Frosty the Snowman

This one has always worked for me--where else can you find Jimmy Durante come Christmas time on Primetime TV nowadays? A special done with great heart, good work by Paul Frees, June Foray, and the great Billy De Wolfe. We always loved his 'Think Nasty! Think Nasty!' bit as kids. He was a funny man, a stand up comedian/magician combo.

All I can say is that Rankin Bass hit a homer with this one, and I am glad CBS keeps on trotting it out every December.

**** outta ****, this one works.

Basically an extended version of the song, Frosty the Snowman probably holds more cheer for American audiences. In England we have The Snowman, a much subtler and sadder story, but very similar. Here we have some kids looking to have fun with Frosty while a magician tries to reclaim his magic hat. I couldn't completely enjoy this as, to me, it was rightfully the magician's hat in the first place. The song is always great, and I liked most of the voice work. At under half an hour, it's a great, quick dose of Christmas. The animation has its 60's charm and you can tell a lot of hard work must have gone into it. The vocal work is good too, but I found myself waiting for those recognizable chords.

Watching the holiday specials lately with my young kids, I can gage which shows really grab them. This one scores points by being quick (30 minutes for the toddler group with short attention spans)and a real tear jerker for a four year old. The storyline is easy to understand for young kids and shows the idea of Santa being a generous guy instead of just a present deliverer. I really like it for them. My favorite as an adult is Charlie Brown Christmas, which my kids also love, but I think this scored higher for them. I found that I still liked it too. It's in my top three. Is this the only Rankin holiday film that is not stop motion?

CBS TELEVISION has broadcast Christmas Cartoon Specials now for over 50 years. "Rudolph" is of course the most popular but I am willing to bet that "Frosty" is a close 2nd. In fact "Frosty" has had 3 sequels. Now if you are not familiar with this cartoon then shame on you. This cartoon is such a part of Christmas that you now see Outdoor Christmas Decorations being sold at Home Depot that are images from this special.

Now this cartoon is of course based on the popular song. It is fast paced Christmas cartoon that has that little something special that only "The Rankin-Bass Productions" could deliver. Frosty of course is the snowman the kids were able to bring to life. However they realize that Frosty is on very limited time. In order to stay alive he needs to get to the North-pole. A little girl named Karen is doing everything she can to get him there.

My Christmas Time Viewing would not be complete without viewing this. I am sure I am not alone. If you have kids watch it with them. There is something so special about this cartoon that parents should want to watch this with their kids..

I grew up with frosty i would look forward to watching this one every year even now. i think it really captures what Xmas is all about. Lol has a kid frosty meant more to me then Santa did so thats the type of effect this show had on me back then.

Its funny how even after all these years it doesn't really show its age other then the lack of computers in the classroom. I want to know what other cartoon can make you cry over snow.

There's also a Frosty Returns but it lacks in so many areas that its not even worth watching my opinion though i now others love it just has much has This one.

To sum it all up frosty is one of the all time Xmas shows to date