Prancer Returns on DVD

Description

Sleigh bells may not ring briskly for this often-somber sequel to the 1989 hit Prancer, but there is plenty to like about its sympathetic characters and wistful storyline. Ten years after the little heroine of Prancer saved a wounded reindeer that might have been a magical member of Santa's flying herd, a friendless boy named Charlie Hooper (Gavin Fink) clandestinely adopts an orphaned buck in the same Michigan town. Convinced that he also has St. Nick's (apparently ever-wandering) Prancer on his hands, Charlie grows determined to lead the deer back to the North Pole. A finely balanced supporting cast (Jack Palance, John Corbett, Michael O'Keefe) brings some interesting textures to this simple tale of redemption and, hey, kids are bound to love the sight of a baby reindeer making himself comfortable in Charlie's bed. Prancer Returns may prove to be a minor holiday classic, worth revisiting every year when the trees grow bare and Christmas is around the corner.