How fondly I remember as a child sitting down to watch those holiday season classics where characters such as Frosty the Snowman and the Easter Bunny were brought to life through the wonders of stop-motion animation. Well stop-motion may be a relic of a bygone century, but the holiday animation continues. Employing, well, almost state-of-the-art CG technology, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys is a Christmas telemovie for a new millennium and a new generation.

All around the world, children’s favourite toys are disappearing at an alarming rate; spirited away by the fiendish ‘Toy Taker’ (Rick Moranis) for purposes unknown. At the North Pole meanwhile, preparations for Christmas continue in earnest and Santa and his helpers have amassed a tidy little stockpile of gifts. Well sick of his freakish celebrity, beloved Christmas icon Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer seizes the opportunity to escape the stuffy confines of Santa’s workshop and, accompanying his friend Hermey the dentist elf, travels to the Island of Misfit Toys to pay a house call on its ailing monarch King Moonracer. True to its name, the island is populated with an assortment of useless toys including a kite that’s scared of heights, and a piggy bank with no slot. You get the idea. On the return journey, sheltering from a storm Rudolph and Hermey also discover the previously unknown kingdom of Castaway Cove ruled over by an eastern European hippopotamus (Jamie Lee Curtis) and whose stock and trade is the fixing of broken toys (hmm... there’s a connection here, I just can’t put my finger on it...).

But while Hermey and Rudolph dance the night away with the royal hippo, disaster strikes. More evil than anyone could imagine, the Toy Taker goes for the big score; lifting Santa’s entire stockpile from right under his little button nose and having away with it! Things certainly look bad for Christmas, but Rudolph and his friends resolve to catch this so-called Toy Taker, retrieve the stolen toys and make the fiend pay - big time...

Narrated by Richard Dreyfus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys is a simple yet enjoyable romp aimed at your younger Santa groupies between the ages of, say, two and seven. With a plot that is simple and reassuringly predictable, and characters that are altogether happy and one dimensional, there’s nothing to scare or annoy your little ones. Certainly my two-year-old daughter and three-year-old niece sat riveted for the 70-odd minute duration. With set pieces including an Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom style mine car chase, the story chugs along at a steady enough pace not to bore the adults, while the couple of obligatory songs, including Rudolph’s well-known carol sung by none other than Tony Bennett, are dispensed with relatively quickly. All in all, whilst not a classic, your younger viewers are almost guaranteed to enjoy the adventures of Rudolph and his friends and I highly recommend it for some quiet pre-Christmas entertainment.

We have come to expect great things from Roadshow releases, and despite being full-frame, and obviously produced for television, the video quality displayed by Misfit Toys is impressive indeed. As is typical with DVD releases of computer animated productions, no artefacts from the source material or film to video translation can be discerned (a transfer taken directly from the digital source perhaps?) and the resulting image is crystal clean and razor sharp without undue aliasing or moire. Moreover, with its myriad of vibrant colours (that will hold your tiddlers spellbound), Rudolph’s world looks beautiful and bright on the small screen. Detail is good, but is ultimately limited by the very simplistic CG models and environments employed by the production – let me state now that this is no Monsters Inc. or Shrek we’re talking about here. Shadows are almost non-existent, but on the few occasions where the rendered scenes are not bathed in brilliant light, shadow detail is fine. All in all, with no MPEG artefacts introduced by the compression process, Roadshow’s release of Misfit Toys provides a great video presentation and one of which your little ones will thoroughly approve.

In terms of audio, in addition to the obligatory Dolby Digital surround mix, we are also treated to a rather dynamic Dolby Digital 5.1 track – quite amazing given the broadcast pedigree of the production. The sell-through market was obviously a motivator for the production right from the get-go! Certainly, what we get here in terms of audio certainly outstrips even the video in terms of quality, presenting a dynamic mix that makes aggressive use of all five and-a-bit channels. The surrounds, active for the best part of the running time, are filled with a nicely balanced portion of the score, as well as many ambient and directional effects such as wind and the tempest of a polar thunderstorm. In addition, panning front-to-back directional effects abound and channel separation is used beautifully to direct foley effects to all corners of the room. The subwoofer also adds its distinctive voice to proceedings, with the low rumble of the Toy Taker’s airship, the crash of rolling thunder, thumping jazz bass lines, and the kick drum of some soppy power ballads just a few of its welcome contributions.

In terms of extras there are few additions that your little ones may be interested in, but from my own experience, the target age group for this production is a little young to show much interest. Firstly there is a short commentary from director Bill Kowalchuk which, unlike traditional DVD commentaries, does not accompany the film itself. The reason is that the commentary is simply a short summary of the production (3:42), and is therefore presented over the top of a montage of pertinent shots from the film. While Bill discusses some small technical issues, this is really one for the kids and their short attention spans. Moving on, the trailer for the DVD and video release is provided, replete with that American voiceover guy, and another short featurette (1:05) is also included that compares wire-frame and fully rendered versions of Rudolf and his friends. Additionally, filmographies for the director Kowalchuk and the three star voice artists are also provided (yawn) and, lastly, one of the best features (and one that your kids may actually enjoy) is a DVD ROM addition that allows you to print out ten different Christmas cards featuring scenes from the film.

All in all, I have to admit that I enjoyed watching the adventures of Rudolph and his friends. While the plot is as simple and sanitised as this kind of holiday fare can be, the three young Turners I tested it on really did seem to love it. A nice Christmas-time distraction, its mix of colour, music and jolly big red guys distributing presents will provide your little tiddlers with a little sprinkle of Christmas magic these holidays.