Olive, the Other Reindeer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olive, the Other Reindeer is an animated 45-minute-long Christmas television special, written and produced by Matt Groening of Simpsons fame and directed by Oscar Moore. It first aired on December 17, 1999, and was based on the 1997 children's book by Vivian Walsh and illustrated by J. Otto Seibold. It stars Drew Barrymore and features the voices of Dan Castellaneta, Peter MacNicol, Joe Pantoliano, Jay Mohr, Ed Asner, Tim Meadows, Billy West, and Michael Stipe.

[edit] Storyline

The story follows a dog named Olive (voiced by actress 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. 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, a flightless reindeer. They apologize for their behavior "We're not so Bad" and Round Jon 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 gets the guard to kill the alarms on the gate by giving him one of his watches. 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 the satellite. Olive digs under the fence, and proceeds to find Santa. She convinces him that the mean letters from children are really from the mailman (no return address) 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 realizes what has happened, Olive uses the mailman's scent to catch up with the mail truck. 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. 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.

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".

[edit] Trivia

When Santa's sleigh is flying over the Vatican, the Pope is given a red cap with a white letter P. This resembles the logo style of the Philadelphia Phillies. A Quasimodo-type character is also seen being given a back scratcher.
The group that sings vocals in "Merry Christmas After All" with Drew Barrymore is Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.