Excellent, Without a doubt!!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM HONESTWe all grew up loving all the Rankin-Bass Christmas Cartoons. Every year I still love to watch "Rudolf" "Santa Claus in Coming to Town", "Frosty the Snowman" as well "The Grinch". Well here is a lesser known Animated Christmas Cartoon that in reality is a true "Christmas Story"In this special Outside of the city of Nazareth, a young boy and his father own four donkeys. Three of these donkeys are young and strong. The fourth donkey, Small One, is old and weak, but the boy loves him anyway. Every day, the boy and the donkey play together before they go to work, helping the boy's father to collect wood.The boy and his father take the donkeys to work one morning, as they always do. Many times, the boy loads Small One with small sticks, since Small One can't carry heavy loads any more. Small One even has trouble carrying stacks of small sticks and the boy helps to carry them for him.That evening, the boy's father tells the boy that he has to sell Small One. Devastated, but understanding, the boy asks if he can be the one to sell his best friend. The father agrees and tells him that he has to sell him for one piece of silver. That night, the boy comforts Small One and promises to find him a gentle and loving master.The next morning, the boy takes Small One to the market in Nazareth. Unfortunately, nobody wants an old weak donkey but the tanner, and he only wants to kill Small One to make leather out of his hide. After failing to find another buyer, the boy and his donkey return to the tanner's shop. The boy weeps, and Small One, accepting his fate under the tanner's knife, tenderly consoles the boy.Don't worry there is a very happy ending. This should be seen by everyone. The makers of this should be proud. There is not a false note in this.

Admittedly this is somewhat nostalgic, because I have watched this short movie every Christmas for years, but I think that the message of this story can be applied to everyone regardless of religious beliefs. The story is somewhat saccharine, but the basic idea is that everyone has a role to play and deserves dignity in his or her life.A small donkey can no longer live with a farming family because cannot earn his keep; the donkey is playful and good spirited, but he is older and smaller than the other donkeys. The patriarch tells his son that the donkey must be sold, but when the son brings the donkey into town, the pair is ridiculed and mocked. The son loves the donkey and is hurt over all the abuse that they suffer. The redemption comes when they encounter a man seeking to purchase a donkey who shows them respect and kindness. This man is presumably Joseph, from the Christian nativity story. He needs the donkey in order to transport his pregnant wife to Bethlehem. The point is that despite his meager appearance, this donkey will play an important role in history. Although the story directly relates to the Christian nativity, some of the main ideas should be relevant to every person. Each individual deserves dignity. Everyone has their place, and kindness should be shown to everyone. As I have said, the story is a bit saccharine, but there is a point to it all. I think this is a movie that can warm everyone's heart, regardless of religious beliefs.

I guess the outcome of a movie always depends on your expectations. Before seeing this one, I expected an emotional and innocent story told from a child's perspective. The first twenty minutes I was completely satisfied. It was a typical storyline for children; a child must face the realities of everyday life despite of their own needs. Only after that the Christian context was introduced. As I had no reason to expect such content, I was absolutely shocked. All I could think was why this nice little movie had to turn out to be Christian propaganda.Now please do not judge me just yet, think it over again. In the movie, we see people of different occupation and even ethnic background. From the children's perspective most of these characters are presented either as evil or odd, caricatures from the adults' perspective. Even in the drawing style this can be seen, as those characters contributing to the Christian content are drawn more realistically. If this movie maybe can not be called racist, it is clearly propaganda. Now if you think I'm taking this too seriously, I would like to remind you that although this is not a serious movie, children are the group most vulnerable to this kind of non-subtle propaganda; we adults can see through it.As an atheist I don't mind being introduced to different religions and religious habits. A little bit of religious touch does not hurt even mainstream movies; it is just realistic. However I find it strongly questionable to glorify one religion with this kind of historical fiction. It is an old trick used by political and religious leaders; make up fantastic stories of their own background, or even the background of their ideology. It just is dishonest, so stories with their roots in mythologies should either be realistic or either point out something important rarely noticed. But a made up story attempting to glorify the figures of Christianity... no good. Then again, the symbols and habits of religions are very deep in our culture, and therefore the attempts to create stories with no religious contexts are often doomed to fail. I do not demand that, I just demand fair play. Well, it IS a good Christian children's propaganda movie and it WAS done almost thirty years ago. Apart from the ending, it is very fascinating for pretty much everyone. The songs are pretty good, even the Finnish translations I heard. Some scenes are slightly intimidating, so the smallest children should maybe not see it. (Although nothing bad really happens, the atmosphere might be frightening, as the crew of this movie really knew their jobs.) Personally I would only give this for my children to see when they are old enough to see through the method (or small enough not to recognize the intertext), as I would want them to get a realistic idea of different religions.

Every Christmas I watch this film with tears streaming. It's a beautiful story about true friendship and the small donkey chosen to carry Mary to Bethlehem. It has light comedy, danger and pathos by turns. The title song "Small One" and the boy's song "Friendly Face" are sweet and memorable. The Merchants' song is fun. It is a Christmas tale that everyone will love and is timeless. A masterpiece from Bluth. 10/10