Jack Frost (1979)

Excellent but underrated film

Beautiful, moving film.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Don't let the cover picture lead you wrong. That is not a cute cartoon, it is an old puppet film. For personal reason, I have strong Pupaphobia, it is the fear of puppets and dolls. Pupaphobia has an uncanny valley theory, is a hypothesized relationship between the degree of an object's resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to such an object. To me, I couldn't sleep with my stuffed animal when I was a baby because I thought their eyes reflected light at night, looked like they are staring at me. So even I still love stuffed toys as an adult, I still put my favorite in the living room, not my bedroom.I thought this movie is a kid version of Rise of the Guardians, but it turns out an old creepy puppet film, especially at night, can you imagine? Rise Of the Guardians The last piece Dreamworks worked with Paramount, but its box office was quite low. I would say that was an underrated movie because I found it later after years and was fun to watch, and its CGI wasn't bad at all.

Though they can be kind of cheesy, I adore the majority of the Rankin-Bass stop-motion stuff. They don't require "adult humor" or hip cynicism to be entertaining, and they possess a sort of innocence I miss in family entertainment.Though it's not as celebrated as the other RB specials, Jack Frost (1979) is among the best of the lot. It's far from being a downer though; the songs are catchy and the characters are all appealing (though I found Holly to be rather useless and her voice actor was laughably wooden).The most unique aspect of it is its bittersweet ending, where the hero does the right thing but does not get what he wanted. It doesn't kill the humorous, whimsical nature of the production, but it is refreshing and still remains a rarity in family fare.If you get the chance to see it on TV, then don't miss it.

As I really like/love so much of Rankin/Bass' output, I realised that I had not seen Jack Frost. Being intrigued by the story concept, I knew I wanted to see it. And I really liked it on the most part, it is not a classic in the vein of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Comin' To Town, Frosty the Snowman, The Little Drummer Boy and The Year Without a Santa Claus, nor did it need or try to be and it is much better than it's given credit for. If there was anything I wasn't crazy about it was the groundhog Pardon-Me-Pete, who I find a trite character who fills the role of narrator but with not much personality or warmth(I know not all Rankin/Bass narrative characters have to be like Sam the Snowman for example but still). By all means Buddy Hackett does try hard but his character doesn't really allow him to play to his strengths and he does have a couple of jokes that fall flat.I personally much enjoyed the music though, the scoring is whimsical and dynamic. The songs are also lovely with the exception of the train-wreck that is I've Got a Day Named After Me. I found that the lyrics were really uninspired, the melody forgettable and stylistically jarring to the rest and Hackett's vocals consisted of singing painfully out of tune when he wasn't talking his way through the song. It's Lonely Being One of a Kind and There's The Rub were the ones that stood out to me the most, the latter as a matter of fact is in my head right now. The animation is beautifully crafted, every bit as accomplished as the earlier Rankin/Bass classics with backgrounds full of intricate and atmospheric details and colours that positively leap out at you.When it comes to the writing, Jack Frost is not one of the best in this regard(the best written for me is still Santa Claus is Comin' to Town) but it does at least maintain interest and is well-intentioned and sweet. The story didn't bore me in any way, there are some great ideas here, such as with the ice money, snowflake makers, snow gypsies and a knight in golden armour, and I was too engrossed in the story's imagination, charm and fun to really care about whether it made sense or not or whether it was propaganda(as I've seen it cited). The ending is different to what you'd expect, but it was refreshing to not have a "sugarcoated" ending once in a while and it was really quite touching. The characters are memorable apart from Pardon-Me-Pete, I found myself immediately liking and identifying with Jack, Dummy is hilarious and Kubla Kraus looks and sounds like Burgermeister Meisterburger as a cossack but is lots of fun all the same.The voice acting is very good, Paul Frees as Kubla Kraus, Father Winter and Dummy is simply genius. Robert Morse brings an appealing chirpish charm to Jack and Debra Clinger a youthful sweetness to Elisa. All in all, very under-appreciated if not one of the studio's very best. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I still cannot believe they do not play this movie on TV every year like they do Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It is just as funny and even more beautiful. I love this movie to pieces and will treasure it forever.