Jimmy Durante narrators the story of Frosty, a snowman who is brought to life when a hat, thrown away by Professor Hinkle (voice: Billy De Wolfe), a bad magician, is placed on his head. Frosty (voice: Jackie Vernon) realizes that he’ll melt unless he reaches the North Pole, so he sets off with little Karen (voice: June Foray). But while the cold on their journey is good for the snowman, it is bad for Karen. Plus, Hinkle wants his hat back. 25 min.
In the 1960s, we had very few animated Christmas specials, but those we had were really special. Each year we would gather around the TV for A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. My mother was one for dinner at a proper table with all of us seated together, so it had to be an exceptional event to get her to OK us pulling out the seldom used TV trays. But these three did the trick. And there we’d be, focused on our 19 inch B&W television. Well, I was anyway. I can’t say for sure about my folks because… Didn’t I say I was focused?
So, in 1969, the announcement that a new special was coming was grounds for celebration, at least for us kids. And so, it was with all the glee of childhood Christmas that I sat to watch Frosty the Snowman. My God, what a disappointment. Horrible, simplistic animation, an insipid story, and empty characters. It lacked humor and charm. Who was this mess supposed to be for? We were children, not morons.
The next day when I got together with friends, there was general groaning about the travesty of Frosty. We were all fans of the song (somehow, it had more immediacy than Hark the Herald Angels Sing or The First Noel, and we were all pretty tired of being forced to sing Silent Night) and couldn’t believe what they’d done to it. That thing on the screen was not Frosty!
Now, so many years later, with my Santa Claus-believing days lost in the fog of an aging mind, how does it stack up? With a few hundred Christmas specials playing at almost any hour on our 180 channel system, is Frosty the Snowman so bad?
It sure is. Poorly conceived and poorly executed, it has no redeeming qualities. It does have an aging Jimmy Durante, but he needs to actually do something worthwhile for that to be exciting. Because this is one of Durante’s last projects, I’ve heard people praise it. Silliness. The man died. That was undoubtedly traumatic for his family, but does not imbue this with value. If you want to honor his memory, great. Go find one of his good movies.
Frosty the Snowman was directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr., who collaborated on an impressive string of atrocious cartoons. Unless there is a reindeer’s name in the title, skip them all, and you’ll be giving yourself and your family a fine Christmas gift.