On "Prancer"

There are just a few movies that I remember very well from childhood, or at least that stick out. At the time, they invariably seemed like good movies. There was the scifi saga "Time Trackers", which in retrospect I find it hard to believe was actually in theaters. There was "Joe Vs The Volcano, there was "The Secret Garden", and there was "Prancer". There were more, but my mind is presently on that last one.

I should describe the plot a bit. There is a little girl whose mother has recently died. Her father, a poor apple farmer, is a hard, distant man. He fears failing to provide for the family, and entertains the idea of sending his daughter to live with another relative. At this time, an injured reindeer appears and the girl presumes it to be Prancer, one of Santa's reindeer. The film revolves around her efforts to restore Prancer to health while also restoring the Christmas spirit in those around her.

I think I saw Prancer in the theater, and if so I was no more than six years old. It seemed like a pretty good movie. It had dark moments to it that were scary, among them the dark forests often seen in the film and some of the more curmudgeonly characters. It also had uplifting, magical moments. It was to me in childhood a serious, mature movie. I always have cherished the memory of it, but had not seen it since then.

Yesterday evening, I had people over to watch some VHS movies, as I sometimes do. There was "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", and there was Prancer. I had never seem the former, and liked it fairly well. I worried over how my friends would like the later, and indeed how I myself would like it. It proved to be darker than I remembered, with more dated 80s haircuts, and more of a whole lot of other stuff that's not so great.

Still, I think it holds up well in the end. The ending won people over, and I think they were still hanging around because of numerous stars such as Sam Elliot, Cloris Leachman, Abe Vigoda and others. It remains for me a cherished film, although it makes me worry over exposing anything else of the like to other people. It would really kill me if a personal favorite was entirely rejected. I'm glad this one wasn't.