Beyond all discussions about the 21st century Family Truckster, if you've been keeping up with the Vacation movie (1983) you should know that it's the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, a George Barris-designed send-up of American motoring that almost immediately became a legend.
For the Vacation reboot, the Prancer is the new Truckster, and it looks very alike a Toyota Previa minivan.
The Wagon Queen Family Truckster was a thinly disguised Ford Country Squire with double headlights and taillights and some extra "wood" trim. Whereas the Prancer loads up on the kinds of features the 21st century buyer has to have, like a martini glass holder outside the vehicle, a gas tank, a diesel tank, and a plug to charge something, and four side mirrors. Inside, there's a drinking fountain.
As for the public opinion concerning the Prancer, a lot of people say that it's funny but it's not as believable as was the Family Truckster. Part of what made the Family Truckster so great was that it could have been a Buick or a Pontiac of it's time. This new thing is the Borat of movie cars, so that finally it seems like it was not a clever take on modern Truckster wanting to make it too cute.
However it remains to every person to evaluate the movie and the new Prancer according to his/her own criteria and to see whether reboots are a good idea anyway.
