Released as a half hour TV Christmas special for children. Another Rankin/Bass production, like Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer, it is based on the 1950’s children’s song Frosty the Snowman. This cartoon brings to life the song’s lyrics like the magic hat brought Frosty to life. It even gives a back story to the magical hat by providing an antagonist in the form of an unskilled children’s entertainer, who threw away his top hat in a fit of frustration.

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This TV special has bright colors, and a light heart spirit, interlaced with slightly slapstick comedy. Frosty the Snowman, quizzically speaks in full sentences, but can’t count past 5, yet somehow he knows that he must go to the North Pole to stay cold! As a very logical child 6 year old, I remember questioning the juxtaposition of innate knowledge and ignorance, even before I knew the word to describe it. Still the cartoon was one of my favorites for the magical Christmas theme and simple comedy. I even spent the winter I was 10 doing belly wops like Frosty the Snowman, to toboggan down my grade school snow-hill. I gradually ruined my snowsuit in the process, but what a way to go!

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Rankin/Bass went on to produce two of the four sequels to this original cartoon. In 1976, Frosty’s Winter Wonderland was based on the Christmas song Winter Wonderland. It was followed by Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July in 1979. Then in 1992, Bill Melendez Productions made a new world for our hero. The result was Frosty Returns, with Johnathon Winters narrating and John Goodman taking over the voice of Frosty. The last edition of this song inspired, cartoon character came out in 2005, titled the Legend of Frosty the Snowman, but it went direct to video.

You can also watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer or An American Christmas Carol

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