It’s time for a film that actually gets pretty wholesome. I don’t think many people will be familiar with Nestor, the film even addresses this at the start. Well, he has a solid story that even draws a lot of comparisons to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The movie is fairly short as with most Rankin/Bass productions but still covers a good amount of ground here.

The movie starts off by showing us how Nestor has it rough because of his long ears. He is always tripping as a result and has to be reminded on how to use his ears by his Mom every days. Unfortunately she passes away after saving him from the elements and now Nestor is all on his own. He will have to learn how to grow up as he deals with some shady folks and then some wholesome ones. An angel tells him to hang in there because he still has a purpose that will be coming along soon.

The story actually gets to tie Nestor into the real meaning of Christmas as he turns out to be the legendary donkey that gets Mary over to the stable for the birth of Jesus Christ. Definitely a powerful way to conclude this and it really shows how far Nestor has come. He was in the right place at the right time although I suppose I was hoping he would have more of an individual moment of toughness. Sort of show that he has mastered his ears and use them to fight off a tornado or something in the desert.

He definitely had to endure past a lot of corrupt folks in the meantime although one of the owners actually got a last second redemption arc. Then eventually this led to Nestor being a legend within the Santa community as well. So the special goes over well and has solid pacing but I would have liked to have added a few more scenes Maybe one day we’ll get a Rudolph vs Nestor movie or something.

The animation is the classic stop motion style so it’s not really my style but it’s okay enough. You know I tend to gravitate more to a flashy hand drawn style but that’s just me. The stop motion still gets the job done when it counts. This time the soundtrack isn’t quite as grand as some of their other productions though. So it needs to really get by on the strong writing which is still good enough to keep it in the green.

There are a lot of cameos from other big Rankin/Bass characters at the end though like Santa and Rudolph. It was good to see the whole gang although it would have been even nicer if they could have gotten some lines. I suppose it might have been hard to get voice actors for such a quick scene but it would have been fun and really helped to cement the shared universe. In the end I suppose one of the MVPs here would have to be the guy telling the story from the beginning. It seems like even more people wouldn’t know about Nestor in universe without this guy spreading the word. It would have been sad for him to have been forgotten after all of this.

Overall, Nestor is one of those Christmas specials that never got all that much attention next to the others but you owe it to yourself to check this one out. It is a quality adventure and it’s not like it takes a big time commitment either. I would have liked his Mom to have survived though as that was a little sad. Maybe have her show up at the stable and explain that it was a Christmas miracle. Could have worked pretty well I think. On the whole this is definitely a happy special though and it was great to see it have that Christian influence in there. That’s always going to get the film some extra credit for remembering the true meaning of Christmas. The stop motion animation may give you pause for a little while there, but push through it and you’ll be rewarded with a good story.

Overall 6/10