Anyone
living in the UK knows that this one had to make the cut this week. Ok, it
isn’t technically a film, heck it’s only 23 minutes long actually. But it’s a
Christmas tradition. We have waited for the sequel for nigh on 30 years.
Admittedly, back in the day when I first watched it I was actually traumatized
by The Snowman. Not because the snowman melted. Because in my mind, somehow,
the snowman actually abducted the child – heck, I was relieved he melted! The
fact that I was terrified of heights even back in those days when I was
knee-high to a grasshopper wouldn’t have contributed to my enjoyment of the
flight scenes. But all the same. Come on, this is a historical moment peeps.
Now, this
is usually the point at which I tell you what the story is about. But, fair
warning, we got into an extremely heated family discussion as to what the premise of the
story was. I, therefore, missed a large part of the first five minutes. But I will try
and reflect my school of thought. There are several opposing schools of
thought (yes, every detail matters, we're that kind of family). And naturally I’m not checking this online. I am confident in my film
analysis abilities. So there. (Edit: Just before posting this update I actually did a Google search: YES it is the ORIGINAL HOUSE with a DIFFERENT boy. In case anyone who participated in the afore-mentioned heated discussion is reading).
The story
takes place in the original house of the snowman. Only it is years later and
there is a new family living there now. The little boy of the family is about
the same age as our original hero, although it’s all a bit sad in that his
beloved dog has just died. Anyway, one day, when playing in his room, he
discovers the old box where the original snowman’s things along with a picture
of said snowman and our original hero are kept. Our current hero likes this
idea and next time it snows, makes a snowman with said materials. He then goes
on to construct a snow dog in memory of his beloved dog. Lo and behold, on the stroke of midnight the
snowman comes alive – and so does the “snow dog”! . Let the festivities begin J
Ok, one
thing. They have changed the soundtrack. They actually axed “walking in the
air”. There are several music professionals in the family whose professional
opinion it is that they should have at least done variations on the theme as
they flew over the city. Apart from that though, it’s spot on. I feel that
following the original style of animation was absolutely the right call. And
even though, I mean, naturally there is nothing wildly original about it, it is
just a warm, fuzzy bundle of joy to watch.
One
alarming thing I learnt about myself though is that I actually have now got
into the rather antisocial habit of
blurting out the ends of films – or rather my predictions of them –
which these days often turn out to be right (ehm ehm. Not to blow my own
trumpet or anything.) I did the self-same thing and somehow amazed the family
at the end of this one as well. I would normally jot down being able to predict
the end of the film as an actual minus, but in this case… Well. We’re watching
it because it’s a classic folks, not for its originality value. Merry
Christmas.
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