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What A Cartoon! - Frosty The Snowman (Patreon)

Published:
2021-12-06 05:00:00
Edited:
2021-12-06 21:13:20
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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  • FrostySnowWACPatreon.mp3

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Content

Happy birthday! Last week we covered the stop-motion Rankin-Bass classic Rudolph, now we're digging into their first 2D animated Xmas classic, Frosty The Snowman! Also based on a hit pop song, this Xmas tale of death and rebirth is a beloved one, and it's directed by one of the true legends of Japanese animation. Learn all about that and also about how evil magicians are in this week's podcast!

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Comments

marathedemon

If you’re wondering why Osamu Tezukas production house was called Mushi productions: Tezuka was a fan of bug collecting as a kid like many stereotypical japanese youth so he decided to write his name Osamu with the Mu written as 虫(bug) which can be read sometimes as Mu buts usually just read as Mushi.

Lorin Bernsen

As a kid, it bothered me that this version of Santa laughs, “Heh, heh, heh,” instead of, “Ho, ho, ho.”

Joe Hodgson

Time for more tales of Joe's Christmas Tape from 1987. Frosty was the second program on that tape so I saw it over and over as a kid. It was fine, though I did prefer Rudolf. Anyway, towards the end of that tape, during the Muppet Family Christmas broadcast, there's a commercial for Post cereal's Crispy Critters! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXgoL80aLtE). It's noteworthy because it features a Jimmy Durante sound-a-like voicing a puppet with a suspiciously large nose. If the internet can be trusted, this was made to mock some commercials Durante did for Kellog's a number of years ago. Why Post chose 1987 as a time to take their shot is a mystery, but apparently it didn't work out too well as I don't recall Crispy Critters being a cereal aisle staple in my youth. If you never had it, it was basically Kix, but in the shape of animals. The Frosty stuff to me is so odd because the song isn't really a Christmas song, like a lot of snow-themed songs we hear around the holidays. They shoehorned Santa into this special though to better make it sync, but aside from the theatrical team-up with Rudolf, the others really aren't Christmas specials. It's really driven home when you watch Frosty Returns since CBS owns that special outright and always pairs it with the original one every Black Friday. My kids, for some reason, like that one a lot though I'm in agreement with you guys on it. The only aspect of that one I find charming is the Mark Mothersbaugh soundtrack, since I do associate him with early 90s cartoons thanks to his work on Rugrats (and others). And that Legend of Frosty special is like a pseudo-sequel to this one. They even draw him naked again! It's a slog though since it's over an hour and I don't much care for the character designs. One of the characters is the son of the magician from this (or they just use the character design as an homage) and there's a magic comic book that tells the future or something. I do not recommend it. Pets in ye olde days were fine when exposed to poinsettia. The notion that they're bad is basically a myth, so cat owners feel free to buy yourself a plant for the holidays. If your cat does eat your plants it will probably throw up, but that's the extent of it. And if you have a cat, you're probably well aware it doesn't take much to upset a cat's stomach. Lilies, on the other hand, are indeed bad to have in your house around Easter if you have a cat.

Kat Heagberg

What a gift to get all this holiday-special history throughout the month of December. Thank you. Though I've seen this special dozens of times, I remember nothing about it other than it was the first animated thing I thought was boring. Every year when it would come on I would reluctantly watch it out of some strange sense of obligation, but I'd also make sure I had a whole pile of Barbies or Legos nearby to keep me entertained. And I say this as someone who had previously watched and even sort of enjoyed the internet-christened "worst holiday special of all time" 1991's "The Christmas Tree." At least that had conflict! Also, I just now realized there were once children named "Karen."

Ryan Kertai

Frosty's expert sledding ... er, 'bellywhopping'? actually does make sense scientifically. Snow takes on different consistencies depending on the temperature transitions it goes through. We can assume it was a relatively warm afternoon in the town because slightly wet snow is ideal for snowman-making. As wet snow cools, it gets hard from freezing. Since Frosty started to melt early on before settling into his preferred extra-cold temperature, it makes sense that he would have a slick, icy exterior by nighttime. Snow that settles at below-freezing temperatures meanwhile becomes powdery and ideal for sledding. The fresh snow in that child-endangeringly cold wilderness might have been good powder. So an ice-bellied Frosty bellywhopping down the powdery hill is plausible enough. Otherwise, it's a magic snowman, so maybe the science of his body's consistency doesn't really have to make sense.

Cossover

The Peanuts are on pbs too now for this year anyway

Jonathon

I remember owning this on VHS as a kid and I know I watched it at least a few times, but had very few memories of it until listening to the podcast, and then they all came flooding back. Nice episode, as always. Also, Bob's comment about not mourning snowmen immediately reminded me of the final scene of the Raymond Brigg's The Snowman, which still breaks my heart. Hope you do that for an episode one day as it is an all-time classic.

brian bonelli

While this isn't *quite* bottom tier in my Rankin Rankings (that honor would go to "Cricket on the Hearth" and the redundantly named "First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow") I always felt like this was one of their lesser efforts.  It's truly meant for really young viewers.  You might appreciate the sequel "Frosty's Winter Wonderland" - which, while downgrading the narrator (Andy Griffith), is much more interesting, as it's about the efforts of the resident Incel of the Rankin/Bass universe (Jack Frost) to stop the Chad Frosty from getting laid.  "Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July" sounds absolutely awful on paper but actually is kinda fun in just how bizarre it is, and yeah, that Lorne Michaels one is just dreadful. Also, if I were to put on my "Dark/Annoying Fan Theory" glasses, all of the references to being born and birthdays and the arguments over who has the right to give Frosty life and take it away could maybe be seen as a metaphor about abortion. Like all fan theories, this is incredibly flimsy and most likely unintentional, but hey, just throwing it out there.

James Babbo

While I think you guys (especially Bob) were way too critical of FROSTY, this has to be the funniest WAC entry ever! I LOL'd several times over the course of the episode. For further Rankin Bass podcasts (if ever) I highly recommend the book THE ENCHANTED WORLD OF RANKIN BASS by Rick Goldschmidt. In the chapter on FROSTY he reprinted an ad RB took out in Variety bragging that for 1969 the ratings for Rudolph were 29.8% with a 47% share, FROSTY 30.5% with a 45% share, & LITTLE DRUMMER BOY had 25.1% with a 39% share which surprised me. Ah the limitations of having only 3 networks to watch! I noticed you mentioned the KING KONG TV cartoon. It became the foundation for the joint Rankin/Bass TOHO collaborated live action 1967 film KING KONG ESCAPES where Kong fights a robot version of himself called MechaniKong in some promotional materials built by a villain called Dr Who & dubbed by animation veteran Paul Frees.