Frosty's Winter Wonderland (1976)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 300 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA.Rankin-Bass ran out of Christmas songs that they could turn into Christmas Specials. So in the 1970's they made sequels to "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer", "The Little Drummer Boy" and of course this sequel to "Frosty the Snowman" this is called "Frosty's Winter Wonderland". Now there isn't much of a story so they incorporated the song "Winter Wonderland" into this special to mixed results. What this cartoon was missing was Karen (The little girl who helps Frosty in the Original) and Santa Claus. What we get is Jack Frost who is presented here in this cartoon for the first time. Later he would get his own Television Special. In this story Years have passed since Frosty left for the North Pole. However he does keep his promise to the children that he would be back again someday. When he hears the news about the first snowfall of the season, he comes back to the children. The children are excited to hear about Frosty's return and are overjoyed when he comes back to play with them. Later on the children make Frosty a wife. All this attention to Frosty makes "Jack Frost" jealous. What happens next you just have to see.Of all the sequels made to the original animated Christmas classics this one is the best but it still lacks the charm of the original. It is however still enjoyable but not very memorable.

This is another half-hour Christmas special from almost 40 years ago and Rankin & Bass made quite a few of them. Here they reunite with their regular writer Romeo Muller again. I have to say I liked the first Frosty short film, but in this one here, there just aren't too many interesting or moving factors sadly. The villain and Frosty's interactions with his new wife only had me glued to the screen for a very short time and I also do not think it was a good idea to make Andy Griffith's narrator visible in here. Oh yeah, Frosty's wife is voiced by 2-time Academy award winner Shelley Winters. All in all, I felt that this film lacked a bit of heart, which is quite a shame as the topic of getting a real permanent companion for Frosty offered lots of potential in that regard. But they came short. Not recommended.

Friendly Frosty the Snowman (voiced to amiable perfection by Jackie Vernon) returns from the North Pole to see the kids just like he promised to. Alas, Frosty feels lonely. So the kids make Frosty a wife named Crystal (given an endearingly sweet voice by Shelley Winters). But jealous Jack Frost (legendary voice actor supreme Paul Frees in peak snarky form) intervenes. This typically fine seasonal TV special from the ever reliable duo of Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr. possesses the usual sterling attributes: a gentle, happy tone, lovable characters (even Jack Frost ultimately turns out to be a decent dude), nifty animation, an engagingly simple and straightforward story, several catchy'n'cheery songs, a pleasant, merry score by Maury Laws, a tight running time, and a charming and touching central message about the need for companionship. Andy Griffith makes for a marvelously folksy narrator and even gets to belt out a few tunes in a hale'n'hearty singing voice. A real treat.

When I was a kid I had the vinyl version of this show and loved it. Too bad it wasn't included in the DVD version instead of the lame "Frosty Returns".This is a charming addition to the original and well worth the half hour.