Rudolph (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie)

Rudolph is the son of Blitzen and Mitzi, the nephew of Comet, Cupid and Dasher, the cousin and rival of Arrow, the best friend and later boyfriend of Zoey, the lead Flyer on Santa Claus's sleigh team and the main protagonist of the 1998 film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie. He is based on Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.

He is voiced by Eric Pospisal as a child and Kathleen Barr as a teenager with Michael Lloyd providing his singing voice.

Infancy
Rudolph first appears in the film as a newborn buck in his home lying next to his mother Mitzi before attempting to take his first steps to approach his father Blitzen, but trips and falls into a hay bale. Blitzen and Mitzi rush over to see if Rudolph is alright and see him emerge unharmed but lets out a sneeze and his nose lights up, to the shock of his parents. The next day, Blitzen and Mitzi take Rudolph a tour of their home, Santa's Village, where they meet up with Blitzen's three brothers Comet, Cupid and Dasher. Cupid playfully tickles Rudolph, causing his nose to light up again in front of the other villagers. Blitzen passes this off as allergies and quickly leads Rudolph away and he and Mitzi start to sing "What About His Nose". But when the villagers stars to laugh at Rudolph, the two take him away to see Santa's Workshop where Rudolph is given a teddy bear by one of the elves there. Rudolph along with his parents also witnesses an ice witch named Stormella arrive at the workshop, demanding which of Santa's elves destroyed her ice garden before closing off her bridge to public when Santa refuses to hand over Boone and Doggle, the elves responsible.

As a yearling
A year later, Rudolph attends school where he is ridiculed by his cousin Arrow and the other students except the teacher Mrs. Prancer and Zoey, a young doe whom Rudolph has feelings for. Rudolph leaves the school and meets up with Santa who says that he thinks Rudolph's nose is grand and sings that he treats everyone in the village like family. On Christmas Eve, Rudolph along with Mitzi and the other villagers watch Blitzen and the other Flyers guide Santa's sleigh into the night. Rudolph then does a pretend speech about being made a Flyer and also mentions Zoey in the speech, calling her the doe of his dreams, unaware that Zoey is listening to this and giggles happily causing Rudolph to notice her and blush and make his nose light up. The two then go for a walk where Zoey says that she wishes to be Rudolph's friend and says that she doesn't care what the other reindeer would think. They then notice that they are under a mistletoe, but before they can kiss, Arrow, who is also in love with Zoey, arrives. Zoey says that she and Rudolph were just talking, but Arrow says that it looked more like kissing to him. Zoey tells Arrow not to get jealous and that she and Rudolph are just friends. Arrow denies being jealous of "Ruddy the Red-Nose Reject" before having Zoey leave with him. As Zoey leaves, she gives Rudolph a kind smile, causing him to realize she likes him.

As a teenager
A few years later, Rudolph is now a teenager and prepares to take part in The Junior Reindeer Games where Zoey gives him her pendant and a kiss for good luck. At the start line for the event The Sleigh Race, Arrow (now Zoey's boyfriend) notices Rudolph wearing the pendant and tells him that Zoey is "his doe" to which Rudolph replies that Zoey is not a trophy and shouldn't be treated like one. During the race, Arrow cheats by knocking some of the other competitors off course and when he is neck-neck with Rudolph, he says that Zoey is only nice to him because she feels sorry for him, but Rudolph doesn't believe him, but Arrow says it's true and that Zoey told him so. Angry at these taunts, Rudolph's nose lights up and causing Arrow to crash. Rudolph and his rider Diggle win the race, but the referee disqualifies Rudolph for using his nose to "cheat" and makes Arrow the winner by default. Rudolph later overhears Blitzen argue with the referee and saying that the nose problem was an accident, but Rudolph believes that his father is ashamed of him and decides to run away from home, leaving a note for his parents.

Rudolph finds a cave to sleep in, but then a fox named Slyly arrives saying it's his cave and tries to get Rudolph to leave, but due to Rudolph being bigger, he fails and decides to let him stay. The next day, the two are forced to evacuate the cave when an avalanche starts. They find another cave which is inhabited by a polar bear named Leonard, so Slyly and a reluctant Rudolph trick him into leaving, saying the cave is dangerous. Leonard soon returns in anger, but when Rudolph explains why he and Slyly did what they did, he forgives them and let's them stay. That night, Rudolph has a nightmare before waking up and going outside for fresh air where he meets The Sprites of The Northern Lights who tell him that Zoey has been captured by Stormella (as Zoey had crossed the bridge and because of this, Stormella will unleash a storm to stop Santa from doing his deliveries) and teach him how to control his nose's light. Rudolph wakes up Slyly and Leonard and they set off to Stormella's castle where Slyly gets cold feet and stays behind in fear of Stormella's wolves, so Rudolph and Leonard enter the castle.

The two hear and reach Zoey by following her voice, but before they can free her, Stormella arrives and imprisons them. After Stormella leaves to cast her storm, Zoey blames herself for this as she crossed the bridge, but Rudolph says it's his fault as he ran away to which Zoey says that he wouldn't have left if she told him that he means everything to her. Rudolph replies in saying that Zoey makes his heart glow just before Slyly arrives and fetches the key to the cells to free the others. However as they get outside, they are confronted by Stormella who attempts to harm Zoey, but falls down the cliff's edge when Rudolph's nose lights up. Rudolph, along with Zoey, Slyly, Leonard, Stormella's butler Ridley and the wolves, help Stormella back up the cliff. Because of this, Stormella grants Rudolph a wish to which he asks her to be nice and turns down her offer to have a normal nose. The quartet are then found by Boone and Doggle (who had been sent out by Santa to find Rudolph and Zoey) who take them back to Santa's Village where Rudolph reunites with his parents.

Santa then asks Rudolph to use his nose's light to guide his sleigh through the storm to which the young reindeer agrees. Before take-off, Zoey, Slyly and Leonard arrive to wish Rudolph good luck with Zoey giving him a kiss. Rudolph, Blitzen and the other Flyers take off and are able to get through the storm. The next day, Christmas Day, Rudolph and the Flyers return home where Rudolph gets a hero's welcome from the other villagers and is finally accepted.

Appearance
As a infant, Rudolph had light brown fur with white spots and a thick, shaggy fringe of creamy blonde hair. As a yearling, he remains the same, but his spots fade and his fur becomes darker. When becoming a teenager, he gets short antlers.

Rudolph resembles both of his parents; He gets his fur colour from Mitzi and his eye colour from Blitzen. It is unknown where he inherited his fringe of blonde hair from as neither Blitzen or Mitzi have hair. Though it is possible that he got it from Comet or Cupid as they are the only two of Blitzen's brothers to have blonde hair.

Trivia

 * Rudolph is similar to Simba as both are the son of an important figure in their community (Rudolph's father Blitzen is a lead Flyer on Santa Claus's sleigh team, whilst Simba's father Mufasa was king of the Pride Lands) who they succeed (Rudolph becomes lead Flyer and Simba becomes king). Both also run away from home (Rudolph ran away after believing Blitzen was ashamed of him whilst Simba ran away because he thought he was responsible for Mufasa's death) but later return. Both also fall in love with their female childhood friend (Zoey for Rudolph, and Nala for Simba). Rudolph is also similar to Bambi as both are deer and like with Simba, both are the son of an important figure (Blitzen for Rudolph, and The Great Prince of the Forest for Bambi) and both fall in love with their female childhood friend (Zoey for Rudolph and Faline for Bambi). Both also have a rival who is also in love with the female friend (Arrow for Rudolph and Ronno for Bambi). However, unlike Simba and Bambi, Rudolph loses neither of his parents to death and doesn't have children, nor does he become old enough to have any.


 * In the song "What About His Nose", it is said that Rudolph has Mitzi's grace and style and Blitzen's smile.