I guess the highlight of this feature film is that we finally get to see Frosty the Snowman in Rankin/Bass's trademark stop-motion puppet-animation process, Animagic! Now, don't get me wrong, the original TV specials "Frosty the Snowman" and the sequel "Frosty's Winter Wonderland" were great but I think we all wish that they were done in puppet-animation like Rudolph, Jack Frost and Santa Claus. Unfortunately, that may be one of the only highlights of this film.
At a running time of over 95 minutes, there is very little to keep the story rolling. There is also an over abundance of non-sensical plot twists and flashbacks that even I found confusing, let alone the children this movie was targeted for. And unless your child is a fan of showtunes (and c'mon what child isn't?), then the songs which appear every few minutes will most likely bore them.
The plot concerns the evil King Winterbolt who was put into a long deep sleep by the magical Lady Boreal. Upon awakening, he finds there is a new king of the North Pole named Santa Claus, and decides to make him get lost in a blizzard courtesy of his snow-breathing dragons so that he may once again rule the North Pole with his evil ways. The only problem is Rudolph's nose, which he decides must be extinguished for his plans to be carried out. In one of the many flashback sequences we learn that Rudolph's shiny red nose which came from the magic of Lady Boreal, will go out if it is ever used for bad purposes, even once.
King Winterbolt decides to offer Frosty and his family magic emulets that will allow them to visit the great 4th of July Circus by the Sea without melting, but only until the "Final Fireworks Fade on the Fourth". Santa Claus agrees to pick them all up when the fireworks end and whisk them back to the North Pole before the Frosty and his wife and two children are turned into puddles of water.
But, Winterbolt's snow breathing dragons whisk up a storm to keep Santa and Mrs. Claus from reaching the circus in time. Meanwhile, Winterbolt gets some help from a mean-spirited reindeer named Scratcher, and the two decide to use their sneaky ways to blackmail Rudolph into using his nose for bad.
If this seems confusing, imagine actually watching this film or better yet, imagine a child watching this film! Like many of R/B's later efforts, this one is rooted more in the magic and mystical style of "Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" than the fairytale-ish style of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
There are some crazy songs which I found very amusing, like "Don't Let The Parade Pass You By" which is sung by Ethel Merman in her crazy style. There are also some special guest stars including Jack Frost from "Jack Frost" and Big Ben the whale from "Rudolph's Shiny New Year". In fact, there are a lot of nice touches and this film with the three biggest stars of Christmas could have been really good, if only the writing were better, some of the songs were scrapped and the running time was shortened.
If you are a fan of Rankin/Bass's work, you will not want to miss this one although you most likely will have trouble getting your kids to sit through the whole thing with you.
