Frosty the Snowman

This peppy, jazzed up cartoon of the frosty story was shown on kiddie T.V. along with the cult holiday stop motion favorites, "Suzie snowflake" and "Hardrock, Coco and Joe."

Not as interesting as it's two sister films, it's still quite likable, and captures the fifties "lets go out to the lobby" school of animation quite nicely. Great holiday nostalgia bait. What else can I say? I guess I have to make this longer to get accepted. No one, to the best of my knowledge, ever used this cartoon as an excuse to go on a vicious crime spree. Long enough yet? I guess not. O.K., well, let me just say I rather watch this short cartoon than the whole half hour Rankin Bass version. They really cut to the chase here.

As a child--a "baby boomer"--coming up in Chicago in the 1950s and '60s, some local TV stations took great pride in presenting wholesome, meaningful entertainment.

"Suzy Snowflake" is a vestige of that era and of those times, when the world was not such a cold place because of the warmth and caring of the times. This stop-action animated short clearly was not "made for television", but most likely was made as a trailer to be shown in movie theaters during the yuletide season. It is credited to "Centaur Productions". Where they were--and who--merits research, but I suspect it was possibly made in NYC.

The Singers on this very, very short "3 minute drill" were--to my ear--The Norman Luboff Choir, one of the premier studio groups of that day. On records, they backed everyone from Sinatra to Belafonte. Here they give a lilting, haunting "A Capella" performance that instantly brings to mind all of the elements of Christmases of days gone by; home and hearth, family and friends, good times and pleasant memories.

There were a number of shorts such as this that were typical Christmas season fare...two others stand out as worthwhile watches... "Frosty The Snowman", a product of UPA studios and also made for theatrical release, featured a hip,"Be-Boppish" performance--also A Capella-- by the 'Starlighters' ( or could it be "Six Hits and a Miss"?)--who were then very busy west coast studio singers, and who were mainstays of the "Chesterfield Supper Club" radio program with Jo Stafford and Paul Weston... and then, possibly the most popular of the three, "Hardrock & Coco & Joe". This one ,too, might have featured the Luboff singers and was a "Centaur Production".

My personal favorite was "Frosty", but the women and girls may over-rule us guys in favor of the gentle qualities of "Suzy Snowflake". This is a part of TV and the past that never should have changed, and these should be staples on some TV station somewhere every Christmas.

Frosty the Snowman (1954)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This timeless short originally aired on a Chicago station and has since become a favorite to many. At just under 3-minutes there's really no story being told outside of the song itself. We see a group of kids dancing around the snowman and as soon as they put the hat on him he begins to dance as well. There are so many Christmas shorts out there that one could get lost in trying to track all of them down but many are very much worth it and that's the case with this one. I think most people are going to be familiar with the more recent, color films but seeing a Christmas cartoon in B&W just adds a timeless quality to it. I really loved the animation here and especially the look of Frosty. I hope this comes out the right way but he looks like what a real snowman would look like if a bunch of kids just put it together in the back yard. In many Frosty cartoons he looks like, well, a fake cartoon but in this version he really does look like a snowman.

"Frosty the Snoman" is an odd little curio from the 1950s that I found on YouTube. Apparently, some music production company wanted to promote the song "Frosty the Snowman" and commissioned UPA to create this three minute promotional film. It's very bouncy and good considering it only cost $7000 to make. As for the animation, it's enjoyable but very primitive and simple...the sort of stuff UPA was known for and the best you could get for the money they were willing to pay! Don't expect MGM or Looney Tunes or Disney quality animation here...but working with these better studios would simply have been prohibitively expensive and this simple black & white animation is not bad and serve its purpose. Not exactly brilliant and nothing like the lovely 1969 cartoon version...which had a lot of story as well as the song. Here in the 1951 version, it's basically a music video.

I recently discovered on Mark Evanier's site as linked from Cartoon Brew a couple of UPA animated holiday shorts that are on YouTube. One was Peter Cottontail which for some reason is not listed on IMDb. That one played the whole song and depicted visually the entire premise down to the hunter that shot the rabbit's tail. This one, Frosty the Snowman, features the title character's fun with some kids before he leaves so he won't melt away. Both had a chorus that featured no musical accompaniment, just them singing in the standard jazzy style of the period. These were longtime annual staples on Chicago kid shows for years. As a longtime animation fan, these were pleasant surprises. Definitely worth a look.