The Legend of Frosty the Snowman

December holiday specials, like the original Frosty, ought to be richly-produced with quality music and a wholesome, yet lighthearted storyline. They should have a touch of the mystical magic of the holidays. Basically, they should look, sound, and feel...well, "special" and they should have a decent and appropriate December holiday subtext.

So when I saw Legend of Frosty the Snowman in the TV listings, I got my kids (6 and 8) pumped up for it by telling them the story of the original Frosty and passionately relating how much I enjoyed it as a kid. As my wife and kids cozied up on the couch to watch the movie the expectations were high, but 10 minutes into it my kids were yawning and my wife and I were giving each other "the look" and rolling our eyes. After 35 minutes my kids were actually asking to go to bed -- I guess they were fed up with the insensitive language and pointless, disconnected segments. I was actually embarrassed about their (and my) disappointment with this movie.

Unfortunately, Legend of Frosty the Snowman is more like a bad episode of Fairly Odd Parents crossed with a worse-than-normal episode of Sponge Bob than a classic holiday movie. Don't get me wrong...those shows are fine and I like them as much as the next guy, but when I watch Fairly Odd Parents or Sponge Bob, my low expectations (for mediocre, off-color, zero subtext, mind numbing episodes) are always satisfied.

We picked out some good books and spent the rest of the evening reading together. A much better choice than the embarrassingly bad Legend of Frosty the Snowman.

The John Goodman program was pretty awful, but this thing just plain stinks. The one and only thing in this mess that made me smile was recognizing the voice of Patrick Starfish as Frosty. The story is hopeless, written by somebody who has garbled memories of childhood rebelliousness but has never gained any adult sense of perspective in the intervening years. Paranoia rules the dark world that these characters inhabit. Everybody is unpleasant, and for no reason. The plot is predictable but the show lurches from one inexplicable, unconnected scene to another in such a pointless way there is no fun in watching it. The worst thing is nobody in the production crew seems to have ever seen snow!

Frosty the Snowman goes where he is needed most, and the town of Evergreen sure needs a visit. Mr. Tinkerton, the mayor (Tim Kenny), runs a tight ship, and there is no room for talk of magic or any other such nonsense.

What brought my attention to this film was the casting of Burt Reynolds. Now, I figure if the film has a big enough budget to have a known entity narrate (and sing), it can't be too bad. But I would be wrong. Reynolds was alright, but his presence did not make up for this disgrace.

Most of the characters are annoying, the special runs too long, the plot seems to flatly contradict earlier Frosty stories (all of which are better). Even the jokes, which could be funny, are delivered in such a way they just fall flat. How did this happen? Something went horribly wrong and this never should have made it to completion.

I can imagine Jordan Peterson saying something about how Frosty is the embodiment of necessary chaos when order becomes too rigid and stifling. But that's being a little bit too generous. This was an insipid and longwinded insult to the first one, and makes the other sequels look like masterpieces. That being said, the animation style was ok and it had a decent voice cast, even if they were wasted on this tripe. At the end of it all, I can say that I've finished this series. The only one worth returning to, of course, is the original.

Though technically a sequel to the classic 1969 Rankin/Bass Frosty the Snowman, The Legend of Frosty the Snowman holds only loose continuity with it. The characters in flashbacks resemble those of the original film but have different names and roles. The young Mayor Tinkerton strongly resembles one of the unnamed children from the first film, and his father also shares the design of Professor Hinkle. Hocus Pocus has a cameo during the bob-sled scene. On the cover of the comic used in the film are two other children that also resemble the original film's cast. Frosty's back story is strongly altered, but still features him coming to life due to the hat's magic.

If you love the original classic then you will hate this. The charm and innocence of that feature is lost here. There isn't any likable or Relatable children in this.

The animation also comes across as cheap and tacky.