Here's hoping everyone had a very merry Christmas!
Even though it has passed, I still feel I should put out this Christmas entry that God inspired me on.
I'll be looking at what I consider to be a criminally- underrated Christmas gem, the 2009 animated TV special 'Olive, the Other Reindeer.' So, pull up a chair, pour out the last bit of eggnog or cocoa, and let's take a look at it.
This was based on the 1997 children's book by Vivian Walsh but greatly expands on its story, and was made by Matt Groening and his creative team for 'The Simpsons' and 'Futurama.'
As things start, we quickly meet Olive (Voice of Drew Barrymore), a plucky, warm- hearted little dog who deeply loves Christmas. During this particular Christmas, however, Olive is worried that her owner Tim may be disappointed in her because she doesn't chase cars or dig up flowerbeds like other dogs do. On top of all that, Olive and her pet flea Fido (Yes, you read that right) learn through a radio broadcast that Santa may have to cancel his Christmas Eve flight and present deliveries because Blitzen has injured his leg.
(Say hello to Olive; Credit for this picture and the next one go to the user Ngh93 on the Heroes Wiki, in this case at https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Olive_(Olive,_the_Other_Reindeer)?file=Olive_the_Other_Reindeer.png)
Olive hears Santa saying in the broadcast that the only way he can pull off the flight now is if "All of the other reindeer" chip in and help. She mishears "All of" as "Olive," and thinks it's referring to her, even though she's obviously a dog and obviously can't fly. So, she sets out on a trip to the North Pole to at least try to lend a hand in saving Christmas. She meets and befriends a rather shifty yet kind ex- zoo penguin named Martini (Voice of Joe Pantoliano) who decides to accompany her, taking along a suitcase full of phony Rolexes and zoo pens and stationary that he had been selling.
(Martini with his "Merchandise"; This image can be found at https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Martini?file=Martini_watch_selling.png)
Not everyone is so eager to see Olive succeed, however. Enter the special's villain, an evil postman (Voice of Dan Castellaneta, who's best known for his work as the voice of Homer Simpson) who hates Christmas because of all the extra mail he has to deliver. As the special goes on, you discover he also holds a spiteful grudge against Santa for putting him on the Naughty List as a kid. He's delighted at the prospect of Christmas being potentially canceled, and when he learns of Olive's intent, he does all he can to try and stop her from reaching the North Pole and ensure that Santa's sleigh remains grounded.
(The Postman, looking quite pleased at the idea of Christmas being cancelled; This image comes, again, from the user Ngh93, this time from the Villains Wiki @ https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Postman?file=Postman_%28Olive_the_Other_Reindeer%29.jpg)
Olive and Martini make it to the Arctic Junction, but the Postman causes her to miss the connecting bus to the North Pole. So, she goes into a pretty unsavory Arctic dive bar to see if any of the guys there would be willing to give her a ride the rest of the way. While they initially are mean and mocking of Olive, they quickly soften towards her, especially a flightless reindeer named Schnitzel (Voice of former REM frontman Michael Stipe, who of course sings a song in this; The opening to that song even sounds a little like the opening to REM's song "Everybody Hurts") and a trucker with the quite amusing name of Round John Virgin. The latter of the two gets Olive and Martini up to the North Pole in his rig.
Olive meets Santa (Voice of Ed Asner) and the reindeer, and while they are a little skeptical, they're still willing to give her a chance. Meanwhile, though, the Postman tries one last time to sabotage Christmas, by swapping Santa's bag of toys with a bag of junk mail and abducting Martini.
Olive of course stops him, recovers the presents, and it leads to a very merry Christmas for everyone.
"Olive, the Other Reindeer" remains easily one of my favorite "Off the beaten path" Christmas classics. In the twenty years since it premiered, I've never let a Christmas season go by without watching it.
There is so much to like about it, I hardly know where to start! One of the first things that sticks out is the animation style. It uses a fascinating animation style that I've never seen done before or since: The best way to explain it is, while the characters look flat and two- dimensional, the backgrounds and environments all look three- dimensional. It has the effect of making the characters look like storybook illustrations come to life, which fits, considering that it's based on a children's storybook (Though this is one of the few cases in which the adaptation is actually better than the book it's based on, as it has much more of a plot and better use of characters than the book had).
There are loads of incredibly funny and at times subtle sight- gags throughout the special, such as amusingly- named store- fronts and a sign in the Arctic dive bar that says "All icicles MUST be surrendered at door!" Another great one is when Olive at one point escapes from the Postman's clutches by finding a package addressed to her from "Deus Ex Machina" (Look it up), which contained a tool she used to help get away.
The songs in this special are all wonderful, too, very well- written and fun to listen to. Olive's opening song is great at putting you in a Christmas mood, right from the first notes of it. My favorite songs, though, are Schnitzel the reindeer's song "We're Not So Bad," and "Merry Christmas After All," sung by Olive and the reindeer (With the reindeer's vocals marvelously provided by the modern big- band group Big Bad Voodoo Daddy) in the end while they're delivering the presents all over the world (Speaking of whom, some of the recipients we see getting gifts from them in this scene are VERY funny, especially when we see them giving a gift to someone in Tokyo).
Now, let's talk characters. Olive herself makes for a truly wonderful unlikely heroine, VERY easy to root for. Drew Barrymore's naturally cheerful- sounding voice was a perfect fit for her. Even though so many characters in the special, even including Martini, openly tell her that she's deluding herself, is not a reindeer, and can't make a difference, she not only keeps going, but even manages to convince them of the importance of what she's doing and inspire them to cheer her on and help when they can. As Martini tells her near the climax when they've made it to the North Pole, "I don't know why, but you've even got ME believing this is gonna work!"
Speaking of whom, Martini proves to be a great supporting character. He ends up having most of the funniest lines in the special (i.e. When he learns that his old friends from the zoo saw his exploits with Olive on TV, he responds, "I hope it was a color set; Black and white doesn't do me justice!"). He also is extremely resourceful. It's really fun seeing the various ways he uses his suitcase full of "Merchandise" to aid Olive, from rolling a bunch of his zoo pens along the ground to make the Postman slip, to an honestly pretty brilliant way he tricks a North Pole guard into deactivating the place's alarm system so Olive can sneak in. Joe Pantoliano's voice works well at giving him a slightly sleazy tone, yet also one capable of showing care and goodness when the occasion calls for it. Its rather nasal tone also kind of fits with the squawking voice I could picture from a talking penguin.
The Postman makes for one of the best Christmas- special villains I've ever come across. He's one of the few I've seen who actually has a pretty valid reason for not being a fan of Christmas. Usually, those kinds of baddies just hate the holiday because they're jerks, but the fact is, Christmas is a VERY difficult time to be working in the mail/ parcel delivery service (I speak from personal experience, as someone who worked as a loader at a UPS hub for two consecutive Christmas seasons a few years ago; Basically, picture the "I Love Lucy" candy conveyor belt scene, with large heavy packages instead of chocolates), so I can definitely picture a postman not being fond of Christmas for that reason. He alternates between sinister and hilarious perfectly. Also, Dan Castellaneta does an amazing job with his voice (He in fact won an Annie Award for it, very well- deserved), making him sound kind of like a cross between Homer Simpson and Vincent Price.
I can easily think of a couple great theological lessons that we can learn from 'Olive, the Other Reindeer.' One I can think of involves acting to help meet needs that we see. When Olive is in the Arctic dive bar, the various patrons there initially laugh at and deride Olive for her plan (One even says, "Let's take her up on the roof and see how she flies!"). Olive assertively replies to them, "Maybe I'm just a little runt with no antlers, but it looks like I'm the only one who's trying to save Christmas! You could at least wish me luck!... If you want me to fail, then I guess it's too late to save Christmas; It's already gone."
That is a very important lesson for us as followers of Jesus to learn. We're called upon to serve Jesus actively through our lives, not just sit on the sidelines (Or, even worse, become stumbling- blocks for those who are actually trying to make a positive difference for Christ). For instance, James 4:17 says, "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." Deliberately refraining from doing what's right, what God calls us to do, is directly disobeying Him, which is most definitely a sin. Earlier than that, James 1:22- 25 tells believers "But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word but not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." We can't just learn good lessons but then move on and not act on them; That will indeed ensure we'll be likely to forget them as time naturally passes and memories become fuzzy. So, we need to all we can to carry out what we have learned, producing Godly actions that can produce fruit that lasts through eternity. It's just a matter of having the courage, dedication and faith to turn words into actions.
Another great theological lesson to take from "Olive, the Other Reindeer" concerns the importance of not getting weary of doing good, using the Postman as a "Don't be like him" cautionary example. As I said earlier, his dislike of Christmas is rather understandable, and something I can relate to a bit due to my own time working in the UPS hub around the holidays. However, when you listen to his (Pretty catchy) villain- song early on, "Christmas: Bah, Bug and Hum," it becomes clear how completely selfish he has let himself become. He focuses exclusively on the pain and discomfort that delivering all those cards and packages causes himself, and doesn't care in the slightest about the happiness and joy he's playing a part in and helping to bring others by delivering their Christmas gifts to them.
He's let his own inconveniences make him resentful of the good he was actually doing. In contrast, while my time working at UPS was downright horrific at times with the heavy workloads I faced, I got through it and kept a positive outlook because I kept in mind that, through what I was doing in that job, I was playing a role in helping other people to build some really happy Christmas memories. In fact, one of my mother's favorite Christmas memories concerns one Christmas when I was about five years old, in which my Christmas was saved as a gift she secretly ordered for me which I had really wanted but was frequently delayed, finally was delivered at the last minute, right on Christmas Eve. That miraculous delivery, and the great memory it brought my family, came about partly because of a loader at a delivery hub somewhere, a lot like what I did during my time at UPS. I came to realize I was essentially doing the same for a new generation of children and families, and that enabled me to not just endure in my job, but often do so with a smile on my face.
One day, when the Christmas season was starting to make our workload at the UPS hub really heavy, I opened one shift by telling my nearby coworkers, "As of this moment, WE are Santa's elves!" They laughed and conceded I had a point.
This is all most definitely a Scriptural message. Galatians 6:9 says "Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we can reap a harvest if we do not give up." Also, 2 Thessalonians 3:13 says, "And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing good."
It can be easy to get worn out in the work we are doing for the Lord, especially as it becomes more stressful and burdensome for us. However, if it is what God wants for us, we must endure, and I've found a good way to help with this is to keep our focus off our own inconvenience and on all the people we'll be helping with our good work.
So, there we have 'Olive, the Other Reindeer,' a marvelous hidden Christmas treasure which teaches valuable lessons on Godly action and endurance. Here's a link to a Youtube video of it, check it out if you want:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s54sLlRNmHc
That wraps up (No pun intended) this belated- Christmas edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. Keep an eye on this site for the next month or so, my annual Top 10 Favorite Movie Characters list is coming soon. Until then, merry Christmas, happy New Year, and may God bless you all!
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