Frosty the Snowman (film)

Frosty the Snowman
DVD cover
Based on	"Frosty the Snowman" by Steve Nelson Jack Rollins
Written by	Romeo Muller
Directed by	Jules Bass Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Starring	Billy De Wolfe Jackie Vernon Paul Frees June Foray
Narrated by	Jimmy Durante
Theme music composer	Maury Laws
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Jules Bass Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Running time	25 minutes
Production company(s)	Rankin/Bass Productions Mushi Production (animation)
Distributor	DreamWorks Classics NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	December 7, 1969 (1969-12-07)
Chronology
Followed by	Frosty's Winter Wonderland

Frosty the Snowman is a 1969 animated Christmas television special based on the song "Frosty the Snowman". The program, which first aired on December 7, 1969 on CBS (where it continues to air annually), was produced for television by Rankin/Bass Productions and featured the voices of comedians Jimmy Durante as the film's narrator (Durante's final performance in a film) and Jackie Vernon as the title character.

Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass wanted to give the show and its characters the look of a Christmas card, so Paul Coker, Jr., a greeting card and Mad magazine artist, was hired to do the character and background drawings. The animation was produced by Mushi Production in Japan, with then-Mushi staffer Osamu Dezaki among the animation staff. Durante was one of the first people to record the song when it was released in 1950 (at the time the song had slightly different lyrics); he re-recorded the song for the special.

Rankin/Bass veteran writer Romeo Muller adapted and expanded the story for television as he had done with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

TV Guide ranked the special number 4 on its 10 Best Family Holiday Specials list.^[1]

Plot

In a school on Christmas Eve, a teacher hires Professor Hinkle, an inept magician, to entertain the children for their class Christmas party. After failing his first trick, he throws his hat away.

Class is dismissed and the children go to play in the snow where they build a snowman. After debating and rejecting several names such as "Christopher Columbus" and "Oatmeal," a girl named Karen chooses the name "Frosty." Hocus Pocus, Hinkle's rabbit, comes out of the school with the hat, which lands on Frosty's head. bringing him to life. When Hinkle sees this, he takes the hat back after a gust of wind blows it off Frosty's head. Hinkle refuses to give the hat back, telling the children that when they grow up, they'll learn that snowmen can't come to life and leaves. Hocus brings the hat back to the children, who put it back on Frosty's head, bringing him back to life; the children all celebrate. Frosty feels the temperature rising and worries he'll melt. The children suggest putting him on the next train to the North Pole, where he will never melt, and they all parade into the city on the way to the train station, shocking several townspeople, including the traffic cop. Despite having no money for tickets, Frosty and Karen sneak aboard a refrigerated boxcar on a northbound train, with Karen expecting to be home before dinner that night. Hinkle clings to the undercarriage of the caboose of the same train, still demanding his hat back.

As the train continues northward and night falls, Karen is getting colder, so they disembark in search of something to keep her warm. At Frosty's request, Hocus convinces some forest animals who are preparing for Christmas to build a campfire for Karen. Fearing that Karen still cannot survive for long in the cold weather, Frosty asks Hocus who might be able to help them. Hocus suggests the President of the United States and the United States Marines, before suggesting Santa Claus. Frosty agrees, and promptly takes credit for the idea himself (much to Hocus' annoyance). Hocus hops off to get Santa, but Hinkle then confronts Frosty and Karen once more and blows out Karen's campfire. Frosty and Karen again flee, this time with Karen riding on Frosty's back as he belly-whops down the hill. At the bottom of the slope, Karen and Frosty discover a greenhouse filled with poinsettias. Despite Karen's objections, Frosty steps inside the warm greenhouse with her, suggesting that he could afford to lose a little weight while she warms up. When Hinkle arrives, he locks the door of the greenhouse, trapping Frosty inside.

Hocus leads Santa to the greenhouse, only to find a despondent Karen and Frosty's remains in a puddle. Santa points out that even in the form of "spring and summer rain," Frosty's Christmas snow allows him to come back to life at any time, and opens the door; with a gust of wind, Frosty regains his form. When Hinkle demands his hat back, Santa threatens never to give him any Christmas presents for the rest of his life and tells Hinkle to go home and write his apologies so he might get a new hat on Christmas morning. Santa then brings Frosty back to life and takes Karen home and Frosty to the North Pole, with Santa and Frosty promising to return the following Christmas.

As the credits roll, Frosty leads a parade through the town with the children, Jimmy Durante, Hocus, the traffic cop, a reformed Professor Hinkle, who is proudly wearing his new top hat, and the rest of the townspeople. At the end of the parade, Frosty boards Santa's sleigh and they leave for the North Pole, with Frosty altering the song's last lyric, saying, "I'll be back on Christmas Day!"

Voice cast

• Jackie Vernon as Frosty
• Jimmy Durante as himself (Narrator)
• June Foray as Karen (original airing), schoolteacher, and Karen's friends (original airing)
• Suzanne Davidson as Karen (later airings, uncredited)
• Billy De Wolfe as Professor Hinkle
• Paul Frees as the traffic cop, ticket man, and Santa Claus

Production credits

• Produced and Directed by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass
• Written by Romeo Muller
• Based on the Original Song by Steve Nelson, Jack Rollins © 1951 Hill-Range Songs
• Production Designer: Paul Coker, Jr.
• Continuity Designer: Don Duga
• Animation Production by Mushi Studio
• Supervising Director: Steve Nakagawa
• Animation Director: Osamu Dezaki (uncredited)
• Animation: Akio Sugino, Sadao Miyamoto (both uncredited)
• Music Composed and Directed by Maury Laws
• Sound Effects Engineers: Jim Harris, Phil Kaye
• Supervising Film Editing: Irwin Goldress

© 1969 Videocraft International Limited

Soundtrack

CD cover

Released by Rhino on October 1, 2002, the entire audio portion of Frosty the Snowman is available on CD along with the entire audio portion of Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, the Rankin/Bass special produced in 1970. This edition contains the full dialogue and song audio of both specials.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Medley: Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town...Be Prepared To Pay 25:18
2. Medley: Put One Foot In Front Of The Other...Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (finale) 24:55
3. Frosty The Snowman Theme & Narration (Beginning) 13:45
4. Frosty The Snowman Theme & Narration (Conclusion) 11:48
5. Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (Soundtrack Version) 1:50
6. Frosty The Snowman (Soundtrack Version) 1:04

Television rights

In the United States, CBS continues to hold the telecast rights to the original program (under license from the current copyright holder, Universal Television, and still airs it yearly with the CBS-produced sequel Frosty Returns (see below); it has run 49 years on the same network as of 2017, longer than any other currently airing Christmas special (other specials that debuted earlier have changed networks at least once). The CBC holds broadcast rights in Canada. The special also airs on Freeform in some territories. However, CBS does not own the telecast rights to the 1976 sequel Frosty's Winter Wonderland (that special currently airs on Freeform's 25 Days of Christmas each year), which prompted CBS to produce its own "sequel" of sorts, Frosty Returns (see below).

Home media

Sequels

Frosty returned in several sequels:

• Frosty's Winter Wonderland – This 1976 sequel by Rankin/Bass was also written by Romeo Muller. Narration is provided by Andy Griffith (Durante had suffered a stroke that had forced his retirement in 1972 and eventually killed him). Jackie Vernon once again reprised his role as the voice of Frosty. Animation is produced by Topcraft in Japan. Unlike the original, the sequel takes place later in the winter season and is based upon the 1934 song "Winter Wonderland;" it features Frosty's pursuit of a wife and efforts to preserve him into the springtime. As the special takes place in the late winter, it makes no mention of Christmas (the original song likewise did not mention Christmas).
• Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July – This 1979 Rankin/Bass feature-length sequel was filmed in "Animagic" stop-motion animation in the style of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Rudolph's Shiny New Year. While the Frosty specials were 30 minutes long, and the Rudolph specials were 60 minutes, this ambitious special was feature length, at 97 minutes long (120 minutes on television, including commercials). Vernon once again played the role of Frosty, in his last time for Rankin/Bass playing the voice of Frosty. This film features Frosty and his family as supporting characters. This is the only other Frosty cartoon to mention Christmas or Santa Claus in addition to the 1969 original.
• Frosty Returns – This 1992 half-hour special is not truly a sequel to the 1969 classic, as it was produced not by Rankin/Bass but by CBS. The characters, setting, voices and animation (by Bill Melendez) are vastly different. Despite this, it is shown with the original special every year on CBS and was even included as a bonus on its DVD release. John Goodman provides the voice of Frosty in this special, and Jonathan Winters serves as narrator. Frosty's appearance is physically different, his personality and humor have changed, and he has the ability to live without his top hat, in direct contrast with the original and its other sequels. Also in contrast to the original specials, the special avoids all mention of Christmas (despite the special portraying the beginning of winter) and has an environmentalist theme, as Frosty works to stop a corporate executive whose product wipes out snow packs with one spray.
• The Legend of Frosty the Snowman – This 2005 straight-to-video film was produced by Classic Media, the previous rights holder for the original Rankin/Bass special, and the remainder of their pre-1974 library. This movie has been bundled with the original 1969 Rankin/Bass special and the CBS sequel, and has also aired on Cartoon Network. The appearance of Frosty resembles much more the Rankin/Bass character design from their original animation, and Professor Hinkle returns in two cameo appearances – shown in a picture and flashback. Frosty is voiced by Bill Fagerbakke, best known as the voice of Patrick Star on SpongeBob SquarePants. And it, like Frosty Returns and Frosty's Winter Wonderland, also never mentions anything to do with Christmas whatsoever.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Frosty the Snowman (film)

• Holiday Central at CBS.com
• Frosty the Snowman on IMDb