[usr 4]
When Blitzen announces his retirement on December 21st, a miniature horse has 3 days to fulfill his lifelong dream of earning a spot on Santa’s team at the North Pole try-outs.
“Elliot: The Littlest Reindeer” is a story about a miniature horse who develops the courage to compete for a spot at being one of Santa’s reindeers. This is a super fun holiday film that the whole family will enjoy because while it is light-hearted, funny, it is also relatable with many lessons about life, friendship and never giving up.
When one of Santa’s reindeers quits, just days before Christmas, he announces tryouts for a replacement. Elliot, (Josh Hutcherson) a miniature horse from a farm, becomes determined to go to the North Pole and enter the competition. With the help of his friend Hazel (Samantha Bee), he gets into the contest, disguising himself as just another reindeer. Throughout the competition, Elliot does really well, despite his smaller size and even the other reindeers are impressed. Meanwhile, back at the farm, a mean lady buys the property with the intent of turning the animals into meat jerky for profit. When Elliot finds out the farm has been sold, he is torn between quitting the competition and going home to save his friends.
I love this film because the storyline is strong and it has such great messages for all ages. One of the strongest lessons I took away from this film is the power of friendship. When Elliot is ridiculed by the reindeer in the farm about his size and how he will never make it as one of Santa’s reindeer, he never gives up. His friend Hazel pushes him to practice and gets on him when he slacks off. Hazel also helps expose one of Santa’s assistants as the one who was coercing the reindeer to quit so that he can sell his state of the art electric sleighs instead. After Santa sees how well Elliot is doing, he asks him to finish the competition and be a part of his team. Elliot decides to go home instead and save his friends at the farm. I thought this was so noble of him to do, give up his dream to save his friends that have always been there for him.
I also loved the way Santa looked past that fact that Elliot was not a reindeer and still offered him a spot on the team based on his hard work. He forgave him for trying to deceive everyone and saw that he had a good heart and really worked hard to earn a spot. Santa gets rid of the bad guy who was behind the reindeer wanting to leave and decided that he wanted to continue Christmas and his the tradition of using reindeer instead of electric sleighs.
The movie had great jokes, the cast was perfect together, and I loved the ending. Elliot got everything he wanted, a spot on Santa’s team and his friends on the farm were saved. This is an amazing film to see with the whole family for the holidays.
In select theaters beginning November 30th and Special One Day Only Screenings Nationwide on December 1st
