I hate Frosty. Yup, that’s right, I said it. Frosty the Snowman. The guy in the top hat. The jolly happy soul with the corn cob pipe, the button nose, and two eyes made out of coal. I never liked him or his TV special. “Frosty the Snowman” was a coattail cartoon, trying to capitalize on the popularity of the great Christmas cartoons that came before it.
Frosty Come Lately: Tired of Pretending You Like the Snowman? Share on XThe Golden Age of Christmas Cartoons
Oh, yes, there was a golden age of Christmas cartoons back in the 1960s. You had “Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol” (the first), “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” They were all excellent. Instant classics.
Then came the next generation, the late-comers, the hangers-on, the “Frosties”. Frosty is one of those Christmas cartoons that came snapping at the heels of the golden age. It’s part of the tinsel age, the gingerbread generation, the days of peppermint bark, a long way from silver and gold.
Not all of them stank. Some were better than others. “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” featured Fred Astaire as the North Pole’s mailman, Special Delivery Kluger. I watch that every year. “The Year Without a Santa Claus” wasn’t much, but at least it had the two complementary songs, “Heat Miser” and “Cold Miser”.
The Bottom Dwellers
Beyond that, it’s slim pickings. You’re talking about the likes of “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year”, “Nestor the Long-eared Christmas Donkey”, and “A Chipmunk Christmas”. As far as I’m concerned, “Frosty the Snowman” slots right into that list. Sorry, Frosty lovers, but not even Jimmy Durante belting out the title song can save it. The cartoon isn’t any good.
First off, the animation is terrible. “Rudolph” had that wonderful stop-motion animation that you rarely see any longer, at least in anything that’s worth watching. The “Grinch” and “Charlie Brown” had the benefit of two of the greatest cartoonists of all time: Dr. Seuss and Charles M. Schultz. How can you compare?
Second, despite the title song, the music is much better in the other movies: Vince Guaraldi’s wonderful “Charlie Brown” score, the “Grinch’s” title song, and the incredible “Magoo” score crafted by Jule Styne. These all blow “Frosty” out of the blizzard. They’re much better scores.
Lastly, Frosty has the feel of a cartoon made only to capitalize on the Christmas cartoon craze, like a couple of TV executives were sitting around the office and said to each other, “Let’s make a cartoon about a snowman.” It has no substance.
Turn Up the Heat on Frosty in Your Greenhouse
So turn up the heat in your greenhouse, throw another log on the fire, and pray for spring. If we can’t stop our children from watching Frosty, then maybe we can melt him. Don’t forget to hide his top hat though! Who’s with me?
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