The Legend of Frosty the Snowman

Directed by:	Greg Sullivan
Written by:	Emily Kapnek
Release date:	October 18, 2005
Running time:	75 minutes
Available on:	VHS DVD

File:81 V9dxzNzL. SL1500 .jpg

The cover to the DVD release.

The Legend of Frosty the Snowman is a 2005 direct-to-video DVD animated-buddy-comedy film that serves as a sequel/ prequel to Frosty the Snowman.

It was produced by Classic Media, the rights holder for the original Rankin/Bass special and the remainder of the pre-1974 library, prior to being purchased by DreamWorks Animation in July 2012.

The special has been bundled with the original 1969 Rankin/Bass special and Frosty Returns, and was also aired annually on Cartoon Network for a few years in the US, and on CBC in Canada.

First narrated and sung by the screenwriter; Evan Gore, but now lent to Burt Reynolds and a veteran actor/voice artist Bill Fagerbakke in the role of Frosty (ever since Nickelodeon's Patrick the Snowman, and would provide his voice himself), this new chapter in the saga revisits Frosty many years after he shouts out his first original catchphrase, "Happy Birthday!", when he first appears in a town of Evergreen where magic, silliness, and nonsense of all kinds are strictly against the rules.

Synopsis

SPOILER: Plot details or story follow.

At the beginning of the story, we see the picture perfect town of Evergreen, where all the local children are bound to a ridiculously strict curfew and not allowed to have any kind of fun whatsoever. One calm boy living in that town is named Tommy Tinkerton (the film's tritagonist), the son of the town’s impossibly upbeat but no-nonsense mayor (voiced by Tom Kenny). Another storyline stars Tommy’s best friend, Walter Wader (the main protagonist of the story), who shocks everyone, especially his very strict mother, befriends a snowman named Frosty. Walter’s rule-breaking gets all the kids of Evergreen talking, but it greatly upsets Principal Pankley (the story's main antagonist), who is even more adamantly opposed to magic than Mr. Tinkerton (who betrays Tommy that he is under Pankley's control after Walter tells the truth to Mr. Tinkerton). Principal Pankley uses the arrival of Frosty to sow doubts among the townspeople about Mayor Tinkerton’s leadership, and little by little he begins to take over the town.

But once magic is stirred up, it isn’t easily contained. One by one, Frosty wins over the other kids of Evergreen, including Tommy's bullying older brother, Charlie Tinkerton, who teases his brother, Tommy's lonely love interest, Sara Simple (a sharp and independent girl who wants to be an urban planner instead of a "princess"); and the happy-go-lucky triplets, Sonny, Sully, and Simon Sklarow. Frosty befriends each of them through the simple means of believing in them, which inspires them to begin to believe in themselves. Increasingly desperate to deny the existence of Frosty and keep Evergreen fun-free, Principal Pankley tricks Walter Wader into helping him lure Frosty for some ice-skating fun, then tricks Frosty into venturing onto thin ice. Before Walter can save his friend, Frosty, realizing it's too late to escape, falls through the ice and melts, and Principal Pankley captures Frosty’s hat, which is the key to his magic.

As all of this unfolds, Tommy Tinkerton, who was the first one to whom Frosty appeared, has been sitting on the sidelines, watching his best friend, his brother, and his love interest experiencing adventure and magic in which he could share. But he has held back, even though he yearns to meet Frosty, out of loyalty to his dad (because he knows his dad would disapprove of him acknowledging the existence of magic). Everything changes, though, when Tommy finds a secret room beneath the library, in which he discovers a comic book filled with secrets about Frosty.

At first, most of the comic book is blank. Each time Tommy checks it again, new panels appear. Over the course of several scenes, Tommy learns that Frosty’s magic is in his hat; that his dad (Mr. Tinkerton) met Frosty when he was a boy, and did believe in magic once upon a time; and that Principal Pankley, a childhood friend of his father’s, took Frosty’s hat and hid it away in an attic (the same attic from which the hat escaped at the beginning of the story), causing young Mr. Tinkerton to lose his faith in magic. The comic book also reveals to Tommy what Principal Pankley has just done (with Walter Wader’s unwitting help) to recapture Frosty.

All this time, Tommy has held back from befriending Frosty out of loyalty to his dad, who has always told Tommy not to believe in magic. But now Tommy sees that his dad once believed in magic, too, but was tricked into losing faith. And Tommy realizes that the most loyal thing he can do is not to hide from magic, but to help his dad rediscover that magic is indeed real. Tommy explains what’s really going on to Charlie, Sara, Walter, and the Sklarow triplets, and leads a daring rescue of Frosty’s hat in which all the kids help out. A final battle between Principal Pankley, Walter, Tommy, a now-reformed Charlie, Sara, and the Sklarew triplets playing capture the flag with the hat as the flag features a climactic series of scenes follows in which Principal Pankley tries and fails to recapture the hat, then tries to deter the townspeople (including Mr. Tinkerton) from going into the woods to see what all the ruckus and noise are about. But Mr. Tinkerton refuses to be deterred, and Tommy is able to reintroduce his dad to the old friend, who Mr. Tinkerton had long since stopped believing in.

Meanwhile, the other parents are confused and angry: why are their kids out at night? And can this magical snowman they’ve been hearing about be real after all? Principal Pankley tries to stir them up to regain control of the situation, but Walter Wader breaks the spell by throwing a snowball at Principal Pankley. And one by one, the other kids and parents join in, until the town of Evergreen, which had forgotten how to have fun, gives itself over joyously to a “snowball-fighting, horseplaying, lark of a good time.”

As the snow melts, Frosty says goodbye to Evergreen and Pankley gets fired as principal and being arrested for banning magic, an epilogue shows us a Evergreen transformed—with Mr. Tinkerton doing magic tricks, Charlie playing football, Tommy skateboarding, Sara reading a book about urban planning, and Evergreen letting the parents take care of their children.

All the time, the story has been narrated (à la "Our Town") by a warm, wise, seemingly omniscient old man named Thomas who appears periodically and comments on the events unfolding in Evergreen. In the final scene, Thomas reveals that he is Tommy, all grown up and now married to Sara; and he has been telling the audience his own story.

Spoilers end here.

Continuity

Though advertised as a sequel to the classic Rankin/Bass special, The Legend of Frosty the Snowman holds only a loose continuity with it. The only connection between the two seems to be the magician (Professor Hinkle), Tommy's father; Mayor Tinkerton (whose name is revealed as "Theodore Tinkerton", also one of Karen's friends in the original special and apparently Hinkle's son), and the hat. Other than them and Frosty, no character appears in both stories, nor do the stories match up in details such as who first brought Frosty to life or what happened to him afterwards. Despite this, the film has more continuity with the original than does the show more commonly recognized as its sequel, Frosty Returns.

Voices

• Grey DeLisle - Miss Sharpey, Simon Sklarow, Sully Sklarow
• Jeannie Elias - Charlie Tinkerton, Librarian
• Bill Fagerbakke - Frosty
• Evan Gore - Paperboy
• David Jeremiah - Mr. Simple, Townsperson #1, Mr. Sklarow
• Tom Kenny - Mr. Tinkerton
• Tress MacNeille - Mrs. Simple, Girl #1
• Kenny Blank (also credited as Kenn Michael) - Walter Wader
• Larry Miller - Principal Pankley
• Candi Milo - Mrs. Tinkerton, Girl #2
• Burt Reynolds - The Narrator (a.k.a Thomas)
• Kath Soucie - Tommy Tinkerton, Adult Sara Simple
• Tara Strong - Sara Simple, Sonny Sklarow
• Vernee Watson-Johnson - Mrs. Wader

Gallery

"Because we always follow the rules."

Unless of course, by an accident.

Frosty's hat escapes from the attic chest.

Evergreen children smiling listening to Ms. Sharkey.

Young Tinkerton built Frosty the snowman.

The Skalrow brothers rescued Sara from Principal Pankley.

"I've gotta do something."

Sara and the brothers sledding away.

"*thought* Mother, why are you so popularity with my father?"

Sara meets Frosty outside the window.

TLoFtSm DVD disc cover

Tommy on a daring Frosty rescue!

"(bored) Yeah. Uhhh... My mother's expecting me."

Tommy discovers his dad's past in the photo and a comic book.

"Horse-playing and lark of the good times."

Walter Wader discovers Frosty's hat

"I don't want to be a princess--I want to be an urban planner."

TLoFtSm- Sara Simple (character).png

Sara Simple (art comparison)

Professor Hinkle cameo in The Legend of Frosty the Snowman

TLoFtSm- Custom Comic front.png

Frosty the Snowman front comic cover

Curious Sara Simple

Sara Simple seeking the comic book

TLoFtSm recolored comic panel comparison

"It looks like a snowman!"

Curious Tommy Tinkerton (wider screen edition)

TLoFtSm scenes 1.png

"No matter how many times you have be chanced, you never hang out with him!" comparisons

Frosty the Snownan 1st comic panel

Frosty the Snowman 2nd comic panel

Snehulak Frosty DVD

"Well, gotta go."

"*laughs* That was incredible!"

TLoFtSm Comparison 1.png

TLoFtSm comparison scenes

69145f1a961ed402e5f06980e2a141393897cf16.png

The Legend of Frosty the Snowman main title

"Who's there?"

Background #1

Background #2

Tinkerton Family Dinner Quiz!

"You're looking for me?"

Tommy introduce his father, Mayor Tinkerton to Frosty (Widescreen)

La leyenda de Frosty, el muñeco de nieve title

TLoFtSm- Unliving Frosty.png

Lifeless Frosty

The Legend of Frosty the Snowman Full Wide-block-screen

Tommy Tinkerton chats to Sara Simple (Widescreen)

TLoFtSm- A New Beginning (Alternate Version).png

A New Beginning (Alternate Version)

Walter Wader and Frosty laughing (original)

The Skarlow Brothers rescues Sara and Frosty

"He's real, Dad."

"He was real all the long."

Frosty first-time angers at Principal Pankley

Tommy Tinkerton interested Sara's dream city

"I LOVE to Ice Skate!"

Tommy Tinkerton hides from Sara Simple

"But, you did listen."

Frosty jumps above the thin ice

Frosty falls through the ice!

Tommy Tinkerton first meets Sara Simple after school

Sara Simple calling out for help

Frosty meets The Skarlow Brothers

Frosty's First Appearance to Walter Wader

Frosty the Snowman through years

TLoFtSm- Sara Simple gets annoyed by a piano (1).png

External links

• The Legend of Frosty the Snowman at the Internet Movie Database