, and at times dangerous when they aimed their antlers at whoever was nearby. So that was a quote from Herby Hancock, who recalled letting the camera roll through a 1000 feet of film just trying to get the reindeer to look directly into the camera.

So after the film was complete, Boo actually showed up to the premiere of Prancer, which is awesome. And after that she made numerous promotional appearances nationwide for Orion pictures. But after that she returned to the farm to live out her life. 

And one thing about reindeer, they have an average life span about 17 years but this boss b**** lasted for an extra 5 years. So she died at the age of 22 in 1996.

Melissa: That's impressive.

Paul: And she'll be remembered for really enjoying her time with children because, as I mentioned, she was doing the Santa Claus like meet and greets at like malls and stuff like that. And so she was always friendly towards kids.

Now I want to swing over to talk a little bit about Bobby Baldwin just because this guy seemed super interesting and just completely genuine. So, as I mentioned this was a trainer who purchased. He worked second shift as an electrician at a nuclear power plant when kind of almost out of the blue he told his wife Merlene that, [imitates Baldwin] “you know, I've always heard of Santa Claus and his reindeer, but I've never actually seen any. I just want to make that dream come true.” And so his wife is like, “you son of a b****, I'm in. So they purchased that first collection of reindeer. 

And he thought raising reindeer would be not that difficult and that his work would only be like one month out of the year to do the job. And he, like, his whole career is basically realizing just how wrong he was about this whole thing. 

Because when he first got them to the farm, he put them in air conditioned units but they ended up getting pneumonia and then he learned after the fact that he had to use fans. He thought they'd be easily trainable and that they would just like pull sleighs, but they weren't easily trainable, they — 

It was hard work and so he actually had to sit on a bucket and just sit in the room with them for hours until they got used to him. So like this guy walked in flipped over a buck and just sat there looking at the reindeer. 

And then there was a tickborne disease that killed 26 reindeer in a month. It basically almost wiped out his entire crew. 

This was later on after he amassed more reindeer and like it almost killed his spirit, but his family basically got in the ring and were like, “you got to keep doing this.” 

Audrey: “You've got to keep raising reindeer.” 

Melissa: “You sunk all of our money into this, you have to keep going.”

Paul: Yeah, basically. Why did he do all this? Well it's because he honestly just wanted to bring like the Christmas spirit to children. So the dude just seemed like he cared a lot.

Jordan: He had a good heart.

Paul: Yeah yeah. And he just his journey through like basically f***** up with reindeer. I just thought thought was really fascinating and interesting and uh a nice little icing to the cank of Boo’s life.

Melissa: Really quick, it sounded like you said “icing on the cank.” 

Paul: Yeah, I thought that was the “icing on the cank, you know.”

Melissa: I'm sorry “icing on the cank is f****** hilarious,” 

Paul: So that was the icing on the cank. 

Melissa: I'm sorry, I had to get that out.

Paul: That's all I got from my section. I'm now going to turn it over to Audrey to talk about Movie Magic.

Movie magic: How did they make the animals do that? (27:41) 

Hosted by Audrey

[Soft music, echoing voice: "Get ready for: movie magic."] 

Audrey: So here's the deal. There's some Movie Magic to talk about, but the main thing to know about this movie is that I feel like the director just did whatever the f*** he wanted. He also seems like kind of a doofus. 

Anyway, he talked about the reindeer being basically borderline untrainable, refusing to look at the lens or were camera shy. They could be dangerous so naturally let's put them with a child. And Jessica actually talked about this, “But that was a real deer and I was feeding her,” she said. “There were a lot of people who were very nervous about the amount of stunts that I was doing and also working with this live animal, but I loved every second about it, and my mom was very open about it, so we weren't too worried about my participation.”So this is just one example of them putting Jessica in danger.

So if the reindeer are so untrainable, how did they get them to cooperate? Number one: bananas. They just fed the reindeer buttloads of bananas. 

So one one repercussion of this that I thought about is that if they were staying in a hotel and Dunston's owner was trying to find him, he'd have a really hard time. Because if he went into the hotel system and looked up, did a search for, banana… 

Jordan: he would have been confused by all the bananas. Oh my God. 

Mel: It all came first full circle.

Jordan: We're uncovering patterns in the industry.

Paul: So when you said you were knee deep in your notes beforehand was that what you were putting together? The Dunston connection? 

Audrey [laughing]: No, that one I came up with as soon as I read about the bananas. 

[laughter]

Audrey: Sorry. So, yeah, orangutans, reindeer they're basically the same thing. I was curious...this is [laughs], this is [laughs], these are the notes [laughs] that that

Paul: Jesus Christ 

Melissa: Audrey's not okay right right now.

Audrey: what I was actually [extended laughing]

Jordan: Wait, is she telling a joke? and can't get it out? 

Melissa: Were you knee deep in ankle clicking?

Audrey: No, I was knee deep in reading about reindeer husbandry and what they really needed to eat. Which is so useless. [laughs].

Melissa: What is happening? 

Audrey, laughing: but spoiler alert [laughs] it's not bananas [Paul laughing]. 

Melissa: I don't know what's happening right now. 

Jordan: What is it? Okay, wait sorry, so it gets them to be virile? Is that what they're, the best things to eat?

Audrey: Sorry, so I got curious after the bananas about what they should actually eat. Like what does a reindeer husbandry guide say? And just thought it was funny because Paul asked me what had got me so distracted in my notes and that's what it was. It's just like stupidest reason to get distracted. So anyway... 

Melissa: Oh my God.

Audrey: It's not bananas. But in the winter in the wild I thought it was really interesting that they mainly survive on lichen, and if you're not familiar with lichen, it is like the crusty green, you know, like flat green that you see on trees. It's like a symbiont between fungus and algae. But anyway they survive on that in the winter. That's a really cool adaptation. [Jordan: huh, yeah]. 

So anyway, how do they get them to cooperate? Bananas number one, just like if they were an orangutan. And then the other way that they got them to look where they wanted to look... can you guys guess how they got them to do that? 

Jordan: Wait, those clicker things that they used with the cat in "That Darn Cat."

Paul: Oh, I was gonna say like a banana just they would hold it up and have them look at it. 

Melissa: How about like a, like a mating call or something?

Audrey: No. They'd play peekaboo with another reindeer. 

[Paul, Mel, and Jordan]: What?

Audrey: Yeah, so what they would do is they' they'd put one reindeer offset and like cover it up with a blanket or something. And then the other reindeer, wherever they wanted him to look, is where they'd put the other reindeer that was off camera. And then they like pull the blanket down and the reindeer would like "wha, whuh?" and that's how they got him to look. The director in the behind the scenes thing, he said, he called it "peekaboo," so I thought that was kind of interesting.

The fake snow, there was some interesting movie magic going on there. For the flying snow they used potato flakes, but they had to sweep it up all the time because otherwise birds will eat it and it'll expand in their stomach. 

Melissa: Whoa 

Paul: Oh cool [laughs].

Audrey: So anyway, they used potato flakes. And then the snow on the ground, they use the same stuff that they use on airport runways to prevent fires which is like a firefighting foam. But here's what, the kicker with this: I was like that's a lot of that substance to be putting all over this town, what is it made out of? And it's banned in a lot of places now because it's made, it has uh PFAS in it, which are a type of pollutant that cause a lot of problems --- they can,  it can cause cancer and hormone disruption, all these different things. So they just put it all over, 

Jordan: and Paul: All over town. 

Melissa: It was the 80s they didn't give a f*** if it was nowadays...

Audrey: But now, I'm really curious if this town is like a cancer cluster or something because of all this stuff. Cause it was like near the water, it was everywhere. As an ecologist, I was just immediately like, "They did what now?! They put this foam all over?" 

Melissa: It's a different time in in the 80s.

Audrey: Yeah, it was a different time. A woman in behind the scenes video is talking about how when she was a little girl, she played an extra during Prancer and she always wanted to go play in the foam and her mom was like "No." [laughter]

So anyway after they blew their entire budget on potato flakes and foam, they couldn't afford to get Jessica, apparently, some real warm clothes that look cheap. So she's quoted as saying that that her character was supposed to be poor compared to the other character, the Jurassic Park actress, who was supposed to be wealthier. So while that actress had all these, like, warm new clothes on, they put Jessica in like [Jordan: Oh no] ragged clothes [Paul: Oh God] and she was like, "And so I was out there in the cold and not properly dressed and that was... looking back at all of the work and all of the most challenging moments, it was definitely difficult." 

Melissa: Wow, yeah 

Paul: Wow

Audrey: So once again, this is an example of reading an interview with her where I feel like she's realizing, like "wait a second..." 

Paul: Yeah that's, weooow.

Audrey: That was a really weird "wow," Paul. [laughter].

Paul: What? 

Audrey, imitating: Weoooow [laughter]. Sorry.

Another interesting movie magic is that they actually rebuilt the an entire downtown street of Three Oaks in a warehouse to film scenes instead of having to be outside for some of it. I was like, that's kind of cool, I guess.

And, uh, going back to the snow just quickly apparently this place is usually covered in snow in the winter it's like a very snowy place but this this winter they didn't have snow and so that's why they had to resort to the potato flakes. 

Paul: Put potatoes all over the town. 

Audrey: So there was one scene that I know for sure, because of a quote from Jessica, was a mechanical reindeer head. Can you guess which scene? 

Paul: I can't even remember much of the movie.

Jordan: I feel like I remember thinking it looked one scene was mechanical, but I don't...

Melissa: Just the head?

Audrey: I think so, that's what it sounded like. 

Paul: When it looks out the window?

Jordan: Wait isn't there a scene where it like, pokes his head up and looks at Sam Elliot? And then like [Mel: In the barn yeah]. Yeah, that's that's my guess.

Audrey: I don't know about that scene, but the scene where she was reading to the reindeer, it was mechanical. 

Melissa: Oh, gotcha 

Audrey: Probably because no reindeer wants to sit there and listen to a little kid read a book to them. 

Jordan: Especially with her horrible singing voice.

Melissa: That's what I was thinking.

Jordan: Kidding, had to bring that joke back.

Audrey: I have one more piece of movie magic, did anybody else notice the very obviously apple tied to an apple tree?

Melissa: I did not. 

Jordan: The apple trees wigged me out and I was like maybe, that maybe I just don't know anything about apple trees and that's what they look like. But it was weird.

Audrey: Well, are apples on the trees in the winter?

Paul: That's actually what I just thought.

Melissa: That's what I was going to bring up.

Jordan: I would think they'd be harvested mostly by now. [Mel: Yeah] Paul: 'Cause like isn't that when they have the apple orchard parties? 

Jordan: Apple butter festival --

Audrey, laughing: Apple orchard parties. 

Melissa: Or like in the fall yeah, yeah. 

Audrey: So I was looking at it and I was like, wow that apple tree looks weird and there's one that's just very obviously tied to the tree.

Melissa: That's amazing.

Jordan: Also they didn't look like -- because we go to those apple orchards out here, I've seen what apple trees look like and these just looked like they were normal trees with apples on the branches. They weren't even growing off of them, yeah, I forgot about that.

Audrey: Anyway, that's all I got for movie magic.

Paul: all right I'll now turn it over to Melissa to do some fun things

Audience anecdotes (38:13) 

Hosted by Melissa

Melissa: Welcome to our animal reviews portion of the podcast. And, I just want to know what everybody thinks of Boo's performance as Santa's reindeer Prancer. I am going to throw out a rating scale of five Christmas cookies, that's like the max Boo can get. I thought that would be appropriate considering he ate like 20 Christmas cookies — he probably ate more than that to be honest. 

I'll go first, give you guys a little bit of time to think of your answers. But, I think, I think Boo did a really good job. I would give her four out of five Christmas cookies. I feel like her acting was was really good, especially even the parts where it showed her with the wound that she had on her leg, and like the limping looked pretty legit, and and definitely tugged on the heartstrings a little bit. And yeah, I would just say a solid four out of five for me.

Jordan: Three and a half Christmas cookies for me. I did like the limping part… I think the scene where Jessica was trying to coax the reindeer away was really cute and really cool. And then the scene where the reindeer was sneaking around house and like look — Sam would look out the window and he'd be through a different window. That was really funny. But nothing that seemed super crazy.

Paul: Like yeah I would probably go three myself if I'm being hypercritical. And I don't know if it's really like Boo's fault, but I just feel like they didn't take advantage of the story in the animal to like do anything interesting. And like this kind of weird, but like even though like she's supposed to be Prancer, I didn't quite get like a mystical kind of feeling from her. And I don't think that that's anything against her, again, but.

Audrey: Well I give her five out of five Christmas cookies, plus five heel clicks because [Melissa: whoa] this woman, this reindeer, [Melissa: this pregnant reindeer]. Pregnant reindeer. They dragged her pregnant ass out [Paul: That’s a good point] and made her [Paul: that's a good point] and made her go completely against her nature to do solo scenes with humans. And like walk through potato flakes and carcinogenic foam and you know what five out of five cookies for her because she did not need to endure all that. 

Melissa: hell, hell yeah. Women power, women power. She was pregnant, she was hardworking, she didn't give give no f**** .

Audrey: Yeah, apparently the actors on set were joking about wanting to eat the reindeer at the end because they were so uncooperative. So can you imagine some jackass drags your pregnant ass out to the middle of bum f*** Michigan, makes you wade through potato flakes and then is like “let's eat her,” like come on!

Melissa: Yeah, see the stuff we have to put up… now you guys know. Now you know. 

Paul: Alright, five reindeer clicks —

Melissa: Nope. No backtracking now. You got to stick — 

Paul, laughing: I'm editing this episode so five reindeer clicks. 

Melissa: No fair.

Audrey: Yeah, bet you feel like a jackass now. 

Paul, laughing: Yeah f*** you, Jordan. Why — Jordan giving it three and a half stars, what…

Jordan: I stand with three and a half. It's not a bad rating at all. Oh my goodness three and a half is a good rating. 

Paul: I give it five [sucking and clicking sounds while Paul tries to imitate reindeer heel clicks]. 

Jordan: Don't, that's disgusting. 

Melissa: Can we, can we not, can we, can we not, please. 

Jordan: It doesn't sound like a real click, you made that story up anyway.

Melissa: Now we're going to jump into the audience reviews part of our program. And as always, I went with a rottentomatoes.com popcorn meter and it gave the movie a 58%. Most of the reviews I feel like were pretty on par with what we've said so far. 

The one review that I did take from them is nameless, of course, but they did give it five stars, and this is from December 14th 2021. They said, “A wonderful heartwarming story set in Middle America about a girl's interaction with an injured reindeer that she cares for and comes to love. The audience score of 58% makes me wonder if they pulled an audience of people with the last name of Scrooge.” 

Shots fired.

Audrey: Did you see the review below that, that was like “oh five out of five because this is the perfect movie for me to show my kids before they had to open their Christmas presents [Jordan: stop] and prank them.”

Melissa: Oh I did see that review.

I also have a couple more reviews, but I went with LetterBoxd. It had an an average rating of 3.1 stars, I believe, out of five.

This review is by Miss Mayonnaise from November 28th 2024. She said, “When I was really little I used to love this movie. As I grew up, I began to hate it for how mean her dad was to her. As an adult, I always avoided it thinking it was too sad. Now after watching it some 30 years later, balling my eyes out, I think it's a masterpiece, but not sure if I can revisit it again. Watch with extreme caution. Also, I wish Sam Elliott was my daddy.” 

Audrey: What? 

Jordan: What a roller coaster review that was.

Paul: “I have kids now and I'm beating them based on this movie. Melissa: Nooo] I forgot how good of a tool it was to teach me how to beat the piss out of my kids.” 

Melissa: Hey, I don't think he beat her. He was just very firm.

Paul: He grabbed her very violently and I would not be surprised if he was angry enough he would give it the back of the palm.

Melissa: He was very angry, like he was a very convincing, very angry dad.

Jordan: He was mad a lot. He was hurting. 

Melissa: But, she also wants him to be her daddy, so I mean…

And then the last review, this is from Betsy. She gave it three and a half stars and said, “A 40 lb bag of oats [Melissa, in an angry voice] with a Christmas bow on it. [Movie audio of Sam Eliot angrily saying, “Find a 40 lb sack oats out there with a Christmas bow on it.”], favorite quote from the movie by far.” That's why I had to throw that one in there. 

Paul: Dude holy s***. 

Melissa: Next up is Surprise Scenario. So my scenario for you guys this time is: If you were the director of the nativity scene play that Jessica’s school is putting on — it I think it's at the very beginning of the movie — what role would you cast Prancer in and why? 

Audrey: Bebe Jesus.

Melissa: Oh, that was a quick answer.

Audrey: Because who doesn't want a baby Jesus reindeer? That's all I got.

Melissa: I think I would cast Prancer as the star. I think it's like the Star of Bethlehem or something? That guides the wise men to where they're trying to go. Because I feel like Prancer, and he was the one of the stars of the movie, and I don't know, I just feel like to me Prancer was a star because he basically brought the dad and daughter back together. And sort of helps them rekindle their relationship in a sense. So I would say he's a star. 

Paul: I was going to say I would cast Boo as Mary because — [Audrey: she's preggo] — We never learned how she got pregnant. [Melissa: Ooope.] We don't know, it could have been the hand of God.

Melissa: Could have been that immaculate conception. 

Audrey: Alright, I support that.

Jordan: I mean you guys have already taken most of the fun ones, so I'll just do like the ox flowing ox because it would be easy and natural she could just chill out and sit there and eat hay. And I know it's boring one, but you guys took all the fun ones.

Paul: I know she could be the three blind men. 

Melissa, laughing: Not three blind men! Not three blind men, they're the wise men.

Audrey: They could put like a Halloween mask on either antler and also her face. So she can be all three wise men of 

Jordan: She can be the three, yeah.

Paul: Oh, no it's like that cardboard thing where like they all move together in sync like, [Melissa: yessss], like [singing] “Hi we’re the three blind men, we bring you mirth [sic] and gold.” 

Melissa: I want to see Paul's version of this play because they're Three Blind Men.

Audrey: They bring myrrh, not mirth.

Jordan: So many different stories getting myrrhed [sic], stories getting myrhhed.

Melissa: Anyway, yeah um the ox sounds good to me. 

47:15 

Now we have the adopt, take to the no kill shelter, or taxidermy section of our show. 

Jordan: It's my favorite part of the show. 

Melissa: So the three options I have for you guys are as follows: Prancer, Carol (and Carol is Jessica's friend if you don't remember), and then Santa is going to be the third option. 

Paul: Whoa, Santa Claus? 

Melissa: Just going to shake things up a little bit.

Paul: I would take to the no kill shelter Prancer cuz I don't want to try raising a f****** reindeer in my house. I feel like that would be super hard and it would probably s*** everywhere because all we've got are some bananas in the house right now, and so that's not going to go well. I would taxidermy Carol because she kept f****** up throughout the entire movie and she needs to be taught a lesson. And then I would adopt Santa Claus because he's like a genie and he would give you whatever you want, like as long as you're a good boy. And like as long as I could convince him that Carol was an a**hole and should be murdered, then I'm gonna get whatever I want. 

Melissa: whoa.

Paul: It's a long game, but it's a good game.

Jordan: We can murder Carol?

Paul: For the taxidermy portion.

Jordan: Oh okay, okay, no I wanted to ask that's… we're not allowed to ask.

Paul: Or carbonite or whatever.

Melissa: Oh no here we go again.

Audrey: I would adopt the reindeer and then I would put it somewhere lovely for it to just hang out by itself, and I would occasionally take it bananas and lichen. I would send Carol to the no kill shelter because she's all right. And then I would taxidermy Santa and probably use him as a Christmas decoration in my yard. 

Paul: Oh yeah.

Melissa: Yeah I kind of like that.

Audrey: And since he's magic, he'd just come back to life anyway.

Melissa: Okay so I'm kind of torn between taxidermy Prancer or Santa just because they would make really nice Christmas decorations. And honestly Jordan and I do the bareass minimum with Christmas decorations outside. We just have some shitty lights. 

Jordan: We could definitely use a reindeer. Or a Santa.

Melissa: I don't know. I don't… I would probably taxidermy Santa. I think keep him as a decoration, I love that. I would take Prancer to the no kill shelter because, I just I don't know if I would have the means to take care of him and I feel like with all the deer in our neighborhood they would like get into fights. And then, it's weird but I would adopt Carol. There was just something charming about her. So yeah that's a little weird for me just cuz I'm not usually one for for kids. But I like Carol, she's pretty cool.

Audrey: I support that.

Jordan: I am adopting the reindeer and giving it a good life, probably chilling with it. Um hopefully I can train it better than everybody else could. And taking Carol to the no kill shelter, I guess. And then taxidermy Santa Claus because yeah we need a decoration and Santa's old.

Paul: Get out of here Santa.

Alright, you got anything else Melissa? 

Melissa: That's it Paul.

Paul: Alright, thank you.

Thank you everyone for joining our holiday episode. I hope that you've come to some conclusion as to if this is a good movie or not. I'm still baffled, but if you stick around with us next month we're going to be doing Wishbone’s Dog Days of the West. It's a 1998 film that stars Soccer the dog. So if you like the show, please go ahead and like, subscribe, leave a comment or a review. It just helps us grow the show. 

And thank you to everyone who joined us today, my co-host Melissa [Melissa: Happy holidays], Jordan [Jordan: Happy holiday— can I do that again? Happy holidays!] and Audrey [Audrey: Ho ho hope you have great holi— no, okay, no. Ho, ho, hope you have great holidays].

Melissa: Jordan just sounded like he was going to off himself 

Paul: Alright see you next month everyone.

Audrey: Ok, byeeee

All screen captures included in this article are intended to complement review and research of "Prancer"