Short Film: The Snowman - Drawings, Poetry, a musical, artistic adventure about friendship

wakeupkitty (76)adminArt Promoterin ᴀʀᴛ & ᴀʀᴛɪꜱᴛꜱ • 14 hours ago (edited)

In my opinion in the next short film, we see an artist at work!
Words aren't needed to see what this film is about and if you watch it to the end you see drawings and hear poetry. In a way, it reminds me (due to the music) of "Peter and the Wolf" (Петя и волк by Sergej Prokofiev). This is all you need to relax and study the drawings, enjoy the magic of a picture book, the music (the Sinfonia of London orchestra) and fly away with the new (homemade) friend.

The Snowman comes to life on Christmas Eve. On December 24th he was made by a little boy who welcomed the snow (No one around to play with. Boring parents, the old-fashioned ones and no neighbours) like only creative children do.
To me, it feels like the boy is lonely and he does pour his heart into building a friend, one he keeps an eye on although it's long past bedtime (interesting are the small details about daily life (no, not wearing trousers without underpants) aspect that it is quite normal to have a "children's bedtime" unlike what I see these days. Once the snowman comes to life he's invited inside to learn about the boy's life.

After a bath in the deepfreezer and seeing a picture of snowy mountains something inside the snowman seems to call (the DNA of the snow?). We are who we are and the snowman has to follow the voice calling him and flies with the boy to the North Pole. Here it is where a party is celebrated with like-minded (snowmen and snowwomen and... Santa).

Positive is that the focus isn't on gifts although before the night ends the boy does receive a present which is a scarf which is all that is left the next morning as he wakes up and his friend the snowman has melted (always good to know his mind didn't make it all up).

_{Some aspects of the cartoon are different from the book but I consider it a piece of art in all aspects, worth watching and not because of Christmas.}
_{If you search the internet you will find more info (Rotten Tomatoes or AI they all share a bit and of course, there's Wikipedia}

Songtext Walking in the Air by Howard Blake
_{Sung by: chorister Peter Auty (shameful he wasn't credited)}

[Verse 1]
We're walking in the air
We're floating in the moonlit sky
The people far below
Are sleeping as we fly
I'm holding very tight
I'm riding in the midnight blue
I'm finding I can fly
So high above with you

[Verse 2]
Far across the world
The villages go by like dreams
The rivers and the hills
The forests and the streams

[Bridge]
Children gaze open-mouthed
Taken by surprise
Nobody down below
Believes their eyes

[Verse 3]
We're surfing in the air
We're swimming in the frozen sky
We're drifting over icy
Mountains floating by

[Bridge]
Suddenly swooping low
On an ocean deep
Rousing up a mighty monster
From his sleep

[Verse 4]
We're walking in the air
We're dancing in the midnight sky
And everyone who sees us
Greets us as we fly

The film (1982) is based on the picture book with the same title
Book author: Raymond Briggs
Year: 1978 - British
Title: The Snowman
Film directors: Dianne Jackson, Jimmy T. Murakami
Music: Howard Blake

25.12.24

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