Der Schneemann

Just watched on YouTube as linked from Saturday Morning Blog this German cartoon known in the U.S. as The Snowman or Snowman in July. Whitey Snowman comes to life one winter day and enjoys running in the snow and ice skating. When he falls in the ice river, he comes back much thinner but gains all his weight by rolling in the snow. He also loses his head at one point but gets it back quickly. Then at home, he looks at a calendar and wishes it was July. So he hibernates in a fridge (guess the idea of suffocating in there doesn't pertain to snowmen) and waits for the coming spring...This was a very touching and amusing cartoon that I had read about but didn't get to see until now. I liked seeing that dog snatch Whitey's butt in the beginning before he threw back a snow that reattached said butt and when that bug in the spring segment skied on the snowman. The version I saw had an English-speaking narrator that made the short quite entertaining from beginning to end. So on that note, I highly recommend Der Schneemann which was directed by one Hans Fischerkoesen. P.S. There seemed to be some of that 3-D like tabletop background one usually associates with Max Fleischer. Additional P.S.-I just watched the original German version that had different music and had the snowman singing in that language at the end. Still excellent.

"Der Schneemann" was a work of Hans Fischerkösen for the NSDAP Regime, especially for Goebbel. Hitler was very deceived, Germans were not able to create a pendant to the very successful Mickey Mouse. So he asked Goebbels to set up a counterpart to Disney. One of the first, and few apolitic comic films of this period, "Der Schneemann" is a wonderful story of a snow-man who wants to see one time in his life the wonderful colors of spring, knowing well that the sun will melt him. A wonderful film, although now 60 years old, still very funny.

Years ago, this whimsical short cartoon played heavily on "The Mr. Bill Show", Asheville, North Carolina's locally broadcast "kiddie" show that aired mornings all through the week. Local celebrity Bill Norwood would host a live-action segment that included kid-related news (i.e. school closings), safety tips, weather, and cartoons, usually ancient black and white numbers like "Snowman in July". Many fondly remember the pretty story of the snowman who longs to see the summer and accomplishes this dream by hibernating in the refrigerator of an empty house, even though the fulfillment of his wish means his inevitable demise. Apparently, WLOS, the local station that originally ran the cartoon, got an earful from wistful viewers, because they run it on Thanksgiving day, right after broadcasting footage of the Asheville Christmas parade. How interesting to see all the sight gags that went over my head as a kid, like the way the snowman's derriere breaks off when he rises from his winter sleep in the fridge. Undaunted, he simply reduced the temperature in the icebox, then sits back down to re-attach his backside. Or the way a summer rose caresses the snowman's nose as he smells it, the flower's petals briefly forming fingers. Certainly, it stands toe-to-toe with other offerings from Disney, Warner Brothers, and all the other animation outfits of the time. What surprised me was to learn that this gentle story was the product of the Nazi propaganda machine, an attempt by the SS to create product to compete with Disney. Too bad such talent was subverted for such an evil cause.

As the others have said, we here in western NC got to see this film often on the old Mister Bill Show on local station WLOS. It was part of a series of old Euro cartoons that were distributed to local TV stations with an English soundtrack.

It is a lovely film. The animation flows seamlessly. I grew up remembering this film fondly.

I have never seen this film anywhere else. The copy that WLOS showed on Thanksgiving Day is a video copy of the original film that ran on WLOS from 1958 to 1966. It shows its age, and lack of proper storage in the video transfer. Western NC folks were lucky to see this gem from our past. Hope to see it again one day.