Main Cast: Sam Elliott, Rebecca Harrell, Cloris Leachman, Rutanya Alda, Abe Vigoda
Release Year: 1989
Country: US
Run Time: 102 minutes
Plot
If you know the Clement Clark Moore poem, you'll know that Prancer is one of Santa Claus' "eight tiny reindeer." When 9-year-old Rebecca Harrell, who still believes in Santa despite the remonstrations of her parents and the taunts of her peers, stumbles across the selfsame Prancer in a remote part of the forest, no one will believe the girl. Later on, Harrell's no-nonsense father Sam Elliot comes across a wounded reindeer, he feels it his duty to put the suffering animal out of his misery. The deer, of course, is Prancer, and it magically vanishes before Elliot's startled eyes. Harrell nurses the deer back to health in secret, with the help of kindly doctor Abe Vigoda and her troublesome older brother John Joseph Duda. Harrell is determined to contact Santa and let him know where Prancer is, but her efforts only result in public humiliation for her father. But this is a Christmas film, and the spirit of goodwill is contagious by fadeout time, even transforming town-recluse Cloris Leachman into a warm-hearted social animal. Filmed in Indiana, Prancer isn't quite a classic, but it's perfect midwinter videocassette entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Michael Constantine - Mr. Stewart/Santa; Ariana Richards - Carol Wetherby; Frank Welker - Prancer; Boo the Reindeer - Prancer; Jesse Bradford - Boy; Walter Charles - Minister; John Duda - Steve Riggs; Johnny Galecki - Billy Quinn; Mark Rolston - Herb Drier; Victor Truro - Mr. Young; Loren Janes - Mr. Soot; Dan Atherton - Town Man; Dale Balsbaugh - Mr. Wood; Belinda Bremner - Miss Bedelia; Terry Jayjack - Mrs. Wetherby; Joseph Morano - Boy with Santa; Sandra Olson - Town Woman; Marcia Porter - Mrs. Fairburn; Steven Pressler - Hank; Eric Sardeson - Boy; Shirley Starnes - Mrs. Hofsetter; Michael Luciano - Bert; Bethany Richards - (uncredited)
Credit
Marc Dabe - Art Director, Hester Hargett - Associate Producer, Craig Campobasso - Casting, Raffaella de Laurentiis - Co-producer, Mike Petzold - Co-producer, Greg Taylor - Co-producer, Denny Burt - Costume Designer, John Hancock - Director, John Rosenberg - Editor, Dennis M. O'Connor - Editor, Maurice Jarre - Composer (Music Score), Maurice Jarre - Musical Direction/Supervision, Lance Anderson - Makeup, William Badalato - Production Designer, Chester Kaczenski - Production Designer, Richard F. McWhorter - Production Designer, Eugene Shlugleit - Cinematographer, Mikhail Suslov - Cinematographer, Thomas D. Wilkins - Set Designer, Mike Menzel - Special Effects, Bob Porter - Stunts, Greg Taylor - Screenwriter
Jessica Riggs (Rebecca Harrell) is an 8 year old girl whose mother died of unknown causes and who is in the not very adequate care of her rough, quiet, protective father John Riggs (Sam Elliott). In the Christmas season, Jessica finds a hurt reindeer who she believes to be Santa's reindeer Prancer and sets herself on nursing Prancer back to health, and a deep bond grows between the two. She is helped by a friendly old veterinarian (Abe Vigoda), befriends the old town recluse (Cloris Leachman), and comes to forge a closer relationship with her older brother Steve (John Duda). She and her father often clash after he discovers Prancer living in the barn and, despite her widowed father revealing brief moments of deep love for his daughter, he does not understand Jessica's special love for helping the reindeer. After there is a misunderstanding and he sells Prancer to the media temporarily, his walls of hard feelings he built over the years broke down and he and Jessica finally forge a deep, loving bond. Jessica, after several emotional and physical struggles between her best friend, her family, and the town, manages to cure her beloved Prancer and set him free, where he is seen flying to the sky to rejoin the other seven deer of Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve.
