Elliot the Littlest Reindeer

Elliot the Littlest Reindeer is a 2018 Canadian animated Christmas film written and directed by Jennifer Wescott and featuring the voices of Josh Hutcherson, Samantha Bee, Martin Short, Morena Baccarin, Jeff Dunham and John Cleese.^[4][5][6][7] When Blitzen suddenly announces his retirement, Santa needs to find a replacement. Against all odds, Elliot and his best friend, Hazel, set out to prove that he is the pony for the job. As Elliot and Hazel take on the North Pole reindeer try-outs, Hazel learns that Christmas may be headed for disaster. Meanwhile, back at their farm, a sinister lady threatens the lives of their friends, and Elliot is faced with the biggest decision of his life.

Elliot the Littlest Reindeer
Film poster
Directed by	Jennifer Westcott
Written by	Jennifer Westcott
Produced by	Lucas Lynette-Krech Victoria Westcott
Starring	Josh Hutcherson Samantha Bee Martin Short Morena Baccarin Jeff Dunham John Cleese
Edited by	Ali Lynette-Krech
Music by	Igor Correia Robert Melamed
Production companies	Awesometown Entertainment Double Dutch International Elgin Road Productions
Distributed by	Elevation Pictures (Canada) Netflix (selected territories)
Release dates	October 19, 2018 (2018-10-19) (Turkey)[1] December 4, 2018 (2018-12-04) (Canada)[2]
Running time	89 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English
Box office	$2.2 million[3]

Plot

At the struggling Witty Bitty Farm in North Dakota, Elliot, a miniature horse, dreams of flying with Santa's reindeer. His only supporter is a goat named Hazel. The farm, inherited by former baseball player Walter Whittick, operates as both a petting zoo and a training camp for reindeer, who are known for being arrogant and self-centered . Although Elliot trains too, his efforts go unnoticed by Walter. When Blitzen becomes the latest of Santa’s reindeer to retire, tryouts are announced at the North Pole to find a replacement. Hoping to save the farm, Walter believes his most athletic reindeer DJ has a chane to earn the position. Meanwhile, businesswoman Ludzinka arrives and offers to buy the farm's animals. Walter agrees to sell only the petting zoo animals, refusing to sell the reindeer, but Elliot and Hazel discover that Ludzinka's plan is to turn the animals into dehydrated food. In an effort to save them, they secretly stow away in Walter’s flying hybrid sled-car as Walter travels to the North Pole with the farm's lead horse Clyde and DJ.

Using disguises, Hazel signs up Elliot for the tryouts with an elf named Jolene. As the head elf, Lemondrop welcomes the reindeer and goes over all the reindeer who left before sending the candidates off into the first round of competition. Despite his small stature, Elliot narrowly advances. Clyde recognizes Elliot and Hazel, but Elliot pleads with him to keep his identity secret. During an afterparty for the competitors, Hazel follows journalist Corkie into a hidden room filled with flying mechanical sleighs. Lemondrop appears and explains that the sleighs were previously used to deliver presents due to the reindeers’ poor performance in recent years, describing them as a backup system. Corkie and Hazel remain skeptical. Meanwhile, DJ confess to his father, Donner, that he is afraid of flying. Donner pressures DJ to preserve the family reputation and secretly has him eat additional magic cookies that grant flying abilities for the next round, which involves navigating airborne hoops. Hazel witnesses DJ receiving the cookies from a disguised elf bearing a wrist tattoo. Despite DJ's advantage, Elliot achieves the highest score. DJ exposes Elliot's true identity after spotting Hazel. The revelation shockes everyone, but Hazel proves that DJ cheated by pointing out that he can still fly, having eaten the same cookies herself. Santa loses faith in reindeer and cancels the tryouts, deciding to rely on the mechanical sleighs instead. Afterward, Hazel suggests that she and Elliot escape with the other animals once they return to the farm, but Elliot, discouraged, believes the situation is his fault.

As Walter retrieves Elliot, he calls Ludzinka and agrees to sell her all the animals, including the reindeer. Hazel later notices Jolene's wrist tattoo and realizes she was the elf who fed DJ the extra cookies. Hazel leads Corkie to a device capable of translating animal speech, allowing Hazel to communicate with her. Using the device, Hazel and Corkie contact the reindeer who previously retired and discover that Lemondrop ordered Jolene to give DJ the cookies and orchestrated the reindeer retirements. They expose the scheme to Santa and everyone else. Feeling unappreciated for his work, Lemondrop confesses that he sabotaged the sleigh team to make Santa lose faith in reindeer and turn to mechanical sleighs, which he believed were the future. Enraged, Lemondrop activates a weather machine to create a snowstorm, but it spirals out of control. As everyone seeks shelter, Hazel is swept up in the storm. Elliot shuts down the machine and rescues her, earning admiration. Elliot remembers the animals at the farm. After Walter learns of Ludzinka's true intentions, he attempts to contact her, but she does not respond. When Walter's car fails to start, Elliot asks Santa for magic cookies so he and DJ can fly back to the farm. Santa, impressed by Elliot’s courage, offers him the position on the sleigh team, but Elliot declines in order to save his friends. Corkie accompanies Walter and the animals back to the farm.

Upon arrival, they find the farm empty and initially believe Ludzinka has left with the animals, only to discover that the animals have restrained her. Ludzinka is arrested and revealed to have been wanted by the authorities. Santa later arrives and announces that another opening has become available on his sleigh team. Donner admits that Lemondrop had been secretly supplying him with magic cookies to enhance his flying and voluntarily retires to be with DJ. Santa again offers the position to Elliot, who accepts. Santa departs with Elliot as a member of his sleigh team while the others celebrate.

Voice cast

• Josh Hutcherson as Elliot, a pony
• Samantha Bee as Hazel, a red goat
• Martin Short as Lemondrop/Ludzinka/Blitzen
• Morena Baccarin as Corkie
• Jeff Dunham as Clyde/Peanutbutter
• John Cleese as Donner
• George Buza as Santa Claus
• Angela Fusco as Mrs. Claus
• Robert Tinkler as Walter/Russian Coach
• Julie Lemieux as Olga/Computer Translator/Swedish Coach/Reindeer 1/Moshennika/Blueberry
• Christopher Jacot as DJ/Ignacio/Kitchen Elf
• Carly Heffernan as Sasha/Reindeer 4
• Steph Lynn Robinson as Dancer/Reporter Elf/Reindeer 8

Reception

The film received negative reviews from critics and has a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews with an average rating of 4.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "On Dancer, on Prancer, on Vixen, on Blitzen -- but off with Elliot: The Little Reindeer, a farcical Christmas romp that's only slightly more entertaining than a heap of coal."^[8] Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com awarded the film one and a half out of four stars.^[9] Tara McNamara of Common Sense Media awarded the film two stars out of five.^[10]

See also

• List of Christmas films
• Santa Claus in film