Candace Cameron Bure checks off another holiday wish: Animation

The truth? “It’s been a huge dream of mine to be in something animated,” she says.

Enter: “Reindeer in Here,” a new CBS special that finds her as Pinky, the only all-pink reindeer at the North Pole. She’s part of a group that helps save Christmas, even though the gang has attributes that make them different.

Blizz (voiced by Adam Devine) has one antler that’s shorter than the other; Candy (voiced by Melissa Villasenor) is an oversharing snowgirl; Smiley (voiced by Henry Winkler) is Santa’s harried “head of holiday operations”; Hawk (Jo Koy) is a dim-witted polar bear; and Bucky (Donald Faison) is a big-toothed nervous reindeer. Put them with Pinky and just about every concern is covered.

Based on Adam Reed’s book, “Reindeer in Here” was his way of creating a positive Christmas tradition “that didn’t stress me out as a parent.”

“I sat down and tried to write a story that I felt would be unique and different and you would fall in love with the characters at the most magical time of year,” he said.

Reindeer were included because they’re “the most magical thing outside of Santa.” Blizz is different because every child feels different at some point in life, Reed said. “Being different is normal. Our film celebrates the uniqueness of every child and shows that Christmas wishes really do come true.”

When Reed and company came to casting, “the first person we had in mind was Candace. She is obviously the queen of Christmas and just an amazing human being.”

That fit nicely into Bure’s game plan but it also had to be done during COVID. “We did lots of work on the computer over Zoom first,” she says. “But then we went into the recording booth solo.” Her work took a little more than a day. The animation, however, took another eight months.

Although she finally got to see what she might look as an animated character (who’s also available for gift-giving as a plush), Bure was taken with the story. “This movie is so encouraging to kids to celebrate our uniqueness. I absolutely love it as a mom first and what the message sends.”

To create a timeless look, producers turned to Disney veteran Lino DiSalvo who took the characters’ look from the book and, Reed says, “elevated it, but kept it classic.

“When Lino and I first started talking, we wanted this to be a Christmas classic…to outlive us all like Rudolph.”

The characters’ looks combine typical CG animation with artistic strokes. “I wanted to celebrate what the illustration artists would do…maybe use a dry brush to blend in the textures,” DiSalvo says. “If you look at the top of Blizz’s nose, there’s a dry brush stroke there.”

To make the characters stand out in other ways, DiSalvo worked with the actors.

“I didn’t know if they wanted me to try a different kind of voice,” says Bure. “We worked on that and then they were like, ‘No, we just really want your voice.’”

A bit of the actress’s personality leapt over, too. “Pinky’s that friend that tells it straight but she also has a little bit of a motherly quality to her,” Bure says. “She’s still gentle in speaking the truth.”

Animation, she adds, turned out to be a different holiday game. “When you’re in front of the camera, people can see what you’re doing. But when you’re off camera, everything about your voice has to change because people don’t get to see your facial expressions. They don’t get to see your hand movements. And I had to move around the booth and really perform it as an actor.”

Now, she and the others are looking forward to the show’s reception.

“This is not just for children,” Reed says. “It works for adults. You can sit down with your entire family and pick up on things that children don’t and, maybe, vice versa.”

“Reindeer in Here” airs Nov. 29 on CBS, then will be streaming on Paramount+.