KID KLASSICS: 'SNOW' USE - I JUST GOTTA TALK ABOUT THE SNOWMAN (& HIS DOG)...

I didn't see The SNOWMAN when it was first broadcast on

CHANNEL 4 on Boxing Day in 1982.  It wasn't until I caught the
latter half of it the following year (or even the one after that), that I
bought the video of the classic cartoon-short about a Snowman who

comes to life (as they all do, apparently), and which was based on

the 1978 picture-book by RAYMOND BRIGGS.

I'd always assumed that DAVID BOWIE's introduction (first

used in the 1983 broadcast) was the only one, so I was surprised to
discover later that it wasn't.  The cartoon has now had three intros:

 the Raymond Briggs original, the Bowie one, one by Briggs' version
of Santa (voiced by the late MEL SMITH), and (on DVD) none
at all (but with all three intros as separate options).

Many folk think ALED JONES was the singer of HOWARD

BLAKE's haunting composition WALKING In The AIR, as it
was his cover which reached number five in the U.K. charts in 1985.

However, it's actually chorister PETER AUTY's soprano tones on
the animated feature, although his name was missing from the

credits and not added 'til the the 20th anniversary version.

The Snowman and the young lad who built him (JAMES) made

cameo appearances in the 1991 animated version of Briggs' FATHER

CHRISTMAS, thereby suggesting that James's adventure with his snow

pal wasn't a one-off.  This is borne out in the 2012 sequel, The SNOW-

MAN And The SNOWDOG, where a new boy finds an old  box under

the floorboards of James's old home, containing a hat, scarf, withered

tangerine - and a photograph of James and the Snowman together,

obviously taken on an occasion subsequent to the first one.

The sequel is also delightful, although not too different from
its predecessor.  However, there are a few things I have reservations

about, so I'll address them here.  Coming thirty years after the original,

viewers are within their rights in assuming that perhaps something close

to 'real time' has elapsed in the intervening years, as the isolated house
in the country is now part of a new estate.  Although surely a housing

development would've simply bulldozed the house, rather than

gone to the bother of building around (and next to) it.

Also, what happened to James, the original boy?  Would he really

have abandoned the Snowman's accoutrements and photo of the two

of them together?  I'd have preferred to see him as the new boy's father,

passing on a magical secret to his son rather than his fate simply being ig-
nored.  (We at least know he survived into adulthood and bore an uncan-
ny resemblance to David Bowie.)  I suppose, 'though, that one can always
interpret events as James's son and widow moving back to his boyhood
home after having left some years before.  Perhaps the adult James only
expired after the plans to move back were finalised, or perhaps (on
a happier note) he's simply away on business at the time.

One thing I did like was the fact that, when the Snowman is

given a fresh tangerine for a new nose, his shrunken, dried out one
is utilised for the Snowdog.  "Waste not, want not!" as the old saying

goes.  Also, a young girl is seen playing with what is clearly an item of
Snowman 'merchandise', while the boy himself has a poster of Briggs'
earlier creation from 1977, FUNGUS The BOGEYMAN, on his
bedroom wall.  (And see if you can spot the 1966 TV BAT-
MOBILE toy's brief and surprising appearance.)

As for the sequel's song, LIGHT The NIGHT by ANDY

BURROWS (which is nowhere in the same league as the original),
the makers (LUPUS) should've used either an instrumental version 

of Walking In The Air, or a new arrangement with a male-voice choir
to distinguish it from Auty's.  (After all, it is the Snowman's 'signature'
theme, in the same way that JAMES BOND and SUPERMAN have
one also.)  Burrow's song is disappointingly underwhelming ('though,
for all I know, may be technically and musically perfect), and fails
to resonate to anywhere near the same degree as Blake's
original 1982 classic composition.

For those interested, a box-set of The Snowman & The

Snowman and The Snowdog is available from most HMV

stores and other outlets.  Or you can catch up with them on TV over
Christmas if you're too much of a skinflint.  Well worth watching!  One
thing I'd really like to know is this, 'though:  what gives the Snowman
his individual personality?  Is it the garden he's built in, or the person
who builds him?  Or is it perhaps the accessories he wears?  If James
is still alive and he were to build a Snowman, would it be a different
one (personality-wise) to the one he built as a kid, or the same
one?  Anybody got any thoughts on the matter?

"MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!"

Posted in: Cartoons