HORSING AROUND AT THE NORTH POLE
Tiny equine has big holiday dreams
A chance encounter with a bunch of miniature horses got Victoria filmmaker Jennifer Westcott thinking. And now a decade later her new animated feature Elliot the Littlest Reindeer stars a petite pony and is set to hit theatres and TV screens.
“I grew up on a farm for the first 10 years of my life,” said Westcott, who was raised in the Ottawa Valley. “We had a horse but I didn’t know miniature horses existed at all. Then we lived in Dallas, Texas, for a year. My husband was teaching at a university down there. We stumbled across a miniature horse auction. I was like: ‘ What are these things? These small weird horses?’”
At first, Westcott thought a miniature horse would be a great character for an underdog sports movie. But as time passed her idea evolved into a holiday film with an inspirational sports story as its foundation
In theatres on Dec. 2 and then VOD on Dec. 4, the $16-million movie centres on Elliot — voiced of Josh Hutcherson — a tiny horse with a big heart and a big dream to become one of Santa’s esteemed reindeer. An opening has come up in the team since Blitzen has decided he has had enough of flying around the world and wants to retire. Elliot and his bestie, a quicktalking goat named Hazel (Samantha Bee), decide to campaign Elliot for the much-coveted job.
The problem is Elliot is a miniature horse. Extra work and some extra costuming — insert fake antlers here — and the pair heads to the North Pole so Elliot can compete in the official and very demanding tryouts.
But it turns out there just aren’t reindeer games going on in Santa’s hood. While there, Hazel stumbles across a whole Christmas caper. To make matters worse, back at their farm a Cruella de Vil-type woman (Martin Short) with a love of stern minimalist fashion and big glasses has an unappetizing plan to buy the farm and, well, not to sugar coat it, turn the animals into jerky. Yikes.
The potential dining on Elliot’s pals aside, the movie is at its heart a sweet and funny story about sticking to your guns and not quitting. It’s about teamwork and the importance of family and friends.
Elliot is a sweet guy (Westcott said Elliot was inspired by one of her favourite movie characters, the sweet and slightly naive pig Babe) whose bid to become a reindeer is one you can easily get behind. Hazel his wisecracking pal has a big appetite and even bigger ideas and Bee is the perfect choice to voice a modern female character.
While it’s a movie geared mostly to the kids who still subscribe to the big guy in the red suit with the toys, it still has enough sophisticated humour to keep Mom and Dad from being bored to tears.
For instance, there’s mention of a mysterious “controlled substance,” that Mrs. Claus deals out to help the reindeer fly a little higher. And speaking of reindeer, Hazel explains why an eager Elliot shouldn’t get too worked up over reindeer popularity contests.
“Reindeers are jerks,” Hazel says. “They have always been jerks and they will always be jerks. Even Santa understands that — Santa!”
Joining Hutcherson and Bee as voice talent in the film are Deadpool’s Morena Baccarin as Corkie, the spunky girl reporter; John Cleese as a domineering reindeer dad; Jeff Dunham as the wise horse Peanutbutter; and the absolute scene-stealing Short as not only the evil female baddie but also as a sneaky elf named Lemon Drop.
Not a bad lineup for a first-time animated feature filmmaker.
“It took us a while to get the cast going,” Westcott said, “then they all just came together. It was just perfect. In my opinion, we couldn’t have had a better cast.”
Westcott’s story really started to take shape nine years ago when she won a couple of screenwriting awards, including the Praxis Screenwriting Award from the Whistler Film Festival.
“I’ve been rewriting it ever since,” said Westcott with a big laugh.
Elliot the Littlest Reindeer is Westcott’s first animated feature and she says the experience was great.
“It was so fun. Absolutely I would do it again,” said Westcott. “It’s whole new ball games.
“First, everything in an animated film needs to be designed and created — it ALL comes from nothing. Want another Christmas present in that shot? Then the art department needs to design that present, then modelling has to build it and then surfacing has to surface it. It’s not just a matter of grabbing an empty box and slapping some gift wrap on it, like in live action. Everything takes time. And effort. And money.
“Second, and this was definitely the biggest challenge but has really helped me become a better director, is that the movie is essentially made in the storyboard phase, not after you’ve been through a shoot and finally get to sit down with your editor. It was overwhelming at first, having to make all of those decisions so early in the process, but it taught me so much.”
In the end, it took four years to make the film — a far cry from the 10 days it took to shoot her 2012 live-action feature, Locked in a Garage Band.
Right now, Westcott is focusing on enjoying the launch of the Elliot film. Her kids and husband are excited for her, too.
“When I started this, the 16-yearold was eight,” said Westcott, who has kids now aged 16, 12 and eight. “They have been informing it the whole way.”
Westcott is glad her first animated film is a Christmas movie and she hopes it becomes one of those movies that’s annual holiday viewing — the kind of movies she says she looks forward to watching again every year.
“I really like Christmas. It’s so fun and I love all the movies at Christmas,” said Westcott. “You have this two-week break where you have all these kids kicking around. They need something to do. So a movie, why not?”