Prancer (film)

Prancer is a 1989 family film starring Sam Elliott and Cloris Leachman. It was directed by John D. Hancock. It is set in Three Oaks, Michigan, where town exteriors were filmed. Filming also occurred in LaPorte, Indiana, and at Starved Rock State Park in Utica, Illinois.

It was followed in 2001 by Prancer Returns, a direct-to-video sequel released by USA Home Entetainment.

Plot

Jessica Riggs (Rebecca Harrell) is an 8-year-old girl whose mother died of unknown causes and who is in the care of her rough, quiet, protective father John Riggs (Sam Elliott). During the Christmas season, Jessica finds a hurt reindeer who she believes to be Santa's reindeer Prancer. As she nurses Prancer back to health, 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).

Jessica 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 a misunderstanding, he sells Prancer to a business owner temporarily. His walls of hard feelings begin break 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 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.

External links

• Prancer at the Internet Movie Database
• Prancer Returns at the Internet Movie Database