This special, based on a children's book but having very little to do with the children's book except for the art style, debuted in 1999 and was a very pleasant surprise.
Olive is a cute little dog voiced by Drew Barrymore. She begins the special by singing: "I love Valentine's Day and the fourth of July, I'm a little bit sad when Halloween has gone by, I'm thankful Thanksgiving comes around in the fall, but I've always loved Christmas the best of them all. Every day's special, I'm not complaining, but I always am counting the days still remaining 'til Christmas."
Olive meets her soon-to-be-sidekick, a penguin named Martini, when he attempts to sell her a counterfeit Rolex and tells her a sob story about being fired from the zoo. She kindly covers for him when a police officer gets on his case. And we have established that in this universe, humans and animals easily converse. Animals are capable of human actions, and humans have no trouble accepting this fact.
Olive's owner, Tim, is grumpy and complains that Olive doesn't act like a regular dog. He also says "There is no Christmas this year," and Olive is appalled. While she and her pet flea are wrapping gifts, they hear on the radio that one of Santa's reindeer has been injured, and Santa may have to cancel his flight. See, also in this universe, Santa is most definitely real, and no one questions it. He even talks to the press. He tells the reporter that he may have to make do with all of the other reindeer, which Fido hears as "Olive, the Other Reindeer," leading to an ah-ha that maybe Olive is actually a reindeer, and that's why she doesn't act like a dog. Here begins Olive's quest to save Christmas. If they can't fly because of one reindeer with one bad leg, you'd think this would happen more often-- but that will be explained later.
Tim tries to apologize for taking his frustrations out on Olive, but Fido the flea mistranslates and thinks Tim is getting a new dog and replacing Olive.
Time to meet the villain. In a special about a dog, it makes perfect sense that the villain would be a mailman. He is bitter because his job gets so much harder at Christmas. The mailman is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, doing the exact same voice he does as Robot Devil on Futurama.
Olive sets off for the North Pole via bus, accompanied by Martini. The mailman tries to thwart them, but they escape. "Grab onto my tail!" "Quit wagging it!" Hee.
Tim is heartbroken over Olive's disappearance, and actually says "Where oh where can she be?" Hee again.
At Arctic Junction, Olive, Martini, and the bus driver (Richard Stands, who used to think the Pledge of Allegiance was about him), go into the diner to get some food. Richard orders the deep-fried candy canes, which sounds interesting. Olive orders a bone with dressing on the side, and Martini orders the small dead fish sampler. I want to see this diner's entire menu.
The mailman poses as a waitress to lure Olive outside on the pretense of Santa looking for her. Then he throws her in the mail truck. There she discovers a letter to Santa from a child, telling Santa to stay away. After noting the strangeness of that, she finds a package addressed To Olive from Deus Ex Machina. I was a senior in high school when this special premiered, and I still didn't understand that. It must have really confused small children. It contains a metal file. So Olive escapes. Alas, she missed the bus to the North Pole, and Richard Stands has to split or he'll lose his job. So Olive enters the bar next door to the diner. It is occupied by reindeer, elves, and the Easter Bunny, as well as some human patrons. And they all look scary. When Olive introduces herself and her mission, a man and a reindeer respond by sneering and throwing her around. The reindeer is voiced by MICHAEL FREAKING STIPE. Seriously. They are about to take her up to the roof to throw her off when Martini intervenes, and the reindeer tries to take Martini's briefcase. Olive is getting pissed, so she stands on the bar and gives a speech about how their behavior is not in the spirit of Christmas and "Santa doesn't just give you stuff because you ask. You have to deserve it." They see the error of their ways, prompting an awesome song from the Stipe!reindeer. I remember when this originally aired, it wasn't until he sang that my brother and I were like, "Wait, is that-- it couldn't be-- but it must be!" And it was.
He explains their predicament pretty well: "When you're this far North, with no sunlight, sometimes tempers fray. Life's hard enough, and now Santa's flight, it's been an awful day. Employment in these latitudes depends on Old Saint Nick. So forgive us if we all have attitudes-- we're up a frozen crick. But we're not so bad, we're really sweet and funny, we're not so bad, except for that bunny." Oh, I love it. Please watch the video, you'll be glad you did. After the song, the Stipe!reindeer introduces himself as Blitzen's cousin, Schnitzel-- flightless, unfortunately. Martini: It happens. The man, whose name is "Round John Virgin" drives Olive and Martini to the gates of the North Pole proper, where the security elf is all, no, no, no so Martini devises a ruse involving one of his counterfeit Rolex watches and shutting off the alarm to make it work. Which the security elf falls for. And Olive is in! She manages to find Santa (voiced by Ed Asner) alarmingly quickly, and learns that part of Santa's willingness to cancel his flight is that he's gotten a lot of mean letters from children this year. Olive tells him those letters actually came from the mean postman (evidenced by the lack of postmark), and once hearing this, Santa is very quick to accept Olive's offer to be a replacement reindeer. Aw.
Oh, but the mailman's reign of villainy is not over yet-- he's stolen Santa's bag of toys! While being hitched to the sleigh, Olive asks where Rudolph is, and is told Rudolph is just an urban legend. I LOVE THIS SPECIAL. Takeoff, and... she's doing it! She's flying! And it's televised! I want to live in this world. Everyone in the bar is cheering Olive on, and her pet flea is singing "Olive the other reindeer, you'll go down in history!" Aw again.
Meanwhile, the mailman is cackling to himself, as all villains do. He reveals that his bitterness is not just about seasonal job difficulties, but also that he's been on Santa's naughty list since childhood. When the bag mix-up is discovered at the first house, Olive is on it, sniffing out the mailman's scent. And when they take flight again, it's time for one of my favorite Christmas songs ever, that I can't understand why the radio doesn't play it.
My favorite lines are "If you've got the Christmas spirit, let nothing you dismay. You don't springs, or wings, or strings to fly on Christmas Day. So let Olive's tale remind you, on this Christmas Eve: it's all right there inside you, you just have to believe!" That, right there, is my whole philosophy on life, on Christmas, and on faith. Excuse me while I tear up like the sap that I am.
Martini goes on a mission of his own: delivering the mail. All right then. Olive sniffs the crew home, and they feast on cookies. You'd think Santa would have had enough cookies en route. Last year, my nieces left Santa a lemon poppyseed muffin and some dry Cheerios. It was cute. The staff and crew also get gifts from Santa, including a set of antlers for Olive. Comet downs his cappuccino in one gulp, then takes Olive home.
Martini is offered his old position at the zoo back, but turns it down and brings the mailman in as a substitute penguin. That probably makes the least sense of anything in this special.
Olive returns to Tim, much to his joy. And we end with a nice little montage wherein, among other things, Olive gets strap-on opposable thumbs and Martini gets a job at the post office. Oh, and Mrs. Claus covers a tuckered-out Santa with a blanket, which is cute.
Visuals: 4 out of 5
Spirit: 5 out of 5
Nostalgia: 4 out of 5
Humor: 5 out of 5
Music: 5 out of 5
Overall: 4.6 out of 5
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