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Frosty's Winter Wonderland

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Wikipedia article




'Frosty's Winter Wonderland' is a 1976 animated Christmas television special and a sequel to the 1969 special 'Frosty the Snowman', produced by Rankin/Bass Productions and animated by Topcraft. It is the second television special featuring the character Frosty the Snowman. It returns writer Romeo Muller, character designer Paul Coker, Jr., music composer Maury Laws and actor Jackie Vernon as the voice of Frosty, while Andy Griffith stars as the narrator (replacing Jimmy Durante, who had been incapacitated by a stroke three years prior and retired from acting) with the rest of the cast consisting of Shelley Winters, Dennis Day, and Paul Frees. The special premiered on ABC on December 2, 1976.

Plot



Days have passed since Frosty left for the North Pole, but he has kept his promise to the children that he would be back again someday. When he hears the news about the first snowfall of the season, he comes back to the children.

The children are excited to hear about Frosty's return and are overjoyed when he comes back to play with them, but then Jack Frost sees the fun that the children are having with Frosty and becomes jealous of him. When he learns the origin of Frosty and his magic silk top hat which brought the snowman to life when placed on his head, Jack decides to steal it from Frosty so the children will love him more. But that night, while Frosty and the children were ice-skating at the frozen pond, Jack unknowingly and mistakenly captures a horse's old top hat with his ability to blow snowy winds. Believing it to be Frosty's top hat, he disappears with it.

However, Frosty becomes sad and lonely at the end of each day when the children go home for the night, so the kids, with his help, build a snow wife the next day and name her Crystal, but she is not alive like how he is. The children try placing the female horse's bonnet on her head but to no avail. Late that night, Frosty presents Crystal with a bouquet of frost flowers. His gift of love brings her to life, the two joyously frolic through the snow, until Jack uses a gust of icy wind which blows Frosty's top hat off, turning him back to his lifeless state and taunting Crystal that he is gone for good. To prove Jack wrong, she sculpts a corsage out of snow, places it on Frosty's chest and gives him a kiss which immediately brings him back to life. Befuddled by his reanimation, Jack throws Frosty's top hat back on his head.

Frosty and Crystal run through the town announcing their wedding to the children. The children gather together with Parson Brown, the local preacher, in town to marry them. Parson Brown says that the marriage would not be legal as he can only marry real people. Everyone is despondent until Parson Brown suggests they build a "snow parson" with his assistance. After the parson is built, Parson Brown places his Bible into the snow parson's hand, and like Frosty and Crystal, he is magically brought to life. Jack decides to spoil the wedding with a blizzard. Frosty and Crystal decide to reason with him and ask for him to be the best man at the wedding (after all, Crystal says, the whole wedding should be wintry, and so it would only be appropriate for him to be the best man). Finally feeling appreciated and accepted, Jack agrees.

Frosty, Crystal, and Jack have fun with the children all winter, but they notice the weather is starting to grow warm again. Jack decides to make it so that winter lasts forever and Frosty and Crystal can stay. Parson Brown tells them that if winter lasts forever the trees will never sprout leaves and flowers will never grow. So Frosty, Crystal, and Jack once again head for the North Pole. Months pass and the whole town becomes a winter wonderland again.

Cast



* Jackie Vernon as Frosty

* Shelley Winters as Crystal (Also credited as Mrs. Frosty)

* Andy Griffith as Narrator

* Dennis Day as Parson Brown, Snow Parson

* Paul Frees as Jack Frost, Traffic Cop

* Shelly Hines as Elsie's brother

* Manfreed Olea as Child

* Eric Stern as Child

* Barbara Jo Ewing as Elsie

* The Wee Winter Singers as Children

Production credits



* Producers/Directors Arthur Rankin, Jr., Jules Bass

* Writer Romeo Muller

* Based on the Song "Frosty the Snowman" Steve Nelson, Jack Rollins 1951 Hill & Range Songs

* "Winter Wonderland" Dick Smith, Felix Bernard 1934 Bregman Vocco and Conn, Inc.

* Sound John Curcio, Don Hahn, Dave Iveland, Tom Clack

* Animation Toru Hara, Tsuguyuki Kubo

* Key Animation Kazuyuki Kobayashi

* Background Design Minoru Nishida

* Design Paul Coker, Jr.

* Music Arranger/Conductor Maury Laws

Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. MCMLXXVI.

Television rights



The rights to this special are held by Warner Bros. Television Distribution via Telepictures, which used to license the show to Freeform. The latter aired the special annually on its "25 Days of Christmas" marathon. In 2018, AMC took over the license for the special.

Because the ownership of the television rights to the Rankin/Bass library was split into two parts (one including all productions prior to 1974 and one including all productions from that point onward) after the company's dissolution in 1987, 'Frosty's Winter Wonderland' was separated from the original 'Frosty the Snowman' special. The telecast rights to the original are now held by CBS, who produced a companion sequel of its own, 'Frosty Returns', with a totally different cast, style and production staff.

Home media



'Frosty's Winter Wonderland' was first released on a compilation VHS tape with the 1981 special 'The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold' by Vestron Video's Lightning Video label in 1985. The same double-feature release was also available in Australia in 1989. Warner Home Video/Warner Bros. Family Entertainment (owners of the post-1973 Rankin-Bass Productions library) distributed the special for its second VHS release in 1992, and also released it on DVD in 2004 paired with the 1974 special 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'. The DVD was re-released in 2011.

Culture



In the 1998 Warner Bros. film 'Jack Frost', Charlie Frost (Joseph Cross) shows his father Jack Frost (Michael Keaton) some scenes from the special while changing television channels.

References




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