Olive, the Other Reindeer

Olive, the Other Reindeer
Genre	Animated
Distributed by	20th Television
Creator	Matt Groening
Directed by	Oscar Moore
Produced by	John A. Davis Matt Groening
Written by	Steve Young Book Vivian Walsh
Starring	Drew Barrymore Edward Asner Dan Castellaneta Joe Pantoliano Peter MacNicol Matt Groening
Music by	Christopher Tyng
Editing by	Paul D. Calder
Production company	DNA Productions Flower Films The Curiosity Company Fox Television Studios
Original channel	Fox
Running time	45 minutes

Olive, the Other Reindeer is a CGI animated Christmas television special written by Steve Young, and directed by Oscar Moore. The feature was produced by Matt Groening's The Curiosity Company and animated by DNA Productions. It first aired on December 17, 1999 on Fox produced by 20th Century Fox Television, and Flower Films.

The story was based on the 1997 children's book by Vivian Walsh and illustrated by J. Otto Seibold. Drew Barrymore voices the titular character, and also featured are the voices of Dan Castellaneta, Peter MacNicol, Joe Pantoliano, Jay Mohr, Ed Asner, Tim Meadows, Billy West, and Michael Stipe.

Plot

The story follows a dog named Olive (voiced by Drew Barrymore), who does not act at all like a dog. When she returns home from some errands, she finds her owner, Tim (voiced by Jay Mohr), putting away Christmas decorations and announcing morosely that there "won't be any Christmas".

Olive eventually finds out that this is because Blitzen, one of Santa's reindeer, is injured and can not fly. Santa hopes he can make the Christmas run with "all of the other reindeer". Mishearing this on the radio as "Olive the other reindeer", Olive becomes convinced that it is she Santa is referring to, prompting her to travel to the North Pole to fill in on the sleigh team. On the way to the bus station, Olive runs into an evil mailman (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) who is fed up with the stress of having to deliver the heavy loads of mail during the Christmas rush. He is vengeful towards Santa for being repeatedly put on his "Naughty" list and is determined to stop Olive from saving Christmas. She then meets Martini, a con artist penguin (voiced by Joe Pantoliano).

After buying from him a "Rolexxx," Olive goes to the "Mauvehound" bus station to buy a ticket to Arctic Junction. Martini shows up, and Olive buys him a bus ticket out of pity. Before they can leave the station, Olive is captured by the evil mailman, who tells people that Olive is wanted on several counts of mail fraud, such as "licking self-adhesive stamps and not mailing early for the holidays". After pleading to Martini to help her, Martini rolls several pens along the ground, tripping up the mailman. Martini and Olive then catch the bus right before it leaves, with the mailman watching them drive away.

On the bus, Olive and Martini talk to the Eskimos (voiced by Billy West) and Richard Stans (voiced by Tim Meadows). They all believe Olive misheard Santa, but wish her luck anyway. The mailman pulls up next to the bus in his mail truck, but Martini fashions a paper airplane out of stationery and throws it at the mailman, knocking him off the road. When they arrive at Arctic Junction, there is a one-hour wait for the next bus, so they go inside the restaurant for some food. After failing to rally everyone to support Olive, they order some food. The group does not know that their waitress is really the mailman, dressed up with a blue wig and a nametag that reads "Flo." The mailman lures Olive outside, saying that Santa is going to give her a flying test. Then, once outside, he throws Olive inside his truck. While he is driving away, Olive finds a package addressed to her from "Deus Ex Machina." The package is a metal file Olive uses to escape.

Back at the Junction, Richard says he can not give Olive and Martini a ride, because he is needed at the depot, and does not want to lose his job. The two go inside the Top of the World Bar, and are initially harassed by Round John Virgin and Schnitzel, Blitzen's flightless cousin. They apologize for their behavior "We're Not So Bad" and Round John Virgin offers Martini and Olive a ride to the North Pole in his vehicle, named The Polar Express. At the North Pole, Olive is denied entrance to see Santa, but Martini gives the guard a watch as if it was a gift from Santa. When the guard asks Martini to fix it, he says he needs to kill the alarm, because the electromagnetic waves will interfere with the signal from a satellite. Olive digs under the fence, and proceeds to find Santa. Besides Blitzen's injury, he's not sure he wants to go out on Christmas Eve, because he's received mean-spirited letters from some children. Olive convinces him that the mean letters from children are really from the mailman, since they have no postmark, and is put with the other reindeer to fly Santa's sleigh.

Before they leave, the mailman switches the toy bag with his own bag of junk mail and kidnaps Martini. After the sleigh lands at the first house and Olive realizes what has happened, Olive uses the mailman's scent to track him and scares the mailman out of his wits as he thinks Olive is a Ghost. Martini uses a jack-in-the-box to scare the mailman, who hits the window and is knocked unconscious. They retrieve the presents and rescue Martini, and then deliver the presents to the world "Merry Christmas After All". Lost in a fog, Olive guides them back to the North Pole by smelling the gingerbread cookies Ms. Claus baked. As a present, Olive is given a pair of antlers to wear. She goes home and makes amends with Tim, who is glad that she does not care if she is different from other dogs.

Meantime, bound with packing tape and cardboard wings, the mailman is put in the penguin exhibit in the zoo in place of Martini, and Martini becomes the new mailman, while everyone enjoys Christmas Day.

Cast

• Drew Barrymore as Olive
• Jay Mohr as Tim
• Joe Pantoliano as Martini
• Peter MacNicol as Fido, Olive's pet flea
• Dan Castellaneta as The Mailman of United States Post Office
• Billy West as Eskimos
• Edward Asner as Santa Claus
• Tim Meadows as Richard Stans
• Michael Stipe as Schnitzel, Blitzen's flightless cousin
• Tress MacNeille as the news reporter
• Matt Groening as Arturo, the elf that Round John Virgin threw Olive into

Cultural references

• Like the title character, many of the characters' names are well known mondegreens; "Richard Stans" (from the phrase "which it stands" in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance) and "Round John Virgin" (from "... round yon virgin" from the song "Silent Night"), for example. In the original book, Olive thinks she is a reindeer after hearing the line "all of the other reindeer" in "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". Incidentally, Olive actually brings up the subject of Rudolph, asking where he is, and Comet one of the reindeer informs her there is no Rudolph; it's all an urban legend.
• A signpost the mail truck passes reads "Frostbite Falls", the famous frigid home of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
• Martini, after being kidnapped by the postman says he is "shaken but not stirred" a reference to how James Bond asks for his martinis.
• Martini is the name of the bartender in It's a Wonderful Life.
• The "Merry Christmas After All" musical number includes cameos by Quasimodo, the Pope, Ultraman and Godzilla.
• The present that the Pope gets is a Philadelphia Phillies baseball cap.
• The falling letters in the "Christmas, Bah, Bug and Hum!" sequence are all addressed to Bart Simpson.
• Olive when talking about her owner Tim says "...ever since he was Tiny, Tim...."
• In the Cartoon Network airing of Olive, the Other Reindeer, the line "Tonight on Fox, The World's Wildest Mistletoe Accidents" is cut out.
• Martini makes a mention of Mr. ZIP in one line: "Plus, someone's gotta take care of Mr. ZIP."

Music

• "Merry Christmas After All" sung by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy with Drew Barrymore.
• "We're Not So Bad" performed by Michael Stipe of R.E.M.
• "Christmas (Bah, Bug and Hum!)" performed by Dan Castellaneta

External links

• Olive, the Other Reindeer at the Internet Movie Database