When it comes to Christmas movies and TV specials, you have to have some form of suspension of disbelief. YouTuber Ryan George pointed out in his criticism of Elf that all Christmas movies/shows where people don’t believe in Santa Claus overlook the fact that he’s been delivering presents to their house. I mean, if I woke up on Dec. 25 and saw a bunch of presents under my tree and I didn’t know where they were from, I’d assume someone got into my house and put them there. And it’s probably a mythological figure come to life.
Released on Dec. 7, 1969, Frosty the Snowman is a 25-minute animated special based on the popular song that had been recorded by Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys in 1950 and later by Jimmy Durante, who returns to narrate and sing here. The special begins on Christmas Eve in an unnamed town where kids who wear shorts and skirts and are still in school. Yet there’s a lot of snow outside and the temperatures are below freezing.
The school has hired an inept magician named Professor Hinkle (voiced by Billy De Wolfe) but looking like Paul Benedict who throws his hat away after the kids get bored. So they go outside when school lets out and build a snowman outside the school. June Foray voiced Karen, the main child character, in the 1969 airing as well as the other school children.
However, Suzanne Davidson recorded the dialogue for the rest of the airings and Greg Thomas was brought in to voice the rest of the school children. This probably explains all the ADR issues where it sounds like the children are talking when their mouths aren’t moving. They find the discarded hat and put it on the top of the snowman. And Frosty (voiced by Jackie Vernon) comes to life.
Hinkle witnesses this and snatches the hat off Frosty thinking it will make him rich. He pulls a “I’m smart, you’re dumb. I’m older, you’re younger” on the school children and takes his hat. But rather than carry it in his hand, he puts it back on his head despite his rabbit, Hocus Pocus, shaming him for taking the hat. So, Hocus just takes the hat back to the children who have like 10 minutes of fun with Frosty when they put it back on.
Yet, Frosty begins to melt because it’s getting too warm. But the snow doesn’t. Let’s overlook the fact that within mere seconds, the temperature increases 30 degrees. And the children decide to send him to the North Pole.
There’s a lot of goofs as Frosty’s fingers on his hand go from five to four or how a woman in a salon freaks out too early before she sees Frosty in the mirror. At the train station, Karen and Frosty expect a very expensive train trip to the North Pole for free. But we’re supposed to be made at the goofy clerk for refusing to give them a ticket.
Then, for some reason, they just hop on a refrigerated box car on a freight train without knowing where it’s going. Frosty and Hocus Pocus get on which makes sense. And then for someone reason, Karen decides she’s going to accompany Frosty to the North Pole as her mother probably won’t mind as long as she’s home for supper. Considering school got out around 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve, she’d have less than four hours to complete this trip.
Again, this makes no sense. But Karen may just be one of the most irritating characters in a Christmas special. She’s in a refrigerated box car which is fine for a snowman and a rabbit. But she wouldn’t have lasted long especially wearing a skirt or short dress. So, they get off the train into a winter wonderland so a fire can be built to get her warm. The whole time Hinkle is riding under the caboose. Yet, in the amount of time it took for him to crawl underneath, he could’ve just easily swiped the hat again and the story would’ve been over.
Basically, Karen does everything wrong in this show. That’s why I think she can be considered the first Karen before that name became synonymous with older women, mostly with blonde hair, who constantly insist everything has to be about them. Even when Frosty melts in the greenhouse which he could’ve just sat outside of, she has to say to Santa Claus, “He was my friend.”
What’s even funnier is the animators couldn’t have been bothered to animate four more reindeer. There’s so many goofs in this show, it makes A Charlie Brown Christmas look like it’s the 1988 production of Akira. Needless to say, the Rankin/Bass specials were animated in Japan which means they were Japanimation before it was popular.
For the most part, despite being a holiday favorite after 55 years, there’s a lot of problems with the movie from start to finish. At the end when Santa and Frosty drop Karen off when her parents probably should’ve called the police, they leave her on the roof. Then, she turns and makes a Herbal Essences/Meg Ryan fake orgasm sound as she gives Frosty another hug. It just seems so out of place.
I’ve not seen the original airing with Foray as Karen so I wonder what her performance sounded like. Either way, it’s problematic but it’s not as hokey as Frosty’s Winter Wonderland, the sequel that has make a Snowwoman, Crystal (voiced by Shelly Winters), that he immediately wants to married after she comes to life. Durante is replaced by Andy Griffith.
But I seemed to like it a little more than Frosty Returns which has John Goodman voicing Frosty which is the best thing. It’s also features Elizabeth Moss when she was a child voicing the person Frosty befriends. Jonathan Winters is the narrator this time.
Which is your favorite Frosty special? Please comment.
Zane Says 